Maintaining a Club

Starting a club is one thing, maintaining a club is a whole different battle. The biggest enemy of the typical college club or organization, is the high turn-over rate of the club's membership. Everything that a club does can be learned and accomplished by one person just in time for them to graduate, then it's time for the next student to start learning. For some clubs, this is alright and the consequences are not too severe, however, skydiving is a very serious sport with very serious equipment regulations. In order to assist groups that have to turn over their leadership every year or so, I have developed some Excel files that may help. Please check the tabs below for files that may help your club avoid losing track of gear and maintenance deadlines.

Please remember that the Reserve Card contained within each Rig is the absolute guideline to go by. These sheets are only meant to assist in book-keeping and are not meant to replace the Reserve Card.

Inherent in skydiving is the equipment maintenance that must occur per USPA and FAA regulation. We are all familiar with these rules and when it comes to our own gear, it's not too much of a hassle. However, when you take over a club that has had gear for several years before you got to school, you start to wonder where it's been and how it's been cared for. Here are a couple Excel files that might help you log that info, so that when you pass it on, there can be a little more peace of mind.

The first file logs everything about the equipment including serial numbers and model numbers. It also logs reserve pack dates and gives you a 2 week warning for when the next repack is due. Along with this short term info that is helpful, it also logs the date of manufacture for each piece of equipment which is very valuable when it comes time to ask the school for more funding.

To use these sheets, right click and "save target as" on each link. I have left the Georgia Tech information in there as an example so you can replace it with your own. IMPORTANT: I have linked the cells from the first sheet to the consecutive sheets so you only have to update the first one. If a sheet is protected and you cannot change the values, go to the first sheet and try changing the values there, then see if they follow.

• Equipment Logging for Canopies, Containers, and Reserve Repacks!
• AAD Maintenance Logging for Airtec, Cypres1 and Cypres2!

One of the least fun items on the menu of starting and maintaining a club is keeping up with the constitution. On the positive side of things, one of the best ways to come up with a working constitution is to use that of another club. In order to help assist clubs, I am posting the Georgia Tech Sport Parachute Club Constitution. Please be thorough in reading it and changing everything necessary in order to use it for your club.

• Georgia Tech Sport Parachute Club Example Constitution

The next important item on the list is a Waiver that each club member should sign. I will provide an example waiver, but please remember that THIS WAIVER CARRIES NO LEGAL WEIGHT UNTIL YOU HAVE IT CHECKED AND APPROVED BY A LAWYER!!! This is only a recommendation and Georgia Tech does not assume any legal responsibility over this waiver!!!

• Suggested Club Liability Waiver

Along with the laws of equipment maintenance, there is Murphy's Law of; If you stop keeping up with it, no one else is going to keep up with it after you! Since there are not many people that like to do the whole computer code and keeping up with a website thing, you should consider using a content management system such as Joomla! This CMS (content management system) allows you to set up a template for a website and gives you a login to a page where you can update the site. You don't have to know any computer code for this, you just type what you want and hit save and Joomla updates the site for you.

After having built websites for many organizations and companies over the past several years, I've been able to fine tune the set up process and to make creating and editing websites far easier than it ever used to be. I keep track of the updates to software for you and, if you're a college club, I'll even make the updates for you. If you would like to purchase server space, a url, and set up an email system, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call me at 404-272-1214. I do offer BIG discounts for collegiate skydiving clubs, so please do contact me first.

In addition to making updates easy for officers, I can also offer photo gallery solutions for every one of your club members. Pictures are always a great way to keep people coming back and checking your site!