SWAP 07 Ideas

[firefish2020]

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Time to hear from you all.

Ideas for the next meet

We also need a central theme for the next meeting, which we will be voting on.

(The theme will be a basic guideline for direction of decorations, setup and overall flow of the swap.)

Any ideas lets hear them
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[Reef4Fun]

has anyone in our group ever built their own aquarium or nano tank? Just a thought. Also, perhaps people would be interested in building their own lighting. I think a kind of DIY theme would be kewl. Thats just my opinion.

 

[mcox33]

Hey Jason

You are our lighting expert.

Just so everyone knows Jason showed me how to wire my MH lights beginning with the ballast.

He also told me how to wire the PC's.

Thanks Jason could not have done it with out your help.. Actually I would not have attempted the MH had you not shown me how to wire them.

Hopefully you will have time to demo wiring MH next meeting for all those who want to wire their own.

 

[jmccown]

Just an idea, but why don't we have a big name vendor rep come in and do a demonstration, show off their product lines and maybe show some new products and offer up some door prizes. If we send an invite this early maybe someone can come out. Just throwing around some ideas. Would def. help in promoting this.

 

[firefish2020]

"why don't we have a big name vendor rep come in and do a demonstration"

I have asked a million times and all I can get are Kent reps who will try to sell you things you don't need LOL. Actually Mary did contact someone last year and they were busy at the time but loved the idea. Also we really can't get real "vendors" without charging them and going into that mess again. I am however willing and have asked several of our LFS to attend and set up for no charge other than support and a few donations for door prizes but as I know the captain of the ship is always needed on deck. Plus until we get the numbers up there much higher it would be almost pointless to pack up livestock or product to set up for a few hours IMO.
It is a great idea however and one day Im sure we will see it.

 

[mcox33]

Ron get me a flyer about what the club is all about. Some where I still have my vendor list and several were willing to donate door prizes as long as we were not meeting in a local shop. Which was the problem but some also needed a Non-Profit tax exempt Id so they could write it off their taxes as a donation.

But get me the flyer and I will fax it to some of my contacts along with the 07 meeting flyer and see what happens.

 

[Reef4Fun]

How about a drawing of names for corals. I was thinking a game like BINGO and donated coral prizes, but most people would not want to stay that long. I was thinking, anyone wanting to join in would donate a coral and get their name put in the drawing. When a persons name was drawn, they pick what they want and everyone wins. Have someone be a judge or something to approve each item so that people don't just bring in junk or something unhealthy. and, for those who are new and do not have a coral for donation, maybe they could be included with a money donation. Actually, people could bring in fish or whatever. What do you guys think, is this a silly idea?

 

[LtPiper]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8450894#post8450894 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reef4Fun
How about a drawing of names for corals. I was thinking a game like BINGO and donated coral prizes, but most people would not want to stay that long. I was thinking, anyone wanting to join in would donate a coral and get their name put in the drawing. When a persons name was drawn, they pick what they want and everyone wins. Have someone be a judge or something to approve each item so that people don't just bring in junk or something unhealthy. and, for those who are new and do not have a coral for donation, maybe they could be included with a money donation. Actually, people could bring in fish or whatever. What do you guys think, is this a silly idea?

Hmmm a variation of this where everybody puts in money say a small amount with a coral or larger amount without a coral would be a good way to raise money for the sign.

 

[igotsalt]

I think that would be a great idea. We just need to twek how we handle it. Everyone is at different levels of experience of corals in their tanks. All of us have personal choices on our favorite corals we want to collect. It would be a perfect opportunity to have a silent auction!

As it was said earlier many people left early. We are there to learn about the care of the animals and share information gained by experience. Newbies are in the market for easy starter corals. The experienced knows what he/she is looking for. Think about setting up a tank with 1 coral from every person that is there to sell frags. Number each item in the tank. List each frag on a seperate sheet of paper. We should design a form that everyone uses telling about the name, care, and lighting needs etc. Newbies would have the opportunity to pick up items to fill their tanks and experienced could put a minimum amount expected. As people came into the meeting they could browse and bid on items they wanted. You would know who the owner of the frag was by the form that was filled out. The bidder would use a number to remain anonomus. Designate a time that the bidding was closed and the new owner paid and claimed their prize. This is a rough draft on above idea. This would entice people to stay for the meeting and also make us have some sort of time schedule to follow. What ya think?

 

[Reef4Fun]

I think that sounds great. I also would like to donate 3 jackets with our logo monogrammed on them, sell raffel tickets, let whomever is drawn first pick the size they want (I have a childs size, but can get an adult L and XL, maybe a M, they are made a little small)
Question about the jackets. The one I have that is a childs size is a black one. Would the club rather have royal blue or dark blue? I am going with white lettering. Please let me know, because I want to donate some that day. I may also get some T-shirts made up and let people make donations toward the sign for them. What color T-shirts? White are cheaper, but blue would be pretty with white letters.

 

[mcox33]

Could get time consuming to sort the bids for a lot of items. It was very hard at times when we had live auctions. But someone would have to go through each individual corals bids to see who the winner was. and also when you do that no one knows if they won or lost the high bid until a specified time. So those members on a tight budget would not be able to bid on very many (not knowing if they won or lost the bid) Plus they might not be able to buy something else they wanted. And then end up not winning and have no coral.

I like the idea, but we need to make provisions, so that they would still have time to "shop" other items (in the event that they did not win their bid) before the best deals were gone. JMO

 

[firefish2020]

I like the idea as well but how would it work in theory?


For those not knowing or recalling those auctions were a pain for everyone behind the scenes. We had a strict quality control that weeded out any coral with a potential problem. We had many many volunteers who handled the frags from one point to the final bagging and we still had problems.

We also eventually had people showing up not caring about learning anything but only wanting to sell or buy. I had to make a point to have the info first and the auction last. "You can't have your pudding if you don't eat your meat!" Which resulted in some nice glares from the members but they stayed. They stayed because they had no idea what was in the next bag and they waited for hours upon hours as we went through hundreds of frags.

We need to find a balance between information and the table sale events.

Ideas?

What color T-shirts? White are cheaper, but blue would be pretty with white letters

Blue IMO.

I think most members would like a T-shirt and we could indeed use sales to fund the sign.

 

[mcox33]

I will need at least 2 whatever color they are but

Ocean Blue would be fantastic IMO

 

[wvdaisy]

Reef4Fun, I think blue would be a great color for t-shirts because it would bring to mind the ocean. Will you have some for sale, too?

Ron, since the meeting will be in Jan we could do a snow and ice theme.

If we ever have another auction we could put a limit on how many corals each person puts up for auction. That would make it shorter and easier for sure.

Lana

 

[Reef4Fun]

I think blue t-shirts would look better also. I would like to make them with full front logo, if that sounds ok. If I do this, I will need to know what background we are going to put on the sign, and try to incorporate it into a one or two color. Two colors would be fine, I would just need to use two screens. I'm thinking med blue t-shirts and the lettering be in dark blue on top of the scene, and the scene in white? Ron, what are your thoughts on this? (I'm asking because I know you know what I am talking about)

 

[firefish2020]

I would go with a single color line print on the shirt white would be fine IMO. The BG we choose for the sign will be a full color shot of a reef tank or composite, it's true you could create a single color silhouette behind the letters but sometimes simple is better. Basically your screen would look like the sign right now but only white on the blue shirt BG.

Does that make any sense or help in any way?

 

[igotsalt]

Here is what I was thinking. A tank, such as the size of the tank Bruce had set up. Put that tank on a table by itself. Only one coral/invert/plant etc. per person to be auctioned. This makes the owner decide what he wants to auction. Let's say we have 10 pieces to auction. We put the all 10 items in the tank and number them 1-10. There should be for 10 seperate sheets of paper with the name and number to correspond to the coral in the tank. Actully the paper is a form to identify the name and care for the coral. The bidder will have everything he needs to know about the coral from the information filled out by the owner. The table should be a stand alone event until we are ready to close the auction. There should not be much behind the scene work with the exception of someone to inspect the coral and OK it before it is put into the tank. The greeter could give out a number to people entering the meeting and point out the tank as the Silent Auction. The bidder would use their number to sign the sheet and bid on the coral. People would still be selling their items as usual. We would announce the time the bidding would be closed so take your final look to see if you are a winner. Start the instructional part and when ready announce the winner. Keep in mind that advanced hobbyist might have a awesome piece and will have a minimum bid required to reach before selling. One person announce winner and another collect money. I think it would run smoother if we bagged item as soon as auction is closed to keep things moving. I can bag item will speaker is talking. We usually have 2 presentations, so we could break in between speakers and announce winners while everyone is seated. This is just a draft. This is something that could be done every meeting. People like to bid on items and go back to see if they are the highest bidder. They won't know who they are bidding against! All they can see is the number above them bid $xx.xx. They can either sign their number to raise bid or let the other person win it. This reaches the newbi and advanced. The greeter would be giving people their number. (I can make it easy for the greeter for the numbers). People would have a different number every meeting to keep it anonomous!

 

[mcox33]

Actually we use to do the new number every meeting but it became a headache, as no one could number their items before arriving at the meeting.

That is when we assigned membership numbers to everyone that are permanent.

Some of the newbies will not have these numbers but can get one simply by emailing me their information

That would include

Name, Address, Phone number, RC Name and email address.

So we can contact them if the need should arise.

There are way to many members for anyone to know everyone elses numbers. Especially if we do not put them on our name tags. Which we use to do.

The problem with using a list is that everyone would have to keep checking to see if they had been out bid.

I think if we just put the amount with our name and /or number on a piece of paper and dropped it into a container for that item would be better and then we would need to have someone check them at the end of the auction for the highest offer.

If we were to limit it to a specified number of corals for auction. Say 10 as you suggested that would mean less than 10 percent of the members could auction a coral.

I would suggest that this would work better, set up at each individual sale table or display. Then the owner of the coral could check his offers, and inform Ron who won and how much they owe. Which he could announce at a specified time during the meeting.

If the table displays had the owners membership number on display, then the person would know whose coral they had bid on even if they did not know their Name.

Perhaps a list for the owners to fill in the blanks with their individual information under these columns.

Owner # - High Bid Amount - Winner Name or #.

This would mean that Ron could announce that Auction # (this would be original owners membership #) was won by (either the name or membership # )


This would need to be done say as they go into the lecture room. Then at the end of the Lecture Make the announcements. And everyone could get their corals as they leave the lecture.


What do you think?