How to start a club?

[blaiz]

Heres a question I have been wondering for a while now. I have been diving for close to 15 years, I really started taking it really seriously about 3 years ago. I have a group of about 10 divers/spearos who I dive with, all of whome are well adept and experienced.

How do you start your own legitimate spearfishing club?

Dont laughrofl, this is a serious question.

What are your duties as a club?
WHat are the logistics of starting one?
Do you need to contact any state or local agencies to do so?
Do you need to compete?
Are there any liabilities in doing so?

No low blows here, there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers. At least thats what my mama always told me

 

[trux]

Well, these are indeed very valid questions, and founding of an official club may not be as easy as it may sound. The exact procedure differs in each country, so I cannot tell you for the USA, but you will likely need to register as a non-profit association. I think that any commercial lawyer will be able to help you out with the necessary paperwork and it should not be too difficult or expensive.

After a brief googling I found the following document about founding a non-profit organization in Michigan. I guess it won't be much different in other US states either.

https://www.mnaonline.org/pdf/GettingStartedSummary.pdf

Here in France, the club must have management of three persons - the president, the secretary, and the treasurer. I believe it may be similar in the USA too.

In the USA, you probably do not need to register with your national freediving federation, but I definitely recommend it. They may help you with some advices or tips, and with the organization. They will also list you on their website and make it so easier for others to find and join you. Being covered by the federation will also help when negotiating with city or state offices - for example when trying to get some hours/lanes in public pools for training (padding pool is also a good idea and usually easy to reserve some evening hours for wet statics training).

Having a room for meetings, theory seminars, and/or for stocking some material is not bad, but not absolutely necessary.

You are certainly not obliged to organize any competitions, or participate on them, but usually at least some members will want to do it later or sooner anyway.

As for liabilities - again that differs in each land, and consulting it with a lawyer (and with the federation) may be the best approach, but you need to count with at least some degree of legal responsibility at the club management, and at trainers / instructors. Here in France the instructors must be certified by FFESSM (our federation), and we all are covered by insurance which has a contract with the federation.

You will also likely need to file tax declaration, so the treasurer should have some experience with accounting (properly filing member fees, and club expenses).

 

[settingsteel]

Good thread sure alot of us can use this 411...Kudos Trux quite a thorough answer...I'm gonna surf around since Miami be lacking a club that caters to Spearos:ko

 

[trux]

I just want to put straight my claim about the insurance - after rereading it after myself I see it is not quite clear: there is an insurance agency that has a contract with the federation. Similarly like DAN, they insure divers, but also spearfishers, and freedivers. They are called AXA. The club, the management, instructors, and each of the club members are insured individually though, they are not covered by the federation insurance as it may look like in my previous post.

The club member fees are around 150€ - 200€ per year. It includes federation membership fees (I think it is around 30€ and it includes a permit for spearfishing even if you do not plan to), the insurance (the fee varies depending on the plan you choose - between 8€ and 60€), swimming pool costs (4 pool trainings a week), fees for the BNSSA certified life guard that surveys us during trainings, fees for sofrology sessions, and some other club expenses (website, material, competition costs, etc)

 

[trux]

Also another tip - as at the non-profit organization, the management and the instructors (who are club members) cannot be paid (at least according to our laws), but since the functions involve a good deal of work, time, and responsibility, we ask them to they pay only federation and insurance fees, not the club fee. It does not make a big difference, and certainly does not cover the time they spend on managing the club, it is rather just a symbolic reward for the work.

 

[blaiz]

It is amazing how useful this website is! Thanks for all the info trux! Im gonna do some research myself and see what its like here in Hawaii.

Im sure there are already a couple of clubs but what I was thinking was more like a monthly thing where we could all get together and train, exchange ideas and techniques, dive together, and possibly qualify for team events.

It might not even be necissary to start one but I think it would keep everyone a little more serious about it.