May Spring Fling

tico mike · 10-29-2005, 09:14 AM

What are people's thoughts on a "Spring Fling"? That doesn't have to be the title of course. I was thinking of a weekend deal. Assuming capman still will speak and we can bring in a speaker. Maybe the same week as the frag swap. We need someone to host the May frag swap and if we do that on a Thursday or Friday night, we can have a "tour of tanks" and and a speaker on Saturday and a few more things and a speaker on Sunday. Kind of a mini Midwest convention. We can invite the local clubs and just see how it goes. I'm going to contact a few speaker possibilities and if capman knows anyone personally he can as well. Just preliminary now, but I don't think we can leave something like this til the last minute. It would be nice if all the commercial vendors (I'm getting to hate that term) in the club would be able to set up "displays" or something similiar at the college. I'll find out how much it would cost for a "pass" (to bring in the speaker) and please post your comments. We want to come up with something that makes the most sense to do. I don't expect this to be huge or anything, but it would be nice if it could be "big for us". I have just thrown out ideas here so we may do all or none of the things I said. Let's brainstorm.

clownfishcrazy · 10-29-2005, 10:01 AM

I could host the frag swap, and my big tank should be running by then.

Fahz · 10-30-2005, 03:58 PM

We would be happy to come as a vendor. I may even be well versed enough by then to do a little talk on RO/DI water quality.

Fahz

dirk griffin · 10-30-2005, 05:01 PM

Most of you don't go, but IMAC is the last weekend in April/06 in Chicago. This was the third date change (others were middle and end of May) due to other shows and conflicts. Won't affect things here but many of the speakers from these kinds of shows are already committed for the end of April thru the tale end of may. Can count on me for a booth, not sure I have anything to bring???

For what it's worth I have spoken to a few speakers over the years to attempt another Shimek type of day. Many have been Agu-itized, mentioning MN/winter and any hint of snow, clams them up very fast. They do attempt to have "lives" and are busier than we might expect.

tico mike · 10-30-2005, 07:24 PM

Thanks for the replies. Devin, let's wait to see if someone more centrally located can do it. Not saying we can't do it at your place and I thank you for being available. Let's wait though before we lock in. I emailed Anthony Calfo and Eric Borneman so far and will see what I get for a response. I'm going to call Tyree tomorrow, as I have to talk to him about some frags anyhow. Right now it will be all preliminary and once I have some $$$'s figured out, I'll put up a poll in the member's only section. I was hoping for a little more feedback though. We are going to need a lot of people get behind this for it to work...

otolith · 10-30-2005, 08:27 PM

I have an extra room downstairs that I would be willing to clean up so it would be inhabitable for a guest. I heard Tyree isn't the greatest of speakers. What about Bob Fenner--he seems to be a very personable writer anyway, so it would be nice to actually meet him. Another to consider would be Mike Palleta or Tullock? What about Larry Jackson? Almost all of us have the coral named after him. Haha. OOOHHH, I got it. SPANKY! Think he'd still like us after the last "fiasco."

Some other things to consider, is it going to be, "If you're a member, you need to donate," or is it going to be "on your honor" or are we going to make the "commercial entities" foot more of the bill, or would we ask some of the LFSs to "sponsor" the event. A bunch of possibilities, to say the least. I know that Dwayne donated the FF miles for a ticket to get Dr. Ron out this way, I'm sure a few of us have some that we could do the same...Anyway, just ideas.

redwinger · 10-30-2005, 08:35 PM

Lots of great names out there. What happened with spanky? I would love to here him speak and any of the others listed. I suppose I could listen to Eric "creator of the acan craze" Borneman.

. This is a great idea and we need to explore this much further.

tico mike · 10-30-2005, 09:43 PM

Eric Borneman already replied to my email. He can't do it in May, but said he would love to and asked us to pick another month. I asked if he could make it in April or June. We'll see what he says. Before I list the price he is asking, should we move the discussion to the Member's Only?

Derek, I heard the same about Tyree. But, he's nice on the phone and hard to say if it was the subject matter or perception or whatever...I know he'd be into a "tank tour".

I'm sure he'd love to see Jerry's tank.

tico mike · 10-30-2005, 09:50 PM

We need Capman to chime in with a good date that would work at the college. I think it makes the most sense to have it there.

otolith · 10-30-2005, 10:19 PM

Would it make more sense to do this in the middle of the summer when it's warm out? That way people could see how nice MN actually is to live.

Maybe it would be better to move this to the MO section so we can talk the nitty-britty.

tico mike · 10-30-2005, 10:24 PM

Ok, I started a new one in the member's section.

capman · 10-30-2005, 11:05 PM

Oops...I just did the same just now (I was typing mine while you were typing yours it appears).

May Spring Fling

Good idea, not a good month