Hey All,
One of the most difficult MARS board position is the vice president - whose main function is to acquire speakers each month. Many of us would love to hear people like Joshi Sanjay, Michael Scott, Michael Paletta, Anthony Calfo and such speak every month. Unfortunately, it is not inexpensive to fly these speakers out, pay for room and board, and sometimes pay a speaking fee. The cost per speaker could be upward of $1000 per speaker. Assuming that our club brings in $200 per month in raffle and 150 members per year - that's an annual budget of $6900. Do the math, and you'll soon realize that it wouldn't be hard for our club to be in the red.
Lets help Marc out by giving him ideas for speakers. Ideally, the person would be relatively close and cost us nothing or almost nothing to have the person speak. For local reef club members, we can always give them a $50 LFS GC for speaking.
Just off the top of my mind, here's a list:
1. Matt Wandell (Wombat2) - have him speak about fish. He recently did a talk about Fairy and Flasher Wrasses at the NVR meeting. Matt is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to fish. If he's up to it, I wouldn't even mind hearing him talk a few times a year. It would be interesting to hear what he does at the Steinhart Aquarium.
2. David Cripe - He's relative close. It would be great to hear him talk about the Monterey Bay Aquarium and it's background operation. It would also be cool if we can maybe do a club tour of the aquarium.
4. Robert (RasRobre) - I'd love to hear about some of the aquarium he has setup. Robert is also another walking encyclopedia.
5. Bruce (CaptiveReefSystems) - I know he has already done a talk at our club. But I think that given the chance, Bruce could have gone into much more depth. BTW Bruce - great talk last time.
6. Rich and Jeni's underwater photography. I love the slide show they did last year and wouldn't mind seeing it again and again and again...
IMO - one of the best presentation ever give at a MARS meeting.
7. Alex - talk about Photography. He's an excellent photographer, and I can sure learn a lot from him. BTW - he's been MIA.
8. There's a bunch of NPO that we can ask to speak at our meeting. For example ShipsToReefs - it's an organization that promotes sinking of warship to create artificial dive sites and habitats for sea creatures. I think there's a local chapter in the bay area.
9. Also last year - we had someone from UC Berkeley come out and talk about her research on Octopus. There might be more people from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, or Sac State that can do a presentation on their research.
Those are just some quick ideas. If you know of someone local who would be a great speaker - please share your ideas. We just need to be creative.
Minh
One of the most difficult MARS board position is the vice president - whose main function is to acquire speakers each month. Many of us would love to hear people like Joshi Sanjay, Michael Scott, Michael Paletta, Anthony Calfo and such speak every month. Unfortunately, it is not inexpensive to fly these speakers out, pay for room and board, and sometimes pay a speaking fee. The cost per speaker could be upward of $1000 per speaker. Assuming that our club brings in $200 per month in raffle and 150 members per year - that's an annual budget of $6900. Do the math, and you'll soon realize that it wouldn't be hard for our club to be in the red.
Lets help Marc out by giving him ideas for speakers. Ideally, the person would be relatively close and cost us nothing or almost nothing to have the person speak. For local reef club members, we can always give them a $50 LFS GC for speaking.
Just off the top of my mind, here's a list:
1. Matt Wandell (Wombat2) - have him speak about fish. He recently did a talk about Fairy and Flasher Wrasses at the NVR meeting. Matt is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to fish. If he's up to it, I wouldn't even mind hearing him talk a few times a year. It would be interesting to hear what he does at the Steinhart Aquarium.
2. David Cripe - He's relative close. It would be great to hear him talk about the Monterey Bay Aquarium and it's background operation. It would also be cool if we can maybe do a club tour of the aquarium.
4. Robert (RasRobre) - I'd love to hear about some of the aquarium he has setup. Robert is also another walking encyclopedia.
5. Bruce (CaptiveReefSystems) - I know he has already done a talk at our club. But I think that given the chance, Bruce could have gone into much more depth. BTW Bruce - great talk last time.
6. Rich and Jeni's underwater photography. I love the slide show they did last year and wouldn't mind seeing it again and again and again...
IMO - one of the best presentation ever give at a MARS meeting.7. Alex - talk about Photography. He's an excellent photographer, and I can sure learn a lot from him. BTW - he's been MIA.
8. There's a bunch of NPO that we can ask to speak at our meeting. For example ShipsToReefs - it's an organization that promotes sinking of warship to create artificial dive sites and habitats for sea creatures. I think there's a local chapter in the bay area.
9. Also last year - we had someone from UC Berkeley come out and talk about her research on Octopus. There might be more people from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, or Sac State that can do a presentation on their research.
Those are just some quick ideas. If you know of someone local who would be a great speaker - please share your ideas. We just need to be creative.
Minh
