Making the urs more formal

[GMaquarium]

I like G's line of thinking. I think he can help out a lot. You guys should discuss more ideas with him Jeff. Anyone interested should give input and perhaps a meeting at G's lounge sometime, then maybe posting some thoughts/outcomes from the meeting and asking more feedback from those who did not attend as well.. would "start setting a course."

It doesn't mean you just do everything at G's. But it can be a big part in helping change things, getting more input and having people take on some responsibilities they may want to volunteer to do freely.

Everyone would agree Cost- FREE is absolutely good! If there are things people can do to contribute, donate, etc..

Also, don't count out a speaker never coming here. It's possible. I know both Sanjay Joshi and Anthony Calfo came here as well as Steven Pro. Sometimes there is some funding involved of course. But it's happened before. With good communication for a while, you never know who we could get to come visit sometime. I can't promise anything, but I actually talk to Steven Pro quite a bit. Seriously. It's all in fun on FB. But he's a regular guy, not someone completely untouchable. We've talked about our kids and what movies we were watching lately. JohnProgno, from MO, in the past had him up once as well. Both Pro and Joshi live close to us. (I know Sanjay is probably too busy) But Something like that again, might be good someday in the future if the group got around to actually planning a larger event sometime. Don't count it out, forever.

I still love the idea of someday: The club having their "own club tank" somewhere- someday too. Which everyone can participate in.

G- if you read this- what do you think of the "club Tank" ?

The Aqua Lounge is here for the public. Who ever wants to meet and use the space during open hours is welcome. I would always be glad to add my input, however I am not looking to be the one planning or working on it. I don't always have time and wouldn't like anyone to think there is any conflict of interest. Can I just be one of the members.

Really like the idea of bringing in national speakers. I could probably talk some of the guys into coming here. We just need to be a little more welcoming to them.

 

[FSU3NOLES28]

I like G's line of thinking. I think he can help out a lot. You guys should discuss more ideas with him Jeff. Anyone interested should give input and perhaps a meeting at G's lounge sometime, then maybe posting some thoughts/outcomes from the meeting and asking more feedback from those who did not attend as well.. would "start setting a course."

It doesn't mean you just do everything at G's. But it can be a big part in helping change things, getting more input and having people take on some responsibilities they may want to volunteer to do freely.

Everyone would agree Cost- FREE is absolutely good! If there are things people can do to contribute, donate, etc..
I
Also, don't count out a speaker never coming here. It's possible. I know both Sanjay Joshi and Anthony Calfo came here as well as Steven Pro. Sometimes there is some funding involved of course. But it's happened before. With good communication for a while, you never know who we could get to come visit sometime. I can't promise anything, but I actually talk to Steven Pro quite a bit. Seriously. It's all in fun on FB. But he's a regular guy, not someone completely untouchable. We've talked about our kids and what movies we were watching lately. JohnProgno, from MO, in the past had him up once as well. Both Pro and Joshi live close to us. (I know Sanjay is probably too busy) But Something like that again, might be good someday in the future if the group got around to actually planning a larger event sometime. Don't count it out, forever.

I still love the idea of someday: The club having their "own club tank" somewhere- someday too. Which everyone can participate in.

G- if you read this- what do you think of the "club Tank" ?

I think the idea of a club tank is fantastic. I just wonder about having it in a location where everyone can enjoy it. That'd be the tough part.

 

[tent boy]

I love the aqua lounge. It has something for everyone. Obviously the Buffalo and Syracuse people wouldn't come out. I do agree that the hobby is much more fun having met some of the interesting people.

 

[DEEP BLUE SIX]

The Aqua Lounge is here for the public. Who ever wants to meet and use the space during open hours is welcome. I would always be glad to add my input, however I am not looking to be the one planning or working on it. I don't always have time and wouldn't like anyone to think there is any conflict of interest. Can I just be one of the members.

Really like the idea of bringing in national speakers. I could probably talk some of the guys into coming here. We just need to be a little more welcoming to them.

Well guys, you heard him. G at least wants to do what he can. You should take advantage of what he can offer at the very least. I'd certainly be willing to help for some event, set things up whatever. Perhaps sometime, I would go to a meeting as well. I'm open to it and being "useful".

It's probably not right around the corner as far as a "larger event", but in the meantime- I'll keep Steven buttered up when I talk to him once in a while. (LOL)

Maybe nobody cares too, but just curious again: what does anyone think about the concept of a "Club Tank" ?

Believe it or not A LOT of other reef clubs around the country and world have them! All members enjoy sharing in it as well as learning together at the site it's located at. Each person is allowed a small space to scape or add a coral or 2. Just a real cool idea.. but that's just me.

 

[FSU3NOLES28]

I wouldn't be opposed to even chip in for a coral for those from out of town to get something for driving out providing people car pooled.

As far as the club tank goes, I love the idea. Just not sure everyone would agree on where it should be.

 

[redmanx9]

What does everyone think of this. Instead of having a monthly meeting. Lets do events. Maybe having frag swaps, social events, talks, how-to's. This way everyone in advance knows that something is coming up and can plan on it. So if we did 3 - 4 larger events a year. One in Buffalo, one in Rochester, one in Syracuse... etc.

Once we get this going. We could make it larger. And do a knock off of Reef Stock or do our own. Invite vendors to join in... etc etc.

I know we all have, jobs and families and other responsibilities. So having a monthly meet may not work. People may loose interest fast.

I dont know... its just a thought.

 

[block head]

I thought the reefcrawl, zoo type events were a nice idea. Fingerlakes had a couple of nice get togethers. Even if it was just once or twice a year.

 

[jfl14609]

Here is what I would propose first each of the three areas "votes" fora few people to kind of represent their areas. Now i am not thinking these people are people to be police and enforce rules or anything like that. I would think more like organizers. lets say we decided the last Friday of every month we would like to have a meeting (doesn't need to be a swap) the job of these people would be to start a thread seeing what people would like to discuss and then try to find a location etc. basically their jobs is to try and get people together outside of the web. that would be a basic job. then lets say we wanted to do something like the old urs board did and have melev come to town ( one of my favorite meetings too bad no one showed) we need to do some type of a "fundraiser" donations sell shirts or whatever to raise the funds but the main thing is keep it easy. Lets face it we all have busy schedules so we cant expect the organizers to spend 20 hours a week working. and to be honest whats it going to hurt if it doesn't work it doesn't work and we go back to where we are now. The biggest thing is i think every decision made should be a club decision not just one person or a small group deciding.
As far as the club tank I don't see that being a possibility as far as i am aware we still have one at the zoo. Not sure about the details i am sure we could contact Mark puter and he would know. The main issue with setting up a club tank is who pays for it and who maintains it?
would love to make G kind of our home base. I think G and his family are all great people and very generous. They definitely are great for our club. That being said we need to figure out a way to be fair to other shops. In the past people that own lfs or even work at a lfs have been treated terribly on this forum. The last thing we want is to lose support from the other stores as well. But I am thinking thats a step to be figured out after we decide what route to take with the club


sorry for my typing its hard to type on a iphone "i dont care who you are haha"

 

[Flanders]

There is already a "club tank" of sorts at the Rochester zoo. I am not sure what the maintenance status of it is or if anyone from the club is still working on it.

 

[MarkKlier]

Again just to save you guys some time. If you want to do any type of fundraising you need to have a tax ID#. If you want to be non profit, you need to have a formal board..i.e. all the things we were trying to do.
For our meetings we would accomidate out of town people by having a seperate site on a mirc link for "real time" chat.
We had it set up so that one person would be in charge of "science projects" one would be in charge of a "news letter" and so on.
We looked at other reef central clubs and their bylaws to get a sense of what we should do.
So I think your idea is fine, but some of the ideas that are being floated like raising money for events do have legal requirments.
As for a club tank, yes that was supposed to be at the Zoo. I am not sure of it's status either.
Very glad to see there is interest in this, certainly would come to events,

 

[St.james of reefdom]

Deja vu...

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I know I'm not really adding anything new at this point, but just to weigh in on my feelings.

This and this:

count me out. Been there, tried it. Informal works best for me.

Before you guys spend too much time on this, you should review what happened when we tried this before.

I watched our own club's near-destruction last time. And, being part of Team RC, I've watched many, many, many other clubs blow up over the years - you guys may or may not be surprised, but there's a near-constant chatter of reef clubs formalizing and then blowing up across the country. I have yet to see a long-standing informal club "become more formal" and survive without some degree of major catastrophe.

One of the sweetest things about URS is that we've somehow managed to strike a balance. We have many of the benefits of formal clubs (regular frag swaps, good knowledge sharing online and in person, people willing to help each other) with pretty much none of the drawbacks (politics, backseat drivers, armchair quarterbacks, legal requirements, splinter groups forming competing clubs, politics, slander, name calling, politics, and politics).

Rather than just saying "let's get formal" I'd urge you all to consider exactly WHAT it is you want (more meetings? more swaps? more speakers?) and then just go do that thing within our current structure.

 

[FSU3NOLES28]

Someone who went through this before:

Can you offer insight in to what exactly went wrong? It seems like a lot of the veteran members are very sour towards this idea.

What exactly happened last time?

This could be very good feedback for us to make a decision on what we should or shouldn't do and how we should approach it.

 

[low riderr]

i have the same opinion as some of the elders in the gang here.i wasnt around for the last time this was attempted so dont know how that went down.but its just to easy today with the forum to set up events. if someone or something needs to be paid for,than you charge a cover at the door. and besides how long does it take to find someone willing to host a swap or do brs group buy? about half a dozen posts. there are way to many of us with the addiction,someone is always itchin.

 

[FSU3NOLES28]

As far as the whole tank idea goes... maybe the one at the zoo would be a good idea. Last year I was in there it looked like it needed quite a bit of work.

Since they already have the equipment and already having it running maybe we could approach them on us maintaining it for them and in turn we could get free admission to the zoo? I don't know.. just an idea.

 

[DEEP BLUE SIX]

As far as the club tank, I've seen the Zoo tank several times in the past.
I think Mark Puter may have added (or not) the CBB I gave him to it. Not sure how it worked out...

Have not been to the Zoo in a long time. But last I was there, it was a decent tank.
However, not really what I was thinking for a club tank.
I was thinking something more on the lines of a tank all/any members that want to- would be allowed to scape very small parts of(and add a coral or 2 at the most) just to leave room for everyone to be allowed contribution in it. As far as maintenance goes, it would be good to have it at a site like that or an LFS etc.. So we could have access to dropping by and working on it- like a hobby. But there could still be other people who maintain it including club members.

As far as the cost of the main equipment- if we started a tank instead of an existing one(zoo) There are so many people out there who have extra parts they are not even using and as long as good condition- even a tank shouldn't be too hard to aquire for cheap or free. It may not come together like a quick snap of a finger. But we could put a system together with some time, for very inexpensive to even some free.

The key is (if it's not the zoo tank) a "site" to be able to have it at that we all have access to "during business hours" for "free" (no admission charge). Not sure if G really has any room for another tank for the club at his shop. But "IF" he did, that would be a shoe in easy option.

You'd want it to be an easy site for any of us to be able to go to. How does the zoo work- letting URS members have access to do hobby work on the tank?

 

[FSU3NOLES28]

As far as the club tank, I've seen the Zoo tank several times in the past.
I think Mark Puter may have added (or not) the CBB I gave him to it. Not sure how it worked out...

Have not been to the Zoo in a long time. But last I was there, it was a decent tank.
However, not really what I was thinking for a club tank.
I was thinking something more on the lines of a tank all/any members that want to- would be allowed to scape very small parts of(and add a coral or 2 at the most) just to leave room for everyone to be allowed contribution in it. As far as maintenance goes, it would be good to have it at a site like that or an LFS etc.. So we could have access to dropping by and working on it- like a hobby. But there could still be other people who maintain it including club members.

As far as the cost of the main equipment- if we started a tank instead of an existing one(zoo) There are so many people out there who have extra parts they are not even using and as long as good condition- even a tank shouldn't be too hard to aquire for cheap or free. It may not come together like a quick snap of a finger. But we could put a system together with some time, for very inexpensive to even some free.

The key is (if it's not the zoo tank) a "site" to be able to have it at that we all have access to for free (no admission charge). Not sure if G really has any room for another tank for the club at his shop. But "IF" he did, that would be a shoe in easy option.

You'd want it to be an easy site for any of us to be able to go to. How does the zoo work- letting URS members have access to do hobby work on the tank?

Not sure on the specifics of the maintenance of the tank if it were at the zoo. Good point on the rest of this. I would love to have it in G's lounge, but not sure he has the space for it. Either way, whatever we decide I'm in to help out. I think its a fantastic idea for us to do this. I know just starting up a large tank would teach me quite a bit.

 

[tmz]

Mark as I recall you folks put good deal of commendable and professional effort into a formal club ,separate from the URS several years ago.

Thus, wisely imo, allowing the openess and informality of the URS to continue . In the end the club didn't get enough actual participation from abroad base of URS members.

There could be any number of localized clubs withtin the URS umbrella without changing the URS. Formal clubs do have legal requirements, politics and a bureaucratic flavor not fancied by a number of URs members though . This would be so even with the best folks running it as was the case when you folks attempted it.

There have been cases in other clubs,however, where club officers have assumed wrongful positions including censorship of commentary on RC to ensure it held to official club positions determined by the president. In one case of which I am aware, a club officer engaged in repetitive attacks on RC officially if not truly on behalf of the club membership , leading to a ban on the entire club.

Certainly more events and shared resources are possible with or without a formal club. If folks are willing to sponsor them and do the organizing work, ad hoc stuff can work well ,as seen in frag swaps and reef crawls for example.

I'm not clear,what the benefits of a formal club would be beyond the obvious continuous focus and work and don't see why ad hoc work groups set up on threads around certain activities mightn't work just as well.

Certainly swaps crawls presentations ,educational events are possible with ad hoc organization based on interest. It takes interst and work.

A club or localized clubs might be right for some and I would work on such an effort depending on the details ,certainly a good deal ofeffort would be required but I think keeping URS the mother ship without formality other than that already provided by RC is important.

 

[Gravesj1s]

I don't know but there's something about certain comments that stand out here. How about these "the back stabbing" ..." met with under current and resistance" "more of the veteran reefers are opposed rather than for it.
And, just from what I've seen in other threads around here I'm definitely out.


-Steve

 

[DEEP BLUE SIX]

I support everything TMZ is saying above. It "makes sense".
It's also too bad that the formal "club" Mark, Puter and others tried- did not work.

I've tried to offer sense to the fact that these things are difficult sometimes.
They have their benefits. But can pose people against- the by laws, and sometimes bureaucratic management style that somewhat unavoidable when you run an organization- "trying to make it work".

I offered the same sentiments to those interested in formalizing more. Knowing that's a common problem of difficulty faced.

It may or may not need to be formalized to certain extents. The main of what we have as it is- I think works and is good. It's just that some other things getting organized a little better (as some people have raised issue with) and improving some things would be GOOD.

For me: I would just love to see a place where we could all come together and work on a tank that belongs to the club. Something where we are sharing the experience together and learning from other peoples on site techniques for various things. Getting to try the techniques ourselves after watching etc..Then getting to stand or sit back and view our progress that all can be proud of as our team project.

I don't know if it will ever be able to come to fruition. But if not eventually, it's too bad. Working and learning together during free time on a project that all are allowed to participation in, is one of the best ways for clubs to become closer together. I hope some people will still consider this idea somtime.

In the meantime, is the Zoo tank still possible for a club tank? Or would another site new tank be a better option? Just think about it - everyone.