SCUBA June 2023 issue 136 | Page 27

A technical dive at Wastwater
Tell us something from your club history …
A few years back , members discovered a mortar bomb in Windermere while on a regular club dive and contacted bomb disposal . It was made safe by the Royal Engineers before ( the then ) Prince Charles was due to visit Windermere . Back in 1997 , club members discovered a body in Coniston Water , a find that culminated in an arrest and prosecution . On another occasion , members recovered a safe that was thrown in the river Lune at Devils Bridge in Kirkby Lonsdale . On land , we always help out at the Cumbria annual steam gathering by manning the ticketing and providing marshalling , for which we receive a very welcome donation to club funds .
Who are your current members ?
They are a mixture of people ; with a core of active , older divers , as you tend to see in many branches . Only one is a youth member , but it is great that they have qualified as an Ocean Diver . At the start of the season , we had : two trainees , two Ocean Divers ; four Sports Divers ; five Dive Leaders ; eight Advanced Divers and a First Class Diver in our ranks .
Is the membership growing or shrinking ?
We are still recovering from lockdown and have just 22 active members . Numbers were shrinking before and during Covid , but are now showing good signs of growth in 2023 . We want to increase our membership further , hoping to lower the average age at the same time .
How will you do this ?
We asked some questions and the answers showed that we needed to be more accessible to people . To start with , we did simple things like updating all the links on our website and renewing out-of-date contact details for the branch on the HQ website , which brought tangible , immediate results . By contacting Sandra at HQ and completing a simple form , we made it so that anyone could join our branch online , via the BSAC website . We enabled the option to pay branch subscriptions monthly , which was popular . People value a quick response and now everyone who contacts us gets a reply within 24 hours . Anyone wishing to join our branch can do so with a few clicks .
How soon did you see results ?
These simple steps have dramatically cut the time for those wanting to join our branch from weeks ( in the past ) to a few minutes . We started the process during February and to date have 24 potential new divers listed . Seven have joined as full members already , and we invited the rest to a try dive .
How did you manage a bigger group of trainees ?
One of the main barriers to training is always time and availability , not just of physical resources but also of instructors and students , who frequently have work and other commitments . We looked at ways to cut down the training time for students and now centre the learning around the needs of the student . By concentrating on unblocking training and introducing multiple pathways to learning – using traditional club-based , BSAC eLearning , Zoom sessions and teaming up with a partner dive centre – we offer a variety of routes for newer divers wanting to join us in the water . We have reworked our pricing structure to take account of different methods , so new members are now offered a choice .
At Bailiff ’ s Wood on Coniston
Dive briefing at Capernwray
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