What would you like to see change?

[rickyfins]

I am starting this thread to get an idea where our members are. I want as much communication between all members of NCPARS. I want to know what you want to see NCPARS do in the future. I know more meetings is probably the first thing on the list, but I want more information. Locations of swaps/meetings would help. I also would like to know what the club needs to do to become a better asset to the community(all communities). What benefits should the club offer? Anything you want to express as a good change will help me and many others get an idea!

How do members feel about a monthly newsletter?

How many meetings a year should we hold?

How should NCPARS support reefnest and Mo's cause?

ETC.!!!!!

thanks for your time,


Rick

 

[spoon25]

hey everyone as just an opinion as a non member i think in order for membership to exist you need to have a secretary,a treasurer, you need to have your positions filled, and keep filled, this way someone can cover if something comes up it will be solved....but personally i dont like the word membership....wish that didnt exist...i would much rather donate 50 bucks than to pay 35 dollar member for a year, ya know what im saying, cuz im sure the money is gonna go to good cause...and im sure we wouldnt be worried abouot the whole money issue...i mean im sure lots of people paid membership and im sure its worked for some but if you start getting alot of new members there not going to pay for a membership when they have tons of free organizations out there.... and the newsletter thing, thats what the sec should be doing, setting dates and times and everything...i think the positions need filled in order to move to next step...and them people need to be active in ncpars...but thats my opinion, hope everyone will work together to create something bigger, better, and more resorceful...

 

[rickyfins]

Thanks for the input, we need more just like it! This will help people understand what is really needed and what really needs to change. Thanks again,

Rick

 

[bmkindig]

hey
more group buys and discounts...maybe the club could pay the shipping of something. more support to our sponsors!!!!!!!!!
i personally only buy things from sponsors if i have the choice.but i need help from the members to make thee things work!!!!!!!!

more people volenteering time to help other reefers.

meetings more often is fine not every meeting is a swap.
a swap is a fund raising event in my opinion i can step down from the bod if someone wants to take my place and hats off to that person.

 

[Murph72]

I agree with Brad that group buys are always a good idea. There are certainly times that you can get free shipping if you would spend X amount of dollars. As a group, we could all benefit by some of these deals if we all went together. In that case, knowing more people in the hobby can benefit everyone.

I like the idea of helping fellow reefers. I can't thank Mo enough for running out to our house when we had some problems a few months back. Btw Mo, you should really see the tank now...it's done a complete 360.

I can say that I too buy from sponsors, but I'm not sure if I'd actually stop buying from SF even if they weren't a sponsor. I just like Todd and his wife's business too much to go cold turkey.

The idea of setting up some discounts for the club members would also look more appealing to new members. I know that membership in other clubs often has those types of benefits.

As for the swaps, I have to disagree with Brad there. I see the swap not as a money making venture. I see it as a service to the members. We get together, we have the opportunity to share what is in our tanks. We save a peice of the ocean because we are buying a coral from another reefer's tank. We get to share information with reefers that are just starting out. I've had the opportunity to learn and to teach at swaps.

As of recently, it has irked me at swaps to see this money oriented drive. I was glad to meet people that were not in it for the money. But, unfortunately, I see people with their wads of cash being stuffed in their pocket. One of the BOD member's wives even told me that they were there to make a profit. I found this to be just despicable. I also have issues with the continual questioning of "Do you want to buy a raffle ticket?" When I'm in the midst of talking to another reefer I really don't appreciate being interrupted continually with the same question. We're big kids, we know there's a raffle going on, we can walk over to a central location and buy a ticket if we're interested. It's that totally being hounded for money that I don't like as of late at our swaps.

I agree that we have to open up communication. I, as a founding member, have no idea most of the times that there are meetings and what was discussed at them. A simple secretary's report in the week following the meeting would be appreciated. I might want to become more involved if you keep me more informed.

 

[rickyfins]

Good Point Murph, I like your ideas and thanks for the input. Although the swaps are for meeting fellow hobbyists, it is also a drive for the club to raise funds for the next event or to pay a speaker if there is one. You are right about other clubs offering discounts at LFS and sponsors. In fact, one club I used to belong to hands you a sheet of sponsors who offer discounts when dues are paid.

thanks,

Rick

p.s. keep the information flowing its great so far.

 

[Fizz71]

One thing with the group buys...you need to find vendors that will offer a group buy but not require all the money at once or all the items to be shipped to one place. It becomes a orchestration nightmare. A few years ago there was a group buy that NCPARS folks jumped in with another club who was doing it..it was for Calcium Reactors. All the vendor needed was enough "I'll take ones" and gave everybody a discount, but was paid for and shipped to each person separately.

And I too will say that the amount of trading of corals at the last swap was sad. I was very dissapointed, but there is absolutely nothing the board can do about that...we need more people to be willing to frag and trade. If members want demos on how to frag and glue..please let us know..if it's just that you don't have the corals...then well..we can't help you there.

--Fizz

 

[Murph72]

Fizz,
I do think that fragging demos would be beneficial. I myself know how to frag most of my corals. However, I just recently bought some zoos for the first time and would love to learn how to frag them so that I can share them with others. I'm certain some of the newbies probably don't know how to frag anything. That kind of education would be an asset for our club to offer.

 

[Murph72]

Also, on the group buy, I was thinking more along the lines of one person orchestrating it instead of the club persay. More of a "Hey, I'm looking at corals from vendor x, if you want anything let me know and I'll add it to my order. I can keep it in my tank until the weekend when you can get here to pick it up." That kind of thing was moreso what I was thinking of.

Within the club it would be nice if we had the relationships where we could do that with each other. Obviously that takes trust between the members....which is something that some members have with each other and others obviously don't. I just think if we got to know each other better these kinds of exchanges would be possible. But perhaps I'm being an optimist again

 

[lawmary]

Hi, I am a newbie reefer. I joined the club at the Hegins swap. Since that was my first swap, I thought from attending it that swaps were where people brought things to sell. So, I bought some frags and raffle tickets there. One person gave me a frag when he learned I was a newbie. I didn't bring anything to trade because I didn't have anything to trade (yet). I got there and didn't really know what to do, I just saw a lot of people sitting around, as if they were waiting for something. I think it was the raffle. I could only come for part of it, so I don't know what I missed at the beginning or end, because there wasn't an agenda.

I'm new at this and I'm new to your club so I don't really know anyone or anything about it. So, I'm going to apologize in advance if anyone is offended by any of my suggestions.

I joined the club because I was hoping to meet experienced reefers and learn from them. I was hoping to attend meetings and learn how to do things myself, learning from others. I was especially hoping to learn about corals, because my background is more in fish keeping.

I have since learned from reading posts on this website that this club was essentially formed by a few key people to support Mo's work as well as do other things. Reading some of the recent posts this morning, it looks like the membership has grown well beyond the initial group to want more than that. So, there appears to be a struggle going on about what the club is and what it was formed to do, as well as a lack of volunteerism and clear and consistent communication. Welcome to the world of NPOs!

I support Mo's work and have no problem with part of my dues being used to support his work. That is globally stated in the club's purpose right on the home page. However, if that is an issue keeping some members/losing some members, then have people give private donations right to Mo. If Mo is having events, NCPARS can help Mo by advertising the events to its membership and donating free raffle items.

It looks though from the global purpose statement on the NCPARS home page that the club was formed to do more than just support Mo's work. So, here are my requests.

I would like to know when and where the Board meets so I can "sit in" on meetings, as these meetings should be open to the public. I would like the minutes to be posted on the website. I have served on several NPO Boards and I usually spend the first few meetings listening so I can get a sense for what is going on and who is doing/promoting what. I would like to get email notices of these meetings, and also club meetings and club-sponsored events.

I would like to have monthly educational club meetings to go to with topics announced in advance. I would like the meetings to rotate around in location as PSU is pretty far for me to travel. I am more towards the Reading/Allentown areas. If members bring frags to trade on the side, great. At each meeting there should be materials to advertise and join the club. I would like to see hands-on demonstrations. I would like to bring corals and have people who know what they are doing show me how to frag them. I would like to be able to get to know people in my area who have a similar passion. If people want to do this in their homes, there must be some kind of liability release that people could sign in advance if liability is the issue.

The club should have had a membership table at the Anthony Calfo event last night, since they were giving away free items. I'm glad the club supported the event, but I'm not sure what the purpose was since it was run by Something Fishy. Obviously, SF sold the tickets to cover their expenses of Anthony, food and perhaps some of their store raffle items. I'll bet there were people there who did not know who or what NCPARS was. I would have liked to meet some on you online folks there, but there was no vehicle such as nametags to meet other people. I met Mo because he has his big smiling face on his avatar so I know who to look for!

Personally, I thought that the event last night was great. I learned a lot and might have maybe even overcome my fear of fragging. I am a landscaper after all and I cut plants up all the time. So, it's KIND of the same thing.

I think there should be a mutually beneficial relationship between high quality stores like Something Fishy and others and the club. There must be a way to do this. Can our club learn from other clubs? Has our club looked at what other successful clubs are doing?

If the club wants to put together one or two big events each year, the club should get the businesses who come to advertise and sell their products to sponsor those events. The club could charge a fee to the businesses for their tables, which would pay for the food. Then the businesses could also supply the giveaway freebies. Or, businesses could sell food at the event. The club would advertise the event to its membership and organize the event. The event should be free for NCPARS members.

Or, the club could bring in speakers such as Mr. Calfo and use membership dues to pay speaker fees and hall/location rental fees. If that doesn't cover it, use some dues to pay for it and offer a reduced rate to NCPARS members.

If people are interested in getting discounted items for their tanks, why not work out a discount with a local LFS, I bet they'd love to do something like that. People often join all kinds of clubs to get shopping discounts. And wouldn't the LFS order in special corals or products that club members were looking for? Why couldn't you work this out with all of the major LFS in our club area? Unless there is something in the Bylaws or NPO set up that prevent this.

OK, you asked, so there is my 2 cents.

 

[eastonreef]

i agree that more trading between members should be incouraged. many times i see people selling stuff for the same amount i could get it for at the lfs. we should be giving each other a break.

also it seems that the club has been "ruled" from the top down. now that statement was not meant to offend anyone. it is the only way i can think to put it. any organization i have ever been a part of is run by all and implimented by the board. the meetings should be open to everyone not just the board. we should all discuess the issues and come up with solutions together. if we are have access to the meetings then we cant say we dont know what is going on. we can be as informed as we want to be.

 

[Barney121]

What I will participate in is 2-3 swaps per year, and things like we've done at TFP. And paying my dues to support educational activities, and perhaps doing some of that in State College with the few other members in this area.

Members are spread out all over, and with my schedule I won't be going to monthly meetings, or probably anything outside of State College, although it's a nice idea if there's a critical mass of a few people in any one place who want to have one. More trading would be nice, perhaps the club can ask Kevin Fizz to allow his fragswapper site to be used for some continuing trading activity. But it's really designed for specific swaps, and it's his private software (that he has allowed clubs to use for free), so that's up to him.

Also, not to offend, but if you want to just push the current BOD to resign, please keep telling us how we've "ruled" and turn how and what we've been doing into a negative. Frankly, that's been the tone of these threads as seen by people who have done a lot of work. We've set up bylaws, we've incorporated and made the organization into an NPO, we've established a budget, we've managed several swaps, we've worked on guidelines for spending on educational activities. We've called for volunteers and not gotten any. It's not all completed yet, but we've been trying to get some things established. We see all that as a positive, not a negative. I wish this had been phrased more positively, as "Now that there is an actual organizational structure, I'd like to see the club have more open meetings to encourage input from members and come up with solutions." We all agree with that.

 

[eastonreef]

barney--- it is really a matter of semantics. as you said "we did this" and "we did that". the board should not make all the decisions then hand out assignments. i dont think anyone was saying the board has not done a lot of work. i dont know who does what but i am sure there is a lot of time involved.
there are obviously 2 sides to this. the board sees they are putting in all the time and work and they dont feel appreciated. i can totally understand that. on the other side we see things being decided without our input, then we see a post asking for volunteers to do the work others decided to do. the only time we see several of the boardmembers on the site is at swap time. i haven't seen many since october.
i think if the 2 sides merged and everyone had an equal say this would work out better.

 

[CarlC]

Most of my concerns have been covered by previous posts. Some good idea's for change have been suggested.

One addition would be keeping the website updated.

Carl

 

[lawmary]

Hi Barney, thank you for posting. I was just wondering, since I am new, where and how you ask for volunteers? And, what type of communication method does the board use to let the membership know of its activities? Web? Mail? Phone? Newsletter? Thanks in advance.

 

[rickyfins]

Great input! I do not mean to be negative, and certainly would like to see more communication between the BOD and all members. Just look at it this way, we are finally communicating and hopefully we will work out a few bugs in the current method. Thank you all for your posts and more are always welcome.

rick

 

[EMBRYOGUY]

as to what i would like to see change? the president and treasurer.

hope that is direct enough. no hidden sarcasm...

 

[Barney121]

Well, if the votes are there, then there can be a new president and treasurer. IMO, they've done more work than anyone in organizing the club in the past year and a half. They've organized the swaps, coordinated bylaws, etc. I'd personally vote for them and hope they agree to run again.

Good comments, eastonreef. Clearly it's much better to move forward! FYI, we never really handed out assignments, certainly that was never the intent. We were trying to request volunteers to do things like help with swap, education, etc. but never had enough response to get rolling with people other than board members working on the swaps. This thread has generated some new ideas that everyone can work together on. I hope that general members will be active in starting some of these going rather than just relying on the BOD.

Lawmary: thanks for the question. The main call for help was in 2 stickied discussion threads, one for board nominations, and one for volunteers for committees. They were taken down a few weeks ago for some reason (part of general cleaning up the NCPARS forum, I think), but they were up there starting a couple of weeks after the October swap. Given some renewed interest, we should get them back up again.

We don't have a regular newsletter - perhaps it would be nice to have some people form a "newsletter committee" or something like that. We've communicated mostly on the web (NCPARS.org and discussion groups here) with occasional email. We are so spread out geographically that we are really more of a "virtual club" than a local group, so web/email has made the most sense.

I think at the next swap (which Kevin should be announcing plans for soon) we will be having a full membership meeting, and hopefully we'll discuss volunteering and ideas for activities there, in person, too. We are really open to people suggesting/working on new ideas. The committees we had suggested were
ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¢ Education and outreach committee (planning how to support reef tanks in schools, teaching the public about reefs and our hobby, teaching reefers new tricks)
ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¢ Swap committee (helping plan and schedule swap events, get speakers, helping swap set up)
ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¢ Program committee (helping to plan new types of events like member picnics)
ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¢ Membership committee (helping to get new members and make our activities even bigger!)
ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¢ Fund raising / public relations committee (spread the word about NCPARS, help get donations from vendors)

 

[rickyfins]

Scott, Thanks for elaborating on what the BOD is doing, it is giving insight to whats going on. It is nice to see that opinions and suggestions are being considered and given thought. This is what my intentions were when I started this thread. I was hoping that members would come to this thread and voice their opinions and give suggestions to make NCPARS what it should be. It seems to be working thus far.

On a side note, isn't this something that the BOD should have done awhile back. Maybe they have and it didn't work, I am not sure. Isn't someone who is on the BOD supposed to get input from members? Am I inadvertently doing someone elses job? At this point I don't care if I am, I am getting things done that should have been done months ago. I am getting them done with members help, and it seems like it's working this time. If we all chip in it works out much better! Great team work guys!

For all of you who have posted, thanks, I can not change these things, well at least not without help! I am glad communication between members and BOD has begun to get answers. We are not at the end of this road however, and a lot of work still needs to be done to get where the club wants to be. We as a group can do that, we can do what we as a group agree on and put it into motion. This is not my club, nor any one persons, it is every member who pays dues. Even those not yet members should have a say in what they need/want to see in a reef club. It will help NCPARS become versitile in the long run and benefit all. I only hope that we can continue this journey together.

With permission of the BOD, I would like to start the newsletter program. I would need to know how many members we have and addresses for the mailing. I would also need information from the BOD to put into the newsletter as well as what is going on with members around PA so that we can keep up to date on what is working for some.

Any volunteers want to help me with this venture?

Lawmary- you have some interesting stories don't you? We can put some of your experiences as a newbie in the first newsletter.

CarlC- How about you? Got anything you would like put into a newsletter? Current setup, experiences, or anything.

thanks,

Rick

 

[bmkindig]

hey all
honestly the bod doesn't actually "meet" it's more like organize things to do for swaps it's rare we can actually meet without an agenda.