Marine Society Update

[tom obrecht]

Hello All!

I want to update everyone on the current status of the Marine Society. As of now I will be taking over the lead role of the society. My name is Tom Obrecht and have been a member of the society from it's initial formation. I'm looking forward to the future and hope everyone continues to support this fine club and also helps spread the word and become more interactive as well. I'm working with Mitch to come up with some dates in November that will work to get an informal meeting together. At that time I hope to have a game plan on what direction we need to take in order to make the club successful in the year to come. I am however new to this type of thing and would like to get some feedback from people on what you as members would like to see. I'm also contacting some of the local stores to get them more involved as well. Please take a minute and come up with some ideas and email me back on what types of subjects, activities and speakers you would like to see. We need your input to make this happen! Last but not least I want to thank Mitch Carl for not only giving me the opportunity to take over, but forming this group and doing a great job throughout the years. I personally have met some of my best friends through this club and hope we can continue to do more in the following year. Stay tuned more information in the near future.

Happy Reefing!

Tom
P.S. If I don't have your current e-mail address, please send it to me via pm.

[Willie41]

Need to have some meetings at local places such as Paradise Cove. Also more involvement for an incintive to get new members. I had heard that if you weren't with the quote "IN CROWD" new memembers were not to feel very welcome. I have only lived in Omaha and would like to join a club, but not if your snubbed everytime you go to meetings. To get a club to grow you need new memembers and have to have everyone involved, not just the "ELITE".

[pcpets]

Congratulations Tom,

Just wanted to let you know Paradise Cove will be supporting the club in any way we can. Looking foward to working with you & if there is anything we can do, please let us know.

Paradise Cove Pets
Jeff Irons
293-1050

[CH]

I have only gone to the last few meetings and tanks tours (the first tank tour I went to was yours Tom), but I thought it was great, and felt very welcomed by most members.
I think the tank tours are a great thing, so that should be kept up. As far as meetings and speakers, I'm excited for anything. I know there have been speakers that most members have already seen, but I think they need to be brought back for newer members.
Another key in the success, I believe, is just getting the word out there. There definately needs to be some good exciting speakers and topics to draw in some new members and get the engine started, so to speak. Also, having the meetings at the zoo is great, and having things like the behind the scenes tour is great , even though I missed the last one :(
I'm going to do a little research and see what other clubs are doing, and maybe get some speaker ideas.
Thanks for volunteering to do this Tom, I'm looking forward to seeing the OMS get started up again. If there is anything you need help with, I would be more than happy to volunteer some time.
Thanks!
Chris Holmes

[nebraskareef]

I've only been to one OMS meeting, which was the zoo tour/coral pest talk. There wasn't alot of members in attendance and i beleive most of them were newish members. Some of these guys had reef tanks and didn't even know the difference between lps, sps, and soft coral! Something has got to be done about this. Maybe we could get an online library of sorts together for new members. Get them up to speed, so to speak. It kind of turns you off when you go to the meeting and nobody else really knows what your talking about. I hope I'm not coming off sounding like a Jerk, because I'm no expert - But I think a resource for those new to the hobby, and not JUST RC should be a goal of the club, in 2006. I know I was extremely overwhelmed when I got into all of this, as I'm sure most of you were as well.

I would be willing to put this together if you guys think it's a good idea.

Also, we need to make some posters with the link to the rc forum and put them up at the LFS'. Even if we got like 5 more guys posting on the board, that'd be awesome.

Frag swaps are something that would be incredible if we could pull it off, but I don't think we have enough active members to make this worth it....maybe talk with Iowa? I spoke with a member on the board and they said they would be glad to have us at the iowa frag swap.

As John previously posted, we should also do a group buy and cut down on shipping....that will ad to our "frag pool" nicely after a couple of orders!

If you guys have any questions/suggestions on these Ideas, don't hesitate to post them here or PM.

Congratulations Tom!

[CH]

Some good ideas there. I agree about the info for newbies. Maybe there could be some "newbie" themed meetings, where there is a lot of basic information presented. I could see somebody like Eric Borneman coming in to do a basic talk about corals and what a coral is, etc. Maybe somebody could have a tank tour, but at the same time its an informative meeting about basic setups (lights, filtration, etc.)

[Willie41]

I agree about the frag swapping idea. I also think it would be great if a bunch would go together on group orders.

I was not sure hat the different types of coral were either, I had to learn on my own and am still learning. Plus the when you ask people at different LFS you get different answers. I would think there is a set way when doing a saltwater tank. Not that I am opposed to getting help, its just after you talk to so many people with different ideas you come confused. I agree with Chris that we should have at a meeting on the basic setup of a tank. Also would like to see one on the right kinds of fish & corals to keep in your tank according to size of tank.

[nebraskareef]

The newbie talk is a GREAT IDEA Chris. I'd love to help with that!
I know I'm no eric borneman or Scott michael but I know my equipment/set up stuff!

I'm thinking about setting up another nano tank, Maybe we could do the set up walkthrough on that.

I'm loving this brainstorming thread-
I just think we are getting ahead of ourselves. We need to get some new people/old people onto this forum so they can acctually be involved with the club. I'm not in Omaha, so I can't say for sure, but other than this forum, how are people learning about the OMS?

If it's alright with Tom, I'm going to start working on these posters!

-Daniel

[Willie41]

Danile I have a NANO cube for sale. Its by JBJ and its all self contained. If your interested.

[tom obrecht]

Hey all,

I'm glad to see people coming up with ideas! I want to get ideas of what will not only get people to meetings but also get new members as well. If you are interested in helping with areas of the society PM or email me and I can see what areas we can put your efforts to good use. The first meeting will be used to sift through alot of what has been mentioned so far. Sounds like we have some interest and when we meet in person I'll go through what avenues I'll take to direct questions and send info to all.

Keep coming up with ideas!!

Happy Reefing!
Tom

[pcpets]

I'm seeing a lot of positive ideas coming out of this discussion. We are looking forward to helping and promoting the OMS and I would like to offer a few suggestions. Work as a group with a strong leader and a clear sense of direction. If you're looking to increase awareness about anything, then promote it through the common thread of your target group. In this situation that would mean getting all the LFS's to advertise & promote the OMS & RC throughout their customer base. Bring those posters in and we will put them up. Also if you're interested in a doing a group order, I would be willing to take a look at the possibilty of doing that as a benifit for the OMS.

Jeff

[Mercutio]

Not to cut into your sales, but it could be benificial that there be a discount at the 2 LFS's of say %5 for members who pay a yearly due into the society. $25 a person or so to bring in speakers or pay for demonstrations?

My schedule varies alot, but I would like to attend some of these meetings if they were in the evening on a week night.

[Willie41]

I would like to see some meetings on weekend as I have to work every night during week.

I would be willing to help in any way I could.

[nebraskareef]

Dues are something that we are gonna have to think about sooner or later, as I'm Tom has also been thinking about.

We've got to get this club going in a good direction before we can really expect people to pay to be a part of this. I understand what dues are used for, but some people may not understand.

I vote for Calfo, if we can get enough interest/Money for him.

[Willie41]

Sent you PM Daniel. How much for X-box?

[CH]

Mitch or Tom can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the dues were 20 or 25 for the year.

[Willie41]

Daniel sent you a PM about when we could meet you halfway. How much to modify an X-box?

[Willie41]

I think it would be a good idea since we have so many people interested and getting on the bandwagon we should have a get together meeting to get everything rolling again with OMS.`

[Willie41]

Whats happened about all the talk of getting meetings going again? When you have people in the mood to start thats when you need to keep things moving or people get out of the mood.

[huskerreef]

Hi all, i've been on RC for a while and was just directed to the omaha forum. i think tom will make a great leader for the OMS, hopefully we can get people behind it and use it to educate newbies and advanced aquarists. It has to start at the LFS level to let people know about the OMS. I see a lot of reefers at the LFS but only see a handful on RC or other forums. The LFS owners can benefit from a strong membership.

[huskerreef]

I agree with nebraskareef, the newbies are important to the OMS growing. When i first got into the hobby i was definetly overwhwelmed, everybody talked to you in a foriegn language know as reef. with any group you need to make new members feel welcome and not like an outsider since they aren't as educated as others. I think you almost need to do a intro to marine meeting several times a year to get new hobbyist involved
or find a lfs that will put on some education seminars regularly and intro the OMS to them. just my 2 cents. my house is always open to host an event.