Frag Swap Fall 2017, any helpers?

JaimeAdams · Sep 20, 2016

It takes an enormous amount of time and effort to plan and pull off a frag swap. I know that this seems premature however after talking with other members of the BoD we want to get the cards in a row for next year. We have made some big strides with now having a website up and having our bank account back. Also vendors want 6+ months notice ahead of time. So we are currently looking at dates for Oct/Nov of 2017. I will be upfront now and tell you that I cannot pull this off without support from other members of the club. If this is something that you are willing to work with me towards achieving let me know.

rob.makowski · Sep 22, 2016

I'll help out. My calendar is pretty clear next fall

fetta · Sep 22, 2016

Pm sent

acer · Sep 22, 2016

Certainly, I am in.

loui · Sep 22, 2016

Just throwing this out there. Ohio has a bunch of swaps in October (every year) you may want to look at a different month. I know I won't have extra money for frags until December. That's just me.

pablue · Sep 22, 2016

living in the state college area I'm a good ways from pitt but I'd be willing to help and travel out that way. Put me in for any more information that gets out there

JaimeAdams · Sep 24, 2016

loui said:
Just throwing this out there. Ohio has a bunch of swaps in October (every year) you may want to look at a different month. I know I won't have extra money for frags until December. That's just me.

Do you have suggestions?

The earliest that we could do is September, everyone knows that Summer time is not "frag swap season". C-Sea looks like it will be good this year, @Pola0502ds has done a ton of work. I don't know how much competition we would have from the other side of the state other than vendors being booked.

Winter is not good for us because 1. Thanksgiving through New Years people won't have the extra time to help and folks will be spending Christmas money. 2. The clubs Board of Directors elections takes place in December and the new board takes over in January which would leave the new people trying to pull off something that was planned by other people and would be a big thing to transition. 3. Our largest meeting of the year is the Coral Fragging Workshop in April. We could switch the fragging workshop and frag swap dates around, but then that would not give us enough time to pull off a good swap this spring.

I am totally open to ideas and suggestions so if anyone has any please shoot them my way.

fetta · Sep 24, 2016

How about a late spring, may time frame. Just a thought, but would take alot of work from alot of people

JaimeAdams · Sep 24, 2016

fetta said:
How about a late spring, may time frame. Just a thought, but would take alot of work from alot of people

Again you would have a new board in position for 3-4 months at that point. New board takes effect at the first meeting of the year in January. Now I fully believe that the organizers for the current year should be planning and booking things for the following year, that just is not the way that things have gone in the past. If you look https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/2...-locations-in-order-and-updated.218689/page-6 there is a reason why the majority of the frag swaps are in the fall and winter. No matter when you have a swap you will have other clubs having swaps around the same time. If we did September we could do the 16th or the 23rd I think that we would be slightly before other nearby swaps and far enough past MACNA that it would work.

fetta · Sep 24, 2016

Completely agree, I have never help or done anything like this so I am completely a rookie

Richard Terrell · Sep 25, 2016

The Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society Auctions are scheduled and confirmed for April 30 and September 10 2017. Best to avoid those dates as there are some members in both clubs. An early November 2017 swap would give you lots of time to prep and might be successful. It shouldn't be a huge problem to have a Spring swap with regard to BOD terms. Whomever takes the lead on the Swap could still be Swap Chair, even if they aren't an elected BOD member the following year. But it's late to be trying to have an event Spring 2017. If Nov doesn't look good, just aim for Spring 2018. If you book a date now, everyone else will have to slot their events around yours instead of the other way round.

JaimeAdams · Sep 25, 2016

Richard Terrell said:
The Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society Auctions are scheduled and confirmed for April 30 and September 10 2017. Best to avoid those dates as there are some members in both clubs. An early November 2017 swap would give you lots of time to prep and might be successful. It shouldn't be a huge problem to have a Spring swap with regard to BOD terms. Whomever takes the lead on the Swap could still be Swap Chair, even if they aren't an elected BOD member the following year. But it's late to be trying to have an event Spring 2017. If Nov doesn't look good, just aim for Spring 2018. If you book a date now, everyone else will have to slot their events around yours instead of the other way round.

It certainly is possible to have the past year folks plan a swap for the following spring, but a swap would fall to the "Special Events Coordinator" which is an elected position. It's not that it couldn't be done, just that it would be easier to have a swap the same year with the same board. The swap chair thing sounds fine, but then you get into how the current bi-laws are written and to put in the work and have someone else drop the ball would suck. I'm not saying that the ball would be dropped, just that if you have the options and the choice you might as well go with the easier path. If you follow my above posted link you will see that it doesn't matter what month you pick, you will still have other semi-close swaps anytime from Sept - April. There aren't any dates posted for the 2017 swap season. It is just that most clubs generally try to host swaps the same weekend every year.

I am looking at the dates 9-16-2017, 9-23-2017 and 10-14-2017. It just comes down to picking one and running with it.

acer · Sep 26, 2016

Just my 2 cents- the beginning of Sept is tough for me = kids go back to school last August , labor day, my other hobby = Golf league, has its annual out of town tournament weekend usually the first or second weekend after Labor day. Obviously, the third issue ( golf league) is unique to me - but others have kids and may travel over Labor day weekend making early September tough for them as well. Many of us go to the Cleveland swap every year ( third weekend in Oct ?) and the CORA swap (third weekend in Sept? ) - so can't be in two places at once. Therefore, I Vote for early November - too early for bad weather ( hopefully) , yet gives the new board enough time to organize. Also the club doesn't meet in November at all - So, the club will keep in touch better instead of not having any contact for possibly 3 months ( if you don't go to the Dec raffle/board elections meeting).

JaimeAdams · Sep 26, 2016

Problem with November is people are saving for the Black Friday deals. At least that is what I would be thinking about. CORA seems to be last weekend in September. C-Sea fourth weekend in October. If you did Early November that would put you a week or two weeks after you just spent all of your coral money at C-Sea and a week or two before black Friday and lots of folks thinking about buying the kids Christmas presents, the new big screen door buster or what have you. If you did Sept 23rd that is a month after MACNA and hopefully a week before CORA so you will still have you coral money. If you did middle of October it still 2 weeks between CORA and C-Sea. Anyway you look at it, you are going to have a swap somewhere close within 2 or 3 weeks.

hybridazn · Sep 26, 2016

Normally c-sea is around the 2nd week of Oct every year. Is it possible to have a swap late Oct/early nov?

JaimeAdams · Sep 26, 2016

I don't know it is up to everyone. If you all think November is a good time maybe it is. Personally I know that after the other swaps and with black Friday right around the corner I will more than likely be strapped for cash. When first talking about it peoples ideas about September was to get the customers before they spend their money at the other swaps. If you follow this link you can get an idea of when all the other swaps are and generally the clubs try and do it about the same weekend every year. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/2...-locations-in-order-and-updated.218689/page-6