Questin
New member
It is odd to see what is going on in the other threads recently, but it is not something unfamiliar to this club if I recall correctly. The last time I tried to get involved in this club was when it was first formed after separating from RMRC. But like most new things, it was not as smooth as you might have hoped for. Since then, this club has grown in size quite a bit for a little town land locked in the middle of the United States. It was a good idea to be a separate club in Colorado, there is obviously enough people in the southern part of this state to support it.
But with the growth of anything there are also the pains that one may have to go thru. My interest in the hobby has become more in-depth lately, and I have again tried to become involved with the SCMAS. The problem is that both my interest in this hobby and the club I would like to be more involved in are both experiencing these growing pains, and my first instinct was to just back away and let things try to fix themselves. But that is not a very good answer, not in a fish tank or a fish club. When we have algae, we don’t let it take over; we do water changes, check or water parameters, buy algae eaters, and we come here to ReefCentral and ask all our reef friends, we ask all of you!
We are as far away from the ocean as we could get on this continent, so sticking together to get things that so many others can get readily on the coast is important. The reason I want to be in the club is to be informed as to what is going on in this hobby, to see other tanks and livestock, to learn how to become better at keeping fish and coral alive, and maybe even breed clownfish (haha, I will never attempt that after seeing what all you have to do).
The problems within the club are unknown to me, but things are slowly leaking out into the public onto this forum, and that really does not seem to be the place for it, but perhaps it is. Maybe some of the burdens of the club board should not be kept solely on the shoulders of these members. We have a lot of smart people that read what is posted here, and I am sure regular members can help, but we have to be aware of them. If there is a conflict in personalities, then that should be worked on in private.
Personally, I am looking for certain things out of a club. The most important has been taken care of by ReefCentral, a place to communicate. This forum is beyond anything any other club could ask for. We have more knowledge within these pages that any other hobby I have ever been apart of, and as long as you know how to read between the lines well, you will find your answers. A club should also have a newsletter of some kind in my opinion. This would be a place to outline who does what in the club. It would also have information about upcoming events the club will be having as well as events that this hobby is having. Now, because we are all internet savvy, I would say the best newsletter would be a website. Unfortunately, this cost money, but we have no place to call our own, and having a sense of ownership can be important. It makes things real, official, and professional; right now we are on someone else’s dime here, and that just doesn’t make the club feel very official.
I want to help make the club something enjoyable to be apart of. I would like to see things clearly laid out. Both these things should easily be accomplished, but the growing pains may be getting in the way a bit from what I have read lately. What can be done to get this to happen?
But with the growth of anything there are also the pains that one may have to go thru. My interest in the hobby has become more in-depth lately, and I have again tried to become involved with the SCMAS. The problem is that both my interest in this hobby and the club I would like to be more involved in are both experiencing these growing pains, and my first instinct was to just back away and let things try to fix themselves. But that is not a very good answer, not in a fish tank or a fish club. When we have algae, we don’t let it take over; we do water changes, check or water parameters, buy algae eaters, and we come here to ReefCentral and ask all our reef friends, we ask all of you!
We are as far away from the ocean as we could get on this continent, so sticking together to get things that so many others can get readily on the coast is important. The reason I want to be in the club is to be informed as to what is going on in this hobby, to see other tanks and livestock, to learn how to become better at keeping fish and coral alive, and maybe even breed clownfish (haha, I will never attempt that after seeing what all you have to do).
The problems within the club are unknown to me, but things are slowly leaking out into the public onto this forum, and that really does not seem to be the place for it, but perhaps it is. Maybe some of the burdens of the club board should not be kept solely on the shoulders of these members. We have a lot of smart people that read what is posted here, and I am sure regular members can help, but we have to be aware of them. If there is a conflict in personalities, then that should be worked on in private.
Personally, I am looking for certain things out of a club. The most important has been taken care of by ReefCentral, a place to communicate. This forum is beyond anything any other club could ask for. We have more knowledge within these pages that any other hobby I have ever been apart of, and as long as you know how to read between the lines well, you will find your answers. A club should also have a newsletter of some kind in my opinion. This would be a place to outline who does what in the club. It would also have information about upcoming events the club will be having as well as events that this hobby is having. Now, because we are all internet savvy, I would say the best newsletter would be a website. Unfortunately, this cost money, but we have no place to call our own, and having a sense of ownership can be important. It makes things real, official, and professional; right now we are on someone else’s dime here, and that just doesn’t make the club feel very official.
I want to help make the club something enjoyable to be apart of. I would like to see things clearly laid out. Both these things should easily be accomplished, but the growing pains may be getting in the way a bit from what I have read lately. What can be done to get this to happen?
