Thoughts on expanding membership.

[jbrunken]

Sorry, long post ahead...

The whole "Frag Auction" thread had kind morphed into a discussion about GIRS membership... Instead of hijacking that thread further, I thought I'd start a new thead for ideas on expanding GIRS membership.

I know I haven't been a member for very long (at least not an "official" member), but I've been involved with a couple of similar groups in the CR area that have had similar issues. Nothing I'm going to say here is meant to be a critisism of ANYONE who is or has been involved with the group. I know first hard how hard it can be to volunteer time for a group like this and deal with all of the other issues that life throws your way.

Anyway, here are my ramblings in no particular order...

GIRS is kinda hard to find. You more or less have to know about Reef Central or stumble upon it via a random web search in order to find it. Personally, I think I found the GIRS site a month or two after I bought my tank and got it setup and about a month after that I happened to click on the little "GIRS on Reef Central" link at the bottom of the site. Only then did I realize what an active community GIRS is on RC (The web site doesn't do a real good job of funnelling people towards this forum which really seems to be the life blood of the group).

So... I would say that anything that can be done to boost the visibility of the group is probably a good thing. Flyers posted at every PetCo and PetSmart in the area and any other relevant place that will let us put them up. Group officers and anyone else who wants to should carry a stack of them around for posting.

I would also say that the Website should be modifyed a bit to better direct people to this forum (which really seems to be the activity center of the group.) It's difficult to tell from the site if the group is active, large, small, etc. Making sure that potential members find this forum would do a lot to help solve that.

Another problem is that using Reef Central as the forums for the site is kind of a double edged sword... RC is SUCH a good resource when it comes to active discussions about Reef topics, but it's sorely lacking when it comes to providing tools for groups like this one. About the best thing you can do to promote events is make a sticky thread. What the group really needs on the web side is a few more simple tools that multiple people can manage, like an event calendar, email lists, etc...

The other thing that I think needs to be considered is that not everyone is "forum/web savy" and even if they are there are SO many web sites out there that people visit on a daily basis that it's easy for any site to get lost in the mix.

Before I discovered GIRS, I joined the Eastern Iowa Aquarium Association here in Cedar Rapids. They are a fair sized group all things considered and they have monthly scheduled meetings. Unfortunately, they are focused mostly on freshwater, Kilifish, Chiclids, etc (which I have no interest in). Now to the important part... Each month since I've joined, I've received a very well put together newsletter that has all kinds of information about the group including articles, meeting reminders, event reminders and advertising from numberous local pet stores in the area. Incidently, they also raffle off a TON of merchandise at every meeting that is provided for free my manufacturers. Last time I was there I bought $3 worth of raffle tickets and left with about $25 worth of stuff.

The other important thing is that the last page of the newsletter is a membership form so that it's easy to remember to re-sign up or to promote the group to other people.

My point here is that if GIRS had both a printed newsletter (quarterly?) and perhaps an email list, then it might go a long way to help keep existing and potential members (that are not big forum users) aware of what's going on in the group.

Finally, I would suggest that information be added to the website (or to a sticky thread in the forums) that tells about why it's important to become a member and what your membership fees are going towards.

That's all I can think of for the moment... Food for thought I guess...

-JB

 

[Bullet]

VERY WELL PUT!

 

[wenszoo]

WOW!! you have some good points there JB.

 

[xroads]

OK

I nominate JB as our membership recruitment officer.


And I agree with everything you said

Craig

 

[glaspie69]

That was very well put, and I agree with it completely. The struggles we have had in the past with the website and newsletter is lack of interest. For the newsletter we couldn't find enough people who felt confident writing columns on corals and equiptment. I wish we had a newsletter, it would be something to hand to people your trying to talk into joining to show them whats going on. The website is a whole issue in itself, I honestly wish we could set it up so that we could change it, but I am webpage retarded. I think it's like everything else in the club, we get one solid volunteer, they do a great job, but they get burnt out or busy and most of the time it's not the fault and for those who have done the website we thank you. It's almost going to have to be a small group of 2 or 3 people who can manage the site on a weekly basis, it's hard to click the link and see the same things, it gives the impression that were not on top of the things we are trying to get done. So I'm not sure what can be done to help fix the issue

 

[jbrunken]

The other thing that I was going to mention is that I KNOW there are a TON of saltwater people out there. Each time I'm in one of the area pet stores I see people browsing and buying in the saltwater section so the potential members are definitely out there.

The other problem is that LFS's are without a dought the best place to promote a group like this. However, I think a that most of the them are going to be hesitant to promote us (except for maybe the big Corporate places).. They are in the business to sell equipment, fish and supplies... We are here to help eachother be better "reefers". As we all know those two goals can be dramatically different. When I was VERY new to this hobby, I received some VERY bad information from a number of places who will remain nameless, and I still have to bite my tongue when I'm in those places and I hear similar things being said to people who just trying to get started in this sometimes confusing and complex hobby. However, I know that these places are in business to make money and it's not always in their best interest to promote a group like us for that very reason. Finding a way to bridge that gap and making the LFS's confortable with promoting the group while maintaining our own integrity would be a great thing, but I'm not sure if it's possible.

We as a group would have to promote the idea that supporting your LFS is not a bad idea even if it means you end up spending a bit more sometimes. And the LFS's need to remember that it does them no good to lead a newbie down the road to an expensive disaster and turn them off to the hobby for life. Somewhere in there there is a balance...

As for the newsletter, I can definitely see how trying to get an elaborate monthly newletter like the EIAA puts out would be a problem, but I would also argue that a single sheet of paper, with the logo, the website links, 1 paragraph or two and a list of upcoming events is better than nothing and would be more than enough to keep the non-web people up to speed on group happenings. In fact, I would wager that it would greatly improve attendance at things like auctions and swap meets.

Websites... So much fun and yet such a hassle. I'm pretty good at putting together dynamic data-driven web applications (I do it for a living), but I'm terrible at graphic design and keeping content up to date (news postings, etc). If the group was interested in putting together something that could be managed by the group as a whole, I would probably be able to help some with making that happen (there are numerous free applications out there for building web communities that have a great toolset out of the box).

Again, people are most likely to stumble on the GIRS home page first, so making sure that the website illustrates the activitly level of the group is very important.

-JB

 

[Ziggy692]

JB there is a lot of truth in the post that you have writen. good job.

 

[eshook]

First and foremost, JB you had many excellent points.

I am a new member and try to attend meetings, but sometimes I'm not aware of them because I don't check RC often enough and I think it would go a long ways over to send out a monthly / bimonthly newsletter. I would even accept an electronic one (no cost) just so I can keep up with the group and whats going on.

As a computer nerd I think it would be good/simple to setup a template with a GIRS header and a nice layout. Then every [other] month we insert new content and distribute it as a (printable) pdf. For those who do not have internet access or want a hard-copy they can pay a $5/yr charge to cover stamps and materials to get the paper version.

I'm hesitant toward an email list, although I think it would be good to foster communication through email, we already have an established medium using RC. I think splitting it or challenging the standard RC communication may have negative consequences.

To address the website, I agree 100% about pointing everyone to RC on the main page of the website. In addition I think it would be *great* if we could setup a wiki on the website or transform the current website into a wiki. (For those of you who do not know what a wiki is please go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki)

I believe a wiki would solve the groups problem of not updating the website because any group member can edit the website at any time. I just migrated my research groups webpage to a wiki so all group members (and only group members) can edit it. The wiki was simple to create and is wonderful to maintain.

For those interested, the link is here: (shameless plug)
http://grow.its.uiowa.edu
(Notice the login button in the bottom right corner, if you had a login you have access to edit any page on the website)

I know we just got a new website and I very much like the look and appreciate the hard work everyone put toward it, but think it would be improved if we converted it (possibly without changing the look at all) into a wiki so all group members could contribute by adding pictures, stories, content, events, etc.

I'm new to the group and don't quite understand the dynamics or who is in charge of what and what all the politics are, but I may be willing to help. The problem is, like everyone else, I can be busy sometimes but have plenty of free time other times, so with that in mind I might be able to provide some computer skills. If there is something I can do, I would be willing to talk to someone to see if it would be a good fit or if I could help.

I will now end my long rant, thanks for listening

 

[leeweber85]

I agree with everything I read (I didn't read ALL of it).

I would be willing to help update the site. I know enough HTML that updating the content on the current one shouldn't be a problem for me. I'm also not too bad with graphics and could help out with that.

I agree that a newsletter would also be good to update the people that don't visit RC frequently. Just reminders of what the upcoming events are, or what's new with the reefing world... This wouldn't be hard to do ...all the club officers need to do is ask and I'm sure there would be enough help.

 

[acidlittle]

I know that I am not a paying member, but I'd like to say that I am an avid promoter of the group. I just started a new job where I get questions about saltwater all the time. Often times to the point where I can't answer them. I always refer them to RC and the GIRS section. Now I have no idea if any of them actually visit. But hey one day I might join and i thought that a handout would be good as then I would be able to give it out to those newbies that have been told that NO flourescent can make coral thrive....

Also if you go to www.iowaaquaria.com and look at their newsletter, I think that we could easily learn a thing about newsletters from them. Its very well put together. Just my 2cents!

 

[overanalyzer]

OK more thoughts but I am now just being lazy and avoiding going to work - anyone know about a personal use license for MS Sharepoint? We just started using it on the team I manage at work and it would be awesome for a club page....

 

[whome]

I know a bit about page layout and design. Worked in the publishing industry for 9 years before going over to legal side. Would be willing to help out and I would not mind learning more about web stuff - I'll put in the time updating if someone is willing to teach and I'm not afraid of computers.

Side note: as a female I definitely feel in the minority in the SW community and on the board. Maybe a "girl's corner" or something so we aren't so intimidated by all the testosterone and diy stuff. Don't get me wrong, if anything needs fixing around the house it is me that does it, hubby doesn't know which end of a hammer to use, but diy in general is intimidating when you just want to see if you can keep a fish alive for the kiddies with possibility of upgrades later when you succeed. Okay, maybe a newbie corner wouldn't be so sexist but you have to admit that a girl's corner could open it up to some really funny stories (ie you wouldn't believe what my husband tried...) and maybe get the spouses more interested.

 

[jbrunken]

I don't know how much we should worry about the website in the short term. If the home page was updated to put the spotlight on this forum a bit more, it would be a step in the right direction.

Sharepoint is a love/hate thing. Some people love it and some people hate it (I'm in the hate camp, but I admit it's been a while since I've used it). The biggest downside to sharepoint for something like is that (I believe) it requires a sharepoint server and thats not something most hosting companies offer.

I'm a .NET guy, so if it was something that I was managing, I'd probably go with one of the free .NET solutions out there. I use Community Server for my personal web site . It has forums, blogs and image galleries and it's easy to manage the content. However, since we already use RC for our forums I'd probably lean towards something like DotNetNuke that is less centered around forums and more focused on content management. DotNetNuke has TONS of free skins and modules that allow you to change the look of and add functionality to the site with very little effort.

There are many similar tools for other web platforms (like PHP). I don't have any expertise using PHP, but someone else in the group might.

Any of these tools would make the site so that any number of people could update the content just as easily as they post messages to this forum.

However, having the tools is not enough. You have to have people that are willing and able to use them to update the site.

This is what I would suggest:

Short term:

• Some minimal updates to the GIRS website
• Have someone draw up a good flyer for the group and post it to the site as a PDF.
• Figure out a way to get a minimal newsletter sent out quarterly.
• Use a free/inexpensive tool like constant contact to setup an email mailing list for announcements.

Long term I would suggest moving to a new system for the website as I mentioned above.

-JB

 

[Bullet]

This is all way over my head but I am really excited seeing people excited!

I will talk to the guy that put the current website together tomorrow and see what he thinks of all this. I don't want to step on any toes here. I know he worked hard to get that site where it is at now!

 

[bgreenlee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9127841#post9127841 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bullet
This is all way over my head but I am really excited seeing people excited!

I will talk to the guy that put the current website together tomorrow and see what he thinks of all this. I don't want to step on any toes here. I know he worked hard to get that site where it is at now!

Bob, I hope he doesn't think people are stepping on toes. He did an awesome job on the site. We all realize that he is busier then a cat burying crap, like so many of us are.

I think that if we can get the updating responsibility divided amongst a core group it will work to alleviate the workload on him to try to keep it up to date.

How did the hunting go?

 

[jbrunken]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9127841#post9127841 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bullet
don't want to step on any toes here. I know he worked hard to get that site where it is at now!

I agree, not stepping on toes is a good thing. It looks to me like a good majority of the current site (if not all of it) is static. If that's the case 95% of the great work that has already been done wouldn't go to waste... It would just be the "skin" of a dynamic site.

-JB

 

[Bullet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9128046#post9128046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bgreenlee


How did the hunting go?

You don't want to know...but since you asked! Our tags said they were good until Jan 29th so we thought we had all of last weekend but one of the guys said that he though the season ended the 21st. So after a lot of discussion we found out that online it said that the season ended the 21st but our tags said the 29th. I ended up calling a friend of mine that is a DNR agent and he said that..yes it was over the 21 and out tags must have been a misprint. REAL NICE! Anyway I guess that 13 deer between the 3 of us was enough!

 

[leeweber85]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9128046#post9128046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bgreenlee
Bob, I hope he doesn't think people are stepping on toes. He did an awesome job on the site. We all realize that he is busier then a cat burying crap, like so many of us are.

I think that if we can get the updating responsibility divided amongst a core group it will work to alleviate the workload on him to try to keep it up to date.

How did the hunting go?

I agree. I like the site and the setup.... I just think that since he is too busy to keep it updated that we need to pass the burden off to a few more club members that do have the time.

 

[eshook]

I agree, the site looks great, but dividing the responsibility (or providing the ability) to more members is a better model.

 

[Bullet]

I talked to John today and he said the he would love it if someone could keep it updated. He still would help out on the graphics portion of it but as far as writing the code he said that he does not have the time.

So JB...it sounds like we have a match..John can do all the graphics and you can help out with all the other stuff.

Let me know if you want to do that for GIRS and I will get you all the login information.