Introduction
With this exciting new initiative, the club will support trip deposit payments to secure charters, while organisers receive dive rebates.
There was a little excitement during the committee meeting earlier this month as a new motion was passed in the September committee meeting concerning securing charter boats and deposit payment. In short, the club will be happy to pay up to £300.00 as an initial deposit to secure dive charters in 2021.
Historically, any trip organiser would have to agree and pencil a date with any charter, asking for attendees to pay their deposits to secure their spaces. A great idea in reality, but problematic as our bookings have been gazumped by other clubs while deposits have been collected. With effect from September 2020 and for one year, the club will try this new concept to allow organisers to secure more dive charters for members in 2021.
And there’s more! The club will continue to honour the redemption of your own dive costs to 80% of the value. That’s right, you even get paid to go diving!
How It Works
The best way is to think of somewhere where you wish to dive and research any dive charter boats and operators in that area. Use the tide planner to help. Having confirmed availability, you will need to confirm the OK from the committee to run the trip. This is not as arduous as you may think. Simply send an email to the [buddies] list to propose the date, venue and quick rationale as to why you would like to run the trip. You will need to include details of the total price, how many dives, how many divers and of course dates. Every committee member is on this list. You can ask for any interested club members to pencil their name at this point.
Within a few days and as soon as the committee agrees, you can ask the treasurer for the £300.00 deposit. This will be paid to you, which then, in turn, should be paid directly to the charter.
It’s now your job to fill the charter. This is a simple process of providing as much detail as possible to ’sell’ the trip to your fellow members. You should email the website Webmaster, giving as much detail as possible including date, time, location, duration, number of dives, minimum qualifications (if needed), name of the charter, meeting point plus any other important points and we will create and add your event to the https://seahorsediveclub.uk/events page. A photograph or two would be great too. This page should include as much information as needed. The Webmaster will include a web-based application form that will direct enquiries directly to you. Once your event is created, you can share it to the [buddies] mailing list again and any social media channels. You will need to give priority and first refusal to club members, then offering places to our syndicate clubs and non-member friends if needed.
Some Rules
There are of course a couple of rules. The first rule is that 60% of the trip must be made up of club members. To keep this simple, we recommend any dive charter should be booked for 10 divers, that means 6 of them must be club members. Should Covid-19 social distancing rules mandate only 6 divers in any vessel, then the whole six must be club members. The other rule is that the trip must be a minimum of two days diving, longer UK Expeditions are included, but the £300 maximum deposit limit remains and the organiser will receive 80% of three days of diving only. Overseas trips are excluded from this scheme.
In summary, to receive your 80% diving fees redemption, your trip must be for two consecutive days or more for UK and Ireland destinations. The club will pay a maximum £300.00 deposit, be it a one, two or more day booking.
Your Responsibilities
You will be required to keep an accurate log of each attendee and keep track of their payments. You will be the proxy payment provider. There is a lot of trust and responsibility in this role as in essence, you are holding other members money. When you receive the first £300.00 from attendees, this must be immediately returned to the treasurer, while you then collect further deposit balances and of course, final payments. You will be responsible for making the final repayment to the charter. Proper record-keeping is essential and also communicating with the attendees. It is recommended that you keep a spreadsheet of the attendees’ name, email and mobile phone number. This will enable you to communicate with the attendees via email and WhatsApp.
Excel Plannig Document
To help you in your administration, Mike has produced a simple Excel document. This should assist you with planning and recording all the information you may need.
Further Considerations
You need to be careful here as arranging additional aspects of the trip can potentially make us in breach of the Package Travel Regulations 1992. If you want to arrange ad hoc dinner times and make restaurant reservations, that is fine. Making logistical plans for meetings is also fine. If you start taking responsibility for accommodation reservations, transport, restaurant or other ancillary services and take payment, then we may find ourselves in breach. The simple rule is, you organise the diving and let others arrange travel and accommodation themselves. There’s nothing wrong in telling people where to stay, but not making their bookings.
Examples
Let’s say Mandy organises a trip to Swanage for one day for 6 divers. This is a two dive day at £35.00 a dive and the charter wants 50% deposit.
Total cost is 6 divers x 2 dives x £35.00 = £420.00
The club will forward Mandy the £210.00 50% deposit but as this is one day, there is no diver redemption as this is a one day trip.
Let’s say Artur organises a trip to Portland for two days for 7 divers. Each day will consist of two dives at a cost of £70.00 per diver and the charter wants 50% deposit.
Total cost is 7 divers x 2 days x £70.00 = £980.00
The club will forward Artur £300.00 as a holding deposit. Artur will need to collect the £190.00 deposit balance from divers to book. Artur will be able to redeem 80% of diving being £140.00 x 80% = £112.00
Let’s say Dave organise a week trip to the Sound of Mull. This is a charter for 10 people at £3,000.00 for the week of 5 days diving. The charter wants 25% deposit.
Total cost is £3,000.00
The club will forward Dave £300.00 as a holding deposit. Dave will need to collect the £450.00 deposit balance from diver to book. Dave will be able to redeem 80% of three days diving, equating as ((£300.00 / 5) x 3) x 80% = £144.00
