Desert Divers of Idaho – Annual Business Meeting

In attendance:
Jeff and Tristan Burkhardt
Dean Clower
Earl Eblen
Jim Hull
Dave Brown
Mary Graesch
Mike Garske
Chris and Cher Auth (and Bubby)
Mimi Wilcock
Wade and Claudia Pfennig
Denise Roberts

This is the last meeting of 2005.

Treasurer Report: Treasurer is absent, so Earl presented. $320 in our account, before this meeting. The Club is buying pizza for this meeting to celebrate Christmas.

Recap of this last year’s events:
- We went bowling last January; it was a lot of fun and a big hit, so we’ll do it again.
- Barry Bean from Idaho Power presented flora and fauna of Idaho Rivers
- In February, we had a booth at the boat show this last year
- Presentation on Mike Ball trips in Australia and Great Barrier Reef
- Hard Hat diving presentation.
- Eric Johnson, the DAN doctor presented on DCI
- Eric Johnson also hosted us on a tour of the new decompression chambers at the Elks
- Fire and Rescue presented their dive unit equipment and procedures
- Clean-up projects: Farewell Bend, Oregon, as well as Lake Harbor “bomb hunt”
- Several local dives: Poker Run at Bob Rice Pond, Rose Pond, Lucky Peak summer dives
- And at this meeting, our collection of movies for the Elk’s deco-chambers facility.

Earl thanked all presenters and supporters from this last year. Next year, he won’t be president, so his plan is to plan and run more dives.

Elections:
President – Wade Pfennig nominated and elected
Vice Pres – Nominations: Denise Roberts and Jim Hull; Elected: Denise

End of Earl Era: Earl remarked on the end of his era, thanked all the officers from last year and turned the meeting over to the newly-elected Wade Pfennig.

Wade talked about Dues. Our dues in the past were $12/year, but not enforced. Discussion ensued on whether to enforce dues, have no dues, or some combination of dues for attendees. We would like to build the club and ensure attendance. The decision was made to keep the dues as voluntary in 2006, and evaluate needs and goals this year. Next year we might want to make the dues enforceable.

We also discussed having voluntary Raffles at meetings and events and getting prizes cheaply or at cost from dive shops for the raffles. Hopefully the raffles would net a little bit of cash for the club, and boost attendance and membership.

We discussed using some of our funds for Club Marketing. We could have club t-shirts since we have a logo. We could also make some posters or club business cards (we have a card template already) for distribution at dive shops and the boat show in order to increase awareness of the club.

Future Events:

January – bowling at BSU

February – work the boat show. Arnie Winstead is heading up organizing that. Sign-up sheets were available at the meeting for shift sign-up. We share a booth with Parks and Rec to promote boat awareness and diver awareness.Also in February, meeting on the 28th to avoid holidays, we will meet at Borah High School in the science room for a presentation by Mike Read on all the different diving in Australia that isn’t the great barrier reef.

March – is not scheduled yet

April – dive gear maintenance class.

May – Eric Rupal will talk about his diving adventures in Antarctica

June/July/August – dives. We discussed some options and asked about interest.

BlueHeart/Crystal Springs – some moderate interest

Clear Lake, OR – at least 4-5 at the meeting were interested

SeaBase, UT – 7-8 interested…maybe do in a 3-site loop with Wendover and Crater

Farewell Bend – at least 2 at the meeting interested

Earl talked about planning Seattle Area Dives – at least 2-3 people at the meeting were strongly interested…In order to organize planning better this year, Earl will plan the dives, and if you want to go, you can get your date preference in ahead of time (talk to him soon), otherwise he’ll plan and set the dates, and who ever can make it can come along. Some dives he’s considering is Edmonds, Friday Harbor, and Hoodsport.

Mary talked about Big Trip Planning. She’s looking into a closer to Idaho trip for this June, probably San Carlos Mexico to dive in the Sea of Cortez. Since there was interest, she’ll look into costs and arrangements and hopefully have the information at the January bowling event. She will try to keep the cost of this trip closer to $1000. For next year, 2007, we would plan a dive trip further away….suggestions were Utila (one of the Honduran bay islands), Fiji, Belize. Other suggestions are welcome. The target is to keep the cost of this trip under $1800.

Minutes recorded by Mary Graesch