SCMAS: We'd like your thoughts for the next Reef-A-Palooza 2007

[d0cdave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8036457#post8036457 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fantastic4
How about girls in Bikini's?

Hey you asked the question!

If you have it close to the beach, this shouldnt be a problem.

Another note: Involve some of the smaller clubs, maybe offer info booths to them as well in the event to promote their clubs. We tried promoting RAP within our club, but people seemed too busy to check it out (including myself), so maybe a Fall or Spring event would work better.

A central location would be ideal for socal. The OC is a nice neighborhood, but LA is closer for a lot of us northern folks. We dont mind carpooling either. I have no clue on available venues.

 

[gcarroll]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8036889#post8036889 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by d0cdave
Another note: Involve some of the smaller clubs, maybe offer info booths to them as well in the event to promote their clubs. We tried promoting RAP within our club, but people seemed too busy to check it out (including myself), so maybe a Fall or Spring event would work better.

A central location would be ideal for socal. The OC is a nice neighborhood, but LA is closer for a lot of us northern folks. We dont mind carpooling either. I have no clue on available venues.

IEMAS, an upstart club in the Inland Empire, was at RAP promoting their club. Only because they contacted me asking if they could have a booth. I do agree that maybe some more publicty should have been done to offer booths to other local clubs as well. The booths were available, unfortunately it was something that was overlooked.

OC is where SCMAS is based as well as the home of a majority of our members, so I don't see it moving out of OC. It's just seem easier planning an event that is local for the organizers. Also SCMAS has active members as far south as San Diego and many in South OC, so moving it North would be kind of unfair to them as well.

Besides the IE is actually a more central location for SoCal.

 

[wishntoboutside]

other possible suggestions

perhaps have the RAP at a park .. it could still be outdoors. grass and trees may be nice.. barbque etc.

have people bring pics of there tanks and host a board on entry for a" best tank award." this could be done in various catagories
and have a public vote and results could be given durring raffle. I would be interesting to see who may get the braging rights till the next event.=)

i do like the idea that was mentioned about a dry erase board to improve comunication. i could bring an air tank for those that need to bag fish next year to assist. name tags sold for donations to the club.

this still was a great event. it was a pleasure to meet those in person.
Richard

 

[d0cdave]

Besides the IE is actually a more central location for SoCal.

True, well like I said, we can always carpool! Now that we know about the club booths, we will hit you guys up for one next time around.

 

[Frankysreef]

There are some nice parks close to the beach in HB, but the problem would be no electricity....

Maybe somone could talk to seaside tropical fish? They have a big parking lot.

 

[fantastic4]

If you had girls in bikini's asking to plug in electrical cords, I don't think you would have any issues finding electricity from local business.

 

[salt e]

if you want to keep ppl around...keep them interested... i have been to other conventions....Import Cars and such...SEMA in Vegas as well... they do a raffle or 2 on the hour every hour till the thing closes...the thought of leaving there with something free is good enough to keep anyone there till the end...especially if you got a FREE raffle ticket with your $5 entry fee

 

[gcarroll]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8044987#post8044987 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by salt e
if you want to keep ppl around...keep them interested... i have been to other conventions....Import Cars and such...SEMA in Vegas as well... they do a raffle or 2 on the hour every hour till the thing closes...the thought of leaving there with something free is good enough to keep anyone there till the end...especially if you got a FREE raffle ticket with your $5 entry fee

There should have been enough good stuff in the raffle to do one every half hour and then raffle off the rest at the end. That is a great idea! It also rewards people for arriving at the beginning. It is a tough idea to give tickets away with the entry fee because the raffle in the past has been the only source of revenue. All expenses to the club have been paid from this (ie: insurance, portable restrooms, table and chair rental, food, misc. supplies, hotel accommodations and guest speaker expenses). I'm not sure that we want to give away something that people would gladly pay for. If there is an entry fee to RAP in the future, I am sure the extra income will be absorbed by the cost of the indoor facility.

My though is that the guy who would buy 2-5 tickets for the heck of it may not spend that extra $ if he already has a chance to win. I belive SCMAS wants RAP to be extremely affordable if not free to all attendees. For each person that is deterred by the added cost of entry, we also loose a potential raffle ticket buyers. I'm sure SCMAS does not want this to be a break even or profit loosing venture. The leftover money after expenses is used to bring in guest speakers throughout the entire year.

 

[salt e]

very good point...

 

[Steve1714]

I agree with you Greg about the raffle.
Next year i wouldn't mind paying for a booth, and on that note i will be sending SCMAS some money from this years event.
It is hard to judge the turn out on events like this and even i underestimated how many frags to bring, I'm sure that the heat earlier in the year may have created problems for many. It may have been intimidating and or awkward for some LFS to set up in Marine depot lot to sell live goods.
I think it would be great if it were to be indoors, or in a large tent.
As for the time of year I think it was perfect, the temperature was good (in the shade of course).
As for next year we could look at the OC fair grounds, but that may still be too big for us.
In my opinion we should keep it at Marine Depot, encourage local LFS to attend by giving a discounted booth rate, and rent a big tent lets say 40' x 40' to hold the raffle under, which can also serve as a place to rest and eat before the raffle.

Awesome event
Steve G.

 

[fantastic4]

Seriously, if you promote the event with a $1 - $5 entry with free raffle ticket for each entry (and also clearly state the money raised is used for the Reef-a-pooloza and realted reef clubs), I don't think anyone will have any issue paying. People pay $1-$2 a person including kids at my local swapmeet just to get in. No one minds a dollar or two, it's really nothing. The hourly give-away sounds like a winner. Would also strongly suggest to keep people interested all day as some people will not be able to come in to later as the driving distance is so far. If the good stuff is gone in the first hour, what's the motivation to drive 1 1/2 hours?

Perhaps have certain selling auctions or events happen on each hour, like $3 a stalk Xenia at 11am, $2 a shroom noon, etc).

If vendors show up, you should have them all donate items to hourly raffles for entry as I beleive they sell out of everything and the trip is well worth the effort for them.

The biggest issue I see is the keeping of live stock alive. If this is the case, you may need to spend most of your time locating a free indoor facility with electricity. Perhaps a Highschool gym? I know our Karate studios have the highschools basketball gyms almost every month end on saturdays for tournaments and testing and demos -- with all the electricity you could want.

Don't forget about the hot chicks at the front desk for $3 entry fee collection. I suggest have eyecandy collect!

 

[ReefMeister2]

The hourly give-away sounds like a winner. Would also strongly suggest to keep people interested all day as some people will not be able to come in to later as the driving distance is so far. If the good stuff is gone in the first hour, what's the motivation to drive 1 1/2 hours?

Excellent point!
This is an outstanding suggestion/concern that should definitely be addressed. I wouldn't want to drive all that way just to look at the "leftovers" either. There should be an incentive to draw people in, even if they can't make it till the afternoon.

I've heard from a couple of fraggers/sellers who said they grossly under-estimated the demand for frags at RAP. They said they sold out way early and could've sold 5 times as much stuff had they been better prepared.
Then I've heard from "buyers" who said they had money burning a hole in their pocket with nothing to spend it on.

Me thinks a good plan to encourage equilibrium is certainly justifiable. :thumbsup:

 

[plugpitch]

I would like to ask that next year's raffle have more individual or less bulky packages. I thought nicole was throwing whatevers together and making the packages as large as possible to hurry the raffle up. I don't want to offend her since she was probably there the whole day. But, if the packages could have been broken up and have more drawings, I would have liked it. I think I was one of the many who didn't win anything, but wouldn't have minded winning a $5 algae scrapper or iodine additive.

 

[plugpitch]

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[plugpitch]

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[NicoleC]

Dustin,

If we had done items individually, the raffle would have lasted for 3 hours. Two years ago at the Christmas party, people actually got mad and left because the raffle took so long. Finally they just raffled the big stuff and told people to come up and take whatever was left.

If we knew the items in advance, pre-made packages could be put together, but most of the time the club only knows that so-and-so is sending a box. Hence the quickie packages. If there were more volunteers, someone could have been making packages during the day.

It's a known concern. It's hard to balance the need to get the raffle done fairly quickly with the sheer number of items involved. Personally, I felt like we threw too much stuff together this time, but we were also very pressed for time due to some of the events going overtime. As a last-minute draftee I wasn't in much of a position to complain!

Maybe spacing raffle items throughout the day would help.