Next Board Meeting: October 29, 2003, 7:30 P.M. at Maurer’s Dive shop

Next Regular Meeting: November 6, 2003, 7:30 Penn Gables, Ebensburg, PA

Board meeting, Maurer’s Dive Shop 7:30 P.M.

Menu: brownies, Dan’s homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream, crab and artichoke dip.

BUSINESS:

The audit was moved to before this month’s meeting.

The patches Donna ordered will be available for $3 each.

We are asking for donations from all of the clubs that use the quarry of $2 per day per diver to help with the expenses of the porta-potty and maintenance. Thank you to all of the clubs that have donated already!

The chili cook-off and treasure dive will be this month. It is $5 if you wish to dive for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate. If there is inclement weather the cook-off will be adjourned to the Turcovsky’s.

October 2, 2003, Penn Gables, Ebensburg, PA

Donna called the meeting to order. We all feel blessed to have her talent as a conch player.

Ron read the treasurers report: total income of $960; total expenses of $711.07; total balance of $3340.25.

The audit committee looked over our books before the meeting and reported that everything looked good. Thank you to Barb Wyland, Greg Lily, and Lance Marks for volunteering!

NEW MEMBERS:

The club would like to welcome Jodi Yingling, our latest new member!

BUSINESS:

The November meeting will be a T-shirt meeting. Everyone is encouraged to bring or wear a t-shirt from their favorite dive site!

We are looking for new ideas for our meetings. Donna presented a few examples, such as a photo contest in the spring.

Everyone who has not paid their dues has now officially been dropped from the mailing list.

The Christmas party was discussed. The menu will be: stuffed chicken, pork chop, lasagna, or baked haddock. The haddock will be $15.50; everything else will be $12.75. The portions are very generous. Cocktails will be from 6-7, dinner will be at 7 and dancing will follow until 11 p.m. The DJ’s will be Brad and Matt McVicker. Sign up will be at next month’s meeting.

Check out Chums for the 18th and 19th of October are Laura Butler for the 18th and, tentatively, Barb Wyland for the 19th.

We received a thank you letter from Brad, expressing his gratitude for the support that has been given to him and his family.

We held board member nominations for the elections that will be held at the Christmas party. Joe Gordon, Barb Wyland, Bert Sharbaugh, Benny Beecher, Jeff Kirsch, and the Turcovsky’s (as an entity) were the nominees. We will hold nominations next month also.

We discussed the attempt to break the world record for the most divers in a pool, on gear (everything but the wetsuit) at one time. If you are interested please contact Lois 472-0774. For everyone that has signed up and paid their fee to Lois already, we will be meeting at Ron and Lois’s House and 7 a.m. and at the Turcovsky’s at 7:30. We will be taking a trailer with our gear already set up in it so we won’t have to be concerned with it when we get there. If you have signed up it is extremely important that you make it, if you can’t, please arrange for a substitute. They have tried to break this record before and were short a couple of people. It is imperative that you go if you signed up!!

Donna would like to plan a manatee trip sometime in January. If anyone is interested or has a time when they would be available to go, contact Donna.

Patches are available for $3.00.

Lois has a knife (from the Treasure Dive) that belongs to someone out there...if you think it’s yours please give her a call...she’s having problems going through airports because she’s been taking it with her everywhere!

For anyone who knows Dan Zimmerman, Kim McKee let us know that Dan collapsed at work. His wife said all prayers and thoughts are appreciated. If anyone is interested in sending a card his address is:
Dan Zimmerman
318 Westgate Drive
Johnstown, PA 15905

The divers that went to Dutch Springs this reported on an event that happened in which a person died (noone we knew). The events that took place brought on a discussion of safety. We want to remind everyone to please be safe out there; don’t go into situations that are above your ability, be prepared for emergencies, stay calm underwater, know that whatever problem arises underwater you’ll have enough air to get to the surface and you can deal with that problem there. There was a discussion of having another oxygen provider course to possibly be held in January. More details on that will follow.

TRIP REPORTS:

Denny reported on the Raystown dive. They had a decent day, the temperature was moderate, and the food was good, as usual! The diving was not so good. They only made one trip out in the morning, and did one dive along the cliffs. There was about 10’ visibility, water temperature was 60 degrees on the surface, the thermo cline was at about 25’, under the thermo cline the temperature was about 48-50. There were treasures to report; a watch and an anchor were found.

Ron Peterson, Diane Turcovsky, and Donna Bender cleaned our quarry! Thank you for all of the trimming and hard work, we all appreciate it!

Ron reported on the trip to Dutch Springs. The quarry is in Bethlehem, PA, it has about 45 acres of water area with depths to about 100’. The quarry’s main attraction is the helicopter that they have suspended about 25’ from the bottom. Ron reported that the thermo cline was at about 30’2”. The water temperature was in the mid 60’s and mid 50’s. There was a group of newly certified divers that went on the trip as well. The “Laurel Reefers” wrote a song that was dedicated to the divers. They made a repeat performance and serenaded and wowed us all at the meeting.

UPCOMING TRIPS/EVENTS:

October 11-26, 2003 Fiji, Micronesia, and Tahiti. Wayne Pappart, Flood City Divers. Contact Wayne for information 814 255-5360

October 25, Halloween Treasure Dive and Chili Cook-off, dive starts at 1 p.m. the cook off starts at 5 p.m. There is a $5 entry fee for the dive with a $100 prize. Sign up the day of the dive. Donna was last year’s cook off winner… who will it be this year??

November 2, 2003, World Record Breaking Scuba Event, Rutgers University, Secaucus, NJ, An attempt to break the record for the number of scuba divers in a pool is taking place from 12-5pm. There is a $5 registration fee. Registration includes a barbeque at 12. You will need to have on your mask, fins, B.C., regulator and tank. There needs to be more than 596 people in the pool on scuba at one time to break the record. You will be in the water from 4-4:30. If the record is broken everyone present will receive a certificate stating that you participated in a World Record Breaking Event!!! Contact Lois Keegan for more information, Lois will also be taking the registration monies.

November 15-22, 2003 Cozumel, Mexico. Scuba Club Cozumel. This is an all inclusive resort. Cost: $838 + air-fair. Priceline.com air fares have been available for $313 + tax. Contact Dee Montgomery at Advantage Scuba for more information. 814-944-8521.

November 29, 2003, Mount Storm, after Thanksgiving dive. More Information will be given at next month’s meeting.
December 6, 2003, Christmas Party, 6 p.m. The menu choices are listed above. We’ll be there with bells on, will you?

April 21-May 1, 2004, Honduras, Co Co View Resort, Roatan, Honduras Bay Islands. All inclusive 7 day package 24/7 beach diving, 2-tank boat dive trips daily. $850 + tax. There are 3 more rooms available. If you are interested, Tom needs $100 to hold the room and you need to book your airfare. Airfare is approximately $650 right now. Contact Tom Davis for more information.

August 14-15, 2004, Thousand Islands, a $70 deposit is required. The first 10 people to sign up will be on the first boat. Another 10 people will be needed for another boat. The cost is $65/day, American. Deposit is due by November 1. We are starting sign up so far ahead of time because the weekends for next year are filling up quickly. Sleeping arrangements will be made later.

The daybook was $98. The winner was Tom Davis, who was not present; monies will be carried over to next month.

The door prize was a choice of tank banger, wrist slate, and a pretty pin and patch. Rose Maurer won and chose the pin and patch.

For Sale Items – can be found at LaurelDivers.com, and then select “Classified Ads”

If anyone is interested in adding any trips to our list please send all information to Laura@LaurelDivers.com. Thank you!

Mike reported on the Raystown committee.  There were less than 4 people attend the last meeting.  He think's that the committee will still be able to move forward though.  They did vote in a president (Bob Cook).  He's currently trying to develop a website so that everyone can stay updated just by going to the site.  It will also have everyone's contact information on there too.  He will let us know what happens at the next meeting also.