The clubs purpose

[luminary]

I'd like to get everyones idea of what they think the club should be about and what they'd like to get out of it. To me, it's a place to get together and discuss my obsession with a bunch of other fanatics ;). I enjoy being able to discuss different techniques that people are doing, cool DIY hacks that someone tries, the controversial topics that we all see on the forums. To me it's basically a place to share information with other knowledgable reefers. I also really enjoy sharing what I know with those who are new to the hobby and are looking for some guidance.

Even though RO/DI systems are not the most interesting topic to many people, I thoroughly enjoyed Bryans presentation at todays meeting. I'd like to see future meetings with similiar presentations. It doesn't always have to be an "expert" from some company or organization, especially since we've got plenty of people in the club that could speak on a wide range of topics. Someone suggested today about doing a meeting that talked about some of the DIY metal halide options. In addition to speaking about it, it would be cool to actually get parts and assemble one at the meeting. I think those kinds of presentations would be great.

I certainly enjoy the frag trading as well, but I don't really see that as being the clubs main purpose. I don't want to see the meetings turn into nothing but frag trades. I'd hate for it to end up being that everyone shows up just for the trades and completely ignores or doesn't care about anything else we do.

Out of all the posts that I've put up about club issues, I think this is just about the most important. It's important for everyone to get a feel for where each member wants the club to go. This will help the officers (assuming we go that route and elect some) orient the club so that it keeps everyone excited and active. We gotten some great involvement the two meetings and I'd like to keep all those new members interested in returning.

Finally, I'd also like to stress that we should keep the "paperwork" aspects of the club as non-existent as possible (such as strict agendas and that sort of thing). IMO, making things too formal and structured will significantly detract from the enjoyment we all get from the club. Just about everyone (including myself) has said that they prefer the informal, laid back nature of the meetings and I don't think we should change that.

[Jabrams]

Originally posted by luminary

I'd hate for it to end up being that everyone shows up just for the trades and completely ignores or doesn't care about anything else we do.


I dont think it would ever come to that again.


everything that you mentioned sounds great. I really like the hands on DIY idea.

[downdeep]

This is actually something that Brian Greene and I talked about on the way home from this last meeting. There are a few Ideas that I've thought of, and I'd like to see what you guys think about it.
I think the main purpose of the club should be education and helping other people with they're tanks. Its good to sit around with other people and discuss how they are doing things and maybe find some answers to some of the questions we have. But I also think that besides just hanging out with other reefers, the club should have something organized, or something to do each month. When we first started out, there were 5 of us that met for lunch for a couple hours and just talked tanks. with the amount of people being attracted now, thats nearly impossible to do
I think that as meetings become more organized and actually start getting planned more and more in advance, we can plan on doing other things. like frag trades or auctions, used equipment auctions, DIY speeches etc etc. Its nice to have a frag trade like we had, but its not something that can be done every month and it also shouldn't become a place for business owners to come and conduct business from.
What I would propose is to have a frag trade or auction every 3-4 months. That way people have the opportunity to grow out and get new stuff and the club isn't flooded with the same corals monthly. Also, I think that a lot of the frags should be auctioned off instead of traded. Not that there is anything wrong with trading corals, its great. but for the club, its a way for the club to make some money to cover the costs involved. Someone can bring a frag to trade and the club can keep 50% of the money made and the frag owner could make the other 50%. That way both people come out with a little and it helps the club.

Another thing would be the used equipment auction. EVERYONE has some used aquarium stuff sitting around the house or garage. Auction it off at the reef club! Depending on the size and price of the item, the auctions can be set up a few different ways. Either donated to the club, where the club would keep any proceeds off the item. 50/50, which is what I stated about the coral trades. or 25/75. Where the club keeps 25% of the money the owner keeping 75%. This is also something that can be done maybe every three to four months. Just a suggestion.

Another thing I'd like to propose would be a DIY session or speech. where a member of the club can speak to the group about a skimmer or hood or some other item that they built themselves. Brian Green hosted a meeting at his house one month were we made home-made live rock arches. It was a great meeting, and my clowns really like the new arch they have!!!!

We could also do some field trips, Mote Marine, Florida aquarium, etc etc. With the club getting larger, its going to be harder form members to host the events at their homes. It may be a bit cost prohibitive to some or they might not have the space. it might be wise to start looking from some kind of semi-permanent home for the club? what do you guys think?

These are just a few of the ideas i thought about. If anyone would like to comment on any of these, feel free! Let me know what you all think.

Bryan

[gregt]

I agree with both Matt and Bryan for the most part. I do think a little more organization would be beneficial, but I don't want to see things change radically. I have to add here that I had a great time yesterday, and really regret missing so many prior meetings.

I do think we should always have a "speaker" with a "topic" to present for each meeting. As Matt suggests, it doesn't have to be an expert, just someone that takes the time to come up with a good topic and make a short presentation on it. This provides some fodder for questions and discussion the whole group can participate in during the course of the meeting. (Prevents things from becoming stale and gets the entire club involved in one conversation even if for only a few minutes)

Another thing I would have liked to see yesterday is a portion of the meeting devoted to the host describing their tank. The host should get some time to go into as little or much detail about their system as they want, preferably at least providing basics like the age, size, basic equipment, etc.

I would also like to see the "trade" section get more organized into an auction, or something a little more controlled. I think it's appropriate that the club get a portion of the proceeds (Personally, I thing 50% is a bit steep, I was thinking more like 10% to 25%). My feeling is that only doing "auctions" a few times a year will attract the people interested only in auctions to those meetings, and those meetings WILL become nothing but a frag trade. I'd rather see people bring frags when they have them and leave it at that.

[mustangsv0]

even if the club goes ahead and says they have a frag trade in so many months, i think people will still be trading regardless. and i think if the club starts doing an auction it will be a lot of fun. that's one of my favorite parts of the orlando club. it's just a good time, at least for me.

victor.

[downdeep]

I agree with Greg about devoting some time to the host to speak about their tanks. I think thats a great Idea.

As far as the auction goes, I was just throwing 50% out there as example. Maybe we can set it up so that the person that brought or donated the frag can decide what percentage he wants back. I'm sure there will be some people that will donate frags so that the club will recieve 100% of it, and others that may only want to give the club a small portion.
I wasn't saying in my original post that we should get rid of trades all together. But its much harder to organize trades through the club.

[bgdiving]

I would like to see some type of a program at the meetings. It would not have to be by an outside speakers, a lot of people in the club have a LOT of information I would like to hear about. they could vary form 10 minute talks to full formal presentations and/or demonstrations, or tours of someones faclity. Add in a guest speaker or 2 and we have more than enough programs for the next couple of years.

I'd like to see an organized auction at each member hosted meeting (but not at the field trip type meetings) Where the club would recieve 25% of the winnning bid and the member would recieve 75%. It would be nice to see some active biddding on some items. I know there are corals out there that I'd be happy to bid $40.00 for and it would be great to pick up a few interesting frags for $4 or $5 Also think there should be an option to set a minium bid to encourage people to bring in some really nice pieces so they don't just end up giving a way a 12 inch acro colony of the "Purple Monster" for $5.00 just because I'm the only one interested in bidding on the "Purple Monster" We could also have a couple autions each year dedicated to non coral items like used equipment, ect.

Having a raffle at each meeting would also be nice.

I'm in favor of a reasonable club dues. I'm open to suggestion but would think somewhere bewtween $15 to $25 per year

I would like to see us avoid the stuffy formallities that many clubs get bogged down in, and where the business of being a club becomes the major part of most meetings.

We should elect a few officers and start functioning as an organized club and probably sooner rather than later apply for official non profit status.

I like to meet at peoples homes I love to see what other people are doing with their systems. Having said that I think we need to try very hard NOT to have people feel obligated to host a meeting. I belong to some organizations where I would feel very uncomfortable if I felt obligated to host one of their meetings. I have the room and am willing to host up to 3 of the Reef club meetings a year. I'm Planning on hosting the November meeting.

[Passionfish]

Agreed, agreed, agreed. I think the way the Saturday meeting went was excellent. We had the talk, followed by food and hanging out, followed by frags. I would have like to see the last more formalized as an auction or whatever, so that everyone can see each piece and not have to run around like Macy's bargain basement. I think the idea of a minimum bid and a percentage(say 10 or 20%) to the club sounds good. Regan and I would be happy to host 3 or so times a year too.

[in2deep]

If every reef meeting could be as good as the last one it would be great: wonderful hosts and beautiful tanks, super food (compliments to the chef), nice talk by Bryan with stuff you gotta know about water , lots of good deals on frags,...
It seems like the group needs to decide if it wants to grow its membership and become an "official club" which means probably larger groups of people or if its to stay a smaller group with more intimate meetings and less structure. At this point it seems that there is a real chance of growing into a full-blown group if that's the goal. But if the group get's too big though it would mean that it would be hard to hold meetings at most of the members homes due to obvious reasons and that is why most people come to begin with. Of course field trips to aquariums, etc. are nice also and a larger group could also hold meetings at a hall or similar venue as do most clubs that outgrow smaller quarters. The powers that be have to decide their goals.
As far as frag trading goes, it seems to be a big draw to the meeting and everybody sure got excited when the lids came off the coolers-like kids in a candy store. The professional frag guys really were nice to have also since there were substantial discounts given to all and some frags for 5 bucks each and freebies mixed in too.. Plus no shipping or unneccesary hardship for the animals. Of course it should not turn into a business sort of thing either but lots of people took advantage of the Club discounts.
Just hope i can get to a few more of the meetings.
Good reefing, Mike.

[rjung1]

I got to pretty much agree with Mike (who I might have met but unfortunately don't remember!) Last saturday was my first meeting and I thought it was fabulous for much the same reasons. I have not been in the hobby that long, but it was really great just to find some people with the same interest just to talk to and learn from. And I have so many questions. My wife can't stand it!! She does not want to hear about coral or fish no more. Anyway, from reading this board it does seem that there is some soul searching going on and far be it from me to opine too much at this point especially since some people here have been involved for some time and have history with the club. For my part I am thankful for the welcome and openness I received and enjoyed the "structure" of the meeting very much. There was good food and drink, good technical discussion and of course the wonderful opportunity to trade and buy some frags at really great prices; and its not just the prices but the opportunity to obtain some specimens that just are not readily available. I will definately attend and look forward to future meetings. Many ideas here sound great and I hope I can contribute in various way to a vibrant club!

Thanks, Robin. (p.s. I was the balding guy with a green T-shirt with a shark on it......which I have to wear because I am a government attorney in my spare time when I'm not busy with reefing) :smokin:

[swhedbee]

What do people think about name tags? Regular membership could give you a better tag than "Hello my name is...."

Club purpose is really a mission statement, something like

1) Provide a meeting place for reef aquarium hobbyists.
2) Promote captive propogated animals.
3) Monitor and preserve Florida reefs from environmental damage.
4) Research new techniques in reef keeping.
5) Educate hobbyists.

The end product of this thread should go on our web page. Speaking of web page... ;)

-Sam

[Passionfish]

I think Sam is absolutely right on.

[luminary]

Originally posted by swhedbee
What do people think about name tags? Regular membership could give you a better tag than "Hello my name is...."Yes! I'll bring some next meeting.

Originally posted by swhedbee
1) Provide a meeting place for reef aquarium hobbyists.
2) Promote captive propogated animals.
3) Monitor and preserve Florida reefs from environmental damage.
4) Research new techniques in reef keeping.
5) Educate hobbyists.

I like everything in that list, but I would really like to see us do more with #3.

I certainly think everyone is in agreement that we would like the meeting to continue in the vein that the last two have done. We should begin coming up with a list of "programs" that we would like to have at meetings and then get some people to volunteer or organize them. Some topics that I and others have talked about in the past:


DIY Hardward (Calc reactors, skimmers, etc)
Lighting
Specialty Species
Coral/Fish Propagation



Originally posted by swhedbee Speaking of web page... ;)
-Sam [/B]
Sounds like we have a volunteer ;) :D