More on the concept of leaving the agency days behind the CDS

[cerich]

Some people have noticed that I am a proponent of the CDS getting out of the business of issuing c cards. One thing that has been obvious to me is that even after my talks the last couple of years at the conferences there are still some people that don’t understand why, or worse subscribe it to my trying to destroy the CDS. Nothing could be further from the truth. I also do not believe in any way that the instructors from the CDS represent poor quality, in fact I will state that the standards in place by the CDS for their instructor program is in fact much stronger than the standards in place to become a cave instructor from most other agencies.
So why? Why am I so hell bent on pushing this agenda? What exactly do I see the benefits? What structure do I have a vision of?
Right now, intention or not, reality or not, the CDS presents to potential cave students as one of a choice of certifying agencies that are competing for their dollars. To other agencies the CDS presents as a competitor. I may be naïve but it is my honest belief that were there to be a Cave Association that was NOT involved in certification, the greater community upon seeing the focus of that association and supporting the efforts would help to grow the association better. Much like the The Southeastern Cave Conservancy has grown and been successful in the dry caving community.

However, the issues we face in cave diving aren’t just regional. Cave diving will always be a fringe activity attracting dry cavers who don’t want to be limited in their exploration by a little (or a lot) of water, or divers looking for the challenge of the “pinnacle of dive training”, possibly attracted by the designation in the media as cave diving being the most dangerous sport. Regional and tribal groups will remain relatively small and because of this no matter how hard the members work, the collective impact of these groups will remain somewhat limited.

The NSS-CDS was supposed to be different, the NACD was a certification agency, the CDS was not…until a big name instructor got kicked out of the NACD and came to the CDS..out of cave politics the CDS got into the card business…..

Today, more than ever there is no leading organization in the international cave diving community, we have factions, lots and lots of them.
I believe the CDS can be that organization.
So we stop the CDS from issuing cards. What on earth would make it so suddenly special? First the other agencies would no longer see the CDS as a threat, that changes the dynamic is a massive manner.

So lets say instead of dissolving the Training Committee it was to suddenly expand? The top cave instructors worldwide from any agency would be invited to participate in the CDS Training committee. This committee would meet and discuss current standards in cave diving, emerging trends, accident analysis, instructor course standards (I promise you this, if you think all cave instructor programs are equal you would be SADLY mistaken, even among the same agency). Once everything is on the table the committee would then make recommendations that are based on best practices as agreed to by the committee. This committee would be an ongoing concern with an annual report presented at the annual CDS conference.

Because this “best practices” is non-agency aligned and in fact is based upon recommendation by top instructors from a variety of agencies it will carry a significant degree of weight among the cave diving certification agencies, in essence we peer pressure the agencies to raise the bar to best practices or they are exposed as substandard.
Being invited to participate on the new CDS training committee would be a great honor from the most critical and important group to judge you, other cave instructors.
If the board and membership felt that pursuing the Accreditation” process that Brett recommended (and I support) at the conference this past weekend it would be easily implemented out of the report of the Training committee on best practices. These recommended best practices become a set of standards by which Cave Instructors from any agency would be able to voluntarily submit to an evaluation process by appointed evaluation teams of the training committee. Once they complete this program they get to use the CDS Accreditation in their individual marketing efforts, are listed on the CDS web site. This public, transparent system that identifies the very best of cave instructors that voluntarily subscribe to higher professional standards regardless of agency affiliation becomes the new gold standard in cave instruction.

The fly in the ointment as it were on this approach is current CDS instructors. During this process of realignment there would have to a period where they could continue to issue card, just no new instructors registered. The first priority of the Accreditation program would have to be for current CDS instructors. It is worth noting that currently, no CDS instructor can purchase instructional insurance thru the CDS, the MUST be an Instructor from another agency already. It places no new or unrealistic or unfair burden on them to make this change.

I hope this post helps clear up some things, I am always open to discuss this.

Best,

Chris Richardson