OMS Newsletter?

[dfrizz1]

Has anyone considered the idea of having a club newsletter? We could have all the important info like meetings and tank tours. Also we can have local pet/fish stores pay for advertising which would help rasie money for the club. Maybe the stores can offer coupons to OMS members in the newsletter.

I think it would be a lot of fun to have a newsletter. Does anyone else have ideas for putting together a newsletter?

[koikeeper]

I have lot of great ideas. What it comes down to is the fact that I don't think Michael cares. Bluntly and honestly. He did not bring up any of the issues we discussed here at Reef Central at the meeting. Maybe he'll chip in, but I for one was really disappointed.

As members we are saying yes we want to actively support OMS.

I think the updated flyers was a great idea. A club newsletter would also be an awesome idea. You could even keep some extra copies at the lfs. It would be another way to reach potential members before they even had to show up for one meeting.

As for advertising it would not only be good to grab local venders but advertising from aquatic manufacturers. Not too many would say no to a newsletter placed at lfs's where they are reaching people in a city the size of Omaha. If you guys do not have experience with advertising I actually do.

Again, an awesome idea. I hope it actually gets discussed at a meeting.

Koi Keeper

[sschuler]

Someone should head up the newsletter. Any takers on that. I, for one, would volunteer to find advertisers. Do we need Mike Lage to approve anything like this?

[smcwhirt]

What other content would there be? I think it's a good idea but advertising, meeting information and tank tour dates might only take up half a page. We could have articles, but then the question is from who? I would guess most people in the profession would want to be paid for articles. Articles written by hobbyist might work, but from what I've seen people barely want to volunteer for a tank tour let alone to write and article for a newsletter. i certainly think a newsletter would be great but we need to brainstorm for ideas beyond advertising and meeting information.

[dfrizz1]

Originally posted by koikeeper


You could even keep some extra copies at the lfs. It would be another way to reach potential members before they even had to show up for one meeting.
Koi Keeper

The problem I see with this is that you are going to get people trying to pull a fast one. They could say that they are a member to get the discount advertised when in fact they aren't a member. One way to get past this is to have every member have OMS member cards with their names on it...like a library card. Of course this would cost money.

As a start they can just email us the newsletter that way the members can print off the special advertised rates/coupons and use them.

[dfrizz1]

We do have a vice president of our club. Now I have no clue what he is supposed to do or what his duties involve. This sounds like a great canidate for heading the newsletter!

I only thought of the advertising and meeting/tank tour updates because I want to throw out the idea of it first. I have a lot more ideas but I don't want to seem like a take-over. I want to get more members involved. This is one of the changes that need to be done. Mitch said it himself, he's ending his dictatorship and changing it to a democracy.

[dfrizz1]

I agree with smcwhirt that fact that finding professionals to write articles would cost money. Who likes to work for free, huh?

A lot articles can be written by our own members. They can be articles based on their experiences. It's always better to learn off of everyone else's mistakes.

Here's a short example:
"I went to the fish store the other day. Oh boy! There was this really cool damsel, so I bought it! For the next week this was the best looking fish in the tank. Then I noticed my beautiful fish has these weird white spots on its body. OH NO! My fish has ick! DANG IT! I should have quarantiened."

Of course everyone elses would be much more detailed. We could also have our pet store owners write info articles. Of course I would have our appointed leaders proof them.

As for tank tours, I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with having lots of people over. Another reason could be that their tank is not fully set up. For instance my tank is a 110g with live rock and 2 damsels...OOOOH! AAAAH! This is a reason why we could use some more members.

[sschuler]

Not so sure it would matter if someone posed as an OMS member or not. The idea is to get money for the program. If it attracts customers, who cares who they are? If advertisers make money, they will continue to work with us.

[dfrizz1]

For most of the newsletter it wouldn't make a difference if they are a member or not. I'm referring to advertising. If they want the advertised discounts they need to pay for a membership with the club. If we don't have people paying membership fees then we would not have enough money to keep the club going.

[sschuler]

Charging advertisers could only help business. I am not sure I follow you. You appear to be saying that membership will drop because people will stop becoming members because they can get discounts through us. The way I see it, we will get money from the businesses, not count on higher membership due to available discounts.

[dfrizz1]

The whole point of advertising is to raise money for the club and to increase membership. This all comes down to being part of a club and not just getting discounts. If a speaker comes and talks to the "active" 2-3 members they won't be coming back. Meanwhile 100+ non members get good fish deals. It all comes down to being fair. Its not fair that a non-member gets the same benefits as a member who pays for a membership. If it was like that why would I pay to become a member? If no one pays to become a member than theres no club, which means no more discounts.

The people who attend meetings, goto tank tours, and are active should get benefits over someone who is just shopping at the fish store.

It's like Blockbuster's Rewards Program. The people who pay for the yearly membership get additional benefits like free movies. It's one of those things where if you want the deals you have to join the club.

[sschuler]

We could go on like this all day. We are in agreement that we need to increase membership and awareness. Let's see if the powers that be decide to push forward with the newsletter. We may be getting ahead of ourselves

[koikeeper]

Club cards puts a cheap end to that. Very Cheap. In fact I'll donate the materials if our secretary (whoever that is) will print them up.

Advertisers can bring in big money to the club. It is as simple as asking if they would be willing to place an ad in your next newsletter. So Simple that I asked for the advertising division and got a contact when I called in my order to bigals today.

Koi

[davem511]

Hi all, Not to get on a rant here but let's keep in mind that while Mike was officially announced as the new president last Saturday, it was still Mitch's meeting. So by the time Scott was done and all the book ordering was done, there wasn't really much opportunity for Mike to open up a forum of discussion about the Club's future or direction.

"What it comes down to is the fact that I don't think Michael cares."

Not only is that NOT true, that is completely unfair to Mike. He has been very busy trying to book speakers and plan events. I guess what I'm saying is maybe we can stop the "Mike bashing" and give him a chance to do something.

I think the newsletter idea is a good one...as well as the tshirt idea. I also know that Mike has read these threads, and has asked the board to consider them. We just have to give him time to get things rolling. Maybe we need to have a meeting where there is no speaker but just a steering committee type format to let everyone get their ideas out on the table.

my 2 cents

Dave M.
VP OMS

[koikeeper]

This was not a Mike bashing. That was a single sentence with only one individual's opinion. No one else in this thread has said anything remotely negative about Mike, so please do stop stretching that conclusion. My opinion is only my own and just how Mike is coming across to me. All he has to do is make a post that says hey I hear you guys and will take it into consideration.

I had a pretty good impression of him in this post:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=332561

But then nothing came of it.

I did ask Mike before the meeting if he would even bring it up and he did say yes he would try. I did not see him try, which was probably what disappointed me. Now either way that is just me.

Moving forward: good to know who our vp is and that you are reading these as well. I know Mike has read this just because I happened to be in this forum when he was logged into it.

and has asked the board to consider them.

Rather than just asking what the board thinks, it could also be discussed with members in here ;) I think that is the main complaint:

Members want to be very involved and are not being allowed to contribute much of anything yet. So what can we do to help you guys out?

There have been lots of great ideas in here. Discuss them with us.

[johnyfishguy]

It's amazing how someone could "offer their opinion" and it be alright to say. Mike is a dear friend of mine who's life revolves around aquaria. I'm not trying to flame anyone here--just offering "my opinion" for a person who's heart, passion and devotion goes out to this hobby and club; and to a person who will bend over backwards for anyone of the members. When you meet the guy personnally, you'll know what I mean.

-chris

[davem511]

I don't think I was stretching any conclusion. You voiced an uninformed and unfair "opinion" and I called it like I see it. My point, which you obviously missed, was that negativity like that "opinion" or not, is not going to help anyone. Give Mike a chance to get rolling and I think you will see that he loves this hobby and this club more than anyone I know. He is also a very fair person.

"Members want to be very involved and are not being allowed to contribute much of anything yet." Again, he just had the club turned over to him Saturday. Not exactly sure what you expect from him in that time.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any further questions or if you feel the need to discuss this further.

Thanks,
Dave

[smcwhirt]

Maybe everyone should take a deep breath and step away from the keyboard. Koikeeper expressed an opinion and has some concerns about the marine society. Whether you think her opinion is valid or not I don't believe it's fair to start flaming her. Rather take it as I believe she intended it, constructive criticism. She wants to improve the marine society as I believe all of us here do. I think there is a level of frustration with where the marine society is at. You come on here reading about all the activities that other clubs do and ours does seem to fail in comparison. That's not a knock on anybody, it's just the way it is. The announcement was made in December that Mike would be taking over as club president, so I would think in that time he's probably come up with some ideas. So I do hope in the near future he communicates those to everyone and we can all work together to make this marine society as cool as it could be. And if all else fails I say we all go out start drinking and see what we come up with.

[davem511]

You are absolutely right, Mike has started planning some things and I'm sure he'll be announcing some of it very soon. I do like the drinking idea!

[koikeeper]

I'll third the drink idea, and appreciate the support. I am not here to promote negativity or arguing, but hopefully to help get this ball rolling.

We are the only aquatic society in a rather large city. I know there is so much we can accomplish and so many more members we can pull in.

The more members we have, the more money we have; the more money we have, the more things we can accomplish, and the more speakers we can afford to bring in.

When Mitch announced Mike as the new president back on December 16th I had the impression that was it then and there. Either way that is ridiculously silly for you to keep bashing me. If Mike has taken offence we can work it out. He's a big guy. It was my opinion and no one elses. Irregardless of you bashing at me I appreciate you actually taking the time to log in here and check out what the members have to say.

johnyfishguy: Welcome to the boards. You are right we all have opinions and guess what; they are all right. We are all going to have different impressions of people based off of what they do, or in my case what they didn't do. I was very disappointed when this did not happen:


I would love to discuss all of the issuse and ideas with you guys. My right hand man will be there on sat. as well. I will bring a note pad to record every thing that is brought up.

I just want to see this happen. I'd also like to see everything brought up here on the boards discussed as well. We have lot of great ideas being tossed around and the sooner we all work together on them the sooner we can get this club turned around.

This is not the project of just the vp, pres, treas, etc. This is a project for the entire club. There is no way you guys can do all of this on your own. And without the support of the club, this club is doomed to be as it has been, when it can be so much more.

koi

[davem511]

OMG she never stops lol.... Look, I'm not bashing anyone. I'm just stating my opinion. :) This is childish... obviously Koi MUST have the last word on this and that's fine with me. I thought we had moved on. I won't be visiting this thread any longer. Have a nice day.

Dave

[mjcarl]

Good lord, I guess this is why there are dictatorships! All I have to say is give Mike a chance. The club has been around for almost seven years. Its not dying. Take no offense Koi person, but you've been to one meeting, so don't say the club is "doomed to be as it has been" and needs to be "turned around". For six years I brought in some of the brightest people in this business. The club was exactly how I wanted it to be, a place to come hear the best invert and fish people out there. The club is going to change and I could've done a better job w/ getting Mike ready, but I got alot of other priorities right now. As Sean says, take a breath, relax, and enjoy the new ride.

And as your treasurer, we have plenty of money ($2000 in the bank) to bring in speakers, its just not that easy to line them up.
Trust me.

Mitch