Meetings and Publicity

Regularly scheduled meetings are the general meeting and the planning meeting. Other meetings, generally held by sub-groups to address specific topics, are scheduled as needed.

Times and Places

The general meeting and the planning meeting are held monthly, currently the second Tuesday, and first Wednesday of each month, respectively. The general meeting is held at ERM Building 509 and the planning meeting is held at Lindbergers, a local restaurant in Lake Worth. Both meetings are from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Times and places may be changed temporarily or permanently with advance notice provided to Team members.

Dive Schedule/Scheduling:

The Dive Coordinator, with assistance from the Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator, will schedule dives with the boat Captain(s) at least 6 months in advance. The dive schedule shall be published in the team newsletter and on the team website, and shall be updated as soon as changes are known.

Agenda:

The general meeting is a forum for the dissemination of information among Team members and an introduction to Team activities for visitors. The basic agenda for the general meeting is as follows:

• On-Going Training:
• Fish Identification Session -- training in fish identification techniques
• Training Session -- brief review of a specific area of research diving
• Introduction of Visitors
• Guest Speaker -- a presentation on some topic of interest to Team members
• Break and Visitor Briefing -- During the break visitors are invited to a short session with an experienced Team member who explains the functions and goals of the Team and answers questions.
• Business Session:
• Announcement of upcoming dives and/or events,
• discussion of projects
,
• and presentation of subjects of interest to Team members

The planning meetings are held to plan and organize Team activities. While they are generally conducted by members of the executive committee, they are open to all members.

Speaker Coordination

All Team members are encouraged to pursue potential speakers for the general meeting. Potential speakers may be contacted by any Team member or forwarded to the Team Coordinator for scheduling. The speaker information is forwarded to the Publicity Coordinator for announcement in the public forum.

Publicity:

Publicity is a necessary tool to promote recruitment of new members and to inform the public at-large of Team activities. Team meetings (especially speakers and the topics of their presentations) and special events are forwarded through the Team Coordinator to the Publicity Coordinator, with as much advance notice as possible, for announcement in several local and dive-related publications

Newsletter:

The newsletter is a monthly publication of the Team, which is e-mailed or available at the meetings for Team members and published on the Team webpage web site. The newsletter is published following the planning meeting and preceding the general meeting. All Team members are encouraged to contribute to the newsletter. The newsletter contains current information on all Team activities.

Web Site:

The web site gives the public a view into our activities, as well as a source of training and reference for the team itself. The web site contains current information on all Team activities. It lists dive schedules, reports of the dives, minutes of the meetings, and announcements of general interest.