A NAUI historical event

At the end of November  the first NAUI Rep seminar was held at the European office of NAUI in the Netherlands. NAUI HQ (USA) and NAUI Europe prepared for the NAUI Reps an intensive three day NAUI REP seminar. The purpose was updating, training , marketing, learning, sharing and this all on top level. Exchange of ideas regarding branding  the NAUI name was also an exiting part of the program.

For this NAUI seminar there were REPs from all over Europe, a total of 19 (incl. 3 NAUI REP business partners) attended the program. The NAUI Europe team was assisted by NAUI HQ (USA), through Jim Bram, Jed Livingstone and Chad Barbey.

Every day started with an all together breakfast at 08:00 hrs.

Day 1

The first day was starting after a warm welcome by Jim Bram and Dick Lucas. There was an update done on same basis as for NAUI CD’s and Examiners who attended the update on the DEMA show a month before. Jed Livingstone explained every change and discussed the board’s election and the changes in standards.

After the lunch Chad Barbey did a workshop regarding selling NAUI and selling diving. It was a dialog where the participants add  there opinions and questions to Chad and the outcome was a great value for all to make NAUI grow more and be stronger and all participants know now how to brand the NAUI name even more and better. At the end of the workshop all NAUI REP’s received a special fleece jacket in the NACAR red colour. The NAUI Just Dive logo on the front and the back to show we are NAUI and we just want to dive in a great future together with NAUI

For the evening there was a special presidents dinner presented by Jim Bram (and special indeed this dinner was). Jim also took  the opportunity with Dick Lucas to proudly present to Alain Sassine his deserved award. Of course many ideas were shared over aal the tables and every body took time to talk with each other and all the “guys” from the NAUI offices.

Day 2

The morning was used to continue with Chad and after the coffee break Jelle Buisman took over. He went over the changes and news from NAUI Europe and presented the new website of NAUI Europe and the furtere developments of the NAUI Europe website. 

Also a new web-based-project was introduced, a project that with the input and contribution of NAUI REP’s and their network can greatly help to brand the NAUI name and also to use this platform to offer to a wider public the NAUI educational programs and courses. Many of the participating NAUI REP’s showed great interest in taking this new upcoming opportunity to strengthen their business in their own area’s.

All REP’s received a special NAUI REP promotional box, Jelle Buisman explained the

purpose of all the different contents of this box.

After the lunch the requalification program for course director (CD) was explained and the preparations were made for a NAUI rescue scenario workshop in the pool. Everybody went in the pool and there was a good rescue training and rescue evaluation training, with all having also lost of fun.

The evening was for the c.e.o. dinner, presented by Dick Lucas. A great dinner with live music and good possibilities to network with all the other REP’s, it realy was a NAUI REP family,  discussing together how to build more relation and corporation in Europe, Middle East and Maldive area’s.

Day 3

The morning was used to discuss the rescue workshop and the digital future of NAUI.  Also there was a NAUI REP platform created to communicate and be a more local information source for all the divers in Europe.

All the NAUI REPs gave a S.W.O.T. analyses for NAUI in their area and explained what they did their part to make NAUI as it is in Europe today. We learned a lot from each other successes and were provided with several good ideas. Also ISO and CE

certification was explained and how all can benefit from NAUI being official certified on all the training levels. Also the future of N.E.D.S. (NAUI Europe Diving Society) was lighted to show that NAUI is preparing for the near future and all the legal

aspects more and more involved especially on non-leadership dive levels..

A lot of pictures were taken and the day ended with Dick Lucas and Jim Bram presenting the NAUI REP NasCar c-cards for the coming two years upon the next NAUI REP seminar which will be held at the end of November 2009.

NAUI Europe wants to thank Jim Bram, Jed Livingstone, Chad Barbey and Dick Lucas for there time and effort they invested in this first historical NAUI REP seminar, and of course also thanks to the participants,  Thomas Tamas (Hungary), Richard Plumes (Belgium) Nicos Nicolaou (Cyprus), Vassilis Michaelides(Cyprus), Mohamed el Sarji (Lebanon), Jirka Slechta (Czechie), Joerg Graul (Germany), Jeno Szabo (Romenia), Alain Sassine (Lebanon), Wieslaw Kantor (Poland), Mika Rautiainen (Finland),  Jan Gehriger (Maldives), Gerhard Haas (Austria), Anil Rupani (Egypt), Vedran Dorusic (Croatia), Jean-Marc Claes (Belgium)

Those NAUI REP’s who could not attend will have this program on later date set with the NAUI Europe training director, Jelle Buisman.