Club direction. Call for help!

[Rendos]

History - I have been in the hobby for 14 years...started as a hobbyist, was part owner of a LFS in Jackson, TN for several years, and owned an online coral frag web site. I heard people on a regular basis asking me if there was an aquarium club in the area. My answer was of course....NO. I said for years that I wish there was one. I would join and be an active member in an instant...I just didn't want to be in charge. Well, with the encouragement of my mother, I started one.

June 2005. - I started the Jackson Area Marine and Reef Aquarium Club. At the first club meeting, I soon realized that even Memphis did not have a club in existence, and several people from Memphis drove up to my house for the first meeting. In the following months, more and more people joined....many of those from the Memphis area. We, as a club, decided to rename the club West Tennessee Marine and Reef Aquarium Club to make those in Memphis, and throughout West TN feel more like a poart of the club.

August 2005. - JAMRAC was officially changed to WTMRAC.

I recruited several pet shops as club sponsors. Most offered the club discounts on goods, and offered their stores for meeting places. In return most stores stated that the reason behind this was to encourage more people to become interested in the hobby, and in turn make the hobby grow, and create a more educated hobbyist.

Our club officially turned a year old in June 2006. We went from 17 members at the first meeting to over 100 in June 2006. While the club growth has been tremendous, the point to the club, in my opinion, has been skewed.
It seems that no longer do we have workshops, classes, and educational meetings.
We are turning into a discount club.
While receiving discounts is a great thing...I did not, and do not, want that to be the point to joining. I say this because we now stand to lose our most loyal sponsor, and I DO NOT want that to happen. I hope that we, as club members, can start to turn this around. I hope that I start seeing the club go back to it's original idea of educating hobbyists, and getting new people interested in this wonderful hobby.

You ask, how do we do that?
Well, I do not have all the answers, but here is one idea.

Ask if we, the club, can set up a tank in a school for a day. (I am sure some club members have children in school)
Something like star fish, snails, crabs, feather dusters, etc. that the kids can look at and give a short class on what each of these are...what they eat, etc. (Science teachers would probably love to have this in their classrooms for a day...they may even help)

If others have ideas, please share them, and please try to help me turn the direction of the club around. I want to see my baby grow into something we can be proud of...not just take advantage of.

Richard Rendos
Founder WTMRAC

 

[bshumake]

This is something that we have tried to address in the past and it has become something that concerns me too. While we boast a membership or over 100, I only see 20 core people with any regularity. Are there really only 20 people interested in learning more, teaching others and expanding the hobby?

 

[DrPeaches]

My interest in this club grew from a desire to learn more about reefs and how to keep them successfully. Reading books and articles on the Web can only take a novice so far, so I sought a place where I could get friendly advice from others with much more experience than myself. In the few months I have been in the reef hobby I have already met many new people and made new friendships. I could have never been successful without their support, suggestions, and guidance. Even when I've felt like I was being a pest in pursuing information, people in this club have always been there gladly and willingly providing much-needed information, and I appreciate the support.

As of now I have several corals, some snails, three peppermint shrimp, and whatever hitchhikers that made it along the way in my tank. I don't even yet own a saltwater fish. With my next-to-zero experience level in the reef hobby and my relatively new membership in this organization, it's difficult for me to provide any suggestions for direction. Most of the time I feel like I'm wandering around this hobby lost myself, just hoping I don't kill anything before I figure out what I'm doing.

This much I do know, however. About three years ago I set up a twenty-gallon tank with five feeder goldfish and a pleco in the hall of my wife's elementary school. Every day two children from her kindergarten class march down the hall with a few flakes of food to give to the fish. Feeding the fish has become the favorite job of everyone in her class. But it's not only these kids who grow to love the fish; all the kids in the school stop and marvel at the tank. When I go to school weekly to service the tank, teachers and kids alike stop me to ask questions about the fish. Surely their interest, piqued by the small aquarium in the hall, will lead to a few fish tanks in their homes.

A few weeks ago a friend gave me a 55-gallon tank stocked full of freshwater tropicals that has now replaced the smaller tank in the hall. "Oohs" and "aahs" can be heard in the halls as teachers, students, and parents alike stop to look at the tank. They ask me about the Bala shark, the clown loach, and the angelfish. Some tell me about their home tanks. Others, I feel, will eventually start their home tanks based on the example in the hall.

So where does all this rambling lead? Well first of all I may have answered my own question. I think this club needs to serve as an organization that can provide support to those who seek to learn marine fish and reefkeeping. The meeting scheduled for tomorrow night is a perfect example. I plan to be there to ask unceasing questions, so I ask for your patience in advance. I also agree with Richard that outreach needs to be a priority. I've seen how just a few cheap fish in a cheap, cheesy aquarium can inspire children who may never see such a thing at home, and how it can brighten up the sterile concrete halls in a public school. This school aquarium, I think, serves to create a more pleasant learning environment and might just eventually lead to new members in the WTMRAC.

Yes, I'm a rookie so all the help I can provide will probably involve hauling and fetching. But I'm learning, and soon I hope to be proficient enough to provide advice to another newcomer who wants to beautify his home and learn more about marine life without stumbling along the way.

As for a school looking to set up a display tank, I've got a ready and eager volunteer.

 

[zebrafish]

My reasoning for becoming a member is echoed above. I want to make sure I provide the best living conditions for my fish and inverts. as possible. There is no sense in buying something to just kill it slowly for the sakes of showing some friends and neighbors the pretty little fishy, and then next time they come over and ask where’s that fish you had last time. Oh it died, but look at the cool one I replaced it with. I plan on attending my second club meeting tonight and have a lot of questions, that I am sure someone can help me with. I agree we need to reach out to the schools and other areas where children and parents gather so we can educate people and expand the interest in the hobby. The St. Jude tank is another example of spreading the joy of our hobby. Think about how much happiness the tank brings to the children and parents. It gives them a brief moment to forget about why they are there.

My knowledge is very limited on the hobby, as they say I know enough to be dangerous, but am willing to do grunt work on any projects the club comes up with so that I can learn. And hopefully one day be a person that has a good knowledge base.

My first club meeting I was somewhat intimidated by the people that seemed to be experts in my mind, and was wondering if joining the club was the really the right thing for me to do. But as I thought about it, Yes it was the right thing to do. I asked myself would why are you uncomfortable? Is it because you don’t know as much as everyone else? I know people are not born with this knowledge so it ahs to be learned. At one point in each of my proclaimed experts life they had to be novices, so I am on my journey to become one of them.

To some things up, count me in for being an active participating club member.

 

[gflat65]

You know, this is an interesting issue for a lot of clubs. I think many responses will echo those above. I'm not in the West Tn. club (but you guys are like a sibling club for us, and I'm from Munford, so I butt my head in where it isn't wanted too often), but see some of the same issues with our club (and East Tn with theirs). Like us, WTMRAC has a lot of newbies. As newbies, you can be instrumental in helping decide what to do at meetings. Old salts forget about some of the problems of a young tank with little experience behind it,and the incremental learnings you gain from experience. If you see anything that you have wondered about-QT'ing (with all of the fun with pests lately), MJ mods for more flow from a MJ, acrylic building workshops (I know Barrett and Richard are good at this type of thing), sump designs, closed loop plumbing discussions, creating frag plugs, making a smorgasbord food mix for your tanks, how to frag certain corals, etc. Anything you guys and gals have ever wondered about, just keep it in mind and offer it up as a suggestion. I think you'll find that many people in the club may have the same curiousities. The St. Jude tanks are a great thing for the club, so other potentials in those regards are ideas, too. I hope I'm not butting in and causing issues here, but these are the types of things Richard and Barrett are looking for. We have the same issue in MTRC. We are becoming more a discount club than a learning club. We meet socially and enjoy the meetings, but don't discuss topics as often as some would like. There is alot of benefit for the clubs on RC to exchange info, and that's great, too, but for the longevity of the club, there has to be more. It's like getting ISO certified. In the beginning, it's not as hard to find things to improve on, but over time it becomes harder and harder.

As a state, we have a huge following in our clubs, as well as great support. I, for one, would liek to see if continue to grow and strengthen. The club supporters are the main entity to keep happy (along with member, but without supporters, new members are less likely to find you, beginning a downward spiral). They help form clubs and keep them going. Ours have been instrumental in our club and I know places like Kermit's have been very beneficial to your club (not to mention the wealth of knowledge that Dave holds in his cavernous brain).

 

[bshumake]

I would really like to get a smallish tank in a classroom for a day, maby even a week. It was brought up before and is a great idea. If anyone is a PTA member or familiar with their childrens teacers please let me know so I can contact them about this. For elementary school children the concept of interdependent ecosystems and symbiotic relationships is a huge leap in forward thinking. Through our tank and with a little teaching from us, and their teachers, they will realize how interconnected the world is and we are to it. Something that I have come to realize is that in the environment that we have created for ourselves we seem to forget that we impact this earth as much as it impacts us. So they will realize that recucling will help to save this and in turn save this other and so on and so on. Add that with the personality of the reef inhabitants (and the Nemo bandwagon) and this could really turn into something great. I have seen how much the parents, patients, and staff have enjoyed the St Jude tank and KNOW that this would really boost the club, its members, and its sponsors.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7970188#post7970188 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gflat65
........ Dave holds in his cavernous brain).

Did you just call me a fathead?

 

[gflat65]

Better than a flathead, huh? Heard that one a few times growing up.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7971881#post7971881 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gflat65
Better than a flathead, huh? Heard that one a few times growing up.

Oh,OK.
So you did call me a fathead.

 

[Rendos]

Why do all the posts in our forums always start out good, and then diminish into name calling, sarcastic comments, and the like? JK.

Thanks for the input Gary.

 

[drowzee]

i'm guilty. i joined the club primarily for discounts. did not want to attend any meetings or meet anybody. i got curious and went to my first meet and soon after i have gain very good friends and lots of input. i am really happy to see the club growing and i myself putting endevours ouside my own selfish interest. i think this discussion is a good first step towards the right direction. our sponsors has been very good to us as far as hosting, discounts and tons of info. like gary said they are very instrumental to our clubs success so loyalty to them will mean great things for us. hopefully we can convince our NPM to attend and see how we all enjoy everybodies company and share tons of information and very good meatballs.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7973093#post7973093 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rendos
Why do all the posts in our forums always start out good, and then diminish into name calling, sarcastic comments, and the like? JK.

Thanks for the input Gary.

Good point, let's just go straight to the name calling and sarcasm.

 

[luckyfish]

Dave holds in his cavernous brain).

I think this is more of an air head

 

[cateyes]

Dave===cavernous brain.....air head....... so that's where the echoing is coming from

 

[MarineFlake]

Let me post this point of view. I just joined the club a while back..I think..At least I paid money to someone somewhere. I didn't know anything about discounts and quite frankly, I could care less about discounts. I have the internet and can find just about anything at a reasonable price. What I *was* hoping to find in this club (having seen it advertised at a local Mem fish store) were other people sharing strategies, technology and ideas for helping each other to become more successful at reef/marine keeping. The 'white noise' found about every other post here does detract from the overall apperance of the club. Seems a little clique-ish. Theres some thoughts straight from the heart..GL.

 

[luckyfish]

Aside from the jokes, I would like to post some observations from someone who was a the very first meeting and seen the club grow over the past year. One, I have always appreciated how Richard not only made the club happen but really moved it along in the first year, your comitment to the club is clear. And having been there from the begining I would also like to say this; I don't think the club has become a dicount group. Sure the discounts at LFS are of varying levels of importance to members but I believe for those who are active (come to the meetings) the exchange of ideas is the draw. Someone accurately pointed out last night that we have about 20% of the total membership who are active and that's about what you would expect in a young (1 year old) group, especially when half the members have to make a 125 mile round trip to attend (it would be interesting to hear from other clubs what their "active" percentage is). I think if we want to increase attendance/participation we ask the membership 2 questions: 1) what prevents you from participating and 2) what would facillitate you increasing participation. From reading what has been posted on this thread already I would say that we need to pay more attention to helping newer members feel more connected. And I think Pres B made attempts at that last night by talking up the contributions everone can make. I hope this thead continues as I think it is part of the natural development of the group. I have other thoughts but I got to go feed the family.
Tim

 

[neuroslicer]

I would like to see a more specified agenda. The meeting last night was nice, but for the most part it was more of a social. There's nothing wrong with that, I enjoyed meeting the crew, but I think a specific agenda would attract more members. Or perhaps if one specific agenda might not attract enough, then a plan to discuss two or three specific issues, with a different set of issues every month. we might even poll members a couple weeks ahead of time to ask for suggestions. From what I gather, something like that has been done at some of the previous meetings. I think Barrett had that in mind last night but at least while I was there it didn't really congeal.

 

[redhawk44cb]

I joined in April, so while I'm not exactly a long time hack, here's $0.02.

Personally, LFS discounts were about the last thing on my mind when I joined. Most of what I have obtained I have bought from other hobbyists. The discounts offered by sponsors are icing on the cake, but I still like cake even with no icing.

I began participating in the club forum on RC when I was considering setting up a reef tank and joined WTMRAC shortly after. Like other new members, I have found the club to be an indispensable source of information. It has made my first endeavors into a complex hobby extremely enjoyable and successful. From my point of view, if one of the stated goals of the club is to inform and mentor those that are new to the hobby, it is a complete success. Six months ago, I couldn't tell the difference between LPS and SPS. I thought that mushrooms and toadstools were probably about the same. And forget about trying to identify any marine fish besides clowns and what I learned on National Geographic. I don't claim to be a fountain of knowledge, but I have three healthy tanks that are maturing well. I could not have done it without this club.

One last thing. As far as public outreach and community awareness of the hobby goes, I CANNOT IMAGINE A MORE IMPORTANT PROJECT THAN THE ST. JUDE TANKS. Our club president has secured our involvement in introducing the hobby to one of the preeminent charitable organizations on the planet. Thousands of children and their parents each year will be exposed to the beauty of our hobby at what is undoubtedly a bleak moment in their lives, and we all know that this will spread interest in the hobby and increase the reputation of this club.

If this club were my baby, I'd be pretty proud.

Colin

 

[Rendos]

I am proud of everything we have accomplished...very proud. But how many members show up to meetings? How many participate in the club forums? How many joined and you never see them? I am sure that many of the members you don't see have scheduling conflicts with our club meeting schedule. I hope that we can find a way to include more people in the meetings...changing the day and time of the meetings may help with that. Any other suggestions? I started the club because I knew there had to be others with my same interests. I wanted to create a way for those people to come together, meet, discuss, have a good time, make some new friends, etc. I think that we have accomplished that. The St. Jude project is beyond anything I could have hoped for. I would love to see us doing more of that type of community work...getting new people interested in the hobby, and keeping those already interested actively participating.

I appreciate all the comments you guys have written. It makes me see that what I envisioned for the club is happening. I just hope that more people share the same outlook as us. Please help me in making all members, new and old, feel welcome in the club.

Richard

 

[aharvey]

I finally was off work on the night of the meeting and I enjoyed it!
Good food, great hostess, lively discussion.
It could be slightly more structured. Do all the meetings go for 4 hours?
I would think that a 2 hour meeting with a loose framework of an agenda might allow us to focus a little better and then have a more social time afterwards.
Just my thoughts