Subchapter closing to Skokie/Evanston/North Chicago

[Dag]

I just joined CMAS, but I can't make Saturday meetings and I don't want to drive to Schaumburg. Any chance of organizing a subchapter to meet closer in the Skokie/Evanston/North Chicago area?

[mkirda]

As part of the program committee, one thing I did was work with our membership committee to get the aggregate ZIP code data for all CMAS members, then mapped it.

It seemed to me that there were a lot of Chicago-based members...

Let me just say that the map proved otherwise.

Schaumburg is just about dead smack center for our club's members.

So, moving the meeting into the city, or closer, while benefitting the few in the city, would make the trip overly long for the more numerous suburbanites.

Was a good idea. We were just wrong about the geographical distribution of our club members, and it doesn't make sense.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

[Dag]

I wasn't suggesting that all meetings or even the main meetings be moved to Chicago. Just that there might be an interest in some local meetings, not necessarily targeted at the entire membership.

[kaiyokanman28]

My suggestion would be just do kind of what I'm planning on doing at the end of next month...just hold a little social gathering at your place and have an activity.

I thought having a load of live rock and live sand come in from TBS with all it's life and helping with a brand new reef tank going live was a PERFECT excuse to hold a little gathering at my place and meet the locals. :)

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

[fletch33]

Andy count me in :)

Give me an email for when and where

Fletch

[makoshark]

Originally posted by kaiyokanman28
My suggestion would be just do kind of what I'm planning on doing at the end of next month...just hold a little social gathering at your place and have an activity.

I thought having a load of live rock and live sand come in from TBS with all it's life and helping with a brand new reef tank going live was a PERFECT excuse to hold a little gathering at my place and meet the locals. :)

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

I don't want to hijack this thread but I've met a few folks here on RC that live in the Naperville/Aurora area. I refer to them as the Fox Valley Reefers. I've even thought of starting a subchapter of our own. I'm just not sure I'm up to the extra effort required to do so and if I am I might as well apply it to CMAS.

Andy,

I might be able to make it to your place at the end of August as well.

[kaiyokanman28]

Originally posted by makoshark
I don't want to hijack this thread but I've met a few folks here on RC that live in the Naperville/Aurora area. I refer to them as the Fox Valley Reefers. I've even thought of starting a subchapter of our own. I'm just not sure I'm up to the extra effort required to do so and if I am I might as well apply it to CMAS.

Andy,

I might be able to make it to your place at the end of August as well.

Mako,

That would be GREAT! You're more than welcome over at my place. :)

And as a 'Fox Valley Reefer', or at least will be in a month...:D, I think it's just fine to be CMAS members and have activities for the local Fox Valley Reefers with all CMAS members invited to attend. I'm also a member of the Society for Creative Anachronisms (A mideival social/reenactment society), and we are in the process of forming a new shire in the Fox Valley area...Why do I bring this up? Because it's been a tremendous amount of work and it was formed for reasons beyond geographic location.

I too have seen a few Fox Valley reefers in the area. In order to either form a sub-chapter or a new chapter altogether, you need to create a charter, have officers (At least three), and a stable enough membership to justify the forming of a new group. Not to mention, if we were to try and form a sub-chapter of CMAS, that's even more complicated that would require the 'supervision' and support of the officers and members of CMAS overall. I'm sure they have enough on their plates to oversee a smaller sub-group of themselves. :)

Personally, I really like the idea of just swapping numbers and contact information with local reefers and networking that way. We're all in CMAS, and there's nothing that says we're not allowed to have unofficial gatherings in the area even if it's just to swap a beer or two.

Much less effort and we'd still be getting what we're wanting out of the idea, a group of friends in the area with at least one common interest.

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

[makoshark]

Here Ye, Here Ye! :beer:

[Dag]

Andy, we're not really saying anything different. "subchapter" is just my lingo for informal gatherings. I certainly never imagined officers or a separate organization structure.

[kaiyokanman28]

Ah...okay...*smiles* I read it that way since subchapter just falls in my mind as something formal. :)

Cheers!

Andy :wildone: