Minutes
Aqua Tutus Diving Club Meeting
May 4, 2023
Meeting called to order by President Jim Driggers at 7:02pm PDT. This is a hybrid meeting with face-to-face attendees at Roundtable Pizza in Castro Valley and ten others attending via Zoom.
Entertainment:
Tonight was one of the popular Members Nights, where club members share images and videos from past dive activities. Dave C. was the primary coordinator for this event. Jim D. was first up; he planned to share several short videos. Unfortunately, they couldn’t be located. Next up was Arnie. He showed a collection of images from Cozumel, Chuuk Lagoon, and diving in Hawaii. He was followed by Dennis who narrated his collection of subtitled images of lobster “conventions.” He also showed some nice images of flights of eagle five rays, and a sea horse and a frogfish. Last on the agenda was Oliver who showed a series of beautifully colored images of a host of subjects: turtles, a spawning sponge, soft corals, a sea horse, angelfish, parrotfish, and really close images of foraging spotted eagle rays.
At 7:45, President Jim Driggers opened the business portion by asking if there were any guests present, so that they could be introduced, but there were no takers.
- Director Reports:
- Arnie (Secretary): Minutes of the April Membership Meeting, as posted on the club website were approved. Debbie took these minutes as Arnie was unable to attend the meeting. Arnie reported that the Minutes of the May Board of Directors meeting were posted to the website that day.
- Helga (Treasurer) reported that the club has $2,778.21 in the Training Fund, $5,175.41 in the General Fund, for a total of $7,953.62.
- Dennis (Training). Dennis noted that club dives are a convenient opportunity for completing training dives. He reported that Dan recently completed his Advanced Open Water (AOW) training. Dennis advised everyone that if you are interested in any kind of SCUBA training, to let him know.
- Debbie (Membership) reported that we have eight Life members, four Associate members, and 61 Regular members, for a total club membership of 73.
- Oliver (for Entertainment): Oliver reviewed the entertainment lineup through October. See the following link to get up to the minute descriptions of future entertainment. The current entertainment schedule can be found on Google Docs at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZpacnHLmFV-_rMz-xrq0k0oqTukICXeh/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114855952368220424453&rtpof=true&sd=true.
- Oliver (for Newsletter) reported that he is putting the May newsletter to bed and the link will go out shortly.
- Derek (Communications): He reported that the emails sent out by the Club Express (CE) software are working. There was a bit of confusion by a few members who did not realize that emails sent to them by CE are actually club communications.
- New Business:
- Oliver stated that we need points of contact (POCs) to coordinate club dives. Becoming a club dive POC is easy to do, there is plenty of help available, and is a great way to involved in our SCUBA dive club.
- Upcoming Activities and Dives. Denis observed that club dives offer a great opportunity to link up with experienced divers thus affording a great way to hone your diving skills, especially for new divers. Jim observed that the Scuba Show is coming up, and fresh copies of the California Diving News newspaper were available at the back of the room.
- May 13: Club dive at San Carlos Beach, Alan S. is POC.
- May 18: Board of Directors meeting (via Zoom).
- June: Club dive to be determined
- Jul 22: Club dive at South Monastery Beach, Alan S. is POC.
- Jul 22-Aug 5: Chuuk Lagoon. There is still space. (Note: this is not a club-sponsored activity)
- Diving Reports
- Arnie reported a boat dive (in Hawaii) onto a wreck (Sea Tiger) and local reef. Of note, Oliver also participated in this dive since he was vacationing in Hawaii at the time. He wore a new custom wetsuit, but had underestimated the amount of weight he needed. A friendly diver on the boat helped him out.
- Mark and Dan, attending via Zoom from Roatan, spoke about the diving that they were doing there. Mark completed his AOW training. So far they have completed seven dives. Dan reported that the water temperature was 89 deg, good visibility, and lots of marine life to see.
- Oliver reported on a dive to North Monastery last Saturday. The surf was quite calm but the visibility was only 10-15 feet with not much kelp. He also told everyone that the sand berm that used to be there is gone with the stream flowing through where it used to be.
- One diver reported on the club dive at Lovers 3. The group ended up in the blowhole area, which only had about 5-ft visibility. The second dive was called off, mostly due to the cold (water and surface). But on the upside, Jim noted that the dive was very good for honing underwater compass skills.
- Bone and Good Buddy Award There were no nominations for the Bone Award and Dan tried to nominate Dennis for the Good Buddy Award for helping divers in and out of the water during a recent class, but the consensus of the group was that that was a normal thing for a class instructor to do.
- There being no further business, Jim adjourned the meeting at 8:21pm PDT
Faithfully submitted:
Arnie Warshawsky, Secretary