GIRS Spring Frag Auction

[xroads]

I know I am little off topic here, but I would love to see a membership drive of some sort. As much as I would like to see us become more statewide I dont think we will. West of I35 is mainly small towns scattered around. East is Des Moines, Wloo, IC, CR, QC, Dub, Musc, Burl, Osk, etc. I know we have some Iowans that are members of the Souix Falls & the Omaha clubs. That is fine as it is closer & more convenient for them. The more we can grow our membership the more we can have speakers in different area. Heck we could even have local frag swaps quarterly, and a monster one annually.

Done rambling again.

 

[Atticus]

Was just talking with my wife and came to a realization....

If the auction was used as a club membership promotion then I think a rotating location may be worth while. There would need to be heavy advertising to make it worth it. If we are looking at this method then I think a Rockford type Frag Fest would be more in order.

 

[wenszoo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9116431#post9116431 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Atticus
Was just talking with my wife and came to a realization....

If the auction was used as a club membership promotion then I think a rotating location may be worth while. There would need to be heavy advertising to make it worth it. If we are looking at this method then I think a Rockford type Frag Fest would be more in order.

I am going to try to make the Rockford frag fest 07. I am hoping the members that go there can gather info and Ideas. I agree I would love to see something like that here but i want to know how theirs works out first. Once again we would need a good easy to get to location. the location would have to be near a major highway. I am assuming we would probably need to start planning an event like that now for NEXT spring. would be great timing if we could get Calfo to speak at it. I SAY LET START PLANNING.. LOL

 

[glaspie69]

I think a Rockford like anything would be EXTREMELY hard, they have several large companies within a short drive. We lack anything like that, we also lack the numbers. I plan on attending this to see how they do it but I'm guessing there numbers are far greater than ours. I'm not saying this couldn't be done but I think it would be better to attempt it when the club has a stronger member base.

 

[Bullet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9116633#post9116633 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by glaspie69
I think a Rockford like anything would be EXTREMELY hard, they have several large companies within a short drive. We lack anything like that, we also lack the numbers. I plan on attending this to see how they do it but I'm guessing there numbers are far greater than ours. I'm not saying this couldn't be done but I think it would be better to attempt it when the club has a stronger member base.

I agree...It would be hard work but it could be done. They are doing it and their club is only 6 months old and I bet we have more members!

 

[got2lb]

It can be done. We just have to put some hard work into it. It will take some time and planning but I think it can be done. If we do something like this you may be surprised at how many reefers may come out of the woodwork and we could def. end up with MANY new members out of it.

 

[Atticus]

Rockford is not that large of a city, heck we have a state wide organization. The work is not that heavy for an event if you plan for it. I have run several events that had hundreds of participants here at Palmer. As long as the plan was written down and everyone involved read it and understood what are goal was things ran very smoothly. Work gets hard when you don't plan and try to throw it all together at the last minute, by yourself.

I know we could do it. We just have to WANT to do it.

 

[glaspie69]

Sounds like something to possibly work on, the only hard part I see is getting the vendors, but anything is possible

 

[tuffy1845]

You could have the auction at our house.....lol those that have been inside of it know it is big enough and I wont even charge u to rent it.......just an idea but I'm offering it as long as it is before May because we are moving..............again lol

 

[eshook]

I don't want to miss out on throwing my 2 pennies at the problem!

If we were to schedule something like Rockford Frag Fest we would have to do it *big enough* to make it worth someones time. We also have to explain that it will be worth their time. I think that is very important. If Rockford sent out emails and made posts saying they were doing a "frag swap" and *might* have some vendors, would people be going out of their way to see how it goes? or who shows up? or to get some stuff? I think it would be far fewer than they will get.

I have coordinated local events and it has been my experience that targeted and word-of-mouth advertising combined with incentives that are 'worth while' are the only way to have a very large and successful turnout. (This was applied to computer nerds, but I would think reefers would be even easier to pull out of their fish rooms ;o)

wenzoo was probably kidding, but if the group *wanted* to pull something like this off, they would have to start planning now and talking to potential vendors and LFS's to sponsor such an event. I would even throw in the words 'annual' or 'semi-annual' to attract them

 

[wesly2006]

just curious guys when is the frag swap?

 

[Atticus]

Looks like the calendar is finished and Waterloo and the Quad Cities were the choices for this year. The calendar can be viewed in its own post at the top (or near the top) of our forum.