Getting the word out about our club

a1amap · #1 12/14/2007, 01:19 AM

I was mulling over ways to get the Delaware Reef Club name out to more people. Any Ideas? Where did you hear about DRC?

Spark magazine has a monthly spot for clubs thats free.

During the last school year we had a lot of University Of De students so maybe they have a place to post about the club (Jon?). Biology dept?

We have a meeting at the Library don't they have a place to post for non profit clubs?

I would like to think the local stores would be the best source of local saltwater zealots, but we have got to stop bashing the local stores online so they will want to be associated with us.

So where did you find out about the club?

Jocephus · #2 12/14/2007, 06:25 AM

Google.

But I think you're right on about the LFS's.

ronert · #3 12/14/2007, 07:04 AM

Google lead me to RC. A quick scan of the forums introduced me to DRC.

I also agree about the lfs bashing.

I'm sure most posters, if asked why they posted their particular rant, would state that their intention is/was to warn fellow hobbyists. But, you can bet that those posts are read by either employees, management, or both.

For me, personally, I make up my own mind on how I find a merchant/business. I'll take constructive criticism's into account, but posts that are spleen venting rant's are (generally) discarded. And if it's driving distance, you can bet I'll probably check it out for myself.

Now for my one idea:
We have a sponsors page on our website that is woefully out of date. Why don't we talk to some lfs about being sponsors? Couple of raffle items per year for a spot on the site? Maybe have someone to be the "DRC Sponsor Chairman - er ChairPerson?

Gordonious · #4 12/14/2007, 10:14 AM

I have said that I would print up some biz cards and start handing them out at my work and even leave some on the counter, but someone told me they could make them cheaper and we were supposed to talk about them at the last meeting. I didn't remember to discuss this at the last meeting.

I have more ideas, but I'm late for work. I'll post later.

a1amap · #5 12/14/2007, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ronert
Google lead me to RC. A quick scan of the forums introduced me to DRC.

I also agree about the lfs bashing.

Now for my one idea:
We have a sponsors page on our website that is woefully out of date. Why don't we talk to some lfs about being sponsors? Couple of raffle items per year for a spot on the site? Maybe have someone to be the "DRC Sponsor Chairman - er ChairPerson?

The job of sponsers and raffle items falls to the Vice President along with being chief cook and bottle washer

icy1155 · #6 12/14/2007, 01:18 PM

Hey everyone, thought I would chime in here. I just moved down here from Maine this fall, and I was around while the local club there, Saltwater addicts of maine (SWAM) went from a group about your size to about 3x the size in about a year and a half. The way that they did this was with some advertising for frag swaps, speakers, and auctions, as well as making their own forums and linking their RC forums over to there. The addition of more forums made it easier to catagorize things and it made it run alot smoother. Once they had their own forums, they started contacting both local and online vendors of different stuff for their annual auction, which was a huge success and helped raise money for the club as well as bringing more people into it. Anyways, go over to www.clubswam.org and make your way to the forum to have a look at what I mean.

Another idea is a frag auction. Everyone in the club brought frags and other stuff that they had in their tank in and a list was made of what belonged to each person, and then everything was acutioned off. Not only was it a way to bring in more people since there was a lot of advertising, they also auctioned off some stuff that had been donated to the club and the procedes went to the club, and some of the people in the club donated a frag or two to the clubs funds.

The last suggestion I have is to bring in some speakers... SWAM has had Anthony Calfo, Barry from Clams Direct, Frank Mazarrani (i know I spelled it wrong.... not sure what the right way is), and Greg Hiller since I have known about the club. These events were advertised and members and their family got in free, general public was 5$. Since their yearly dues are only 20$, almost everyone who came that wasnt a member already signed up to be one since it was only 15$ more anyways.

Just some thoughts on possible things that could help out with growing the club. I have to disagree about the LFS thing though... I personally dont think that we should kiss up to a LFS and not tell the truth about them just because we want the club to grow... maybe if you do get a set of your own forums you can make a header post like these view do not represent the views of the club, only specific members. Things like that tend to remind the LFS that it is a personal opinion, it has nothing to do with the club.

tat2tillidie · #7 12/14/2007, 01:24 PM

well you could make a banner and we could post it every where possible on the net and the spark would be a good idea maybe even talk about doing a article and showcase some of the members tanks!!! as far as the lfs bashing maybe you could make it a rule in the forumn that you cant bash lfs just in drc. and gaurantee that to the lfs and maybe they would sponsor or at least donate a frag for a local frag swap or have the frag swap at there store( hint premium aqautics) its big enough. or petkare in gov square billy and frank are really into sw and could possibly talk the owner into it. maybe ask lfs to put a flyer about drc with the purchase of any sw item for a month or something. hell i own a buisness and i would open it up for an event anytime you guys wanted so just let me know if there is anything i can do to help. put flyers in the local stores. maybe even do a event every 3 months so its 4 times a year. start a blog and forums on the drc website. beef that site up alot and maybe do a member of the month showcase and tour!! seminars more frequently and more trips!!! if theres money them spend it on stuff like that.

cdangel0 · #8 12/14/2007, 02:00 PM

Jon,

check out Vistaprint.com for the business card idea. You can get a batch of 500 free, just pay the $10 S/H.

But I found RC through google, and then the DRC through RC.

Gordonious · #9 12/15/2007, 12:05 PM

There have been several people who have found the clubs website through google. Perhaps we can look at ways to bring our name up higher if you do a search on google. We also could see if we could put up google maps to the Newark library or where ever else we have meetings as long as it isn't at someone's house. I also want to talk about the possibility of switching meetings to the weekends and get some opinions on doing so.

Jonathon

Gordonious · #10 12/15/2007, 12:49 PM

As far as the stores go, we have to be careful what we say on here about them or they will not be willing to support us. If we watch over the people that are new to the forum and to the hobby and keep them from running their mouths before they know what they are talking about then we should be in better shape. That might be a little rough to do in RC, but hopefully we can expand our website in a little bit and move the chat into there?

If we build our relationships with the local stores perhaps we can use those club member cards for discounts and other possible perks. ;-)

Shnabbles · #11 12/16/2007, 08:19 AM

TRUE Gordonious

Our local stores suck... (havent been to premium aquatics yet though so i have no opinion on them) but every one else real local gets 2 big thumbs down.

I think maybe just striking up a conversation with salt water shoppers in the store would work. I mean if anything through them some good advice. I have met so many people in the past 3 years that said "Oh i tried saltwater before.... everything kept dieing so i gave up".

Jocephus · #12 12/16/2007, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gordonious
As far as the stores go, we have to be careful what we say on here about them or they will not be willing to support us. If we watch over the people that are new to the forum and to the hobby and keep them from running their mouths before they know what they are talking about then we should be in better shape.

Though I generally agree with the idea here, I think that there are a lot of issues with some of the stores in the area. I would caution against being "careful of what we say on here" in order to gain sponsors.
I think that feedback on the stores should be used to try to address the issues they have. A good example is the thread a while back, bashing the Fish Bowl. A couple of their employees (obviously)got on and tried to offer opposing views. But the fact is, after the mods closed the threads, they took a couple of steps(albeit small steps) toward correcting some of the issues that people complained about. So again, though I agree that the "bashes" should be limited, I think this is the place to discuss things that we as consumers would like to see improved.

a1amap · #13 12/16/2007, 11:47 AM

Discuss is one thing, but as soon as someone makes any kind of coment it opens up a can of bashing. There are always things that could be done different/better. There is always going to be a better price somewhere else. Each store has its good and bad but its only the bad that seems worth mentioning. Without a local fish store where are you going to get that emergency heater when your backup fails? If it was constructive criticism I would be all for it, but in most cases its just mean.

Jocephus · #14 12/16/2007, 12:18 PM

I agree, Al. It seems as though the only LFS that gets good reviews is the one that employees a couple of our members. LOL I think that one's pretty good, but haven't seen anything spectacular from it either (only been twice though). At any rate, I will continue to frequent the Fish Bowl, because of the reasons already mentioned. I will continue to criticize them when needed, because I spend my money there. I think that's a fair trade-off.

davidandliz · #15 12/16/2007, 12:24 PM

your right al, i think sometimes we get out of hand on the bashing.. these lfs' are small locally owned stores that already have a difficult enough time wondering if it is worth it to stay in business without ppl saying their prices are too high or how the store looks. of course we should be able to give our opinion and suggestions but regarding the thread on premiums prices on rock .. well everyone around here sells it for the same price or higher.. we cant really expect, a NEW lfs at that, to have rock for the price of TPP and still be able to stay open...

The question we should be asking is do you want to complain and the store to close because either the owners are reading these posts and thinking we wont shop there or that we may be discouraging other or new members from going there all together...

For the most part i think that for a new lfs premiums prices for other things are pretty far opposed to the other real lfs' in the area that carry swf and corals.

Every lfs in the area offers something that the other doesnt, its nice to be able to shop around.. i would personally not want my store options to deminish because of anything we said.

I think it would help us as individual shoppers as well as a club to have a good relationship with our merchants.

thats just my opinion...

LIZ

Jocephus · #16 12/16/2007, 01:10 PM

Lots of good opinion in this thread. I think we are all pretty close to on the same page.

Change of subject... Liz, do you all realy have 250lbs of live rock in your 90? Can you put up a full tank shot? I have around eighty lbs in my 65, and I am considering adding a bunch more. Just curious what 2.5 lbs per gallon would look like.

davidandliz · #17 12/16/2007, 03:37 PM

pic 10 on my gallery has a picture of my tank a few months ago.. thats pretty much what it still looks like.. the rock is practically right up to the glass.. it does touch the glass on the sides and back.

DamnPepShrimp · #18 12/16/2007, 08:55 PM

Quote:

I would like to think the local stores would be the best source of local saltwater zealots, but we have got to stop bashing the local stores online so they will want to be associated with us.

So funny but so true! Word of mouth I think is a good way to expand. I run into a lot of people that are into the hobby and never have heard of RC let alone DRC. One time at school, I had someone leave a business card on my trans am for a car club, so cards could be a good idea as well? Telling someone about DRC won't be as effect as having something tangible.

Gordonious · #19 12/17/2007, 11:55 AM

I have told people in stores about the club in the past and they either forget the URL or how to get to RC. I agree that telling someone won't be as effective. There could be a ton of people out there worse then Ken that don't even have AOL to help them. Lets get some business cards made up with the club URL on it!