Hi Falon,
Welcome to the COMAS forum, and welcome to the COMAS Membership. I would have posted earlier but was out of the country.
Let me see what I can add to the comments above...
COmas is very much a family, your successes are shared by us all, as are your losses and disappointments along the way. A great deal of this hobby is learning by your mistakes. We hope to provide the framework where you can learn by the mistakes we have made- and between us I think we have made everyone in the book and then a few more as well.
We have a number of programs- the frag program being the most prominent to a new member such as yourself. A while back I wrote an overview of the COMAS frag program,
you can read it here if you want to do so:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-09/feature/index.php
Another really sueful resource is the library we have. We have several thousand dollars of dedicated reef and saltwater fish books, as well as several years of MACNA DVDs as well. These can be loaned out at meetings.
Add to that the 70+ members and all the non-subscribed members that pass through this forum...well theres lots of opinions and advice.
At most meetings we average around 50 people. At the february meeting (on the 19th to avoid valentines day) we will have a presentation about pests and parasites in marine aquaria. This would be a really informativce seminar for you to come listen to, since you are likely to encounter several of the animals that will be discussed.
At every meeting we also have a free door raffle open only to members, so you could very well win the value of your club subscription back.
I hope to see you at the meeting,
Paul.