Fellow NACD Members,

For more than 20 years, I have served the NACD membership in nearly every major leadership role, including Membership Chair, Regular Director, Vice President, President, and now Training Director. That experience has given me a comprehensive understanding of our organization, our members, and the challenges and opportunities facing the NACD. Combined with my professional background in military leadership, training, risk management, and developing people, it has prepared me to help lead the NACD into its next chapter.

I am seeking your support and your vote for the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD) Board of Directors because I believe the NACD must continue to evolve while preserving the principles that have made it strong. My record demonstrates that positive, practical change is possible: I have helped update certification cards, bylaws, student manuals, training standards, and courses; added programs such as Cave Rebreather, Trimix, and Cave Recovery; improve public-safety diving cooperation; expand access to organizational data; and begin restoring the NACD Journal.

I am running because I believe the NACD needs experienced leadership committed to serving its members, strengthening diver and instructor education, improving communication and transparency, supporting conservation, and preparing the organization for the future. I am not seeking a title; I am seeking the opportunity to continue contributing my experience, accountability, and commitment to building a safer, more effective, and more relevant NACD for the next generation of cave divers.

My professional career has been built around leadership, training, risk management, accountability, and developing people. After a long career in military service, including leadership responsibilities and service as a commissioned officer, I have continued that commitment through professional instruction and leadership within the diving community.

As the International Training Director for the National Association for Cave Diving, I have had the opportunity to work with divers and instructors and to see firsthand both the strengths of our community and the challenges facing cave diving today. I have personally made dives into cave systems and understand that cave diving is not simply another form of recreational diving. It demands discipline, preparation, knowledge, equipment proficiency, teamwork, and the ability to make sound decisions when circumstances change.

If elected to the Board of Directors, I would continue to focus on several areas.

1. Strengthening Diver and Instructor Development

Our greatest asset is our people.

I believe the NACD should continue developing training programs that produce competent, thinking divers rather than simply divers who can complete a checklist. Training should emphasize decision-making, situational awareness, gas management, equipment proficiency, emergency procedures, teamwork, and the ability to recognize changing conditions before they become emergencies.

We must also invest in our instructors. Strong instructors create strong divers, and strong divers create a stronger cave-diving community.

To accomplish this, some changes will be necessary. We should regularly review our training materials, standards, evaluation methods, and instructor-development processes to ensure they reflect current knowledge, equipment, environmental conditions, and real-world experience. Change should be deliberate and evidence-based, but it should not be avoided simply because “this is how it has always been done.”

My record demonstrates that I am prepared to do this work. Updating standards, revising manuals, modernizing courses, and adding programs such as Cave Rebreather, Trimix, and Cave Recovery are examples of how the NACD can evolve while maintaining its core principles.

2. Preserving the NACD’s Training Philosophy While Embracing Necessary Change

The NACD has a proud history and a distinct identity within the cave-diving community. As we look toward the future, modernization should never come at the expense of sound fundamentals.

However, preserving our philosophy does not mean allowing our programs, policies, or methods to become stagnant. The NACD must be willing to examine what is working, identify what is no longer effective, and make changes when those changes will better serve our members and improve diver safety.

Technology continues to change the way we dive. Rebreathers, advanced computers, new lighting systems, sidemount configurations, and other equipment provide capabilities that previous generations did not have. However, technology does not replace knowledge, judgment, discipline, or experience.

I believe the NACD should embrace innovation while remaining firmly grounded in proven cave-diving principles. We must be willing to adapt our educational resources, communication methods, and organizational practices so the NACD remains accessible, responsive, and relevant to today’s divers.

3. Promoting Safety Through Experience and Lessons Learned

Every incident has something to teach us.

One of my priorities would be encouraging a stronger culture of lessons learned within the NACD. Divers should be able to learn from incidents, near misses, equipment failures, environmental changes, and human factors without fear of unnecessary criticism.

We should ask:

• What happened?
• Why did it happen?
• What could have prevented it?
• What can other divers learn from it?
• How can we incorporate that lesson into training?

A mature diving organization does not hide from mistakes. It learns from them.

That learning must lead to action. When evidence shows that a standard, procedure, training method, or communication process needs improvement, we must be willing to make the necessary changes. Safety is not protected by defending outdated practices; it is protected by continually evaluating and improving them.

My work coordinating and developing public-safety diving techniques with law-enforcement agencies reflects this same commitment to practical, cooperative, and experience-based safety improvement.

4. Supporting Cave Conservation

Cave diving gives us access to some of the most extraordinary and environmentally sensitive areas on Earth. With that access comes responsibility.

Our caves are not simply places for exploration. They are part of larger groundwater systems and ecosystems that affect communities far beyond the cave entrance.

As divers, we have a unique opportunity to serve as stewards, observers, educators, and advocates for these environments.

The NACD should continue strengthening its role in conservation and educating divers about the connection between cave systems, groundwater, springs, and the larger environment. As environmental conditions, regulations, and public concerns evolve, the NACD must be prepared to update its conservation efforts and partnerships accordingly.

5. Building the Next Generation of Cave Divers

The future of the NACD depends on attracting and developing the next generation.

We need to make sure that new divers understand not only how to cave dive, but why the discipline, standards, and traditions of cave diving matter.

Mentorship should be an important part of that process.

Experienced divers have a responsibility to pass along knowledge that cannot be learned from a textbook alone. The lessons learned through thousands of dives, difficult conditions, mistakes, successes, and years of experience are part of our collective knowledge—and we should preserve and pass that knowledge forward.

At the same time, we must listen to newer divers. Their perspectives, questions, and experiences can help identify barriers that prevent people from becoming involved or remaining active in the organization. Building the next generation may require changes in how we communicate, engage members, deliver education, and create opportunities for participation.

The return of the NACD Journal would support this goal by providing a consistent platform for sharing knowledge, documenting exploration and research, highlighting member achievements, and connecting divers across the organization.

I believe the NACD has an opportunity to strengthen its position as a leader in cave-diving education, safety, exploration, conservation, and professional development.

That will require listening to our members.

It will require respecting our history while being willing to examine where we can improve.

It will require acknowledging that some changes are not optional. If we want the NACD to remain strong, we must be willing to update outdated processes, improve communication, increase transparency, support instructors, engage members, and respond to the changing needs of the cave-diving community.

My record of service demonstrates that positive change is possible. New certification cards, membership-focused bylaws, updated manuals and standards, modernized courses, new training programs, public-safety partnerships, improved data access, and efforts to restore the NACD Journal all reflect a commitment to building a more effective and member-focused organization.

Change should not be pursued for its own sake. It should be guided by our mission, informed by experience, and focused on safety, education, conservation, and service to our members.

And it will require leadership willing to make decisions based upon what is best for the NACD and the cave-diving community, rather than individual interests.

I am not running for the Board simply to hold a title.

I am running because I believe I can contribute—and because I believe the NACD must continue to evolve.

I bring more than 20 years of service to the NACD membership, experience in nearly every major leadership role within the organization, decades of professional leadership experience, a background in training and instruction, experience managing risk and developing people, and a demonstrated record of implementing positive organizational change. Most importantly, I bring a genuine desire to see the NACD remain strong and relevant for the next generation of cave divers.

I would be honored to have the opportunity to serve you again on the NACD Board of Directors.

I ask for your vote, your trust, and your support.

Together, we can protect the traditions that made the NACD strong while making the changes necessary to build an organization prepared for the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Respectfully,

Ricki L. Murcar, CD1, Capt. (Retired)
International Training Director
National Association for Cave Diving

Lead. Follow. Or Step Aside.