Minutes
Aqua Tutus Diving Club Meeting
August 1, 2024
Meeting called to order by President Jim Driggers at 7:03pm PST. This is a hybrid meeting with 12 members present at Roundtable Pizza in Castro Valley and 14 members attending via Zoom.
Jim introduced tonight’s guest speaker, Mark Strickland, an accomplished underwater photographer—he has a nudibranch named after him—who spoke on the challenge of approaching timid fish so as to be able to photograph them. He discussed why various fish are so shy, including fish that marine biologists do not understand their shyness. Mark offered one principles for underwater photographers to follow:
- Don’t approach from up-current; rather, approach from the side swimming roughly parallel to the fish.
- Maintain good buoyancy control throughout the dive.
- Be as quiet as possible (here is an advantage of rebreathers).
- Sometimes red aiming lights work better than white ones.
- Don’t drop down directly from above onto bottom dwellers.
- Anticipate where the animal is going and preposition yourself at that point.
- Recognize mating behavior and take advantage of that distraction to the fish.
- Recognize, and lurk by, fish cleaning stations.
- Recognize feeding activities; but don’t feed them to make a shot.
The on-site projector died towards the end of Mark’s presentation, leaving the Zoom participants with the best seats in the house.
Having no guests to introduce, President Driggers went into the business portion of the meeting.
Officer Reports
- Secretary: Arnie reported that the July meeting minutes and the Board of Director meeting minutes have been posted—admittedly just prior to this meeting starting. Jim deferred calling for vote to approve the minutes.
- Treasurer Report: Helga reported that we have $3,797.24 in the Training fund and $5,753.83 in the General fund for a total of $9,551.07.
- Training Report: Dennis once more encouraged members to share training interests with him. Plans are well afoot to provide an underwater compass course for those interested in exercising their navigation skills. The course will be available at the September club dive at San Carlos (Alan Stanek is POC).
- Membership Report: Debbie noted that we currently have 69 members: 56 regular members, eight life members, and five associate members.
- Entertainment: David S. reported that our speaker in August will be Natasha Benjamin. David also discussed the recent Swap Meet, which was hosted by the Hockers. Jim added that there was a lot of stuff available.
- Newsletter: Oliver noted that the newsletter was published to the club website yesterday. Arnie noted that he found the long-promised membership survey, which was included in this edition of the Tooter, was easy to fill out.
- Communications: Derek reported that there has been al lot going. On in the communications world.
Old Business: None.
New Business: Deferred the planned tutorial on how to upload images to the website because of the projector malfunction. David was authorized to purchased replacement bulb.
Upcoming Activities:
Aug 9-11 Monthly club dive will be held at Salt Point State Park. Debbie asks those interested to resister that interest on the club website.
Aug 15 Board of Directors meeting (via Zoom); all members are invited.
Sep 5 Membership meeting. Natasha Benjamin is the guest speaker.
Sep 19 Board of Directors meeting (via Zoom); all members are invited.
Oct 3 Membership meeting. Entertainment to be announced later.
Nov 7 Membership meeting with the focus on member photographs and videos. Priority of pre- senting goes to those who were “bumped” at the last members night. Let David C. Know if you plan to exhibit anything.
Dec 14 ATDC Holiday Party
Christina reminded members that the November club dive is slated for Point Lobos; buddy pairs interested in participating must obtain a reservation (reservations open October 1).
Diving Reports:
- Christina reported on the July club night dive. Ten people participated. The dive used a twilight entrance, but even though there was the typical limited visibility, she reported seeing a lot of cabezons and a ling cod. She also reported diving in Mendocino with Eric.
- Alan Stanek reported five divers joining at South Monastery on this past Sunday. He reported everyone got a see a wolf eel. went diving last Saturday along with David S. and Bo, to South Monastery. They reported poor visibility.a.
Bone Award. No nominations.
Good Buddy Award. No nominations.
There being no further business, Jim adjourned the meeting at 8:50pm PST.
Faithfully submitted:
Arnie Warshawsky, Secretary