Quote:
Originally posted by slojmn
Guys, I am sure I speak for many folks here in thanking you for your long hours and work you put in on this club. I, in no way, meant to insult anyone in this thread...it feels as if I may have so my apologies for that. If I didn't live an hour+ away I would be most happy to help out...it isn't feasable for me to do so when I live so far away.
I was sincerely surprised to see the sticky regarding the new criteria and the deadline for the Feb '08 swap, I am sure I was not the only surprised person. You all are the ones taking the time to think these things out, again, Thank you. I hardly think it came as a surprise that some people might be put off by the suddeness of this. No biggie, it's all good. Keep on keepin on  .
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Thanks for that, but no apology necessary.
We did realize that these 2 changes can easily be perceived as unfair, particularly to people new to the club, the hobby or both. I hope people will read this explanation (I know! it's a million words!!)and gain some insight about this particular set of decisions. I think it's hard to understand decisions without context, so I'll let you in on some of the general BOD thought that went into this.
Live coral, whether wild or captivated, is a very precious form of life on this planet (we're all reefers right, this part is obvious). Maintaining live coral in captivity is extremely energy intensive. even if you never get a single piece of wild coral, your carbon footprint is larger as a hobbyist. There is a responsibility, as an individual, to try and do your best for the animal. The individuals on the BOD have this responsibility, a responsibility to The Mission Statement (read it sometime, it took forever to write!), to the current members, potential members, sponsors etc...
So, in light of the multiple responsibilities, is the swap doing its thing as "right" as possible. If "right' means getting the most frags out to the most people then yes, the old regional swaps were perfect events. But I, and I believe the entire BOD, believe that this is only the beginning of what we're calling "responsible propagation", or "coral parenting" which is much closer to really getting it right! For example, tracking the BAR purchased corals this year is just the beginning of a more "responsible" slant to the club activities. Yes, people will have to be in the community for a while now before they can pick in the "general" swap, but not all BAR corals are distributed through the swaps and many of the best are given freely in our fabulous Don't Break The Chain Program.
http://www.bareefers.org/discussion/...php?board=17.0
I must say that I've never, ever heard someone who joined BAR say anything negative about our Community's generosity.
Thanks for your post, it helped me pull some thoughts together on this.-Jim