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NAUI is one of the oldest dive training organizations and one of the few that retains its original structure and many of the teaching methods from its storied past (hang around with long time NAUI guys and you will not believe the stories!). This is both a strength and a weakness. This is a not-for-profit organization where every active instructor is a voting member and can participate on the decisions about how the organization will behave in the future. It has without a doubt, the most in-depth student material if one views the sequence from Open Water through Master diver. This reflects the thinking of instructors within NAUI that students must have a very solid foundation of theory as well as diving skill. Whereas SSI and PADI want to minimize the theory to just the bare bones needed for a student to perform the skills of a particular level, NAUI wants its students really understand the "Why" of each of its directives and (in theory at least) be able to think out solutions to problems. NAUI requires Open Water students to be far more proficient than any other agency. Examples of required skills include: 1) breath hold swim underwater for 50 feet without push off, 2) swim 450 yards (vs. 300 yards for other agencies) non-stop breathing from a snorkel, 3) retrieve a diver simulating unconsciousness to the surface from 10 feet in a controlled manner and 4) plan and conduct a dive between 40 and 60 feet including gas planning for each stage of dive. Finally, NAUI believes that Instructors should be true masters of the material and have demonstrably excellent water and diving skills (e.g. The NAUI instructor examination is in two parts totaling 350 questions). Business Model This not for profit organization generates revenue from the standard agency sources (materials sales, certification card sales, logo item sales) but also from the production of industry conferences. Of the agencies, NAUI seems to have the least directed development of retailer relationships. It does have regional representatives, but from first hand experience, the focus of these individuals is the certification of Instructors and the investigation of reported Instructor errors. Overhead at the headquarters function is kept to a minimum and the so-called leadership structure at headquarters is an administrative function, not a policy and directional development one. The organization solicits input from the Instructional staff (members in NAUI parlance) on new offerings, thus direct research and development expenditures are low. The NAUI name is very effective in attracting recognized industry leaders to it board of directors, and this in turn, allows the organization to put forth very credible names when they choose to sponsor a conference. Again, an efficient use of funds and a good revenue source. Because of the voting structure, the organization is very slow to make changes because the majority must vote to change and implicitly, require the members to learn something new. Once they do decide to change, however, they have majority buy-in to the idea and can rapidly assemble an impressive array of resources for the new subject. The organization is currently considering the creation of a separate, for profit, educational materials development organization because they have been approached about creating training courses and certifications for other "adventure sports" where poorly trained participants can cause problems for many people (e.g. hiking). This would generate incremental revenue to help fund investment in educational development infrastructure, which would benefit NAUI without compromising the not-for-profit status of the current organization. Class sales are handled by the individual Instructors. Some of these are affiliated with retailers who promote the NAUI name. Others are affiliated with colleges. As a not-for-profit entity, NAUI is an easy organization for a college to use. Risk Management NAUI seems to have a good record as far as claims against its instructors. Part of this may be due to self selection on the part of students. Recognizing that the NAUI course is more demanding than other agencies, perhaps students with marginal skills opt out of NAUI and go to one of the easier agencies. Regardless, the students completing the NAUI courses seem to be well skilled and have less accidents. Structurally, the NAUI approach of having instructors reports others when errors are detected is as weak as the one used by PADI. However, because of the more rigorous requirements of NAUI, if an instructor was cutting corners significantly, it would seem the word would be out fairly quickly. As stated earlier, the Instructor liability insurance for NAUI is of relatively low cost. In fact, the same broker handles SSI and NAUI. Commentary Comparatively speaking, carrying a NAUI certification is more difficult than any other, be it diver or Instructor. Because of that, NAUI flies in the face of the current "anyone can dive" message so successfully trumpeted by PADI. Further, it means that the effort to sell a new student on PADI will be greater than other agencies. Overall, new diver promotion and selling is the weakness of the industry in general, so adding to the effort will only limit the number of students choosing this route. Finally, NAUI is not-for-profit, thus no one on its staff has a financial incentive to aggressively support those retailers who choose to feature NAUI as their main agency. |
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