WarDaddy
New member
You just brought up my biggest concerns. Let me start with the easy ones and work my way up...
Money. Currently Dues are collected and the club makes some money off the monthly Frag Auction that occurs at each meeting. All the money is placed in a bank account in the clubs name, and from what I understand it sits there. I believe I heard that the club has over $1500 and they were talking about what they can do with their funds. The 2 big deas were bring in a national speaker and buy 1 nice coral a month and then do a frag class where each member gets to take home a piece of the coral that was fragged.
Both are great ideas, but I am sure we can do more.
At the April meeting on the 14th, I hope to make the club the primary point of discussion, although it sounds like we will have at least one presentation, possibly about making 2 part dosing solution. In the discussion I hope to talk about and understand the following items:
Club Structure: How is the club structured? What are leadership positions does the club have other than the President? Who are these people currently? How do they get to be in that position? Are there any formal rules/by laws/constitution, that govern the club?
Club Meetings: You have seen my ideas on that… we need structure
Club Elections: When do we have elections?
Club Committees: Are there committees built to help with the organization of events, etc? Should there be?
Club Activities: What can we as a club do to make reefing more enjoyable and fun, for the whole family, community, etc.
The Club president was at the last meeting, I spoke with him, and everyone at that meeting, for some time. If I understood it correctly, the former club president left the club several years ago. When that individual left the current President was elected/volunteered, and has been the president since. From the sounds of it, it appears that no one really wanted to step up and take on the responsibility, so he has continued to do the job. It sounds like the club was more active in the past, but has kind of settled into the comfort zone where it is now. This is not a bad zone, it is easy to maintain, and quite fun, but it does not resemble any reef club I have been part of in the past. By the end of the meeting there were several of us talking about different directions the club could go. There were people volunteering to help organize and such.
Then came the post about the April meeting, and it seemed to have the same flavor as the meeting before it. It looked like all the talk and excitement from the last meeting just simmered down and things defaulted to the status quo. So Mike, myself and others started a discussion about what we would like to see in our club, and that is where we are right now. We, as members and possible members, of the club are engaging in a conversation as to what we would lie to see this club become. If the majority of the members of the club do not want to see change, then we can deal with that, we would have options, but that is not what I, personally, want to see. What I hope to see is the membership of the club to get excited, maybe even motivated. I hope that the current leadership embraces the idea we bring and helps us to bring about some change. I do not expect or want to see a change in leadership, what I hope to see is a bunch of us step up and form some committees and help the leadership to get this ship on course to see some to the great reefs in the world! Like I have said before, I am wiling and able to step up into any role that I can to help right this ship.
This club is nothing without great members, and from what I saw at the last meeting, there are great people in the club. The only thing that I would hope to see is a little more focus on reefing, and the addition of some education, activities and an increased number of people at each meeting. Oh… and if we are able to increase membership and meeting attendance, we should be able to bring in more funds, gain more local and national sponsorship and with that we should be able to get several of the great national speakers each year to come down to Tampa and visit us. These things take time and nothing will happen over night. The first thing we need to do is establish if that is even what we want to do, as a club. From there we get down to the forming of committees, dividing out the work (so no one is overwhelmed, this is a hobby after all) and reaping the rewards of being part of a group and not a group of individuals.
So there it is, that is where I am coming from. If the club as a whole does not like those ideas, well then maybe this is not the club for me, but I hope that this is not the case.
