MARS Club Survey

[palygirl]

Hey Everyone!

Over the last year, participation at the MARS monthly meetings as well as the monthly raffles has been diminishing while overall attendance at our events (Frag Swaps) is way up. Some of you may not realize the work and cost that goes into the monthly presentations (role of the Vice President is to plan the topics) and securing the raffle items (the Public Relations officer). The other officers of MARS also commit time and energy for the meetings as well as the special events (frag swaps, etc).

So, what can we do to increase participation? How can we get more of you involved with the meetings? Or, is it time to cut back on the number of meetings per year and focus on events and activities? Speaking on behalf of the Board, we want to do what is the preference of the membership.

Please take a few minutes and complete the following survey. Just quote this message and add your comments.

I'll compile the results and share them here. If you have any suggestions or comments that you wish to share outside of this survey, feel free to email me at President@marineaquarist.org.

How many meetings have you attended over the past year?

What are the reasons you don't attend meetings?

• Location
• Date of Meeting (3rd Friday of the month)
• Topic of meeting
• Other
• If Location is a factor, what area of Sacramento would you prefer?
• If Date of Meeting is a factor, is there another day of the week that is preferred?
• If you've not been interested in the Topic, what would you like to hear about?

If you're at a meeting and do not purchase raffle tickets, is it due to:

• Poor selection on the raffle table?
• Other? Please specify.

Do you think it's time to cut back on the number of monthly meetings? If so, how often should we meet?

Any other comments or suggestions?


I hope everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts on this topic. I (along with the rest of the Board) will not be offended at all by any of your comments or suggestions (unless you're outright insulting).
We're anxious to make MARS work for the membership as the membership desires.

Thank you!

 

[Borchers]

Hey Everyone!

Over the last year, participation at the MARS monthly meetings as well as the monthly raffles has been diminishing while overall attendance at our events (Frag Swaps) is way up. Some of you may not realize the work and cost that goes into the monthly presentations (role of the Vice President is to plan the topics) and securing the raffle items (the Public Relations officer). The other officers of MARS also commit time and energy for the meetings as well as the special events (frag swaps, etc).

So, what can we do to increase participation? How can we get more of you involved with the meetings? Or, is it time to cut back on the number of meetings per year and focus on events and activities? Speaking on behalf of the Board, we want to do what is the preference of the membership.

Please take a few minutes and complete the following survey. Just quote this message and add your comments.

I’ll compile the results and share them here. If you have any suggestions or comments that you wish to share outside of this survey, feel free to email me at President@marineaquarist.org.

How many meetings have you attended over the past year?3

What are the reasons you don’t attend meetings? I get off very late and cant make it until meeting is half over

• Location....nice location but wish is was closer maybe a few times a year
• Date of Meeting (3rd Friday of the month)...some Saturdays would be perfect. like half and half Friday and Saturday
• Topic of meeting...always great topics
• Other
• If Location is a factor, what area of Sacramento would you prefer?
• If Date of Meeting is a factor, is there another day of the week that is preferred? mixed of Friday and Saturday meetings
• If you’ve not been interested in the Topic, what would you like to hear about?

If you’re at a meeting and do not purchase raffle tickets, is it due to: N/A

• Poor selection on the raffle table? Always great prizes
• Other? Please specify.

Do you think it’s time to cut back on the number of monthly meetings? No. If so, how often should we meet?

Any other comments or suggestions?
I love this club. We have grown after the dark times and moved forward. You don't find many other clubs like MARS, always about the members and not the politics. Its a hobby not a life line. MARS helps us remember that. I would not have stayed in the hobby without the MARS club and current officers

I hope everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts on this topic. I (along with the rest of the Board) will not be offended at all by any of your comments or suggestions (unless you’re outright insulting).
We’re anxious to make MARS work for the membership as the membership desires.

Thank you!

 

[TigeBell]

Anne, my wife sent you an email about three hours ago with ideas. If you want to copy and paste her ideas, please do so.

 

[palygirl]

Anne, my wife sent you an email about three hours ago with ideas. If you want to copy and paste her ideas, please do so.

I received her email. Please tell her thank you very much for the ideas!

You and she should post them here... or I'll include her suggestions in my summary.

 

[TigeBell]

Here is my wife's email to Anne

Hi Anne,
This is Christina Bell. I just had a few ideas to share.

1. MARS caravan to the Redding or any other city Frag Swap and show support. This could or could not be in place of the MARS meeting that month.

2. Offer other clubs to join our meetings. Not just through social media but through a personal letter to their president. We could offer a benefit for coming such as 2 free raffle tickets or something. We could check into local hotel to give discount for their club to stay over.

3. Make personalized t-Shirts or beer/soda coozie (spelling?) to sell at our Frag swap.

4. What about an occasional "exchange" at our meetings? Who ever wants to participate could bring one or two frags and pick one or two frags via tickets.

Just some ideas

 

[Jet Black]

Hey Everyone!

How many meetings have you attended over the past year?
About nine

What are the reasons you don't attend meetings?

• Location
• Date of Meeting (3rd Friday of the month)
• Topic of meeting
• Other Something was unavoidable
• If Location is a factor, what area of Sacramento would you prefer? Prefer something a little more centrally located (South, South West) but it is not a determining factor in choosing to go or not.
• If Date of Meeting is a factor, is there another day of the week that is preferred? Saturdays make traffic a little less hectic but it is also not a determining factor in choosing to go or not.
• If you've not been interested in the Topic, what would you like to hear about?

If you're at a meeting and do not purchase raffle tickets, is it due to:

• Poor selection on the raffle table? Would like to see a little more LPS but there is always a great selection of items
• Other? Please specify. Didn't bring enough money.

Do you think it's time to cut back on the number of monthly meetings? No If so, how often should we meet?

Any other comments or suggestions?
I look forward to the meetings every month, even if it is a topic that doesn't pertain particularly to me. The people here are awesome and thats what I look forward too. I'm a little afraid that having two swaps will make MARS's less special but nonetheless I think it is a great idea (maybe make the usual date a little different in some way).
Also want to thank Anne and Anthony for all the work that they put forth for the club.

 

[Tysob44]

I have my kids mostly full time and my meeting date to swap with mom is on Fridays at 7... If they were on Saturday it would be better

 

[sfbayview]

Does Mars have a DBTC program? Also would seem like a good idea to stimulate the New Mars-Web forum with some contests ...

Best tank pic of the month ...
Grow-out contests

I would be interested in any tank tours as well ...

How many meetings have you attended over the past year? 1

What are the reasons you don’t attend meetings? Distance ...

Does Round Table Pizza offer a gluten–free crust?

Currently, we do not have a gluten–free crust offering.

 

[afamousjohnson]

I'll chime in here (didn't quote survey due to N/A)
1st off kudo's to the mars board. A lot of the behind the scenes goes unseen when setting and completing a successful year. It weighs the same as a full time job and is a huge contribution to our group of hobbiests. Not to mention this very act - taking the extra time to approach the member group to allow them to make it better...cause hey - it is everyones club.

Names Drew for those that don't know me and i have been heading the CRC along with an awesome board of go getting hobbiests.
chiming in because like in your area we just had to visit this exact topic up in chico for the exact same reasons, and a lot of changes were made. Thought I would post them here for you all in case it lends any type of hand for ideas.

We are keeping our 12 meetings but not all are set with a topic and raffle. there are 3-4 meetings in the year that are actual big topic and raffle club meetings(allowing more effort to be put in and overall making each that much more awesome). The other months meeting dates have been split up between specific events(i.e. swaps, bbq, end of year party,etc) and social hour meet ups - where it is simply a gathering of good folk and a lot of reef talk. No raffle set up for social meet ups but an oppertunity for people that attend to exchange frags and what not over a beer and pizza buffet.

We also had to run polls on time we were hosting our meetings and the day we were meeting up. The end result we had to change both. Normally we met every 2nd friday of the month which 2nd of the month is fine and stayed the same but our 2 big days were wednesday and tuesday for people to attend -
So we have changed our actual topic and raffle meetings to wednesdays and all social hour meetups to tuesdays(all 2nd of the month) all still announced and ran like a normal meeting.
One thing we looked at with social hour was combining it with the set venues pizza buffet night. those nights are busy and do not work well for a topic and or raffle but awesome for meeting up and chatting saltwater - also so much more affordable for families. Hence the 2 different meet up nights(tue.-wed.)

Not having the entire 12 month topic meetings and raffles - we needed to look at paid member benefits and run our normal benefits along with set up paid discounts at events and the such over the year along with a few forum based paid member beneficial activities to make up for the missing raffles and such(which should help forum activity also)

We love having you guys so close to us in chico. You run a very strong club with a vast number of reachable folk and very strong base group. A lot of the things you guys get done during the year for topics/speakers we do not have the reach yet to achieve and are extremelly greatful to have such an awesome strong club in our back yard. And I am always looking forward to attending those events despite the drive distance.


I love these ideas and will be bringing to our club in the Feb meeting on the carpool to out of town clubs big events in place of some of our social hour meet ups. So cool.

1. MARS caravan to the Redding or any other city Frag Swap and show support. This could or could not be in place of the MARS meeting that month.

2. Offer other clubs to join our meetings. Not just through social media but through a personal letter to their president. We could offer a benefit for coming such as 2 free raffle tickets or something. We could check into local hotel to give discount for their club to stay over.

3. Make personalized t-Shirts or beer/soda coozie (spelling?) to sell at our Frag swap.

4. What about an occasional "exchange" at our meetings? Who ever wants to participate could bring one or two frags and pick one or two frags via tickets.
(we made a small kind of vender on the go break down aquarium"the club tank" that is easy set up easy break down for peeps to trade corals from at certain meetings always cool )

 

[generaltoaster]

+1 because Justin drives me so what makes him able/unable to go is what makes me able/unable to go.

The club is full of spectacular people online and in real life at the meetings. For those of you who mainly stay on the fourms, I HIGHLY recommend you come out to the meetings. They're totally worth it and, words from your very wise 2015 board: this is your club; it's what you make of it. :bdaysmile:

 

[79chopperdr]

MARS Board: Thanks for all of your hard work!

For me the meetings are a social thing, its fun to get out and see some of the folks we interact with online. Unfortunately with family and kid commitments the MARS monthly meetings usually get bumped down on the priority list too often. The location is fine, Fridays tend to be a wind down day at the end of the week for us, Saturday seems like it might be better.

The speakers and swaps are awesome. I think we are due for a rummage sale again too

Thanks again Board Members!

Jeff

 

[robert s b.]

How many meetings have you attended over the past year?

I have not missed a meeting in 15 months

What are the reasons you don’t attend meetings? NA

• Location I live in Elk Grove maybe 40 mins away, centralized location would be much better for sure
• Date of Meeting (3rd Friday of the month) Perfect
• Topic of meeting Anything Reef related is fine by me
• Other
• If Location is a factor, what area of Sacramento would you prefer? Downtown would be great
• If Date of Meeting is a factor, is there another day of the week that is preferred? NA
• If you’ve not been interested in the Topic, what would you like to hear about? NA

If you’re at a meeting and do not purchase raffle tickets, is it due to: I buy every month

• Poor selection on the raffle table?
• Other? Please specify.

Do you think it’s time to cut back on the number of monthly meetings? If so, how often should we meet? Monthly is fine, quarterly is good as well.

Any other comments or suggestions?

Club to be more active in social networking, I belong to a facebook club that has over 180 members, and meet once a month to Buy, Sell and Trade coral and equipment and its held at a Reefers home, and we have a blast. Experience and beginners come and just talk about reefing. Most have not heard about MARS, There's a meet on Sunday the 25th, ill make sure to get the word out and try to encourage people to come and join us, I have talked to a few and they already expressed interest in coming to our next meeting. RC is fine, but folks who hear about the meetings must log on to find out about it, and once it gets down the page it gets lost, unless someone bumps it.

Also, maybe quarterly do a Tank Tour of our members tanks, do LFS tours and coordinate with the store owners, to open up early for us and give us substantial discounts when we come like 20% on all purchases. Believe me if a store does maybe $5000-$10,000 for the allotted time that we are there, that 20% off would be nothing to them.

Also I would like to take this time and thank the MARS Board for all the hard work!


I hope everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts on this topic. I (along with the rest of the Board) will not be offended at all by any of your comments or suggestions (unless you’re outright insulting).
We’re anxious to make MARS work for the membership as the membership desires.

Thank you!

 

[Rudedog1212]

I have been to two meetings and purchased tickets at both. I live in Elk Grove and don't get off till 5 so making it to the meeting is hard for me. If it was more central it might make it easier to attend or maybe on a weekend.

 

[KarenLM]

I have been a member off and on since 1997. We used to have the meeting Monday night. Most of the other clubs I belong to have their meetings during the week just a thought , I like Fridays. A central location would be great but finding a free place that will host MARS is very difficult. All 4 of the clubs I belong to meet at Round Table I haven't been to a MARS meeting for about 2 years. The meetings were always successful when we had a name speaker about 3-4 times a year, a do it yourself meeting 2 -3 times a year and the rest of the meeting were a local guest or a club member talk. I have run into a few of the old members who are starting tanks up again but said they are sticking to softies. Most people stay in the hobby 2 years and are gone as it gets too expensive and they lose interest.. I have always believed the club must be for all levels not just advanced. More items on the raffle table that are staples would be good fish food, heaters, power heads, magnet glass cleaners, snails, crabs etc. The last meetings I was at too much was spent on the one grand prize. Just my 2 cents. I know how hard it is to be the president and/or be on the board so my hats off to you. You will see me again someday. Thanks for keeping the club going.

 

[tcoral]

I have been a member off and on since 1997. We used to have the meeting Monday night. Most of the other clubs I belong to have their meetings during the week just a thought , I like Fridays. A central location would be great but finding a free place that will host MARS is very difficult. All 4 of the clubs I belong to meet at Round Table I haven't been to a MARS meeting for about 2 years. The meetings were always successful when we had a name speaker about 3-4 times a year, a do it yourself meeting 2 -3 times a year and the rest of the meeting were a local guest or a club member talk. I have run into a few of the old members who are starting tanks up again but said they are sticking to softies. Most people stay in the hobby 2 years and are gone as it gets too expensive and they lose interest.. I have always believed the club must be for all levels not just advanced. More items on the raffle table that are staples would be good fish food, heaters, power heads, magnet glass cleaners, snails, crabs etc. The last meetings I was at too much was spent on the one grand prize. Just my 2 cents. I know how hard it is to be the president and/or be on the board so my hats off to you. You will see me again someday. Thanks for keeping the club going.

+1 outside name speakers. Would have loved to see the Hawaii collecting one, but Friday in evening traffic after work downtown is tough.

meetings attended last year 2.

Field trips and tank tours are always a favorite.

How to's another favorite

Another thing that's hurting the club is people leaving the hobby. Maybe have something that will bring in prospective new reef/saltwater keepers in. (How-too and easy tips to help keep them in) That coral growing contest was nice, maybe have the best, or lowest cost, or DIY contest/corner. Have more stuff not geared to SPS, perhaps more nano, FOWLER, or non-sps.

 

[bfliflet]

How many meetings have you attended over the past year? Try to hit them all until conflicts arise.

What are the reasons you don't attend meetings? Conflicts.

If you're at a meeting and do not purchase raffle tickets, is it due to: I think selection could be improved slightly. It feels as though sometimes donations to MARS by LFS are to move slow-sellers. I'd rather see slightly more desirable items. As that increases costs, advertising a little here or on MARS forums would go a long way. People appear to get really excited by some of the raffle prizes in the past.

Do you think it's time to cut back on the number of monthly meetings? Once a month is fine.

Any other comments or suggestions?
Topics are great. Crowd is great. Is it normally slow this time of year?

 

[palygirl]

Bump

 

[pigtaru]

How many meetings have you attended over the past year? 1, I'm a new member

What are the reasons you don’t attend meetings?Location is far from downtown Sacramento, I would prefer it be closer to center of Sacramento
Location
Date of Meeting (3rd Friday of the month)This is fine
Topic of meeting
Other
If Location is a factor, what area of Sacramento would you prefer? Sacramento
If Date of Meeting is a factor, is there another day of the week that is preferred?
If you’ve not been interested in the Topic, what would you like to hear about?
If you’re at a meeting and do not purchase raffle tickets, is it due to:
Poor selection on the raffle table?X
Other? Please specify.
Do you think it’s time to cut back on the number of monthly meetings? If so, how often should we meet?

Any other comments or suggestions?

 

[TOM BLEVINS]

How many meetings have you attended over the past year? 1
What are the reasons you don't attend meetings?Location is to far from Elk Grove, I would prefer it be closer to center of Sacramento
Date of Meeting (3rd Friday of the month)This is fine
Topic of meeting,does matter yes
Other
If Location is a factor, what area of Sacramento would you prefer? Sacramento
If Date of Meeting is a factor, is there another day of the week that is preferred? NO
If you've not been interested in the Topic, what would you like to hear about?most things to do with SPS
If you're at a meeting and do not purchase raffle tickets, is it due to:
Poor selection on the raffle table? always purchase tickets
Other? Please specify.
Do you think it's time to cut back on the number of monthly meetings? If so, how often should we meet? no
Any other comments or suggestions? you all are doing a great JOB!

 

[TOM BLEVINS]

How many meetings have you attended over the past year? 1
What are the reasons you don’t attend meetings?Location is far from Elk Grove, I would prefer it be closer to center of Sacramento
Date of Meeting (3rd Friday of the month)This is fine
Topic of meeting,does matter yes
Other
If Location is a factor, what area of Sacramento would you prefer? Sacramento
If Date of Meeting is a factor, is there another day of the week that is preferred? NO
If you’ve not been interested in the Topic, what would you like to hear about?most things to do with SPS
If you’re at a meeting and do not purchase raffle tickets, is it due to:
Poor selection on the raffle table? always purchase tickets
Other? Please specify.
Do you think it’s time to cut back on the number of monthly meetings? If so, how often should we meet? no
Any other comments or suggestions? you all are doing a great JOB!

sorry for the double post RC seized up for a bit!