Hello from the LA Reef Club

IrishStout · Post by **IrishStout** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:07 pm

Hello all!! My name is Colin O'Connor and I am one of the cofounders of the Louisiana Reef Club. I just wanted to stop in and see if anyone would be willing to answer some questions for me about your club. Our club is about two years old now. Mostly we get new members by word of mouth and through RC and the other message boards out there. What I wanted to know what steps you guys took to up the organizational end of your club. Our organization is really taken care of by two people, myself and the other cofounder. Have ya'll set up a "board of directors" or anything of that nature? What have ya'll done to increase attendance at meetings and how long has it taken you to get to the point that your at now? I would really appreciate any information yall can give me, because one day I would like for our club to reach the level that yall have. Congrats on your success and keep on reefin. Thanks, Colin

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:17 pm

I think we decided unanimously early on to not be organized on purpose. Leave the politics in the office and lets have some fun. Our meetings are a party basically.. a place to network with your fellow reefer, swap goodies, get advice, check out each others setup. They're great.. we never have an agenda, so we don't spend the whole time arguing on "how to run things". Kevin & Scott have been the driving force behind the club. Kevin setup this great board for the club and has responded to every request that anyone has wanted for the board.. ie: uber-geek

I suppose we'll surpass a managable level at some point and have to vote for officers, etc.. blech!

ShagMan · Post by **ShagMan** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:18 pm

Honestly, if I had to nail one thing about our club that keeps it going, it's gotta be:

the strong core of about 15 people that are always around, and always come to the meeting... always interested, always answering questions, etc.

NO formal structure. I think we're more of a "social club" type thing. We have no board, and nobody has any titles or anything.

frag swaps. one the things I really look forward to at the meetings... there's always free frags of all types going around, every member who can contribute, does... there's always higher-end frags and colonies for sale as well. It's worth it for hte local reefer to show, just for the frags.

round robin meetings. We do the meeting at a willing person's house, every month. This keeps things more social/personal, and also lets us see a new person's tank every month. This keeps things "different" every month too, which means you'll miss out if you don't show.

good message board. Kevin whipped up a NICE set of message boards, and keeps the admin, cost, etc. all hidden from us, making this a great place to hang out and post. Helps out a LOT.

larger tank size members. I don't know this for sure, but it really seems that we have a HIGH concentration of people with REAALLY large tanks. I know there's two 240G's, a 280G, a ~500G, and probably five 100-110G size tanks in our club. This means highly dedicated people who are expert in what they do, and are always heppy to talk about what they love to do. As a added bonus, this means lots of fragging capability too

I think that's about it... guys, did I miss anything?

IrishStout · Post by **IrishStout** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:28 pm

Thanks for the quick responses!! Going with a "board of directors" was not the direction that our club wanted to go so it is refreshing to hear that your success has been based on the reason our club was started, to have fun and learn from each other. We have a member base of around 100 people that visit our message board on yahoo and we do have a core group of people that are always at the meetings, probably 4 or 5, but unfortunately most of the time its just those 4 or 5. I'm looking forward to hearing from more of you. Every bit of info, opinions or observations that you can lend are much appreciated. Thanks, Colin

Xster · Post by **Xster** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 4:00 pm

In my honest opinion, another big reason that our club has progressed so far, is that everyone leaves their egos aside when it comes to reefkeeping. Every trying to lend a hand if help is needed. Everyone respects each other's different ideas, and different means to the same end, a thriving reef tank. Everyone learning from each other's mistakes. This keeps it pretty "real."

This is a great compliment to our entire club.

Plus, in our club, we keep the alcohol flowing.

...that helps out a great deal!!!

P.S. I am looking forward to coming to Baton Rouge for one of the meetings.

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 4:27 pm

Beer, Frags, & Food... what else do you need?

Amyjoe · Post by **Amyjoe** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 4:38 pm

Food you have to remember the food!!!

JK~ We just have a great community of reefers. We just celebrated one year together, the board is about a year old also. I think we were fortunate to decide early to not have officers unless it just becomes a must- it keeps things on a more social basis. It is nice to keep adding new people to the mix so that for those who want to swap frags and such they are able to get "new" stuff from different tanks. I think this is also helping the attendance and the new additions to each meeting.

Basically, each meeting is a social event- that gives everyone a chance to enjoy the hobby.

Post by **snoopdog** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 5:48 pm

Brandon wrote:Beer, Frags, & Food... what else do you need?

Exactly

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 6:02 pm

Welcome,
Our set up is actually a lot yours because I have been getting the e-mail updated from the BRreefclub for well over a year now. I looked at how the Atlanta Reef club, you guys and a couple of other conducted themselves and I think you are a right on track.

One way we have tried to increase attendance and membership is putting our website on some of the local reef club websites (http://fins.actwin.com/dir/clubs.php?c=1&r=19 and http://www.reefs.org/links/index.html also aqualink.com but their site is down right now) and asking that all of our members put the site as their homepage on other message board and put someting in the sig line so that everytime we post it advertises the club for locals to see.

I seriously dobt that we will ever elect officers and have dues. It is too much beauracracy and we like to keep it fun. I think that we should have donations to cover the cost of this website but really no other money is needed for our club. Everyone brings something to the meetings or chips in on pizza or whatever is needed.

The main thing we do is not sweating the small stuff. We have had differences of opinions and diagreements, but they were either insignificant or worked out for the better. I don't think we have ever had a member leave because of something another member did or said and there are no grudges as far as I know between any of us.

Let us know if you have any more questions, we might not do everythingright but it works for us.

~Scott

SaltnLime · Post by **SaltnLime** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 6:46 pm

Personally I think it is the "pigs in a blanket" that contribute most to our success. The tradition was broken recently, well, not broken...fractured really. However, we all know that bad mojo would surely befall our happy little group should another meeting go by without the ever blessed wrapped piggies. The mere presense of them lends magical properties to all those hosts who speak about thier tanks.....hence Scott's inability to give his member speech at the last MBRK bash!.

Let us give credit where it is due

Let us not temp fate again...lest the fellowship be broken

I agree we got a pretty good group of people here. Xster keeps me so darn broke I gotta show up for the free food!

Yeah, the fermented goodies helps.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 6:51 pm

A frosty adult beverage can help anything (even breakfast

)

Amyjoe · Post by **Amyjoe** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 6:58 pm

All hail the Piggies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 7:03 pm

If it weren't for the pigs in a blanket we would have disbanded long ago. You have to have them for a successful meeting.

tbmoore · Post by **tbmoore** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 8:26 pm

I agree with all the above but would like to add or pile on that I feel the main reason for the sucess is this high quality board. Many thanks need to go to those who built and keep it up. It helps in knowledge and fellowship. Without the board and the great efforts of those who act as moderators and designers we would not have progressed as quickly as we have. Just wanted to say thanks and complement those involved.
Terry

SaltnLime · Post by **SaltnLime** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 11:17 pm

tbmoore wrote:I agree with all the above but would like to add or pile on that I feel the main reason for the sucess is this high quality board. Many thanks need to go to those who built and keep it up. It helps in knowledge and fellowship. Without the board and the great efforts of those who act as moderators and designers we would not have progressed as quickly as we have. Just wanted to say thanks and complement those involved.
Terry

"Hear, Hear!"