Good Meeting

[SRA4031]

Enjoyed myself tonight, and enjoyed meeting everyone.

[reewik]

I have to agree. I too enjoyed the meeting. Met some new folks tonight which was great! Sean thanks for getting it set up, and thank Robert for the frag! Has anyone decided on the reef club officer thing yet?

[fishdoc11]

Good to see everyone again and also to see some new faces. Thanks to everyone and Sean and Robert in particular. One suggestion, when it's freezing outside we might want to move indoors LOL! The food was great though.
thanks, Chris

[SRA4031]

Amen. Inside for sure, but next month we will not have that problem.

[Oldschooler]

Sorry, guys, that I couldn't make it ('twas my birthday, an' all...). Also, sorry about the Cafe Sonora debacle. That was my idea, originally, but after a week of summer-like weather, no-one knew it would get so chilly. Also, they *normally* have the posterior area well-closed-off and heavily heated, but Sean already informed me of THAT foul-up. Oh, well... Like Goldeneagle said, "next month..."

And have you tried their fish tacos??? Mmmmmmm...

[SRA4031]

Happy B-day

[kevlouie]

Sorry I couldn't make it. Too wore out, and Sunday nights aren't the best for me.

[SRA4031]

I think Sean said next month will be on a Satuday.

[SRA4031]

Oldschooler, we could have sung happy birthday to you. We had a cake that was about 100 proof, all we would have needed was candles.

[A. Critter Killer]

Fishdoc, you get over that ich? LOL ----Sean

[gflat65]

Great third meeting! There were a lot of fresh and eager faces with a strong interest in propagating. It's great to see that much support for this club and the hobby. We've got something good going here. Let's keep it growing.

Thanks to Sean and Berto. Aside from normal Nashville weather problems, everything went well. Gotta love mother nature. Happy B'day Berto. Hope the candles didn't start any fires.

[SexiShrimp]

Hey All! The meeting was awsome! Everyone was super nice and eager to share reef info! Can't wait till the next meeting. What should I bake next time??? Maybe non-alcoholic this time?
:rollface:

Mimi

[Sir Knight]

Hey,
I would like to come to the next meeting in April, if it is on a Saturday. :thumbsup: I wouldn't be living here, but it would give me a reason to come over and take care of some business before I move.

Please let me know the date and time so I can make some arrangements.

[coralreefing]

Thanks Mimi for baking the cake. Home cooking is always welcome & I heard no complaints about the ingredients. Good thing Berto wasn't there though. We may have been tempted to light a birthday candle on it.

Chris

[Mdwannabe]

I have to agree, the meeting was great. I am so relieved to find I now have a support group available, which cares about nothing more than helping an individual and the hobby grow.
I’m afraid I may have to lean on this support group in the near future, as my new project progresses. I believe one person said I was creating a mini ocean, not a mini reef, but with this much knowledge available a couple clicks away, I bet even a mini ocean can succeed in Nashville. We will know soon enough.
Again I would like to thank everyone present for making a stranger feel welcome, and look forward to many more fun nights.
As I told Sean, I am available to offer any functions required to help get this club off the ground, and make it the envy of the state.
Long live EB, and their business style!

Respectfully:
Rick

[SRA4031]

Yes, thanks for the cake Mimi, it was great.

You are right Chris, no open flames near it.

[Countzer0]

sniff sniff wish i could have been there .... the storms on Sat made for a long day of fixing cable outages. WEll there is next month ...

P.S anyone take pics to post on the site?

[fishdoc11]

I've started hypo treatment on myself. I don't think my wife is going to like me being submerged for 6 weeks. Maybe I should just use copper. I don't think I'm too succeptable to HLLE.
Chris

[fishdoc11]

Glad to hear you will try to make it Joe. I'm sure the info will be posted. Thanks Mimi, I got pulled over on the way home and the cop didn't believe I only had 1 beer. It WAS good though.
thanks, Chris

[kevlouie]

Holy crap that would suck if anybody got in trouble. Its good that we do a coupla beers and bizness afterwards, time for us to burn off 2 beers. Fishdoc would you be interested in selling a 10-20 of those mini-stars? I have always wanted some for my clean up crew.

[SRA4031]

So any ideas on the next frag?

[A. Critter Killer]

Hey fishdoc, try giving yourself a freshwater dip from time to time, lol...but Joe, the next meeting will prob. be on a Sat. We will work the details out in the near future. ----Sean

[envirogoddess]

Sorry The Walrus and I had to leave the meeting early. I was a baaad girl and didn't bring my medicine...(not a pretty sight, I turn into a whiney person. ;)) It is great to know there are so many folks eager to help those of us new to the hobby. If Mimi doens't want to bake all the time, I can certainly pitch in. I make killer chocolate chip cookies (from an ancient family recipe). Or if you're not into sweets, I also do cajun (gumbos, jambalyas, etc.)

I will be heading to Florida soon. Any suggestions on a coral source in Ft. Lauderdale or Tampa areas?

Belated Happy Birthday Roberto!

[coralreefing]

For the next meeting I'll bring some name tag stickers. Also if we decide to frag something I bought 8 tubes of Ross CA. It's one that GARF recommends.
The previous meetings have been a lot of fun but some part of the next one should be a little more formal. We need to get to know each other as a group in addition to the individual friendships we are creating. Then we can start to elect officers. That will make things run smoother & take a lot of pressure off Sean & Rob. They have done us a great service in getting us started, but they are running a young business & I can see them getting overwhelmed soon. So bottom line, decide if you would like to be an officer & who would you like to nominate. We can form a circle at the next meeting & elect temporary officers. If these people handle their jobs well we make them permanent, if not we upgrade, no hard feelings. That's my 2 cents. What do you guys think?

Chris

[SRA4031]

Great idea on the officers, and getting to know everyone. I would like to suggest that newcomers are introduced at the meeting, and everyone least make an effort to introduce themselves on the side. I enjoyed meeting alot of people the other night, but to be honest, I did feel out of place since everybody was mainly visiting with the ones they already knew.

I would like to see Mimi at least in charge of this. She did a good job making me feel welcome.

[Sir Knight]

We can form a circle at the next meeting & elect temporary officers. If these people handle their jobs well we make them permanent, if not we upgrade, no hard feelings. That's my 2 cents. What do you guys think?

Having officers is a given in my opinion with any type of group. Sitting here in my position as an outsider looking in it looks like it is time.

I think Sean and Robert have gone above and beyond putting this cub together and now it's time to give them break. I have watched this group for almost a year trying to group and not until these guys stepped up did anything happen.

The idea of making it a temporary position will not give the cub any true leadership.

I have seen clubs fail by just assigning people to a position that they really don't want or have the time to do the job.

What I would recommend is instead of just electing people at the next meeting, why not start getting names of people that are interested in taking on the rolls. Then at the following meeting have a formal election.

Than one of the first duties of the officers would be to put together the clubs by-laws. After the by-laws are created, have the membership vote to either pass, fail or pass with changes.

Some of the items that should be in the by-laws are type of offices, length of term, how to remove an officer, Duties, Dues, etc.

Officers should be , President, Vice President, Secretary,
Public Relations,Treasurer, Webmaster (the board of Directors). The Secretary and Treasurer position can be combined.



Just my 2 cents

[SRA4031]

Joe, I agree. I think that is what we are suppose to discuss at the next meeting.

Temp positions I do not think it will be a good idea either.

[coralreefing]

Well put Joe. I look forward to meeting you. Your experience is already proving to be an asset.

I agree with permanent officers but since our club has grown so fast, we're a rather large loose-nit group & many members don't know would be leaders well enough to vote for them. Instead of calling them temp positions, perhaps we should have permanent officers but schedule elections more often than customary for the first year so our leadership can grow with the club.

All suggestions are very welcome.

Do we have any volunteers or nominations?

Chris

[Sir Knight]

OK I will start the ball rolling.

But keep in mind I will not be in the area full time until May.
I would like to run for Vice President starting with a six month term.

Here is a list of my prior experience

1) President of the International Betta congress (one term)
2) Vice President of the I.B.C. (one and a half terms)
3) publisher of Flare (I.B.C. Three years)
4) Webmaster for ORCA ( one year)
5) Helped organize ETRC
6) Webmaster for ETRC ( 7 months)
7) Saltwater Hobbyist 26 years
8) reef hobbyist (20 years tried before that but killed everything so I gave up until we learned from Germany )
9) freshwater - Isn't that for drinking (actually 14 years)
10) having fun in the aquarium hobby 40 years ( I started at 9 years old)

Goals:
To organize our new club to meet the needs of both the experienced and beginning hobbyist in the field of reef keeping, coral propagation, saltwater fish and of course to have fun doing it.

[Mdwannabe]

Being so new to the club (last week was my first time meeting everyone), I don’t think I could offer anything in an officer position.
But I would like to show a commitment to helping this club succeed. In that vein I respectfully offer the following hardware donations to the club, should there be a use for them.
I am upsizing my tank from a 75 to a 170, I would like to offer the club the 75, for whatever use we may find for it. I also have a computer I am no longer using (pentium2 850, 256 ram 10 gig hard drive, video accelerator, sound card and speakers, keyboard, and mouse).
It’s not much, but it’s all I have to offer right now, and would do so gladly.

Rick

[reewik]

Very generous. A suggestion for the tank would be to trade with someone in the club who has a 75 that would trade their 75 to you. I know of two people off hand. Fishdoc11 and Goldeneagle. the reason I suggest this is your is drilled if I remember correctly and has a ton of coraline algea. Then take the 75 from then and walah instant sump.

I would like to Nominate both Fishdoc11, Rcmike, and Coralreefing for officer positions. With the exception of our soon to be VP I would say they carrey a ton of knowledge.

I will help out in anyway that I can. What a great hobby hey! That is my 2 cents.

[SexiShrimp]

Hey all,
Everyone has some great ideas! Here's some of mine I'll throw in the pot:

The 75 gallon gift is a great idea! Thanks. Could we use it to start a club frag propagating tank? Just an idea. People can bring in baby frags and wait till they are ready.

Oh, I have a great digital camera...I can be the picture person and post pics of our meetings and stuff....

Also, I don't mind one bit in baking some kind of dessert for every meeting....

Let me know what everyone thinks!

Mimi

[fishdoc11]

I second Joe's nomination. Also I believe coralreefing and rcmike would make excellent officers. I am flattered to be nominated but I can only serve in a capacity that is not very time consuming for the time being(which I will be more than happy to do). 17 hrs of school, a 14 month old, another one on the way, a 50 yr old house etc.....oh and my wife will tell you my tanks take up alot of time. I do want to do something and help in ways that I can though. As far as the donations an idea is to sell them for a reasonable price(offered to club members first) and use the proceeds for club purposes. Thanks for your generous offer Rick.
Chris

[SexiShrimp]

john, I wanted to thank you for the sea mat. It's doing great!!!!
:) Really appreciated it!
MIMI

[fishdoc11]

The frag tank is a good idea too Mimi. I guess we would just have to figure out where to put it and who would take care of it. Pics and dessert sound like winners. But we may need designated drivers LOL!
Chris

[rcmike]

Thanks for the nominations guys but I don't think I would be a very good officer. :D I am very flattered though. Maybe sometime but right now I think I will let someone else have the honor.

You CAN leave the frag tank at my house.:) The club would provide the salt and scrape the glass and all right? Just kidding, I have too many tanks as it is.

[reewik]

Some will have to step up to the position.

[fishdoc11]

How about you Eric.

[Mdwannabe]

Any club-oriented option for the tank is fine with me. A trade to someone who can benefit from it (assuming the trade is gallon for gallon) is great, several can gain and ultimately the club benefits.
Again, it’s not much but I offer it in hopes it shows my commitment to the club. I look forward to next month, and getting to know each of you better.

Rick

[Mdwannabe]

Oh, and Reewik, you are correct it is drilled, and has a ton of coraline. As to me gaining an instant sump, this is not my goal, I am a big DIY person, I would rather the club benefits not me.

[Countzer0]

well if there is anything i can do to help let me know ... if it would be help we can use the website to nominate and hold online elections kinda takes the pressure off ...just an idea

[SRA4031]

I agree with Eric, as little as I know everyone, on the knowledge of Fishdoc11, Rcmike, and Coralreefing, I look for their replies constantly to see what I can learn. Let's not forget what others have to offer as well. Officers are mainly about orgainization, people skills, and leadership. We also need someone who will listen to the members needs as a club, who can deligate, and able to resolve conflict.

Let's please do not elect someone because they know alot about reefing. A good leader knows already to take advantage of the resources they have, and look to those as advisors.

That is just my two cents. I do not know anyone well enough to nominate, or vote on except for Eric, and that would just be to be mean since I know how little time he has already. LOL

[Sir Knight]

One of the things I see here is a lot of the people with knowledge don't have the time to devote to being an club officer.

If I am elected I would like to see these people volunteer to be club mentors.

What that you involve is helping the new people with setups answering questions, etc. If they don't know the answer, know who to ask to get the answer.

How I see it working is a new person either comes to a meeting or asks a question hear on RC. One of the officers would get in contact with that person and assign a mentor. This way the new person would have a little one on one help. We could also put the list of mentors on the website. with pictures, background, etc.

What do you guys and ladies think about that

[SRA4031]

Mentors sounds like a good idea, but even though I learn alot from Eric, I have enjoyed everyones input when I post a question. I have gotten different point of views from questions I have posted, and have benefited greatly from others experiences, as well as mistakes.

I think one mentor for a newby like me can narrow down what a newby can learn. I have learned a great deal from the entire group.

[Sir Knight]

I agree you can get different opinions here when you post and a lot of really good information.

What the mentor would do is help you (not saying you) stay out of trouble.

For example. I Joe Wall just saw a blue tort, I have a new tank with NO lighting(standard florescent lighting). I could email the mentor and ask can I keep this in my tank. The mentor would reply that you don't have the proper lighting to keep this coral.
If the mentor is a softie person he/she could email another mentor that has a lot of SPS experience to get the answer for you.

Instead of posting hey guys I (Joe Wall) just got my blue tort last week from ......... and it's turning white and it looks like it's dying. What should I do.

That is one of the things a one on one could prevent.

What I would like to see is people new to the hobby getting proactive help instead of reactive help.

Hope this clears my comments up

[SRA4031]

Yes it does, and I think it is a good idea.

Also it helps re-enforce what I said about introducing first timers at the meeting, and everyone taking the time to individually introduce themselves to the new person while we are socializing.

[Oldschooler]

Great ideas, Chris. I nominate Chris as el presidente, primarily because he has the kahunas to suggest it and also because he's kind enough to recognise that two or three people can't run something that's growing this much! That, and he's one of the "gurus"!

I suggest that we try our best to get EVERYONE to the next meeting, introduce ourselves, then write our "nominations" on ballots and fold 'em up and throw 'em into a fishbowl or a hat. That way, we have no hard feelings (although WHY anyone would want an officer position is BEYOND me!). LOL

Also, if anyone DESIRES a position, I think they should let it be KNOWN via either this forum, or verbally at the next meeting. In other words, none of us reads minds (well, excepting those Jedi amongst us)...

~Roberto

[gflat65]

Sign me up. I have been waiting for a forum like this for a long time, so I want to do anything I can. I am salaried, so I don't have a normal 40 hour week, but I will work out whatever I can to help out. I do not feel that I could efficiently perform the CIC (commander in chief) position, I would happily vounteer for whatever lower position needs to be filled. Use me and abuse me.
gflat

[reewik]

envirogoddess


First let me start by answering your question from earlier in this post. I have been to a couple stores in the Tampa area. Grab a phone book when you are in the area as that is how I find them when I am there. If I am not mistaken there is one on Dale Marby. Another on Waters Ave. Those were the best two I could find in the Tampa area. Ft lauderdale has some too. I have not been there is several years and I would just grab a phone book again. Sorry I could not be of more help.

Fishdoc11,

Touche my friend. OK, I will step up. My first step is lets move this discussion to a fresh new thread. See ya there...

[fishdoc11]

I second gflats nomination. I also think it is not imperitive that someone is an "expert" for them to serve in an officers position(please note I am not implying gflat is not knowledgable) Only that they desire to serve and want to learn and get better. After all we are all learning and trying to get better. If you ever stop learning in this hobby you will be left behind. It just changes too fast. I also second Chris's(coralreefing) nomination. This is great! I would LOVE to serve as a mentor. However I reserve the right to ask people with more experience than me when I am stumped. I also think it should be the mentors responsibility to inform reefers about more than 1 way of doing things when that's an option. For example just say I prefer a 2" sandbed. Well other options would be a DSB or a plenum. If one wanted to be "oldschool" they could even go without one. The reason I choose a 2" sandbed is.......etc......Oh, by the way I Chris Ray have been ordering from my lfs and looking for a blue Tort for quite some time now with no luck. Any suggestions?
thanks, Chris

[SRA4031]

Desire to learn is very important. In aviation it is said a good pilot is always a student pilot, same about this. There is so much to learn, and one of the thing I have really enjoyed about it.

[rcmike]

Exactly! I also think it is important to not be afraid to do things a little differently than everybody else. Find what works for you, not for everybody else.

goldeneagle, any idea if they are ever going to have that airshow in Smyrna ever again? It is a shame that they quit having it.

[SRA4031]

Actually I did inqure about that last year. One of the biggest problems was lack in interest from the vendors, which is how they offset majorty of the costs.

What I liked most about it was most of the ticket sales went to the youth groups out there working it, i.e. scouts, CAP, etc...

If vendors will once again get involved, we may get it back. I know there was no problems with the general population supporting it. :)

[rcmike]

I hope so. It was a very good airshow.

[SRA4031]

Yes it was, I miss it. Had the privilege of working the last airshow, and helping with the taxing of the C-5.

[gflat65]

After all we are all learning and trying to get better. If you ever stop learning in this hobby you will be left behind.
I am a prime example of someone who fell by the way side. I lost enthusiasm a couple of years ago with lack of funds and good experiences. (Never lost the love.) I'm still in catch up mode. To be honest, I regained my interest when I went to Emerald Bay for the first time. I had found a place that had a ton of aqua cultured frags for good prices. The enthusiasm from Sean the first time I talked to him told me I what I needed to know about the people that run that store. Then they asked me about the forum everytime I went in there until I checked it out. After meeting and chatting with so many of you, (coralreefing, fishdoc, rcmike, reewik to name a few) I realized that I had found a group of freaks that were just like me, with untapped volumes of experience for me to soak up like a sponge. Keep the taps open. One can never learn too much. Maybe too much for one's own good, but never too much.

[reewik]

I did the same. when I had my first reef tank in 1995 -1996 there were many in the hobby and at the time there was one store in town to get corals ( Fishey Business). When the store moved out the fun went with it. We never got a club off the ground and everyone got out of it that I knew anyway. I decided to set mine back up and I am back in now full force. I thrive to learn more and expand my library of books for the need for knowledge almost seems to get stronger and stronger... Sorry got carried away. Well, you all know what i mean.. Being a reef geek is not so bad of habit.. keeps me out of trouble.... I guess!

[SRA4031]

I did a freshwater tank for two years, and at that time resources was very thin on knowledge, or quality freshwater fish. I got bored with the everyday Wal-Mart fish (shows you how long that was), and fish stores was way too expensive.