Greetings from the President, March 2024
Jim Driggers | Published on 2/24/2024
Hello Aqua Tutus,
Thanks to all who attended last month's general meeting at Round Table Pizza in Castro Valley. We had nineteen people in the room which I think is a post-COVID record. Special thanks to the club's own Dave Chervin for his excellent presentation on local marine wildlife. I hope he posts his slides to the club's website because they would be an excellent resource to identify many of our most common fish, invertebrates, and kelp.
In April, yours truly will present what I'm calling Basic Underwater Videography. The first three presentations of 2024 set a high bar for quality, so I'm doing my best to not let the bar drop. I'll present the video equipment I use, talk about the similarities and differences I see between underwater photography and videography, and show some videos to illustrate examples of some of my topics. The presentation is geared toward divers who are thinking about shooting videos underwater or have taken a camera out a few times and are looking for some advice on ways to improve. I may not be able to tell you what to do, but I'm sure I can show you what not to do!
The presentation for May will be the first club members' night of 2024. I'm sad that COVID caused a great many declines over the last four years, including the number of club members sharing their underwater shooting. Hopefully Arnie's underwater photography presentation and my underwater videography presentation has or will inspire a few budding camera shooters to share their own images and videos.
As I mentioned in the last general meeting, we have no scheduled presentations for June and beyond. If you've seen someone present something you think club members would enjoy, let the board know. We'd love help getting guest speakers!
That brings me to my final topic for this month's president's letter: what keeps you involved with Aqua Tutus? Every volunteer group exists to serve its members. No matter what each group's purpose is, if the group doesn't satisfy their members' needs, the group withers and dies.
The Aqua Tutus board often discusses what we think club members want. The wants include some kind of diver training or mentoring, dive buddies to go diving with, a group of people to hang out with and share dive stories, and interesting presentations at the general club meetings. The board would love to know what do you get from the club that keeps you coming back and what would you like to see in the future? Feel free to email us using the form at Contact Us or contact one or more officers directly through our contact information on the Contact Us page.
I hope to see more folks at the April general meeting. As program presenter, I'll do my best to make my videography presentation educational and fun.
Warmly,
Jim Driggers
Club president