A special thanks to all the members who managed to find the time to come along to our AGM last week. We’re also very grateful to Michal who manned the bar and to Jack and Emma who orchestrated proceeding. Alex our treasurer started us off on a bit of a low note with the state of our finances. This is partially due to the BSAC not taking past club membership and passing it onto the us. It seems that only 18 members payment reached us, meaning that almost 50% had not been collected.
On a more positive note we’ve had over 11 club dive outings including trips to the Sound of Mull, Westbay with our Rhib and a week long trip to Gozo off the coast of Malta.
We’ve had 36 inquires for membership & try-dives and again most seem to be coming from our active banner at the Putney Leisure Centre. We’ve had six new members join us in 2025 whilst 9 left the club.
We have currently 4 Ocean Divers & 3 Sports Divers training , although one finished all his qualifying dives and theory the same week. Well done to James. We’ve had 12 try-dives and 2 refresher dives over the year whilst also finding time to provide courses in O2 admin, boat handling and twinset diving.
Brian stood up and said we had done social stuff but modesty stopped him boasting about the social evenings arranged at Columbo (Sri Lankan cuisine), Julia Domna (Lebanese), Horse racing at Windsor Races in the Summer, a sailing weekend on the Solent and finally the arranging of the upcoming Xmas Party at the Duke’s Head in Putney.
The new Committee is made up of:
- Chair – Brian
- Diving Officer – Jack Moore
- Secretary – Jack Tyler
- Treasurer – Alex
- Training Officer – Emma
- Membership Secretary – Unfilled, but shared between, Jack, Emma & Paul
- Comms Officer – Paul
- Social Secretary – Ben
- Boat Officer – Michal
- Equipment Officer – Mark
The membership role is still vacant so if anyone fancies coming onto the committee just contact a member of the committee.
Club Awards
Every year we give out 2 prestigious awards for Diver and Club Person of the Year that are voted for by our members.
Diver of the Year is an award presented to members that have used the last 12 months to advance their diving skills and this years it was awarded to Lukas who is busy organising ambitious club trips; he’s just finished his Instructor Foundation Course (IFC) and is already enthusiastically providing assistance to instructors on Tuesday evenings.
Club Person of the Year is awarded to a Putney BSAC member that has gone above and beyond and contributed immensely to the club over the last year. This year, the club voted for Emma who after having baby Kyarra recently, has thrown herself back into enthusiastically interfacing with members and prospective members to provide training advice and planning.
The Photo award this year was won by Mark in the Abroad category. See contestants below.
In the Photo UK & Ire category the award went to Jack for his photo from the Sound of mull. Thanks to all the divers who entered the competition this year.
The final award we presented at our AGM was the Stoney Diver, presented for one of the biggest diving related mistakes or mishaps.
Winner of the Stoney Diver was Lukas. In Gozo the procedure was to jump in from the shore, then put on your fins in the water and move away to allow the next diver to jump in. Well Lukas didn’t wait for the fins being put on and so jumped almost on top of Paul who was unable to get out of the way being ‘fin-less’. Here’s the evidence but can I say if looked worse from Paul’s perspective.
Congratulations to all of our award winners, a massive thank you to our outgoing committee member Steve and good luck to this year newly elected committee – here’s to an amazing next 12months.