What do you think???

[jallard]

It was suggested to me that the club might wanna add our monthly meetings to the community calendar in the Times Union Newspaper. Well I do work for the Times Union and after talking to a few people they suggested that I speak to one of our Life and Leisure Editors about our club and the reef hobby. Needless to say.... she was very intrigued and thought it would make for a great story. Soooooo I think she will actually wanna write a story about the club and hobby for some time in September. Of course this will probably add some exposure to our club.

I'll be sure to keep you all posted.....but what are your thoughts?

 

[scorp1on]

I think it's great. Was actually thinking of contacting them if we ever organize a workshop or such on a much larger scale.

 

[michaelg]

Excellent- we had an article in the washington post, and it really helped bring about awareness of the group.

 

[xmystified]

go for it...great idea

 

[DanConnor]

Just curious, since I've missed a few- how many people have been coming to the meetings?

 

[Ken668]

Touching on what Dan mentioned. Once we get to a certain size, it most likely won't be easy to host meetings at peoples houses. Maybe then we should start to contemplate a single central location (library, Elks club, etc.). What do you guys think?

 

[DanConnor]

I think it's more fun to have meetings at someone's house and see their tanks etc. To me, that and hanging with the people is the reason for the meeting.

I have no interest in listening to minutes being read and the treasurers report at a room in the library. That's too much like what I do at work!

 

[jallard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7926763#post7926763 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DanConnor
I think it's more fun to have meetings at someone's house and see their tanks etc. To me, that and hanging with the people is the reason for the meeting.

I have no interest in listening to minutes being read and the treasurers report at a room in the library. That's too much like what I do at work!

agree 100% dan, we seem to be averageing 15ish ppl at meetings.

 

[upstatedave]

sounds great Joe..more exposure won't hurt....as far as growth of the club...that is something we would have to deal with as it happened

 

[Ken668]

I agree Dan. Seeing other peoples tanks and setups is a big part of the fun. I can just picture trying to pack in 30+ people into someone's living room. I'm not trying to be a buzz-kill, but just giving some insight into what may happen if we have large scale exposure such as the mentioned article. We just have to be "somewhat" prepared if/when we get large.

 

[jallard]

well I guess the best thing to do is have a generic story about the hobby and leave out any reference to our club. I do think however that the "hobby" could use the press.

 

[xian]

Its hard to resist the urge to promote the club. I want people to know about us and what we do as well but I believe that Ken has a point. We may not be prepared for a massive influx of membership.

 

[jallard]

how does a club prepare or prevent this growth from happening?

 

[Ken668]

I think the best way to prepare is to just discuss the possibilities of what could happen. The more info and ideas we throw out there, I feel, the more prepared we will be if the situation occurs.

Maybe we can also track down some members of other groups that are much larger. Ask them how they handled getting to the size that they currently are.

 

[michaelg]

Ken-
You have that person in this club now

 

[jallard]

Just a bit of clarification...............
It may have been misunderstood, but I didn't wanna place a "meeting notice" in the TU mainly because of meeting hosts privacy. Because we meet in a members home I didn't think it was appropriate to have strangers pop in at someone's house. However this was the starting point for my conversation with an editor about the club/hobby.

For the record this was not going to be an article about CDMAS. It was intended to be a story about a little know hobby, reef keeping. Of course clubs would have been mentioned ours included to show popularity and enthusiasm across the country.

That's all.....I for one really wasn't expecting a flood of new members.

 

[michaelg]

for a meeting notice, why can't it be treated as it is done here when new people find our group? There is no "screening" on new members. I understand about putting in addresses etc, but can we just put a "contact XXX or see cdmas.org for details"?

 

[Coral007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7932886#post7932886 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jallard
well I guess the best thing to do is have a generic story about the hobby and leave out any reference to our club. I do think however that the "hobby" could use the press.

That's a pretty good idea unless you want to possibly significantly increase the club size. Then a general location is a must. You can always make mention of the different places with which we do business, i.e. Eddie's Aquarium etc. It will bring both them and ourselves serious hobbyists and renewed interest about the hobby itself.

 

[Ken668]

Joe,
I realize you were not giving meeting times, addresses, etc. But I'm sure the meer mention of CDMAS.ORG is going to bring in members. Many? Few? Who knows. What I do know is that there are many people in this area that are into reef keeping but are unaware of CDMAS and possibly even ReefCentral. With an advertisement as large as a Times Union article, I think the sensible thing to do would be to sit down and discuss the possibility of what could happen and the direction we would like to steer the club.

Michael,
Any input would be greatly appreciated. What size was your previous club at? Any growing pains that come to mind?

 

[michaelg]

Ken,
Club grew from 8 people to 300+ in the time I was involved with it over less than 4 years. Meetings would typically have close to 100 people- but they were only held quarterly, and almost always had an outside speaker. Much different format than we have here, but it was the DC area and pulled people from DC, Maryland, and Virgina. It will take me a while to put a lenghtly description together.