Dive rota

[DAFFY]

We have finally booked a mooring space for the club RIB at Dover marina and have for the first time in years an actual diving schedule for the coming year (well six months anyway april- september) The problem now is how to choose who is going on the dive. Was going to do a "pull the name out of a hat" thingy but this seems to long winded also thought about doing it on a "first come, first serve" basis but have already had complaints because not everybody can attend the club every wednesday.

several people have already asked to have their names put down for all the dives but for the time being I have said no as it was not fair on other people. How do other clubs do this? any ideas as to choosing a fair way of picking who dives would be most welcome (having said that probabley no matter what scheme you pick somebody is bound to complain)

[Fiona]

I am afraid this doesn't help because we had a first come first served type of thing going.

Do you always do the same dives or do you vary them, some dives could be for certain levels only which might give everyone a fair go.

I am glad you have a this problem though, because at times we couldn't get enough people to dive with the necessary skills - the most important one was who is going to tow the boat.

I don't belong to local club anymore for that reason.

[Paul Oliver]

First come first served, but only generally opening the spaces up a week or so in advance.

Any long term booking will have loads of drop outs, and as Seven says the different levels tend to need some variety.

Also having the right skills mix on the boat i.e 2 x Cox/Boat Handlers, enough experienced divers to buddy up the beginners, a Marina radio cert holder the list goes on

Pre-season enthusiasm generally wears off a bit.

[DAFFY]

Originally Posted by Fiona

I am afraid this doesn't help because we had a first come first served type of thing going.

Do you always do the same dives or do you vary them, some dives could be for certain levels only which might give everyone a fair go.

I am glad you have a this problem though, because at times we couldn't get enough people to dive with the necessary skills - the most important one was who is going to tow the boat.

I don't belong to local club anymore for that reason.

Hi Fiona,

This is the first year that we have not taken on any trainees with the view of getting everybodies DL completed so all the divers are going to be SD and well on the way to completing their DL (including me) We are planning most of the dives to be 25mtrs+ to complete that part of the DL sign off's

We will see how long the enthusasim lasts for however at this stage everybody seems up for it. The lack of volunteers to tow the boat is one of the reason that the club has decided to have the boat moored, ironically enough the guy who we used to rely upon for towing AND who used to constantly let us down is now doing the most moaning about the expense of the mooring and how it he would have been more than happy to tow the boat I must admit I am getting disillusioned by the club scene and only remain with the club out of force of habit

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by DAFFY

...I must admit I am getting disillusioned by the club scene and only remain with the club out of force of habit

Ho ho ho.... just wait till all those mad keen, can't wait, divers start dropping out at the last minute and other people moan they could have had the (now vacant) space instead.

heheheheh....

Chris

[DAFFY]

Originally Posted by Paul Oliver

First come first served, but only generally opening the spaces up a week or so in advance.

Any long term booking will have loads of drop outs, and as Seven says the different levels tend to need some variety.

Also having the right skills mix on the boat i.e 2 x Cox/Boat Handlers, enough experienced divers to buddy up the beginners, a Marina radio cert holder the list goes on

Pre-season enthusiasm generally wears off a bit.

ok, so it looks like its going to have to be on a "first come, first served" basis. As for pre- season enthusiasm. Mooring the boat has cost the club more than £1400 so we need a full boat every two weeks for the six month's to recoupe the costs.

[DAFFY]

Originally Posted by chrisch

Ho ho ho.... just wait till all those mad keen, can't wait, divers start dropping out at the last minute and other people moan they could have had the (now vacant) space instead.

heheheheh....

Chris

You're very cynical young man

[Mark C]

Just remember there are a few of us about that may be able to step into the breach at the last min to fill the boat if required

[TerryH]

First come? That's a bad way of doing it as you'll end up with a clique.

I do it via catgories and you will need to do a bot of maths, but its fair
and more importantly is seen to be fair.

First off - Demographics. How many 20m, 35m and 50m rated have you got
in the club?

If you have eg: 50% at 20m, then that's how many boats should be doing
that depth. Each 20m needs a more experinced so you allocate 25% to
experinced divers. So straight off based on that 50% you have 25% of
spaces for experinced and 25% for sub 20m.

Now do the same for 35m+ and most clubs would be on about 25%.

So as a total guesstimate i'd have

25% - 20m rated
50% - upto 35m rated
25% - over 35m rated

That catagorises the boats, so set dates based on how your club is
progressing. Deeper dives are better later in the year when divers
have progressed, so a few upto 35m rated to kick off, then introduce the
newbies, then go deep later.

Your boat planning is should now start to have structure and you'll get
names because of what's planned, not just to get on a boat.

That's pretty much how I do it and we have just over 20 hardboat bookings
so far for this year.