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 20th,
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 18th 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 – 15th. 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….
