Here is a review of the WRS BBQ this year. Everyone seemed to have enough to eat and seemed to have a good time. There were two topics of discussion.
Myself demonstrating the bad effects of letting a reef tank get too hot and how it affects your corals. <VBG>
A discussion of the past year and things that could be improved upon. Note that no replies were sent to WRS before the meeting stating things were good or bad with the club so we are assuming everyone is happy!
A door prize of a $100 gift certificate was given away at the meeting. The group got to choose where the certificate was from and decided that it would be from Drs. Foster and Smith. Steve LuMaye was the lucky winner drawn by the wife (Kirsten??? - my apologies if incorrect) of new member Ryan Nanney who joined at the meeting.
Attendance was 9 club members plus family members. That was with a meeting date and time that has been posted since January and available on the web site, and every yahoogroup email that goes out. That is less than 25% of the membership.
Two frags of my huge leather toadstool were cut off as a demonstration of fragging the beast and given away.
I will now hit a couple of the high points from the WRS discussion during the BBQ. along with
comments based on discussions with the rest of the leadership:
Attendance to BBQ
Seems like a poor showing, but everyone is much busier these days than in the past.
Resolution: Just like speakers, road trips, etc., as long as the times and dates are posted well in advance, the club will offer events that not everyone can make. People make the time for the things they feel are most important for any particular day. If the club decides to have the BBQ in May, and then have no meetings for June â€"œ August, to better fit with everyone’s vacations, that may be a good solution to boost attendance. If the BBQ is kept in June-August, that is fine also.
Dues.
Except for the All-Glass door prize, WRS has not done much to justify the $25 in dues/year. Dues are a showstopper for membership. It was discussed and felt by the few people there that maybe a $5 or $10 "Premier" membership fee to cover the costs of WRS ID's be charged instead. WRS has enough money to cover the cost of the web site for 10 years. The current paid membership could get 1 or 2 years of free Premier membership to show their support last year in paying $25.
If WRS puts on events (trips to Shedd aquarium, etc), people could pay their own way. If more funds are needed, a local frag swap could be used to generate money.
Maybe for group buys where the vendor gives an extra 5-10% discount due to quantity or because we are a club, could be split 50/50 between the people ordering, and the club.
Resolution: Having some members as “Premier†members, with special privileges such as access to yahoogroups, WRS ID, and raffles/door prizes, and everyone else having access to just the meetings and Reef Central, isn’t really any different than what we have now. Also, just because WRS didn’t provide all it set out to do this past year, the fact remains that the club is again growing and is still solvent, which didn’t look like the case last year… Having dues allows the people who support WRS to get the extra benefits (a $2000 raffle/donation from All-Glass and ORA fish buy warrants a $25 donation alone…)
However, it was agreed that a reduced fee at this time is warranted until the money in the WRS account states otherwise, or the types of things that WRS ends up doing changes.
Thus the dues will be reduced to $10/year and $20/family. This is $15 cheaper than in the past and will remain at these levels until things warrant an increase in the fees.
As far as events, since we didn’t have any special ones this year, no change will be made.
As far as group buys, since a membership fee is charged, all discounts will go back to the club members who participated. More effort will be made to get LFS across the state of Wisconsin involved so the WRS ID will not be just for the Milwaukee area. That will require the help of everyone who lives farther away though… Al C. will be getting back to me on something for the Green Bay/Appleton area.
Web Site.
It hasn’t gotten much better than it was before. In some respects it is worse. WRS should either pay to have it professionally done, or get it done very soon. A couple people stated they liked the MARS site. Also, displeasure with Reef Central and yahoogroups was mentioned, but that could be attributed to members computer problems/setup, and not anything to do with the sites. New member Ryan stated he could have something up and running in 2 hours at no cost to WRS. It would be through his work. It would be portable to some other website if we wanted to have someone else host the site.
Resolution: True to his word, Ryan provided me something 3 hours later. I am currently taking time review it compared to our current site and to MARS website. Since nothing has been accomplished the last couple months on the site, we’ve decided to let Ryan continue with the new site. We will pick a couple people to test things out when we get things ready before it is released to the group. A way is being looked into to provide the best features of yahoogroups and Reef Central and get it combined into one place as WRS will not support 3 different areas. Expect a release sometime in October for this.
Yahoogroups â€"œ Reef Central Communication Forums.
Some love yahoogroups, some hate it. Our new web site could have full forum capability. The talk was Reef Central would then be more of a portal. Need to do more research to see if can’t get automatic email capability for new posts/replies like the yahoogroups does. If that can be an option each individual could select, yahoogroups might be gone.
Resolution: See resolution under Website as they kind of go together…
Speakers.
When WRS was formed, IMAC, DR Foster and Smith Frag swap, etc were not available. Speakers made sense then as it was something that couldn’t normally be done. As the experience level of the club has climbed, the need for those speakers has diminished. Since they are still available through other venues that only the people who want can access, no need for speakers (and thus dues?) from WRS
Resolution: At this point in time, with all the other venues for speakers and information, bringing in speakers is currently on hold. However, that doesn’t mean in the future that the group wouldn’t want to still bring in somebody local (Not a 2-3 hour trip to Chicago, or a 2-4 hour trip to Rhinelander) sometime. Thus WRS will always keep this option open. Also, speakers does not necessarily mean Anthony Calfo, look at the cool presentation from ORA/All-Glass this past January.
Other issues that weren’t brought up at the meeting:
The Tank that was won last January from All-Glass is still “Not yet readyâ€Â. Jeff is keeping in touch with All-Glass on this one.
Donations to Pier WI are still actually in the works. The project has just been delayed… Thus the donation that WRS was going to make is still in the works. More details will be available when Pier WI is ready…
Gift certificates from Drs. Foster and Smith will be purchased and distributed to the people who volunteered to host meetings this past year. (Except Evan who received a large coral already). Not sure if something like this will continue this next year…
Final words.
The first year wasn't bad. While some things did not get accomplished, a lot of things did. Even more will be accomplished this next year.
Since there will be a reduced membership fee of $10, and last years membership expires the end of August, please send your payments for the upcoming year to Rick Boyd. Since I'm a stickler for meeting deadlines, September 14th is still the timeframe for people who plan on rejoining to have their dues paid up to not lose access to the club "stuff"...
Steve
Myself demonstrating the bad effects of letting a reef tank get too hot and how it affects your corals. <VBG>
A discussion of the past year and things that could be improved upon. Note that no replies were sent to WRS before the meeting stating things were good or bad with the club so we are assuming everyone is happy!
A door prize of a $100 gift certificate was given away at the meeting. The group got to choose where the certificate was from and decided that it would be from Drs. Foster and Smith. Steve LuMaye was the lucky winner drawn by the wife (Kirsten??? - my apologies if incorrect) of new member Ryan Nanney who joined at the meeting.
Attendance was 9 club members plus family members. That was with a meeting date and time that has been posted since January and available on the web site, and every yahoogroup email that goes out. That is less than 25% of the membership.
Two frags of my huge leather toadstool were cut off as a demonstration of fragging the beast and given away.
I will now hit a couple of the high points from the WRS discussion during the BBQ. along with
comments based on discussions with the rest of the leadership:
Attendance to BBQ
Seems like a poor showing, but everyone is much busier these days than in the past.
Resolution: Just like speakers, road trips, etc., as long as the times and dates are posted well in advance, the club will offer events that not everyone can make. People make the time for the things they feel are most important for any particular day. If the club decides to have the BBQ in May, and then have no meetings for June â€"œ August, to better fit with everyone’s vacations, that may be a good solution to boost attendance. If the BBQ is kept in June-August, that is fine also.
Dues.
Except for the All-Glass door prize, WRS has not done much to justify the $25 in dues/year. Dues are a showstopper for membership. It was discussed and felt by the few people there that maybe a $5 or $10 "Premier" membership fee to cover the costs of WRS ID's be charged instead. WRS has enough money to cover the cost of the web site for 10 years. The current paid membership could get 1 or 2 years of free Premier membership to show their support last year in paying $25.
If WRS puts on events (trips to Shedd aquarium, etc), people could pay their own way. If more funds are needed, a local frag swap could be used to generate money.
Maybe for group buys where the vendor gives an extra 5-10% discount due to quantity or because we are a club, could be split 50/50 between the people ordering, and the club.
Resolution: Having some members as “Premier†members, with special privileges such as access to yahoogroups, WRS ID, and raffles/door prizes, and everyone else having access to just the meetings and Reef Central, isn’t really any different than what we have now. Also, just because WRS didn’t provide all it set out to do this past year, the fact remains that the club is again growing and is still solvent, which didn’t look like the case last year… Having dues allows the people who support WRS to get the extra benefits (a $2000 raffle/donation from All-Glass and ORA fish buy warrants a $25 donation alone…)
However, it was agreed that a reduced fee at this time is warranted until the money in the WRS account states otherwise, or the types of things that WRS ends up doing changes.
Thus the dues will be reduced to $10/year and $20/family. This is $15 cheaper than in the past and will remain at these levels until things warrant an increase in the fees.
As far as events, since we didn’t have any special ones this year, no change will be made.
As far as group buys, since a membership fee is charged, all discounts will go back to the club members who participated. More effort will be made to get LFS across the state of Wisconsin involved so the WRS ID will not be just for the Milwaukee area. That will require the help of everyone who lives farther away though… Al C. will be getting back to me on something for the Green Bay/Appleton area.
Web Site.
It hasn’t gotten much better than it was before. In some respects it is worse. WRS should either pay to have it professionally done, or get it done very soon. A couple people stated they liked the MARS site. Also, displeasure with Reef Central and yahoogroups was mentioned, but that could be attributed to members computer problems/setup, and not anything to do with the sites. New member Ryan stated he could have something up and running in 2 hours at no cost to WRS. It would be through his work. It would be portable to some other website if we wanted to have someone else host the site.
Resolution: True to his word, Ryan provided me something 3 hours later. I am currently taking time review it compared to our current site and to MARS website. Since nothing has been accomplished the last couple months on the site, we’ve decided to let Ryan continue with the new site. We will pick a couple people to test things out when we get things ready before it is released to the group. A way is being looked into to provide the best features of yahoogroups and Reef Central and get it combined into one place as WRS will not support 3 different areas. Expect a release sometime in October for this.
Yahoogroups â€"œ Reef Central Communication Forums.
Some love yahoogroups, some hate it. Our new web site could have full forum capability. The talk was Reef Central would then be more of a portal. Need to do more research to see if can’t get automatic email capability for new posts/replies like the yahoogroups does. If that can be an option each individual could select, yahoogroups might be gone.
Resolution: See resolution under Website as they kind of go together…
Speakers.
When WRS was formed, IMAC, DR Foster and Smith Frag swap, etc were not available. Speakers made sense then as it was something that couldn’t normally be done. As the experience level of the club has climbed, the need for those speakers has diminished. Since they are still available through other venues that only the people who want can access, no need for speakers (and thus dues?) from WRS
Resolution: At this point in time, with all the other venues for speakers and information, bringing in speakers is currently on hold. However, that doesn’t mean in the future that the group wouldn’t want to still bring in somebody local (Not a 2-3 hour trip to Chicago, or a 2-4 hour trip to Rhinelander) sometime. Thus WRS will always keep this option open. Also, speakers does not necessarily mean Anthony Calfo, look at the cool presentation from ORA/All-Glass this past January.
Other issues that weren’t brought up at the meeting:
The Tank that was won last January from All-Glass is still “Not yet readyâ€Â. Jeff is keeping in touch with All-Glass on this one.
Donations to Pier WI are still actually in the works. The project has just been delayed… Thus the donation that WRS was going to make is still in the works. More details will be available when Pier WI is ready…
Gift certificates from Drs. Foster and Smith will be purchased and distributed to the people who volunteered to host meetings this past year. (Except Evan who received a large coral already). Not sure if something like this will continue this next year…
Final words.
The first year wasn't bad. While some things did not get accomplished, a lot of things did. Even more will be accomplished this next year.
Since there will be a reduced membership fee of $10, and last years membership expires the end of August, please send your payments for the upcoming year to Rick Boyd. Since I'm a stickler for meeting deadlines, September 14th is still the timeframe for people who plan on rejoining to have their dues paid up to not lose access to the club "stuff"...
Steve
