Goals for this club

[rldavis]

Hello everyone,

We were visiting with Mickster last week and he came up with a good question.....What kinds of things do we want to accomplish as a club? I know we've kicked around a few ideas, such as volunteer work at the zoo, a club sponsored tank at a LFS, and a few other things.
I just wanted to throw this out there and see what kind of other ideas you have. :D Of course we all realize that the size of our club and the amount of money we have will be a factor.
Then again it's always fun to get together and shoot the breeze too.
Lemme know what you think.

Thanks,
Becky

[DrkShadow]

The Zoo thing sounds pretty cool to me. I once wanted to be a VET but stayed sucked into my computer hobby which I am burning out on atm. So it's reef time for me. moowhahaha.

I'd think if you guys wanted to sponsor a tank somewhere, how about at a childrens hospital or something. Just a thought.

The LFS outta know how to do it. :p But I'm sure you know a heck of a lot more then they do. I still got a lot to learn myself.

If ya guys need any website programming stuff done, let me know. If I can't do it, I have lots of contacts :D

Heck, if I get my reef ever setup, a reef cam would be sweet.

[JasonF]

The Zoo thing sounds pretty cool to me. I once wanted to be a VET but stayed sucked into my computer hobby which I am burning out on atm. So it's reef time for me. moowhahaha.

Just as an FYI, I'm STILL waiting to hear from the zoo on the volunteer work. I suspect it won't be until after the first of the year.

[DrkShadow]

Sounds cool Jason. I volunteed at a exotic vets office in FL for like 2 years and it was a blast. He eventually hired me cause he knew he wasn't going to get rid of me. Baaahahaha

Then we moved back here. Let us know if he get a call back from them.

I'm sure they get a lot of offers from volunteers eh?

[Kyle McClain]

Becky

Thanks for starting this discussion, I have been to busy setting up the 500 and 150, and oh yeah I just started a new job too. I really like the idea of sponsoring a tank in a public place like a hospital or possibly a library. It would be great if we could find a corporate sponsor as well, or maybe the Zoo would sponsor it ?

When does everyone think we should hold a membership drive ?

Keep the ideas coming

Kyle

[DrkShadow]

Couldn't we design a flyer to put at some LFS's ? :D

[Reefer33]

If you guys decide to use the flyers, I can post some up at Crystal Clear.

[Kyle McClain]

Flyers or posters rather on the way I just need to get the graphics finished up. they will be 16 x 20 so they should grab some attention.

kyle

[rldavis]

Okay, we've got a couple of good ideas out there. I'm glad to see that people are thinking about this. I like the idea of a club sponsored tank, but there's the obvious drawback of the cost of setting up a decent tank and keeping it maintained (something else to think about).
The membership drive is also a good idea. If we don't get our membership up, we won't have much money to do anything as a club. We haven't even collected dues yet and we're already out the money to register a domain and have posters made. I think that these are places where money is well spent though, without doing these things, no one would even know we existed.
Now for my next question.....Anyone have any ideas that don't cost money?? Such as speakers/subjects. I was thinking that we could gather some ideas and have people do a little presentation at our meetings in their particular area of expertise. There are a lot of things that some of us have dabbled in and others are afraid to try, or don't know much about. Or they could even just talk about their setup, equipment, what they do for maintenance. I find these discussions particularly interesting because what each person does varies so differently from the other. This is not an exact science, and it's always helpful to hear other things that people are doing that work for them.
Keep the ideas coming!! I love to hear what you think and would like to do together. I think we all realize at this early stage that we won't be able to do much, but if we don't do something to keep this interesting to our members I'm afraid we won't last long.:p

Thanks again in advance,
Becky

[Lilgrasshopper]

As a club, I would like to see us helping individual hobbyists build DIY stuff. Say if Richard wants to build a stand and canopy, we get together and help him build it as a club. We could suggest places for raw materials for cheap or offer to lend tools to build such projects. That way we can offer ideas and lend a helping hand without any money...unless Richard wants a donation for a worthy cause....:D For starters, I have been experimenting with acrylics for Calcium reactors. I've almost completed one and would be glad to share what I've learned so u can all have one at a minimal fee.

[Don Davis]

LilGrassHopper, How much $ do you figure you have in your calcium reactor so far, not including pumps? Is it a single or dual chamber reactor? I am thinking about taking on this project myself.

Later,

Don

[JasonF]

As a club, I would like to see us helping individual hobbyists build DIY stuff. Say if Richard wants to build a stand and canopy, we get together and help him build it as a club.

A modern version of an Amish barn raising. Sweet ;). Something like this would be great. One thing we might do is ask Keith out at the zoo to talk about the skimmers he built. I've seen them in action and they're quit effective. I plan on going out there today, hopefully he is working.

[DrkShadow]

Becky,

What domain do you need registered Becky? Let me know and consider it done. :D I could add it to my 6 I already have.


Grasshopper,

Nice idea, you must have ESP cause I'm not exactly much of a handy man except PC stuff.



Jason,

:D

[rldavis]

The domain is already registered. It's the comasonline.org. :) If we can't get the stupid web server working right we might get you to host the webpage though. We'll let you know.

Thanks,
Becky

[Don Davis]

I know when I've considered joining clubs in the past for some other hobbies I was nervous and intimidated to just show up at a meeting where I didn't know anyone. That's one reason why I never joined any clubs. If we had a small "Parade of Tanks", that would give people a chance to meet club members on a one-to-one basis. That way they wouldn't feel like complete strangers if they decide to attend a club meeting.

We could print out a route with directions to each of our houses and place copies in each of the LFS's a few weeks in advance. It could be a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when we could all be home. Just hanging out at the house from say 12-6 pm and serve refreshments to people that stop by to look at our tanks. I'm not real comfortable letting complete strangers into my house, but I haven't met many bad reefers yet.

The more members we can suck in, the more ideas we will get, and the more money we will have to play with.

The only downside I can see is that the people hosting wouldn't be able to take the tour.:(

Later,

Don

[Mickster]

I've been looking at this thread with certain interest. So far I like everything I've see. Seems like the only problem is that we don't have ol' "Washington" backing us up!! :)

I think one of our major goals should be to promote our hobby and educate others. We all frequent the LFS around here. There is always someone that is new out there staring at those tanks at ReefShop. More than likely these newbies will be given "bad" advice. This is an EXCELLENT opportunity for us to let them know about US and shed some light!

The ideas about DIY and propagations are great. However, it kinda only applies to us for now. We need to get more members. Once we get the members things just kinda falls into place once we see each others tank. For example, I want mine to be quiet like Don and Becky's. :)

Mickey

[DrkShadow]

Becky, I would be more then happy to host it and do any of the web developing what ever you need. I've got plenty of space for pictures, etc. I could setup a database for new members to sign up, to contain member information, etc.

Don, Great idea! I got to get mine setup and learn a ton more. That book you let me borrow has some great basic information. I like the diagram of the Berlin system and the others (pros/cons).