interested in joining

[dually13]

Hello all I have been looking for a reef club for a long time just want to know when is a good time to check it out? Are you a close group. What Kind of stuff goes on at your meetings. I am looking for sources for tank raised coral to buy and eventualy trade, just curious. How much does it cost and when is a good time to meet the group.

Looking forward to meeting some fellow fish and reef people.

[jbash]

Meeting and membership info are on the web site, http://www.cmas.net

Note that the meeting info, supporting dealers and membership are probably the only up to date parts as we've had trouble keeping a webmaster and those are the parts Marty (my spouse) and I have kept up in the interim. (For some reason we've had 4-5 folks over the last couple years who were going to do the web site but haven't been able to:-)

You'll find that our next meeting is a talk from "the Puffer Queen", a women from Kentucky who is the acknowledged puffer expert in the hobby (there is a bio of her and more detail on her talk in the April newsletter that will be available for download on the site in the next day or so). Other meetings this year included a talk by Eric Borneman, a "how to" on building your own calcium reactor, a behind the scenes tour of the Shedd's new reef exhibit, a hands-on fragging demo, field trip to Harbor Aquatics and our annual swap meet. The swap meet is the only time you are assured of people bringing frags but many of us have things to trade and just quit bringing them when you don't know who else will be there (a proposal was made to have a part of the web site be lists of corals that each member would be willing to trade but this hasn't been implemented).

Meetings are the third Saturday of each month at 1pm at the Schaumburg Public Library (directions on web site) unless a field trip or other special event. We meet Sep through May with the summer off (except always a picnic and generally a "tank tour" or two--like an open house of a member's tank(s)). With the exception of the swap meet there is always a time for new members to introduce themselves and ask questions or other members can mention something they want help with (they may get an answer then or someone may come up after the meeting).

Club has about 150 members but meetings typically 25-40 folks depending on topic. Does this answer some of your questions?

Feel free to ask me more, I'm the membership chairman:-) At this point I'm off to help Marty (newsletter editor) fold and stamp newsletters for the members who don't download the PDF file (we have some members much more interested in reefs than these newfangled computers:-)

Oh, and dues are $15 a year and get you discounts at a bunch of local fish stores (listed on web site). Of course the club is all volunteer so it gets better if you get involved!

Jim B