Simon Rogerson reports on
Simon Rogerson reports on
NW Dive Festival
BSAC’ s 2025 Annual General Meeting
BSAC’ S ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING for 2025 saw the club moving into a new phase, implementing a fresh strategy and embracing innovation. It was the final AGM chaired by Edward Haynes, while his successor Andrew Shenstone served as outgoing Honorary Secretary. The AGM, held on the Microsoft Teams platform, touched on many aspects of club life. While training and member engagement is on the up, the Honorary Treasurer’ s Report struck a note of caution, urging the club to shore up its balances.
Chair’ s Report
Having opened with a video montage of
BSAC snorkelling and diving, outgoing Chair Edward Haynes highlighted some of the club’ s recent activities.
We are now in the first year of the 2025-2029 Strategy, in which the club’ s standpoint on environmental issues is coming to the fore, alongside an increasingly modular approach to training and courses. These are set by BSAC’ s Council, who met six times last year and incorporated the new Independent Non- Executive Directors, Alistair Dickson and Caroline Royale.
Edward mentioned the successful return of the Dive Conference, which took place at the Birmingham NEC and saw the first
public outing of the Two Sophies – National Diving Officer Sophie Rennie and Head of Diving and Training Sophie Heptonstall. This partnership has seen the training gurus participating in live feeds and a regular page in SCUBA magazine.
BSAC activity extended into the Go Diving show in March, where the club’ s traditional Awards were made on the UK stage.
Edward summarised the activities of BSAC International. A new licensing agreement has been agreed with BSAC Korea, but the club has withdrawn from the liveaboard aspect of BSAC Egypt, due to recent safety concerns in that sector.
With regard to its environmental activity, the club has joined the Clean Water Sports Alliance, also taking part in a high profile march to Westminster in November last year. BSAC is also promoting Motion for the Ocean, a model declaration to help local governments recognise the ocean’ s role in climate regulation.
MyBSAC – Sport 80
Edward’ s presentation included detail on the newly appointed supplier for the MyBSAC portal, through which members manage their own membership. Sport 80 is the leading technology supplier in this area, supporting more than 80 governing bodies.
The hope is that this move will upgrade the MyBSAC experience, with improvements to digital membership and qualification cards, direct medical records and records of‘ other agency’ qualifications. Members will be able to manage recurring payments via the app, as well as having access to a more streamlined record of their own membership.
For clubs, the management of their members will also become easier, thanks to a raft of new features. These include registering new divers and managing club levy schemes, as well as options for speedier direct debit collection. Another new feature for clubs will be‘ smart lists’, where Branch Officers can arrange lists of members based on diver grade and membership status.
Strategy Update
Vice Chair Yasmine Thorn spearheads the club’ s Strategy, aimed at stabilising, growing and evolving BSAC and its activities. The focus this year is on growing the