ULSAC Committee Meeting Minutes: 17th July 2006
Room 2A, ULU
Apologies for absence:
Martin Greaves, Mairead Conneely, Angeliki Kiakotou, Wendy Hayes
Previous Meeting Minutes:
The actions from the previous committee meeting were inspected for completion. Actions that need attention:
q Holly still needs to hand over the membership folders and general info to the new memebership secretaries- Lisa and Alison. Additional action: Vic will get the membership lists direct from the BSAC
q The equipment team need to look into the situation with the Pelican cases- with regards how they need to be repaired/replaced and report back to committee
Theory Lessons / Buying a Projector
Sarah (TO) Cant raised the point that as of the next year’s instruction, there will be no ready access to a data projector, without paying heavily to ULU for the hire of one. Is it feasible to buy a club projector? the committee decided it wasn’t. Instead the OHP in the swimming pool cage could be fixed up and used for classroom lectures- the instructors of the committee agreeing that in general they would be happy to do that. Action: Training team to organise changing the bulb in the OHP. Also Jim and Jer to looking into borrowing from their places of work.
General discussion of what to spend the raffle/auction money on
The raffle and auction held at the Annual Dinner made a grand total of £504 for the club. Many ideas were raised as to what to spend the money on. O2 kits to be filled Action: Vic to get cylinders collected from her office by BOC. The idea of getting some disposable pocket masks for the O2 kits was mentioned also. The club needs to get all the Pelican and Marinox cases together so we can decide what needs replacing/repairing. A new Marinox kit costs £466 and a case alone costs £120. It was decided that the money should be spent to purchase a new Marinox case to replace the broken one and eventually to buy a whole new Marinox kit in the near future. Action: Richard to look into ordering a new Marinox case. Also it was raised that we need some battery-operated lights for the boathouse garage Action: Jer to purchase some from Argos.
Training Surveys
Sarah informed the committee of a set of surveys, which will be sent out to instructors and newly qualified divers to get feedback on the training procedure in the club. She asked that this was supported by all members of the committee and that people should be greatly encouraged to fill in these surveys and return them to the Training Team.
Better piece on website about sponsors of raffle/auction
Nick is supposedly writing an article on this subject for the newsletter- maybe this could be incorporated into the webpage article? Action: Laura to speak to Nick about this. Putting a better piece to really thank the sponsors would be really good- and we could email them to get proper photos and logos etc… Action: Squish will email the companies for logos and photos and then look into sorting out the article.
Trailer tyres
The tyres were in a bad state after the Easter Trip but have now been changed. The two tyres, which were in the worst state have been replaced and only one of the spare tyres needs changing now.
Officer Reports
Treasurer
Payment is always needed from people who have outstanding debts with the club. Collins and Chambers have been paid for the cylinder servicing and the insurance on the boats has been paid. The club currently has a balance of around £1000.
DO Report
Dryusits must be zipped up at all times when on the boats- this is a big safety issue, which has been overlooked recently. Action: Laura to email the club via ulsac_announce to inform people of this. Congratulations went to Ivan who passed his exams and became an NQI.
TO Report
New Sports Divers and Ocean Divers have been made on every trip that has been run. All Ocean Divers are hoped to become Sports Divers before the Summer Trip. So far, a ratio of between 35 – 50% of this year’s Easter intake have become SDs. There have also been two new Dive Leaders from this year’s trips.
Fresher’s Fayre has been set for 6th October and as many people as possible will hopefully come to help out on our stall.
Jim is going to help organise a boat-handling course. The Search and Recovery SDC run by the club was oversubscribed- showing its popularity. If anyone in the club wants to do a BSAC SDC then they should contact the Advanced Training Team to see if we can organise and run one in the club.
Membership Report
No new members- hand over has not happened fully yet. Action: Holly to get stuff to new members.
Equipment
All good- everything up to date on servicing. Richard is concerned that people are not washing down club kit sufficiently after trips. Action: Richard to email everyone about making sure kit is correctly cleaned after use.
Boat Report
Tyres discussed earlier. Trailer boards have been wrecked. Action: Boat officers to repair. It was discussed that drivers of the towing vehicle are to be responsible for the trailers and everything to do with it. Dive Marshalls need to stress this to them on trips. Prompt cards with things to do before towing a vehicle could be made to help the matter.
On a trip, one of the boats was launched and taken to a dive site without the tool box, flares, emergency fuel or radio. This is a very big issue and all boaties need to be fully aware that they are in charge of the boats and have to make sure that all of these things are on the boats when launching. Action: Laura to email club about this. New strap needed for Scoundrel and new brake cable needed. Action: Boat officers to sort.
Starboard engine on Scoundrel is playing up. May be the spark plugs or the caps which need changing. Action: Boat team to investigate.
It was noted that a decent record of problems with boats was needed. This could be sorted by getting a white board for the wall in the garage and also by rigorous trip reports following trips. Action: Jer to buy a white board and markers from Argos.
Social Secretary
Annual dinner was a little over budget but not by a substantial amount…. especially as it was so much fun. Had a curry to say farewell to Mairead. Good turn out and good food! Dan to organise another social event towards the end of the diving season.
AOB:
Fewer people will be eligible to tow the boats the further we get away from 1997. In order to take the towing test a one tonne trailer needs to be supplied during the test, the boats and trailers are under this so we may need another way to help people take the towing test. Also we need to get people tested to be eligible to drive the ULU MPVs. Action: The relevant people who want to take the tests will liase with Angela Jelfs. People also asked whether we could change the trip signup sheet so that it includes a section of whether people can tow or whether they can drive a vehicle. The additional notes section could be used but Action: Jer will email Farez about adding this element to the signup form.
Bonnie’s parents are happy to help out on medical examinations again this year. Date to be confirmed but probably in the beginning of November. Many thanks go to them again for all their kind help.
Date of next meeting:
Set for 21st August 2006