President's Slate
March  2023

“In like a lion, out like a lamb?”  Let’s hope so.  March is roaring in this week, at least out here in California and in many parts of the country.  I’m sure the weather will calm down soon and diving conditions will become safer and more conducive to getting research and training dives done.  Reasonably sure anyways.

Looking ahead to next month there is just one thing on my mind, our annual Diving for Science Symposium, hosted by the University of West Florida in Pensacola.  You should join us.  We have some great workshops available this year, including new ones added just this week, and some unique diving opportunities.  Based on current registrations it looks like this year’s meeting will be a popular one, so much so that we may run out of space.  If you plan to attend but haven’t registered yet, please do so soon, and book your housing as well.

After the preliminaries we will hold our usual Business and DSO meetings on Thursday, April 27th.  Those meetings will be followed by our Bubble Breaker event, where you will have the opportunity to network with your colleagues and catch up with old friends while supporting the AAUS Foundation and our many scholarships.

Friday the 29th is our Science Symposia.  We have some very interesting papers being presented this year that you won’t want to miss.  Friday’s sessions will close out with a Historical Roundtable with some of our most senior and retired colleagues reminiscing about the early days of AAUS and their careers.  The Roundtable will lead into our annual Awards Banquet where we will recognize our scholarship winners as well as the efforts of the many volunteers that help the Academy each year.

On Saturday, April 29th we have time allotted for “Current topics in Science Diving.”  We may use some of that time to continue discussions from the Business and DSO meetings, or we may use the time to delve deeper into some topics that have been raised in years past, when we did not have enough time to allow for a thorough discussion.  This could be the year!  Some possible topics include; a look at the current state and future plans for AAUS training programs, Diving Control Boards and organizational structures, standardized equipment configurations, science diver requalification policies, and more.  If you have suggestions for other discussion topics, please share them with me and we’ll see how much we can cover.

So it will be a busy week and a great opportunity to meet and greet your colleagues from around the country and around the world.  It looks like we will have many new faces and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible and welcoming you into the fold.  See you in Pensacola!

Dive safe,
Jim Hayward
AAUS President
 

 

 

 

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