Clubs

[reeffreak]

After reading some threads on another forum Ive come to a conclusoin that we should see if theres any interest in starting a marine aquaruim club for people in this area , there tonnes of ways we all  could benefit from this ..

If youve heard of MACNA then youd know that if we ever want this venue to ever come back to Canada then we as reefers need to start supporting clubs/groups . If theres any members who think this is a good idea please speak up , dont forget to voice your opinoinss lets get some ideas and see what we can do .

 

[mark0933]

I've always liked and supported the groups.  I have been around long enough to see MACL come and go twice.  The London fresh water club is stable but wants nothing to do with Marine (not in those exact words, but very evident if you post in their marine section)

The problem that seems to pop up in groups is that no-one is willing to volunteer to host meetings, and if you meet in a hall, then there is no "oohh I see what you did" type of learning that everyone likes.

The other problem is that a good majority of people won't travel more than 15 mins to come to a meeting it seems.

I'll help in any way I can, still even have some MACL $$ to restart the club.

Mark

 

[unibob]

I was a paying member of London's freshwater club for a few years, loved going to meeting to learn and meet people. There was also a jar show and auction that took place every meeting. Would definately be interested, problem is, we have people from all over so attendance might be an issue.

 

[reeffreak]

Ya i agree that getting everyone together for a meeting is the major thing , if we can get enough members who will want to join then carpools are an option . IMO theres only one way to find out . Seeing as there would be such a small turn out for Sarnia individually , London and surrounding areas then maybe puttin it all together is the best option .

If we come up with some awsome ideas for meeting , members who will volunteer to host meetings then the rest should fall in place . We have to give them a reason to come and realize the advantages of having a club that  has the potential to be huge . 

Things like this only benifit us as hobbyist , I think this would be super cool if we could get somehting going .

 

[mark0933]

I agree the benefits are huge, and was not trying to be a negative nellie, just letting you know the hard parts.  Just like selling things on Kijiji, you get tons of tire kickers and people that say they are in, but most back out or no show.  The last MACL meeting was at my house, was supposed to be a BBQ, all of 3 people showed up even though we had commitments from a dozen or more.

Mark

Mark

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

i dont think anyones gonna pay money for a club or go to meetings  ..just like  alot wont go  get frags  ..like they will get frags when rick goes to there town and meets at a timmys

 

[TORX]

This discussion has happened quite a lot on this site. There are a few concerns that are still outstanding about it. One is that we are spread 4-5 hours apart. For a meeting, someone would always have to travel for hours to get to any monthly meeting. Yes, there are tons of potential benefits, but there are also huge expenses to get things started and ongoing expenses after that as well which would have to be paid some how, also there are legalities behind it. We have talked about it and will continue to, who knows what will happen down the road.

 

[reeffreak]

i dont think anyones gonna pay money for a club or go to meetings  ..just like  alot wont go  get frags  ..like they will get frags when rick goes to there town and meets at a timmys

pay to go to a meeting ? whats 10 bucks for a membership for a year , I pay 5x that for an xbox live membership ... we wont get anything going if we think like that .

 

[reeffreak]

seem like the idea isnt a very popular one

 

[TORX]

It is a very popular one, but like my previous post, there is a lot to it and we are still quite small. Most people started coming here because everything is free, charging or asking for membership fees is a huge thing. Again, it is a good idea and we all share that thought, but it will be a while before anything would happen.

 

[davesolo29]

I am a paid member of KWAS.  our yearly fee is $25/person or $35/family.
I have also been on the BOD and EXEC for several of the years i have been a member.  Although KWAS was mostly a freshwater club for the last 40 years or so, it has become very much marine involved.  Kitchener also used to have MASK which the executive at KWAS is looking to rekindle.

included in the yearly fee is a monthly newsletter, monthly meetings 10 months of the year. (we break for July and August), pizza party, bbq, auctions, etc.

it does take quite a bit of work.  many volunteer hours, and lots of commitment.

 

[davesolo29]

It is a very popular one, but like my previous post, there is a lot to it and we are still quite small. Most people started coming here because everything is free, charging or asking for membership fees is a huge thing. Again, it is a good idea and we all share that thought, but it will be a while before anything would happen.

Having a club should not change that the website is free. 

 

[reeffreak]

To me a forum and a club are not even compairble ... theres reasons there would be a membership fee for a club bbq , auctions etc , with the forums that doesnt happen theres no auctions , events etc ... also were hoping the poeple who are wanting to join the club are wanting to be part of the club lol , with the forum I wouldnt pay any fee if i was only going to join and rarely make an appearence ,  like Torx said we are a small group here , which also brings up another good reason to try and get this going .

Heres another idea , since charging a fee could be an issue , some of us members who like the idea could start a thing every month , no cost, meet up , share ideas , volunteer our tanks for a show and tell type deal  , swap frags , whatever else we can think of to get the idea of the club out there this way people are actually seeing a group of members getting together sharing ideas  , run it free for the first year or so then see where its at . If its successful we could maybe have a vote between the group  to see if we should charge a small fee and be able to bring bigger and better ideas/topics to the table for future meetings ?

 

[reeffreak]

trying to focus on an area around london/sarnia/chatham/ ideal since 4-5 hours away theres a handful of marine clubs already ... barrie,durham region , toronto etc....

 

[Gietz]

Some friends and I started a Windsor saltwater club and even ppl from here joined our Facebook group, it was free and everything worked great for about 2 months.  Then fights broke out about what's "right and wrong" and shit hit the fan.  It came to the point that most of us left including myself because the group became pointless (everyone saying there way is the right way etc etc). We even had meeting that we try to do frag swaps at but it was low turn out!!  Even had show up and get a free frag (orange digi). And still no turn up.  Needles to say i left the group 5 months after it started.

 

[reeffreak]

Well people who want to cause issues within the group can not bother to be there in the first place or be mature enough to be handle themselves at reef aquaruim club meeting .

I would think people who want to join a reef club are willing to learn and or have an idea on whats going on , I mean  we want to learn things not think we know it all .

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

yu dont need to start a club  ..just some guys that come in here..set up a bbq and have them bring a plate ..like a potluck ...or meet at some timmys or restaurnat on some select nites ...we used to do that with the yahoo chat rooms..or have some frag meets or  tank shows where they all meet in a town and drive to ppl in the forum that want to show off there tanks....

 

[reeffreak]

yu dont need to start a club  ..just some guys that come in here..set up a bbq and have them bring a plate ..like a potluck ...or meet at some timmys or restaurnat on some select nites ...we used to do that with the yahoo chat rooms..or have some frag meets or  tank shows where they all meet in a town and drive to ppl in the forum that want to show off there tanks....

To me a forum and a club are not even compairble ... theres reasons there would be a membership fee for a club bbq , auctions etc , with the forums that doesnt happen theres no auctions , events etc ... also were hoping the poeple who are wanting to join the club are wanting to be part of the club lol , with the forum I wouldnt pay any fee if i was only going to join and rarely make an appearence ,  like Torx said we are a small group here , which also brings up another good reason to try and get this going .

Heres another idea , since charging a fee could be an issue , some of us members who like the idea could start a thing every month , no cost, meet up , share ideas , volunteer our tanks for a show and tell type deal  , swap frags , whatever else we can think of to get the idea of the club out there this way people are actually seeing a group of members getting together sharing ideas  , run it free for the first year or so then see where its at . If its successful we could maybe have a vote between the group  to see if we should charge a small fee and be able to bring bigger and better ideas/topics to the table for future meetings ?

 

[reeffreak]

i dont see what good comes out of meeting at timmies and having a coffee and chatting ... we can chat here on the forum . thats kinda boring we want to interest people not have tea and crumpets

 

[teebone110]

All of the above are great ideas. I have been a past silent "watcher" over many years during the MACL run. It was apparent that many people had good intentions, but when it came down to participating in local "meetings" everyone seemed to be non-commital and dropped like flies. The model failed in the past and will more than likely fail again. We must consider new ways of doing things. Times have changed, people are busier and technology is better than ever. What remains the same is our passion for our tanks!

I know that this website rocks and well as its members. I think we should assume that all fragtank members are in fact members of the "SWO Fragtank Club."

Meetings are easy... It has already been suggested by Darryl to have a regular chat time set up in the chatroom. For example the first Sunday of the month @9pm could be the Fragtank meeting. Also, I think "meetings" sound too corporate... these should be called. "Fragtank Chat"

Torx should get on it and arrange for a sticky with a Fragtank membership card that can be printed off to take advantage of LFS discounts, etc. No dues, no membership fees. Just use the fragtank as it is intended, to unite reefers from SWO.


If we want to have a face-to-event, these can be set as fragswaps, or we can meet up at a LFS and see some new gear or get first dibs on a new shipment! We had a great time at Rick's last fall... members brought some cash, frags, and anything else they wanted to sell. I know it took some effort, but it was a good time. I think this is the way things should be run things.

Just my two cents