GLUG MEETING MINUTES 7 FEB 2006

Officers’ reports
UK dive coordinator (Corinne)
o UK trips are filling up fast. There is one space on Corinne’s trip to Scapa Flow.
o All GLUG spaces on Fiona’s Farnes trip are full and there is a waiting list of GLUG members. There are still four Pink Tank spaces and Fiona will open these up to GLUG shortly.
o There are still two places left on Fiona’s Swanage trip.
o Check the website for latest details.
o Some months ago the possibility of a trip to Jersey was discussed. Lots of members interested Neil to contact Jersey contact to explore. Action Neil

Treasurer (Alan)
o Apologies for absence

Membership secretary (Fiona)
o 30 paid up members so far this year. Fiona will send out reminders to those who have not yet paid.
o Anyone who has not paid their sub by the end of March will be deemed to be no longer a member and will not be able to access the members’ area of the site. Action Fiona and Neil

Publicity officer (Kirk)
o Nothing to report this month

Webmaster (Neil)
o Our website host had hardware difficulties leading to the site being out of action for several days. It is now up and running again.

Equipment coordinator (Corinne reporting for Steph)
o 2 SMB reels have been purchased plus a new 02 kit. Belts and weights still to be bought.

Dorothy Divers (Corinne)
o One new Ocean Diver student
o DD to run Sports Diver and Dry Suit training in the spring

Other dives
o Dive for Life (Corinne) 85% full as of 2 weeks before the meeting. Will be in St Lucia on 16 September. Check DfL website for details- there is a link from the GLUG website.
o Djibouti (Brian). Brian has researched a trip to Djibouti either over Christmas or New Year. Cost approx £1,200 including flights and six days liveaboard. Brian will put details on website. Action Brian.

AOB
o We have had a very generous offer of a complete set of diving equipment, barely used, from Siobhan who has had to give up diving following a back injury. Members thanked Siobhan for this and Allen will collect Action Allen
o We are running out of T-shirts. It was agreed that we should purchase further supplies. Kirk suggested using an ethical source and will investigate costs. Neil to compare costs with traditional suppliers. Action Kirk and Neil
o The Dive Show will be held at Excel on 1-2 April. Noted that there are ticket price reductions for groups of 8 tickets or more. Corinne volunteered to coordinate tickets Action Corinne

Date of next meeting
7.30 pm Tue 7 March

The GLUG Gallery Pages are currently offline, while I upgrade the Gallery. Watch this space for a new & improved gallery soon!

Neil.

I have several pieces of Nikonos/Sea & Sea U/W cameras, strobes & lenses
to dispose of for my dive buddy, now deceased. They are in reasonable
condition, some lenses are even new, but they will not be expensive.

Ask me for details please. (Log in, then click on my name at the top of the post)

I am confirmed as booked on DFL (Diving for Life) and will be happy to room share with anyone. I shall be extending the stay by a few days and already have the room booked
etc.

(You can contact me by logging in, then clicking on my name at the top of the post).

For some reason, when I posted the previous article, the website seems not to have sent out emails (at least I didn’t get them!).

I have one space available for the trip to Utila, Honduras on April 29th. You can read the original post here.

Due to a cancellation, I now have one place available for the trip to Deep Blue Resort in Utila, Honduras, from April 28th - May 6th.

The big attraction at Utila is Whale Sharks. Although we’ll be lucky to actually encounter one during a dive, there is a very good chance that we’ll be able to swim and snorkel with them during our surface intervals - during early May there are sightings most days.

Other than the Whale Sharks, however, the general Reef Diving around Utila is very good. There are over 50 buoyed dive sites, and attractions include Hawksbill turtles, Stingrays, Eagle Rays, Reef Squid, Nudibranchs, Flamingo Tongues, Barracuda,… need I go on? The reef itself is quite varied, with sites such as Blackish Point - a gorgeous overhang, shot through with shafts of Sunlight, and “The Maze” - a wonderland of Canyons, with abundant fish life.

As well as GLUG members, there will be divers from a couple of our sister clubs in the US, and from Plongee Arc-en-Ciel in Paris, so the entire resort of 10 rooms will be gay-occupied. The resort itself is on a strip of land between a sandy beach and a lagoon, and accessible only by boat. If you want to go into the local town, then you can generally be transported across free of charge during the day - a nominal charge may be made at night.

We’ve negotiated a considerable discount from their normal rate of US$1392 (inc tax). The price for GLUG members is US$890 for the week, which includes air-conditioned accommodation, all meals, water and iced tea, 3 boat dives per day, unlimited shore diving, and airport transfers, and taxes, but excludes flights. The only extras are other drinks (beers are around £1 each), Nitrox (US$100 for the week) or Equipment hire if required, and gratuities for the dive and resort staff.

To get to Utila involves taking International flights to San Pedro Sula (on the Honduran mainland), then a 25-minute flight to La Ceiba, further along the coast, and finally a 7-minute hop across to the island itself. Getting there will entail an overnight stop either in the US or in San Pedro Sula, and for this reason we will need to leave the UK on 28th April in order to arrive on 29th.

Currently, Travelocity is showing a cheapest price of £560 for the International flights (Damn! I paid £680!). The Domestic flights will cost approx US$160.

The final payments for the trip are due by the end of this month, so if you’re interested in going, I will need full payment of US$890 plus the US$160 (to be confirmed soon) for the Domestic flights - this works out at around £615 at current exchange rates.

You can download a trip brochure here (ignore the references to the first week being sold out!). If you’re interested in joining us, please email me (log in, then click the envelope at the top of this post, or use the Contact Page).

UPDATE (15th Feb): The place has now been refilled

The LIDS Dive Show is on 1 and 2 April at the Excel Exhibition Centre. Tickets can be bought on line (www.diveshows.co.uk). However, if we can block book 8 or more tickets in advance, we pay £7.50 instead of £10.50 and our names go in a draw to win a Red Sea holiday for a party of eight. Anyone wishing to go to the show and wishing to pre-book should contact me by 1 March. The tickets can be used either on the Saturday or Sunday, but not both.

It’s that time of year again! £10 will renew your membership for another year. You can download the membership form from the membership section. Anyone who hasn’t renewed their membership before the end of March will find they cannot access the members area - so send me your money!

GLUG meeting agenda 7 Feb 2006,
7.30 pm Konditor and Cook, Curzon Cinema, Shaftsbury Avenue
1. Apologies for absence
2. Welcome to new members
3. Notes of last meeting
4. Matters arising
5. Officers’ reports:
o UK dive coordinator
o Treasurer
o Membership secretary
o Publicity officer
o Webmaster
o Equipment coordinator
o Dorothy Divers
6. Other dives
7. AOB
9. Date of next meeting 7.30 pm Tue 7 March