two ideas for the club...

[Jandree22]

So there are two ideas that have been cooking up in my head. While I know the "Susquehanna Reef Club" is kind of still getting off the ground (or more accurately, reforming into something new from the original Susq reef club), it's just something to maybe ponder and we can discuss at a future meet.

First is straight forward... T-shirts. Thought it'd be kind of cool (in a geek way) if we have any graphic design talent in house to come up with something.

Second is much more of a commitment but would be very rewarding IMO. I understand Pat and ____ (sorry, forget his name... was there on Sunday) maintain a 600g tank for the Bethany Villiage retirement community. When I attended the TFP frag swamp event a few months back, NCPARS touched on their setup and maintenance of a reef tank(s) at local school(s). I thought this was something very positive for both educational purposes at the schools while also advancing our hobby and giving us a way to put pride into something a bit more "public". If not a school, perhaps some other establishment such as a public library, etc. Important to note, I'm thinking of this as strictly a volunteering endevour... money in our pockets would just complicate things and take the fun out of it in my opinion. Again, to do this we obviously need to be pretty rock solid as a club to make the commitment, but seriously, wouldn't it be fun to setup a bangin 500+g tank with someone elses money?!

Just some tidbits to chew on and consider/discuss... I won't be offended if it's not the right time to move forward with either or just ill conceived all together, so just put out your honest opinions if you have any.

 

[JDL]

how about this for our graphic design

First is straight forward... T-shirts. Thought it'd be kind of cool (in a geek way) if we have any graphic design talent in house to come up with something.

 

[lpkenneys]

Hi Joel, His name is Scott, as far as T-shirts he would be the one for that as he owns a embroidering business as well and has the talent to come up with a sweet logo. I would be more than willing to help out an a tank but I can speak from experience It's not very easy prying money out of peoples hands to put in a fish tank no matter how good times are.

 

[stephenrsaiz]

Again with that picture. I got on my soapbox the last time about making fun of people's physical characteristics, and I don't want to have to do it again. Please take that whale off this page!!!

 

[turbonegro]

I would be willing to help in any way I can.

 

[stephenrsaiz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15086493#post15086493 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by turbonegro
I would be willing to help in any way I can.

You helping with the tank, or getting that picture off the thread????

 

[Jandree22]

It's been over an hour since "the whale" has been posted. We're stuck with it

Yes Scott, thanks. hm, well Patrick I guess that's something to consider is the times we're in and everybody's looking to make cuts, not extra 'fluff'. Especially for public institutions that involves bureaucracy rather than one person to sign off on it. If indeed it's something we'd be interested in pursuing, we could approach it by specing out a huge-*** dream system then just seeing if we get any bites. Again, really just feeling for interest at this point

 

[lpkenneys]

Joel Did you have a facility in mind? or was this just a general thought? obviously you know there would be at minimum a few thousand dollar investment for the facility just for the basics,Tank, skimmer, ro/di filter ect. I think we all agree that stocking shouldn't be much of a problem. and I think you would all agree if we were to put our name on it we would want it to be the best we could make it. That being said I would volunteer my time to help out..

 

[trippkid]

I too would volunteer any time needed for this, money and equipment is where I can't do much. It would be nice to do for old people or children's hospital or something like that. How do you solicit for something like this, not sure?
I am up for the T-shirt thing, I guess we'll have to talk about it, how much do you think an order for like 50 shirts would be, would we want front and back designs or just one side(little logo on front, or big design on the back)? Have a good one guys.
Matt

 

[Jandree22]

Patrick... no, none in mind at all, just a general idea. when I saw what NCPARS was doing, I liked. Also, while done to the extreme, the success and popularity of the PSU reef tank comes to mind as well.

But then I started snooping around on the NCPARS site and they outline their logistics of what they do and it seems like a lot of BS I didn't originally ponder (shrug) http://www.ncpars.org/joomla/images/ncpars_documents/ncpars educational support program.pdf Between that and your experiences with funding, maybe it's more trouble than it's worth? I guess this is exactly my point bringing it up, just to kind of get a feel for others' interest or lack thereof, and also if I even realized the scope of what I was suggesting.

 

[Jandree22]

Children's Hospital, wow good idea Matt! That's exactly the sort of thought I was going for...

 

[Jandree22]

For shirts, if Scott owns an embroidery business and that's the style we want... well then there's our starting point.

If we're looking more into screen printing, CafePress.com offers a 'blank canvas' with just about any type of shirt, there are no minimum orders, and I *think* you can save the design under an account to order more in the future for new "members" or whatever. http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/?id=5

 

[lpkenneys]

I like the Idea of a children's Hospital as well.. even though I will leave the children'ing to Matt...hehehehe....and as for shirt's as long as that picture from above is no where on it I'm down....

 

[trippkid]

I will try and pass the idea along to my wife, she could maybe say something to one of the Doc's at York Hospital, they may be able to help us get to Penn State at Hershey(I guess this is the biggest one around?), or for their Pediatric unit. We will have to kick the idea around some more. I don't mind dealing with kids, you all should know that by now. And, yes, I don't want that pic anywhere near our shirts either.
Matt

 

[Jandree22]

Hm, only children's hospital in the area would be the Penn State Children's Hospital (Hershey Med Center). All the others are in Philly or Pittsburgh.

Which also led me to think of the Ronald McDonald House in Hershey, too. For those of you unfamiliar, it's a large housing building across the street from the hospital that provides "temporary housing to out-of-town families of seriously ill children who are being treated at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital." Funding for this in particular may be next to impossible, however they encourage the volunteering attitude to support the families, which this endevour would accomplish.

 

[trippkid]

we keep posting at the same time.

 

[trippkid]

Yeah, I forgot about Ronnie's house across the street, I'm sure that would end up being all out of pocket for us, but is definitely a great idea for these kids and families, I can't even imagine.
Matt

 

[Jandree22]

lol, seriously.

Wonder if TFP would let us setup fundrasing cans by the registers for the cause

 

[JDL]

are we all thinking of donating equipment for this? for a setup in ronnies house if we get that far?

 

[stephenrsaiz]

There's a;ways the possibility of setting up a much smaller system, as opposed to a larger one. A very nice 30 - 50 gallon tank is just a nice to view as a larger one. This would make it much easier for use to donate money, when needed, for equipment or supplies for the tank.

NCPARS is able to pull-off their tank efforts due to the members paying annual club dues, money made from frag swaps, unused donated raffle items from frag swaps, member donations of livestock/equipment, etc. It would be an extremely difficult and expensive task to pull this off in "our" (I say our because I've only attended one meeting) young, not as established, club.

I'm not at all against the idea. I think its a great idea. I just think it would be much more manageable and successful on a smaller scale.