First of all I just want to say that I am really glad that I was nominated to be Vice President of this fine club. For those of you who may not know me, my name is Jason Clark and I live in Bristol with my lovely wife (AquaMama13) and my two daughters Elizabeth and Samantha. I have been keeping aquariums ever since I was 10 years old and have experience in freshwater, brackish, saltwater reef, as well as our latest addition, Axolotls. Fortunately both my wife and daughters are just as much in love with this hobby as I am and we currently have 4 tanks up and running.
I have been a member of CTARS since 2013 and have really enjoyed my membership. My wife and I have been to most of the meetings during the last two years and I would like to step it up and be an actively contributing member of the BOD. With my experience I bring along from my work as a Site Operations Manager for a global company I feel that I could be an asset to the club. I am used to working on short and long term team and individual projects where timelines are extremely important. These projects are also completed with fiscal budgets in mind. Also I am accustomed to facilitating meetings and public speaking. I feel these skills will translate well to the CTARS BOD to provide an organized and enjoyable membership experience for our members.
I feel that the current BOD has done a phenomenal job in 2014 and has made some great changes in how the club operates. I would like to continue this momentum and I feel that I have some great ideas to gain more member participation and overall enjoyment.
Ideas I would like to implement if voted Vice President:
I would have a minimum of 3 months future meetings outlined with the date, time, and topic that would be available to the members. This will allow members to plan to be available. Meetings should continue to be planned in different parts of the state and some different meeting times would allow for more members to attend and contribute.
I think the raffle process needs to be refined and streamlined. I believe that all raffles should have separate cups for each prize so that not only do people win something they actually want, but the raffle process will flow much more smoothly.
I also would like to do more for new paying members of the club. Let's face it some people are just starting out in the hobby and it is an expensive one to boot! I would rally members of the club to round up frags for any new member that has confirmed that they were coming to a meeting. I think this would be an awesome way to be initiated into our club!
I would continue to build relationships with the LFS. I would work with LFS to provide CTARS club member discounts, incentives and events.
I would appoint and facilitate a member to run the tank of the month and or picture of the month program. This really must be done on a consistent basis to keep things interesting. All levels of experience would be showcased as well.
Meeting ideas:
Coral Fragging meetings once or twice a year where members can bring in their own coral to frag and trade with other members. Many members may have pieces of coral that are outgrowing their tank and could bring it to these meetings and have someone who is experienced show them hands-on how to frag it. Fragged pieces could then be traded amongst members.
Tank "œShow and Tell" meeting "“ Members could sign up to do a virtual show and tell of their tank setup via pictures and build stories. Q&A would be fun as well
Have a family orientated meeting where all members are encouraged to bring their kids, grandkids, etc. There could be kid oriented activities, considering the meetings are commonly held at the Lutz that is a great start.
I would also like to have some meetings that don't have any particular topic. We could have a pot luck style meeting where we just have some good food and talk reef. Meeting with topics are fun, but sometime all we want to do is socialize.
Last but not least of my ideas I think it would be nice to have one meeting during the year that is dedicated to giving back to the reefing hobby. Basically all proceeds generated from the raffles that meeting would be donated to a reef hobby oriented charity such as the PIJAC Marine Ornamental Defense Fund.
Sorry if this was long winded"¦..I have a lot of ideas that I am excited about and would love to bring to reality if voted as VP of CTARS.
Thanks for reading and Happy Reefing!
