Club Update

crumbletop

crumbletop

New member
Hello everyone in MTRC land!

Since not everyone is able to make the meetings, I thought I would provide an update on what is going on with the club.

First off, the Frag Swap:
Things are progressing well for our 4th Annual Frag Swap. It will be on Saturday, January 19, 2008, and will again be held at the Pleasant Green Clubhouse in Goodlettsville. This year we have rented out the upstairs AND the downstairs. We also have our first ever expert speaker for the swap. Dr. Ron Shimek will be coming in for the event!

We are working on sponsors and donations and will have much more on this coming over the next few months! We will certainly need many volunteers as we have a lot of things cooking for this and will need help for sure. The planning committee consists of mammagoose45, DMbillies, c_stowers, waynesworld, and me (crumbletop).

Regarding funding to pay for the swap itself, it has traditionally paid for itself. Up front funds have been coming from club dues, but the raffle tickets and table fees have generally covered all the expenses. We will have increased expenses this year with the bringing in of Dr. Shimek, but I think we will also see increased revenue and sponsorship. Last year we drew people from at least 8 states: TN, GA, AL, AR, KY, IN, IL, and MO!

Membership update:
I am also very pleased to provide a membership update. We have had a busy year with several well attended and well received meetings -- both at our local fish shops, and in members homes. This year we have had quite a bit of growth in the membership and have already increased our membership by 23% over last year. We had been holding steady at around 62 members for a few years, and we currently have 80 active members. This club is FOR all of you, and I am really excited about all the enthusiasm and involvement we are getting! Since not everyone is able to make the meetings, I thought I would introduce our members that have joined this year. Some of them joined early in the year, but most have joined since June. Please give them all a big MTRC Welcome!

Dellinger, Bob and Sue Lynn (gobyholic, gottahaveadori)
Demo, David (demos10)
Pierson, Steve (VikeBron)
Wood, Christopher (CloudIX)
Spears, Kenneth "Toby" (Eclipse1178)
Lacefield, Casey (greystreet41)
Locke, Matt (Reefintosh)
McGhee, Terrie and Terry (tmcghee)
Capbel, Keith
Cumberland, CJ (Nashvegas)
Kongsaysy, John (gsusfreak)
Schachtschneider, Kris (Shocky)
Nuta, Adrian (acecool)
Buell, Brandon and Julie (NeveSSL)
Ingrahm, Spencer
Dickens, Mary (torpedo101)
Kennedy, Norman (fallinapart)
Tedescucci, William (scucci)
Higgs, Preston (aquatron123)
Martinez, Mike (mikemartinez)
Rutledge, Kevin (rutledgek)
Pettyjohn, Thomas (ReefingMadness)
Morris, Sam
Brumit, James (meintn)
Chambers, David
Folley, Scott and Julie (jfolley67)
Stephens, Danny (streetracinsrt)
Brumit, Michael
Taylor, Jack and Kathy (teamreefers)
Harris, Joshua (snooptroop)
Cook, Steven (abiathar)
Argodale, Christopher (geewizzitsme)
 
Upcoming Meetings

Upcoming Meetings

Meeting Update:
Also, an update about the upcoming meetings:

Oct 13: JFolley67 -- we all get to see the new 180 in person!
Nov 11: Fins -- we are trying to get the talk on skimming for this meeting
Dec 8: Foggy54 -- Third Annual Joint MTRC/NTRC meeting!
Jan 19: 4th Annual MTRC Frag Swap!!!
 
Hey Mike,
Puttin' a little pressure on us for the 180 meeting, eh? hehe.....gotta make sure it is up to your standards!!!! Just kidding!
 
1 queston for you... I have been a very active club member in my previous states and would like to know what is the plan for MTRC for the following year, where is this club going and what is needed to acheive this.

One thing that i have seen since being here is there is not alot of blogs or post being put on here or is there another site i dont know about. But i have been given good info since being here like where to go and who to talk to.... I am in the middle of nowhere in gallatin with no stores in a 30 mile radius and i use blogs to find useful items or people looking to get together a lot.... I again think this club will be a great on once i get more familar with what is going on thanks for listening or reading.
 
Hi, Peterock!

RE posting and blogs, I think a couple of members have tried out the blogs area of RC. There aren't other blogs as far as I know. RC is where our club forum is, and as far as RC forums go, it is pretty active. We are in something like the top 10% on posts, and have a fair amount of posting. That does wax and wane, though. It tends to go up a bunch around LFS meetings, and our Annual Frag Swap.

RE the club direction -- Because of people getting out of the hobby or moving away to another state, we had a change in the leadership this year. Gflat was the treasurer but was basically a one man show (superman) for the club. With the change in leadership the board wanted to do things that encourage more participation from the club membership. We thought we'd target this year for some growth and activities and are really focusing on the swap. We also added a new LFS meeting this year, and have introduced topics to the club meetings, so people can learn more about the hobby. We had our first guest speaker at the Aquatic Critter meeting in June (I think AC was in June). We've also started fragging more corals at meetings and things like that.

For next year, things are not set. We have our big event -- the Frag Swap -- in January and basically a new year starts just after that. We have had great involvement and enthusiasm from club members (one of our goals for this year) and because of that I think we can start to target things like doing some group activities (like maybe trips to the ATL aquarium or Chattanooga Aquarium or other activities), as well as potentially maintaining a tank or two over at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. For those kinds of things we need good pariticpation from the membership, and we thought that 07 would be the year of cultivating participation, and that 08 may be the year of putting that to work :)

Anyway, that is where things are and where things may be headed. Just some thoughts really. Thanks for asking!
 
I think the club needs to be involved in some tanks at Vanderbilt. Agreat thing for the club and the community!!!!!!!!!!
 
You are doing an outstanding job crumbletop:thumbsup:
As you know I watch the forum and it's rewarding to see my former club moving in such a positive direction and in such capable hands!
The effort and preparation you have put into the club have been admirable. If only every club could be so lucky as to have a president such as yourself.
Chris
 
Thanks for the complement, Chris!

Yeah, CJ. I guess you got a new number this year. You can have your old 2005 number back if you want :D
 
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