CTARS Are we dead or alive?

[kgstei]

Hey guys CTARS is still here, sort of. I had some stuff going on over the summer so I was'nt on for awhile and quite frankly got out of the habit of checking in. And yes Covid has made it tuff to get the club going again, but I think its more than that. I've got my thoughts on it but I'd like to hear yours. Let me ask you this. Tell me 3 things you want out of being in this club?

 

[Tacticool-Reefer]

My 3...

1. The biggest reason for being in a reef club. Human interaction! It's fun showing people your tank, interacting with them at frag swaps, coral grow-out contests, etc. You can buy corals and stare at your tank all day by yourself but eventually, it gets lonely/old.
2. Great learning experience. We don't know everything about this hobby. Even when we get the hang of running our reef tank, we can still learn more and more every day from other hobbyists.
3. Power in joint funds! Reef clubs have money to do fun and informative activities. With membership fees and fundraisers you can pay for expert speakers to come to give a talk. You can buy corals to do grow-out contests. You can throw big reef events that bring people together to enjoy the hobby.
   • Another example: par meter that we share/lend out between our club members.
   • Wishlist: The club could buy a coral bandsaw that could be used by its members.

 

[galantra]

Like tacticool (even though I haven’t bought membership)

1)Looking for that human interaction with the same like saltwater minds. It’s a wealth of knowledge, techniques, and help; out there so belonging to a club truly helps keep you reefing for a long time.

2) within the group helps you find deals, package prices as well as local venues that offer savings.

3) good ole trading and bartering with corals and equipment that help fellow members

 

[FragileReefer]

Virtual meetings. Maybe a quarterly in person meeting would be fine for now but we should be talking regularly to build the club.

Different Social Media. Some people don't trust FB some don't like here. The answer is a to diversify. Maybe Instagram live, zoom, even a monthly update post here.

Mentors. Everyone's got tricks of the trade and we need a system that can share that.

 

[kgstei]

I agree with you what you guys say but there are some real challenges for this club. Unfortunately we currently don't have enough members to really put on too many in-person events because we're all spread out across the state. Many people are using social media groups for their Reef Community needs but it's a horrible format to run a club. Its biggest benefit is that Facebook is integrated into so many people's lives this comment if posted on Facebook would be seen by the group very quickly. Here it may take 3 weeks or 4 weeks for ev 20% of the club members to have seen it. My personal thoughts is The Way Forward is to rethink how the club operates. I think we have to blow the club up and rebuild it from the ground up. My idea is to have smaller local clubs that are linked together under the umbrella of a Statewide Club. Each of these mini clubs is it a better position to have local convenient social meetings and by having these minr clubs linked up into a Statewide Club it gives more flexibility to go to a meeting. If you can't make the meeting closest to you there's going to be one that perhaps is at a different time in the neighboring mini club. By linking the clubs into a larger Statewide Club you can do larger events and guest speakers, group buys, etc.

 

[Tacticool-Reefer]

@kgstei

I definitely don't disagree with you and that might be an option for us to do moving forward. However, being part of a club requires that the individual also contribute (I mean isn't that why they joined the club, to begin with?) some time and effort to be available for meetings, social media, events, and respond to post like this one. To me (2cents worth) it seems like people (some, not all) just want everything done for them without participating.

...they want to be part of a "club" they want to have "benefits" (discounts, etc) associated with being part of a club but they don't want to attend meetings or be part of the forum where the club posted most of its content?!?!?

Also, my intent is not to start something my intent is to have an open and honest discussion about why membership/participation is the way it currently is.

 

[kgstei]

I think by going smaller you can get better participation. The clubs model has been 4-6 people carrying the load. putting together meetings, events, taking care of the Lutz tank and just the stuff you need to do to run and organize the club. When we first started to revitalize this club last year I was dead set against doing a frag toberfest because I knew it was going to be two guys who would have to do all of the work. I just didn't think that would be fair. If you go two smaller "mini clubs" then you can spread out the load. Maybe one club does a group buy one month, the next month another club runs a grow out contest, the next montg another club organizes a road trip or a speaker or frag swap. They use their in-person meeting to organize that and socialize. Then maybe once a month we do a virtual meeting for the whole club to link up.

 

[ubasu]

1) Id love to swap frags with other reefers.
2) Id love to split shipping costs with near by members
3) Meetings

I like the idea of smaller clubs that are closer to me. Im in Simsbury. Norwalk might as well be in mars. You could divide the club by county.

 

[kgstei]

1) Id love to swap frags with other reefers.
2) Id love to split shipping costs with near by members
3) Meetings

I like the idea of smaller clubs that are closer to me. Im in Simsbury. Norwalk might as well be in mars. You could divide the club by county.

Exactly! I know ive seen a couple of reefers from Simsbury here (on r2r not necessarily in the club), but its difficult unless you check everybody profile AND they put their town in or someone happens to mention it in the post and you see every post. Wouldn't it be nice to have some help setting up a new tank or moving one.

 

[Dburr1014]

My 3...

1. The biggest reason for being in a reef club. Human interaction! It's fun showing people your tank, interacting with them at frag swaps, coral grow-out contests, etc. You can buy corals and stare at your tank all day by yourself but eventually, it gets lonely/old.
2. Great learning experience. We don't know everything about this hobby. Even when we get the hang of running our reef tank, we can still learn more and more every day from other hobbyists.
3. Power in joint funds! Reef clubs have money to do funand informative activities. With membership fees and fundraisers you can pay for expert speakers to come to give a talk. You can buy corals to do grow-out contests. You can throw big reef events that bring people together to enjoy the hobby.
   • Another example: par meter that we share/lend out between our club members.
   • Wishlist: The club could buy a coral bandsaw that could be used by its members.

Just repeat this for me!

 

[kgstei]

I'm trying to get something going

 

[Dburr1014]

OMG, I think we are dying.
Just trying to get people to post tank shots or any kind of interaction is getting hard.
Let's do an in person meetup.
One of the LFS on a weekend. Let's shoot for the end of the month.
Who's with me?!

 

[chevy4w]

Waiting for details.