February BAD Blog #1

February BAD Blog #1

or “Hello, 2013!”

Ok, so I’ll agree that it’s been wayyyy too long since I’ve written a new blog. You’d think that as much as I love to write that I’d be cranking these out by the dozen, right? How’s this for a new goal? Not only am I gonna try really hard to maintain a personal blog, but I’m going to do my best to maintain a weekly “BAD blog” as well! Let’s see if I can do a better job in 2013.

Speaking of 2013, if everything goes like I want it to, it’s gonna be a banner diving year for Cindy and me. More about that later, though….

First off, since this blog is primarily for the BADdies, and not my personal ramblings, I’ll keep the focus on all things BAD. By now we’ve had our first general member meeting and two board meetings. Let’s meet the board, shall we?

Dave Romano – President

Randy Widaman – Vice President

Jim McConville – Treasurer

Cindy Romano - Secretary

Patrick Newman – Communications Director

Cindy Newman – Membership Director

Rusty Benigar – Director

Wendy Whitehouse – Director

Now I know some of y’all are thinking, “Hey, what’s this blog thing? Isn’t this what the newsletter is for?” My answer to that is we’ll still publish a newsletter, but not monthly. We are all trying to be a bit more green, and reducing the amount of paper and ink consumption is one small step in that direction. As Communications Director, my position has evolved from the previous position of “Editor” in order to incorporate more of the social media like Facebook, Twitter, Meetup, etc. Our previous editor, JaVan Pruett, did a FANTASTIC job for many years, and I can only hope to be a fraction as effective as she was at spreading the news. This blog is just one way to keep everyone up to date on what’s going on in our community.

Before I get into some of our planned events, I’d like to remind those who haven’t yet renewed their membership that now is the time to do so. Our Membership Director Cindy will have forms available at the meetings for those that still need to renew. It’s very important to keep your memberships up to date.

As our diving season hasn’t fully begun, there are no planned group dives this month or next. It’s a bit too cold for most of us warm water divers to enjoy.

On April 20^th, the first BAD group dive will be at 288 Lake for an equipment check and possible Hydrilla clean up. We’ll have more details on the Hydrilla clean up as things progress.

The next group dive is planned for May 18^th at the Blue Lagoon in Huntsville. What do you think, members? Shall we make this a full weekend dive outing, with camping at the park or make it a day trip? May shouldn’t be too hot, so camping overnight could be fun.

How does a road trip in June sound? Thanks to very hard work by Mei-Hwa and Seldon, a Florida diving trip has been planned for June 8 – 15^th. Full details of this trip can be found by clicking the link above. We are planning dives on the USS Oriskany, shore dives in Panama City at the St. Andrews Campgrounds, the Blue Grotto and a few other places. While we are in Pensacola to dive the “Mighty O,” I’ll be very tempted to spend some time at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Cindy and I might even stop by there on the way home so we won’t miss any diving.

I’m working on putting together a dive trip to the Texas Clipper in September. Once I have a few more details nailed down, I’ll present it to the rest of the board for approval as an official BAD group dive. Of course, I’ll make sure everyone has all the details once everything is finalized.

I had mentioned earlier about how 2013 could be a great diving year for Cindy and me. Next month we’re taking a short cruise out of Galveston on the Triumph to Progreso and Cozumel. While in Cozumel, we’re going to dive with Scuba With Alison. Alison Dennis is an awesome dive operator, and any time we’re in Cozumel, that’s who we want to dive with. Now, just to be clear, this is my personal endorsement, and not necessarily an endorsement from BAD or the board of directors.

With the Cozumel dive, the Florida diving trip, The Texas Clipper, local dives and hopefully a two week cruise late this year in the Eastern Caribbean, we’re looking at racking up some awesome dive time.

That’s it for now. I hope everyone enjoys reading this as much as I did writing it, snacking on some lemon King Cake and sipping a cup of hot green tea. I’m always open to suggestions and would love to know what you think.

Until next time….