How to make our club succeed

hng · 02-15-2008, 12:38 PM

I've been reading through the posts of the GRS since it started in 2005 (on RM) and there seems to have only been a small handfull of actual meetings. What would make it easier for people to be able to attend? I propose making meetings at the same time every month, say the first Sunday of the month. What day of the week would be best for everyone?

Second question - what do you want out of this club? Presentations, fragging help, group buys, etc? It seems that there really has not been any services offered by the club. Why join a club if you get nothing out of it?

I think that these two issues have really kept the GRS from growing like it should have over the past three years. What does everone else think? Suggestions?

cjtice · 02-15-2008, 12:55 PM

Hoang, I know that the AMAS up here in Asheville have been pretty successful. They do all that you are talking about with the exception of the meetings at a designated time.

I know that they do some DIY projects, guest speakers, fund raisers at the local mall and I am sure, but dont know (since I am not a member) that they do "open houses", "tank tours" and several other things as a group.

Good luck and I hope to make it down as much as I can.

Chris

hng · 02-15-2008, 01:00 PM

Thanks for the ideas Chris. Hope to see you again soon. You got that ricordea growing for me?

cjtice · 02-15-2008, 02:44 PM

What color was it? I think that I have that in my PMs but it has been so long.

orange/blue or just blue?

Chris

cjtice · 02-15-2008, 02:45 PM

Those are my pics uploaded onto another site ran by a fellow reefer up here in Asheville.

That site is just starting up and we have had one meeting with some pretty good results.

Chris

hng · 02-15-2008, 02:49 PM

orange/blue....they look awesome!

cjtice · 02-15-2008, 02:51 PM

I actually have a couple of both that I am growing out... I will be sure to bring one down when I come.

Chris

Willieb18 · 02-15-2008, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hng

I've been reading through the posts of the GRS since it started in 2005 (on RM) and there seems to have only been a small handfull of actual meetings. What would make it easier for people to be able to attend? I propose making meetings at the same time every month, say the first Sunday of the month. What day of the week would be best for everyone?

Second question - what do you want out of this club? Presentations, fragging help, group buys, etc? It seems that there really has not been any services offered by the club. Why join a club if you get nothing out of it?

I think that these two issues have really kept the GRS from growing like it should have over the past three years. What does everone else think? Suggestions?

Hey this is my first post on TRT. I post on RM, RC, and N-R. I was kinda of a member of the GRS when it first came about back when we used the yahoo fourms. I only made it to one meeting at Oceansfloor but I had a good time and meet a lot of great people. I think the club as a group would be better if we were able to use a diffrent fourm like yahoo or something else. There is just to much drama between a group of people comming from diffrent fourms and trying to be loyal to the group and their home fourm. Just a suggestion.

I think a set date and place for meetings would work great. Either you can make it or you can't it is to hard to try to get a date that is perfect for every member.

I would love to be a member of a group that got to gether and did group buys and had informational meetings not just looking at tanks and trading frags. In the past we got together and made some homemade reef food. I missed that meeting but did get some of the food. It has been years since I have even tried to attend a meeting so I am not trying to be a leader of any kind just throwing some ideas out there. Hope i didn't come off the wrong way with any of this.

hng · 02-15-2008, 05:19 PM

Thanks for posting Willieb18, opinions like yours is exactly what we need in order for things to work out well. I never really thought that the forum thing was an issue, since most people browse several forums. Ultimately, I figured that the club would be hosted on both. Yes, there would be some redundancy, but that just means more exposure for the club. Yes, I'm a moderator for TRT, but the stuff in this club forum and my actions in the club have absolutely nothing to do with my commitments to TRT. Nor am I trying to recruit new members for TRT (it does well enough on it's own without needing me to find new members!).

Fat Tony · 02-15-2008, 08:17 PM

A homepage/site is kinda one of the things that is on the agenda for discussion. you may want to attend the meeting on March 15th, i'm sure a lot of the things that are being brought up will be discussed..

aquawolf · 02-15-2008, 09:19 PM

Another thing to look into is getting discounts worked out with the LFS's in the area. They could give a 10% discount to card carrying members of the club. To get a card you have to attend one meeting for the year. This would benefit the club members by giving them some savings and incentive to show up for at least one meeting. It would also benefit the LFS's as they would get more business from a larger group of hobbyists as the club continued to grow.

Tony also made a good point that while it is cool to have the forum on TRT to be able to discuss things it would be a really good idea to have an actual club web site.

I think it might also be cool if the club had some people give input and write articles for some type of a monthly or quarterly newsletter that could go out via email. It could have articles concerning various areas of marine tanks and list upcoming events like group buys or special sales being held at a certain LFS.

HTH

tdwyatt · 02-15-2008, 10:31 PM

I think having the home page here on a flame-free forum is ideal, and it doesn not cost the club anything, and the forum is fast and is almost up 100% of the time, much more than you can say for independant home pages, where to host it, who will pay for it, who will maintain it, who will be responsible for the maintenandce of the level of social interaction (flames, etc), and TRT is well recognized and easy to navigate, your kid will be able to peruse it, much unlike many independant home pages, which end up being the extention of the egos and desires of the webmaster.

I don't mind saying that using TRT as a home page is ideal, expecially for a new club, and it already has a deep well of good archival materials that can be searched for DIY, ID, self-help, and requests for individualized questions to run your home system. I am pushing for use of TRT as the home page, as I have seen the GRC @ RM and it has many issues, which I am sure we can discuss at the meeting Mar 15.

my 2cw

hng · 02-15-2008, 11:51 PM

Thanks for chiming in Tom.

Aquawolf, you've got a great idea about LFS discounts. They do that with the sponsors of the Atlanta Reef Club too. They have a nice little membership card, but they also charge like $25 per year for dues. I was hoping not to have any dues for the PMAC, but maybe a small fee to cover the cost of making a card would not be unreasonable (especially if you get a discount with it).

TimmyG · 02-16-2008, 07:36 AM

Good points everyone,

I agree that picking one set time each month would be a help.
But one problem I see is that if you pick one day like Sun. for example, there will be prospective members you'll never see at meetings. Sun is church day for some. Sat are sports days and week nights may not work for those would have a longer drive to the meetings.
CMAC in Columbia met like we have been, every month but no set day or time. They had very good turnout and you saw a good mix of members at every meeting. Then chose a set calendar day and saw a fall in attendance at the meetings, at least for a while. Now they have their regular meetings on that date but change it to weekends when they may meet to best meet the needs of the club for that month.
For example say, Bob Hob wants to host a meeting but can only do it on Thursday the 15th....
Or a speaker can only be ther on Sat.
But that change would need to be made at least one meeting in advance so everyone would have enough notice to still attend.
By meeting on dif. days of the week you'll see a more diverse group of people IMO

I have been a member of GRS since it started and did a pathetic attempt as Pres. for a while

I also have been amember of RM since they started and have alot of people over there that I like to call friends. But RM is not for everyone.

I think that it would be in the best interest to have a club forum on as many boards as pos. to get the name out there. And over time you'll see what boards club forum gets the most activity and then as a club we should then decide what forum will be our "home forum" but still maintain all of them for exposure sake if nothing else.

hng · 02-16-2008, 08:47 AM

Good points Timmy. Perhaps the best thing to do is to say we'll meet on a set "weekend" every month with the exact day to be determined by members. For example, we can meet the first weekend of the month and change the day depending on who is hosting or if there is a speaker or group buy (Fri, Sat, or Sun).