Call to Order: Donna Reese executed a fine conch blow to bring the meeting to order.

Treasurer's Report: Ron Peterson
Income for the month of July: $632.00.
Expenses:$850.44
Net: -$218.44
Checkbook Balance: $3,307.14
Trip Accrual: $1,300.00
Checkbook Balance Available: $2,007.14

Unfinished Business:
Donna Reese, Jim & Lori Kerr, Ron Peterson and Bert Sharbaugh are the new officers for the upcoming club year.

*Special thanks to John Augustine for his service to the club as President for the past two years. We appreciate your service to the club, John!!! The Laurel Divers presented a Laurel Dive Club polo shirt to John in appreciation.

The new officer roster still has two vacancies on the Board. Bob Hand has agreed to fill one position until the December elections.

No new member applications have been made in the last month.

MTO tickets are available for four dollars each. Please see Jim or Lori Kerr to purchase the tickets.

Dues are due and payable by July 1st. Any unpaid outstanding memberships remaining in August will be dropped from the Dive Club roster.

New Business:
A volunteer group is needed for the annual audit. Since our former treasurer is busy with her impending marriage, a few unnamed volunteers will review the budget for the upcoming year.

Upcoming Events:
Joe Gordon is hosting a day trip to Tulic Dam in Indiana. Please contact Joe if you are interested.

John Augustine is leading the trip to the Thousand Islands, Canada, on August 11th-13th. Please stay after the general meeting if you have signed up to go. Details of the trip will be discussed at that time. The trip is currnently sold out.

The Friday night dive will take place on August 24th.

The Raystown picnic will be held on September 9th. A $20.00 donation is requested to defray the cost of the boat. Please let Donna Reese know one week ahead of time.

Key Largo, Florida January 27-29th. John Augustine is heading the trip to Key Largo. The costs of the rooms are $99.00 for a single, the twin is 10% off the single price and an apartment is $149.00. John requests a fifty percent deposit two months in advance of the trip date.

Trip Reports:
Treasure Dive: Joe Gordon gavea very special thanks to Mike Miller for;
donation of the tent for the event,
his very generous gift certificate,
special rates for the prizes,
air fills for all the Treasure divers.

Thanks to John & Joy Augustine for taking care of the Treasure Dive T-Shirts. We loved them!

Thanks to Dan & Diane Turkovsky for bringing the grill.

Thanks to all the oficers who put the time and effort into arranging the prizes and overseeing the day's activities.

The Conch Blow-off winner was Everett Newkirk.

Thirteen people attended the Saturday night "tent erection".

List of "Major" prizes;
Regulator:Bud Collier
Tank:Joy Augustine
$150.00 gift certificate:Kim Reese
Reel: Bert Sharbaugh
Dive Mask:Ron Peterson
Dive Mask: Donna Sabol

All other participants won an air fill from Mike's Scuba shop, and a T-shirt.

Boston-Great American Fish Count/Lobsterpalooza:
Ron, Lois, Donna & Kim dove Pebble Beach, Boston. The dive was 25-30 feet. They saw many fish and lots of lobster, but none to eat! :-) The second day, they dove at Plum Cove, where they had a world record fish count. One-hundred and three divers counted the fish and lobsters. They did not catch any legal lobsters. The visibility was at twenty feet with a fifty eight degree dive temperature.
 

New Business:
Donna proposed a trip to Dutch Springs over Labor Day weekend. Tripsters plan to go for overnight. Please contact Donna Reese if interested.

Bob Hand won the door prize which was an all purpose line cutter.

The day book balance of $347.00 was won by Donna George, who was not present. The day book amount carries over to the next meeting.

The next Board Meeting will be held at Ron & Lois's on Wednesday, August 29th at 7:30 p.m.

The next Club Meeting with be on Thursday, September 6th at Penn Gables Restaurant.

Anyone interested in going into the caves at the quarry, please call or
e-mail Bert Sharbaugh at 472-7080 or diveteach@peoplepc.com.

Diving the Quarry and Beyond

Mark Hooper was a relatively new diver at the time, and he just bought a
new tin of silicone grease. Of course he wanted to protect his gear from wear
and tear, which included greasing up his fin straps. He had the old fold-over
locking type, at the time, which of course wouldn’t lock with the grease on
them. It took about a ½ hour, till we rubbed and scrubbed with towels and
sand to get enough of the grease off, so that the locks would work properly.

    Finally we got into the water on a night dive and we were having a very
good relaxing dive. I was lucky, and found a very large bass sleeping between
some rocks. I slowly and carefully slid my hand underneath it and picked it
up to show Mark. He nodded and I slowly put it back into place. So Mark had to
try to do this to. He slowly picked up the bass and was looking at it about 6
inches from his face, when the bass decided to wake up. It shot straight
forward, and right into Mark’s face so hard it knocked his mask right off his
face. I was laughing so hard that I flooded my own mask, and couldn’t help
Mark with his own problem. We came to the surface, laughed some more returned
to the bottom, and finished the dive without incident.
 

Submitted:
Bert Sharbaugh