The folks at RAID International have announced they are removing all membership fees permanently for recreational and professional divers in what is a first for the diving industry.
The new “Zero FEe-Membership” applies to all its professional members and dive centers.
The industry norm is to charge instructors and dive centers an annual fee to do business with them, but according to RAID:
“At a time when the diving world is still reeling from the ravages of COVID and its impact on the adventure travel industry, the benefit of not charging a fee to teach for the agency, is obvious and far-reaching.
“The power of zero membership is a paradigm shift and shows you are appreciated for being a diving professional and supporting this agency.”
RAID says membership has become a major hurdle to new instructors entering the market and existing instructors remaining in active status and solvent:
“By having no membership fee at RAID, we have future-proofed the agency as this initiative does not only work for the pandemic but also for many other global economic issues. . . .
“Many agencies talk about business support, but we feel that some form of financial support is what is needed to help our members to succeed.”
RAID does note, however, that:
“To maintain active status in 2023, RAID instructors will be required to certify five (5) divers during 2022. Should this not be achieved, instructors will be required to do an online update which will detail all the changes at RAID during the past year.”
For more info and additional details, go to diveraid.com.
