BSAC 18 - Huddersfield Sub Aqua Club

14th June 2004, 8:00pm Huddersfield Sports Centre
(NOTE - not normal start time)

Minutes from Meeting

1.

Apologies

Apologies received from Andy Booth

All other committee members present and also, Richard Manning, Gary Exton and Helen Briggs and Martin Chalesworth

2.

Matters Arising

Compressor Risk Assessment

The sub committee preparing this document have handed it to the Sports Centre for ‘approval.

Click here to view a copy of the Sports Centre Risk Assessment

Click here to view a copy of the Compressor Operation Risk Assessment
Click here to view a copy of the Manual Handling Risk Assessment

Dive Marshall Training

Still pending

Diving Safety Guidelines

Kate still to distribute as per last month’s minutes

Octopush T-Shirts

Dave Colley has taken no further action

50^th Birthday Celebrations

The new sub committee for this subject met last week and are currently considering a number of suggestions including;

·         T-Shirt for 50 dives in 50^th year

·         10 pin bowling evening

·         Dive and BBQ weekend

·         Free of Charge try dives session

·         Silly sessions (like underwater It’s a Knockout)

·         Redbrook with a twist

·         Dry dive in a pressure chamber

·         Anniversary Dinner (proposed date is 26^th February). This is probably to replace this year’s Christmas dinner

The committee approved a £200 initial budget for this sub-committee to enable the purchases of prizes, etc.

Club Printer

After further consideration, it was agreed that the club would not fund the purchase of a club printer due to the far reaching implications of setting a precedent. Passed by majority.

3.

Membership Secretary

Please accept may apologies for not being able to attend another meeting, I will be diving The Skelligs.

There are no new members this month and 3 renewals.

Andy Booth

4.

Diving Officer's Report

Nothing much to report this month. I continue to find Diver magazine to have more interesting articles than Dive and this month they had an excellent one by John Bantin on buoyancy. I would be happy to photocopy it for anyone who doesn’t get Diver – it is well worth reading. It is aimed at so-called ‘beginners’ but I think it’s worth a read by everyone.

There was a beautiful and unexpected bit of diving on t.v. the other evening. It was on the ‘Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie’ programme and showed some superb scenic diving off the south coast with a basking shark, seals and much more. Well done BBC for promoting the glory of scenic diving in Britain.

Kate Falkingham, Diving Officer

5.

Training Officers Report

Sports diver training is now underway

One new Sports Diver trainee (Jamie) and one new member resulting from a try dive

Dave Colley will order more training packs

Martin Charlesworth will seek clarification as to what reference manual should be used by a trainee sports diver as the new manual doesn’t cover certain subjects (compass / SMB) and the new Dive Leader is ‘pitched’ at a higher level again.

6.

Treasurer's Report

Surplus for May of £968

However, from June onwards, the increased costs from the Sports Centre will be taking effect.

7.

Equipment Officer's Report

One 12 litre cylinder has failed its test, however, Steve Hill offered a 10 litre cylinder (currently out of test) free of charge. Many thanks Steve

We are still waiting for approval from the Sports Centre (regarding our risk assessment) before we can arrange to re-install the compressor.

Andy Briggs is aware of a list of diving school kit currently for sale that may be of interest. AB will conduct a review of existing kit to assess need.

AB also informed the committee that we have a magnetometer within the club and as it is of no use to us, he will list in Dive classified asking for offers.

8.

Training Vulnerable People

After lengthy open debate, the following decisions were made;

i)                     To, in principle, adopt the position that, as a club, we wish to train Vulnerable People including minors aged 14 to 18 – Passed by unanimous vote.

ii)                   To provide vulnerable people with the opportunity to train and dive within the club under the strict and close supervision of a responsible adult acting in ‘loco-parentis’ (in the theory training and in the pool / under water) – Passed by majority vote.

Additionally, the committee voted to co-opt Gary Exton to the committee to become the Welfare Officer who will undertake responsibility for coordinating this new approach.

Martin Charlesworth pointed out several matters that were associated with this approach including the requirement (as it currently stands) that by 2006, all committee members, trainers and club members would have to pass a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check. This, however, is still being debated and may change between now and then.

MC also suggested that as a starting point, we undertook the commitment to gain CRB checks for the committee and trainers immediately and that we propose an amendment to the club constitution to the next AGM that requires all new members to accept a CRB check.

The committee decided to give final approval to these proposals once the minutes had been published.

Additionally, it was pointed out that we had to consider these rules and regulations with regards to the Octopush / Snorkelling members although MC pointed out that if we already have two adults in the water supervising, then technically we are already complying with the requirements.

9.

Octopush (S Hill)

Janice has made us aware that she will not be continuing but has not given a confirmed finish date yet. There is a possible recruit that may be able to replace her and Sarah Churchman will follow the situation and will keep the committee advised.