TidyHQ Heroes: Newcastle University Diving and Exploration Society
The Newcastle University Diving and Exploration Society NUDES is the University of Newcastle’s Scuba diving and snorkelling club providing a gateway for students, staff and friends of the university to visit the other 70% of the world — under the sea 🐠
We spoke with the President of NUDES to find out what they do and how they use TidyHQ!
Who are you?
Newcastle University Diving and Exploration Society or NUDES
What do you do?
NUDES makes scuba diving, a traditionally expensive sport, significantly cheaper and more accessible to even the most broke uni student. Members have access to free weekly hire of one of 20 sets of SCUBA gear. Besides that, university can be tough, and we all need something to destress — what better way to do that than to fully take advantage of this beautiful piece of coast we are living and studying in? NUDES members congregate on most weekends to see the turtles and dolphins at Nelson Bay, the octopus, cuttlefish and countless fish at Swansea, the Grey Nurse Sharks at Seal Rocks, or even the Seals at Jervis Bay. NUDES also run major events throughout the year including regular trips to sites such as Seal Rocks, Nelson Bay, South West Rocks and even the Great Barrier Reef and Vanuatu.
Where are you located?
Our club is located in Newcastle, New South Wales in Australia and we have a store that is open Tuesdays and Fridays where members can come and obtain their gear.
What is your local community like?
Our members are mainly staff and students from the University of Newcastle however we do have members from outside the University. There are people of all ages and it is a great place to meet dive buddies. We host a pub crawl and a trivia night at the beginning of the year to raise funds for the neonatal intensive care unit in the John Hunter Hospital here in Newcastle. This year we raised in total $5774 .We also host occasional social nights are held where we will go to a movie and dinner. This year we have 260 members including international students who attend the University 🤗
What brought you to TidyHQ and how have you found it?
Initially, we were managing a manual membership list using Excel. We then moved to an online membership events system on Wordpress, but it was too complex and difficult to use 😖.
We searched for a solution that would allow us to easily and securely handle our membership database, as well as handle planning and payments for events. We found TidyHQ, realised it did all that, and more (finances, communications, etc). 😚👍
It was a perfect fit, as it’s easy to use, and specifically built for clubs like us.
Do you have any words of wisdom for other groups?
Utilising all the different functions in one place has made club administration so much easier for us. Using the TidyHQ platform ensures that our club runs so much smoother. It is a great time saver and we are so happy we found TidyHQ!
