The annual general meeting of the Federation of Underwater Activities of Malta (FUAM) took place at the Diplomat Hotel, Sliema.
Before discussing the points that where on the agenda in this meeting it is worth tracing back the history of the FUAM and the role it has to the local diving community today.
The FUAM was conceived way back in 1979 as an off spring of the then Malta Sub Aqua Club (nowadays Atlam SAC). The Malta Sub Aqua Club was the first diving club to be formed in Malta way back in 1955 and was also one of the founding members of the international federation of underwater activities, the “Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiquesm - CMAS “ in 1958, which makes CMAS one of the oldest international diving organisations world-wide.
With the growing interest in Scuba diving, a number of local sub aqua clubs decided to join forces with Malta SAC for the common interest and safety of the local diving community. This has led to the formation of the FUAM in 1979. Loyal to this principle, FUAM has always worked to promote safe diving principles and to safeguard the interests of the local diving community.
The FUAM also offers and promotes locally the CMAS diving qualifications which is considered one of the most thorough and stringent diving qualifications worldwide. Compared to other dive organisations, which may be more geared towards obtaining quicker diving qualifications, the training philosophy behind CMAS is more based on in depth training and tuition arguably leading to better trained and prepared divers.
In the current day, the FUAM still has a critical role to deliver since it represents the interests not only of some of the principal diving clubs, such as Atlam SAC, Sea Horse diving club, but also diving schools which promote CMAS diving qualifications
To their credit these diving clubs, even though voluntary organisations, have throughout the years, thought sport diving to thousands of Maltese divers and have made sport diving one of the prime sports in Malta.
The annual general meeting was held in a very informal manner and was chaired by the president of the FUAM, Maurizio Micallef.
The FUAM is strongly involved in the campaign to promote Cirkewwa as a Marine Protected Area. The FUAM was among the team set up by Antonio Anastasi which, last November, had a meeting with all major stakeholders to discuss this critical issue.
Mrs Laura Harron, acting on behalf of the pressure group Declare Cirkewwa a Marine Protected Area, gave a brief update on the current status and officially launched the programme to declare Cirkewwa as a Voluntary Marine Protected Area.
A number of initiatives are planned over the coming months which will ultimately lead to better protection and preservation of this area for the benefit of all stakeholders.
The FUAM and its affiliates strongly back this campaign and urge all parties involved and divers in general to follow and help to make this campaign a success.
Also, this meeting marked the launch of the latest CMAS Sport diving instruction manuals and marketing promotional items. In an effort to promote CMAS diving qualifications, this new material makes learning diving principles and techniques more pleasant while maintaining the same high level of preparation expected from this international organisation.
This also marked the launch of the CMAS one star diving instructor video prepared by the experienced 3 star instructors Mr. Nader Bassily, President Atlam SAC and Mr. Louis Debono. Plans are also underway for 2011 to carry out further diving instructor courses and also for the first time to have a Tri mix instructor course carried out here in Malta.
After the presentation of the financial results the new Executive Committee was appointed and will be made up of Maurizio Micallef, who was re-confirmed President, Ivan Tabone, Oreste Gauci, Dorian Law, Tano Role and Edward Sultana.