Frag swap in Montgomery

gflat65

gflat65

New member
I was wondering how many people in the area might be willing to drive to a frag swap in Montgomery? There have been some whisperings about some interest and someone asked, so I thought I'd see what kind of support there might be for something like that. I don't know if there has been anything like that in the area before, so it's difficult to even try to beginning planning with out an idea of possible turnout (4-5 people, 20-30, etc.). If in the general area and willing to drive to Montgomery for a swap, please post a reply:).
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12974198#post12974198 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scapes
what ya got H@arry????? :)
Click to expand...

Take a look at my posts in the selling forum.
 
The thing is finding a place that fits our needs and is dirt cheap;). Sounds like there is interest in something, so I'll start getting on the search.
 
When I lived in Montgomery, the place for the bird show was "Governers House". They have plenty of room and folks can stay at the hotel. I don't know what the rates are, but there was always a big turnout for the bird show.

Debbie
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12976845#post12976845 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dbarker
When I lived in Montgomery, the place for the bird show was "Governers House". They have plenty of room and folks can stay at the hotel. I don't know what the rates are, but there was always a big turnout for the bird show.

Debbie
Click to expand...

That place is still here, though it now goes by some other name. While I doubt it is expensive, the fact that we don't actually have a club here (and therefore no rep and no treasury), it might be tough to have this at a venue that would require payment for the space. I know that many other swaps require some kind of fee, but with this being the first time for something like this in the 'Gump, I'd be hesitant to commit to paying someone for fear of having my cheese hanging in the wind due to poor turnout.

Not shooting anything down, just giving my $0.02. I'm in for the event pretty much no matter what is decided.

Will
 
Yeha, the lack of a club and funds makes it more difficult. A good swap can be done pretty cheaply, if a good location can be found cheaply. I'm going to start looking around for ideas with pricing and size as classifiers (all places will have to meet what I think are minimum requirements for a swap to make the list-acess location, etc.). The two big things for a swap are the space (location being a key aspect) and raffles. With other more establilshed swaps already semi scheduled (we know Chattnooga is in Aug every year, West Tn. looks like it will be in September every year, MTRC in January, and ETRC around the June time frame (I think these are all of the swaps in this general area of the country, right?). From that, the two biggest gaps are between West Tn (end of Sept) and MTRC (late middle of Jan), and MTRC (late middle of Jan) and ETRC (middle of June).

Here's what I recommend for this situation. We could set something up for the October, early November time frame, going as cheaply as possible since there is no guarantee of turnout for a first one in an area without even a social type club. By cheaply, I don't mean crappy, though;). It would still be nice, but maybe not as big as what we want the first time. If we can pick up a few decent raffle items, breaking even without an entry fee might be a gamble, but I'd be willing to take it. Even the first MTRC swap in Chattanooga back in January of 2005 didn't lose money (it was the first, though, and the room only cost us $100, with no other expenses, but coral donations as raffles donated by people attending). Everyone left that one happy. It told us we could do more next time, and it continues to grow:).

Without LFS support, formal clubs are difficult but not impossible. ETRC is a prime example. They were the first formal club (as far as I know) in Tennessee and were what helped get MTRC kick started (pushed more by one of the LFS' than anyone else). ETRC has stuck it out, thoguh and have a strong core of people, with new reefers popping in all the time. If there is interest, I'd love to help out however possible... I miss the club atmosphere of MTRC. Nothing like a bunch of grinning reefgeeks gawking at someones tank for hoursD.
 
I forgot to add that if we did one in October or early November, we could it as a gauge for interest in a larger one (more like what we are used to seeing) in the April time frame-splitting the ETRC and MTRC interval. By then, we would have more structure, if even just as a social group.

Social meetings can serve as swap fodder, too;). Every meeting even before we were MTRC was a chance for people to build wish lists from other local reefers and swap at the meetings. This lead to wanting more variety in coral, so we branched out to try to bring in more different regions.

I tend to muddy the water with my incessant ramblings, but let me know your thoughts. If we start meeting somewhat socially and discuss theoptions of forming a more formal club (or staying the same-in either case, if there is money involved, there needs to be multiple people identified as leads for liability, etc.). Frag swap discussions would be easier with more input instaneously:). We'd be willing to offer our house up for a social meeting, if there is interest. We got upwards of 30 people in our house in Nashville and have a bit more room here:). What do you all think?
 
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