Shrewsbury Sub Aqua Club (BSAC)

A very worthy winner

shrewsburysubaqua — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:00:20 +0000

We’ve never entered BSAC’s Volunteer of the Year, but since one club member shines out every year we felt it was time to recognise how much time, effort and passion he puts into our club.

So we sneakily nominated the inimitable Mr Richard Burdekin, and we are absolutely thrilled to report that Richard was selected as one of this year’s 30 Branch Volunteer of the Year winners!

Richard is a cherished and selfless member for whom nothing is too much trouble. It’s hard to pinpoint everything he’s done for our club as he’s done so much, and ultimately helped us become the thriving community of active divers that we are today.

At the age of 66, Richard’s enthusiasm for all things BSAC remains undimmed and he is as passionate about diving today as he was when he first became an enthusiastic Ocean Diver.

Despite the commitments of a demanding day job, Richard has not only found the time to develop his own qualifications from Sports Diver to Advanced Instructor, but has patiently nurtured many fledgling divers over the years, helping them to progress confidently through the sport and discover the sheer joy and fun of diving.

Richard continues to dedicate much of his spare time to the club and is actively involved in all levels of diver instruction, as well as running courses in Oxygen Administration, First Aid and Basic Life Support.

His BSAC training in First Aid and BLS have become a primary interest for Richard, and he has since become an Emergency First Responder for the ambulance service on a voluntary basis.

Crucially, Richard participated in the successful resuscitation of a collapsed heart attack victim at Amsterdam Airport whilst on holiday. Although he is characteristically modest about the event, he admits that he was able to help as a direct result of his initial BSAC training.

As well as this, Richard took on the position of Club Chairman which he maintained for six years, during which time he steered us through a very difficult period of falling membership.

By recognising the talents in individual members and fostering a caring attitude of inclusion and camaraderie, Richard has encouraged and inspired all our members to get involved in all aspects of SSAC and our activities.

As a result, we have become a busy and thriving club, diving together regularly throughout the UK and abroad and enjoying a full calendar of social events throughout the year.

BSAC told us that the standard of entries this year was exceptionally high and Richard was a worthy winner!

They are currently putting a feature on the initiative for the next issue of BSAC’s magazine SCUBA which will list all the winners – keep a lookout for it!

SSAC’s AGM report and update

shrewsburysubaqua — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:00:19 +0000

On 11^th January we had a very important meeting to consider adopting a ‘New Constitution’ in Working Draft form.

This was important because there has not been a Constitution in place, which had been ratified by the members for some time. A ratified Constitution is necessary under BSAC rules and is also a legal requirement to protect the Officers of the club should anything go wrong.

Click ‘read the rest of this story’ to see the full report.

The meeting began on a humorous note when the chairman asked the members to switch off their mobile phones, but made the mistake of saying he did not need to because nobody ever phoned him anyway!

There followed a mad scramble by the ‘scallywags’ in the meeting to be the first to call him! Congratulations Mr. Hammond…you won!

The chairman then proceeded to run through a PowerPoint presentation of the new Constitution as written and agreed by the committee. Many thanks to Gary for sorting out PowerPoint, it made things a lot simpler to see the various points quite clearly.

But since it looked so professional and just like a genuine BSAC document, the chairman could not resist telling the meeting that there would be an MCQ exam at the end just like other BSAC courses.

The Chairman tried to explain the reasons behind all the areas of contention and also the changes from a Draft supplied by Mr Richard Burdekin.

Richard had worked very hard to collate previous versions of the constitution and also included the results of previous votes taken by the club, and the chairman explained why the committee felt some of these decisions needed to be re-worded.

One change was made to the original draft on the night due to a comment made by Tim Newby before the meeting. The proposal to consider changing quorum from 50% to 20% was changed back to 50%. This change was only ever there for consideration, to combat the prospect of a poor turnout.

But as Tim correctly pointed out, you cannot change an important rule, and then use that change to make further changes! This would indeed have been undemocratic, so the Chairman changed the wording of the Draft document back to 50% to the delight of most of the people present.

Following the presentation, a short break was taken for refreshment and then we had a question and answer session.

This was followed by 2 votes: the first was proposed by Ed Lomas:

I wish to propose a resolution that we take note of decisions made by previous meetings and existing members but to accept that we need to develop a constitution and that this meeting has the right to decide on a new draft constitution.

The second by Gary:

This committee proposes that we accept this working draft as a working document while it is scrutinized by a sub-committee and subject to final ratification by the membership after the working draft has been considered.

The first vote was passed by 38 votes in favour and 3 abstentions, and the second by 37 for, 3 abstentions and one spoilt ballot (Troy decided to vote for all three options!) and none against. The “for” vote included 14 Proxy votes which had been submitted to the chairman.

This now means the Club has a NEW CONSTITUTION in WORKING DRAFT.

Because it has been voted in by more than 50% of the club, it is VALID as our Constitution until such time as the club decides to change it, and as it states on page one, it replaces all previous versions.

However, the Chairman stated both prior to the meeting, and at the meeting, that he would set up a further sub- committee to look at this document again, to suggest any further changes, and once this sub-committee has brought forward their proposals, these will be re-presented to the club at a future SGM for final ratification of the document.

He is also going to send a copy of this document to BSAC to register this as our current constitution and also ask their advice on the legality of the situation relating to Juniors as requested at the meeting, and any other matters they might feel to be important.

Congratulations to all the members who turned up for the meeting or who took the time to read the draft version and submit a proxy vote, and let’s hope that we all have a FANTASTIC new diving season.

SSAC Committee

The prize-winning picture!

shrewsburysubaqua — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:00:48 +0000

AquaVenture, who we dived with on our club trip to Malta last October, recently ran a photo competition – and who do you think came third?

Our very own Diving Officer, Gary Coles, with his excellent shot of an inquisitive moray eel surrounded by colourful coral. Congrats to Gary!

Check out more awesome pictures of our Malta trip from Gary, Solty, Jane and Clare, as well as an excellent dive report from Jane, in our story Malteaser: The Lighter Way To Dive.

Great TV for divers

shrewsburysubaqua — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:00:07 +0000

How much do we love Monty Halls? His latest series takes us into the striking corals and diverse life of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef series appears on Sunday nights at 8pm on BBC2. If you haven’t yet seen it, watch it here on iPlayer!

For two weeks following Monty’s series, there was also an amazing two-part programme called To Boldly Go, in which Dr Kevin Fong discovers how unsuited human biology is to living on much of the planet – and how we have developed the technology to let us survive there.

His first programme, Down, was about how to survive underwater, and shows Dr Fong escaping from a sinking helicopter and walking through a tank of sharks.

Excellent TV!

Upside down ice fishing in Finland

shrewsburysubaqua — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:00:49 +0000

Finnish ice-diving videographer Juuso Mettala made this incredible video of three divers, all upside down, using a lake’s icy roof as their floor!

The video was filmed under Lake Saarijärvi, one of Finland’s many ice-covered lakes, where ice diving is a popular sport.

Dry suit divers usually wear ankle weights to keep the air from getting caught in their boots and causing a diver to turn head-over-heels, but these divers have mastered the technique as an art form.

Watch the video here and post a comment below! Thanks to Laura Bellis who sent me the video from one of her buddies at Brisbane BSAC – hope you’re enjoying sunny Oz, Laura!

Happy New Diving Year!

shrewsburysubaqua — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:00:31 +0000

We’d like to wish all our members a very happy New Year – here’s to more great diving in 2012! What’s on your hit list this year? What’s your dream dive site, and where are you planning to dive?

To get you in the mood, here’s a picture of the Blue Corner Wall in Palau, Micronesia, one of the 100 best dive sites in the world as voted for by Scuba Travel readers – check out the full list for inspiration by clicking this link.

See you underwater!