Watford Underwater Club Boat takes centre stage
Watford Underwater Club recently held a public promotion event in the local town centre. Initial enquiries were not met that favourably by the council, however once reassured that no fund raising would take place, a full risk assessment was submitted, and liaison took place with the highways agency, local police and fire brigade as well as the HSE. The event went ahead with the club boat taking centre stage and static displays showing club history, BSAC membership benefit and marine Conservation information. 2 of our members are very active in the MCS and offer training courses.
The event was a success and even the sun came out. There was a lot of interest shown with more than 30 people being offered free try dives at the club pool. There was interest from existing divers from other organisations who were looking for a club environment, as well as former divers who wanted to return to diving but were unsure of advances or were perhaps concerned at costs.
What did surprise us was how many people did not know about us despite being around for 50 years, and having frequently been in the local papers. In fact quite a lot of people had no idea that Hertfordshire is well catered for with 19 clubs.
Of those try dive offers, 14 took the offer up, and 8 have confirmed their wish to join. Training starts very soon.
The coordination of the event relied upon one person taking the lead. Our risk assessment was based upon our own club diving R/A and was very thorough. This was positively commented upon, and compared more favourably than those submitted by professional bodies when they use the town centre for their PR events.
What lessons did we learn?
- Starting preparation for the event early
- A good display will interest the public
- A good place for the whole display is obviously essential
- Motivate membership and get volunteers to staff the display for a few hours each
- Clearly display the club name and that you are a scuba diving club, other wise passers by may think you want money and will ignore you.
- Have a few members wearing dry suits
- Don’t be afraid to speak to anyone showing any interest, otherwise you will give impression that you are not interested which is counter productive
- Speak to BSAC HQ for advice on promotion
- Contact local press and invite them to event, and request a piece in local paper
- Good quality posters, banners look better than home made stuff, although leaflets are easy to produce providing decent grade papers is used.
- Speak to BSAC who can assist with promotion material.
Page last modified: 25th Jun 2007 - 15:30:35