Meeting Format Due to Club Growth

[John G]

I am strongly in favor of continuing in-home meetings. I've been in GWAPA since its first meeting, and to me the highlight of every meeting is seeing a member's tanks, and talking to them about how they were set up, maintained, etc. As interesting as some of the presentations and discussions are, I doubt I would attend nearly as many meetings if they were held in a "meeting room."

[ingg]

We have, I think, about 5-6 regular hosts that can accommodate the higher attendance.

I can name only three.


I see one name posting above who's home I know could comfortably have 30-35+ people in it. One host has already dropped out for later this year, and I can see at least 3 more who cannot reasonably handle that many people in their homes later this year.

Please do not count on things "thinning" during the summer as a reasoning or thinking in how you vote here. Should the club continue on its current growth path, that will be meaningless.

[B Considine]

Kris,

Any idea of how many of these new members are actually "hit-and-run" attendees there solely for the auction? The gent sitting by me at Rick and Mary's specifically asked about joining the forum and stated he had no interest in becoming a dues-paying member any time soon.

I was discussing this with Chris Terrell (ironically a new member himself) and he suggested continuing the meetings at member's homes, but having the auction quarterly at a neutral site. Perhaps an afternoon long joint venture between GWAPA and other local aquarium clubs.

That way the meetings could continue their informal feel and the people interested only in stocking their tanks can get their fix without stampeding through someone's home.

Another option that might meet the club's needs would be to issue guest passes to members so they can bring along potential recruits.

Just throwing some ideas out there...

Blaise

[FrannyB]

I find going to members' homes one of the endearing qualities of GWAPA. If the club moves to a hall the grassroots quality would be lost.

Furthermore, if the meetings move to Saddlebrook, I would have to attend every meeting.

[sherrymitchell]

I don't see that viewing other people's tanks would necessarily go away. You could do a "Tank Tour" day; say one in Virginia and one in Maryland, twice a year to accommodate everyones desire to see tanks set up. That way we could still see tanks in the home.

More and more demos could be done via power point too....

I think as the hobby and membership grows you'll have to go to an outside meeting place -- eventually. As for my own personal preference, I'd vote for a meeting place in Virginia, since that's where I live.... But I guess I'd travel to Silver Spring if needed.....

On the other hand, if you all vote to keep the meeting in the home, I will gladly volunteer my house for a meeting. I should be able to accommodate 40 people in the spring with the outdoor garden and porch and indoor kitchen/family room. Having reentered the hobby again, however, I don't have a ton of stuff to show you all, but you might like the pond in the garden.

[mhossom]

I used to be the President of Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society. We regularly
had 100 people at our meetings. This forced us to have them in large halls,

To allow the membership to see each other's tanks, we held tank tours during the
summer months (June, July, August) in lieu of meetings. The tours were held on
Sunday's and featured two members each week. It was a fun program that allowed
the membership to see how other people were doing things with out taking time
away from the meetings.

This concept could be adapted to fit into your current meeting schedule. The
weekend after the meeting could be tank tour week, featuring two members a month
that live near each other.

Just some thoughts,
Mike

p.s. Great web site and I look forward to meeting everyone at a future meeting.

[Jeff120]

Kris's response is dead on, before you answer the poll ask yourself, will I host 40+ people in my house?

We need to think ahead for the good of the club, we cant count on summer drop off.

Is it nice to see others tanks, sure it is, but you wont see much with 50 people crammed into someones house!

[ssyphax]

As one of the new members causing the issue, I don't have a strong opinion. I understand the pros & cons of each. I'll happily go with the group's decision.

stephen syphax

[krisw]

I'm glad that we're developing some good discussion here, as this is exactly what we were hoping for. Blaise, you bring up a good point. I'll have to try and take better notes about who's showing up at meetings, and for what purpose.

As Sherry and Mike have suggested, if we moved to a meeting hall, we could certainly do "tank tours" as a supplement, or in place of some of the meetings.

I'd love to hear some more feedback from the members who have voted to stick with the status quo, if this would be amenable.

Again, we don't want to change for changes sake, and certainly don't want to do something that will drive away members, so please, feel free to speak candidly here, as we're interested with what you have to say.

[halak]

I am for the mixed option. What if we make the in-house meetings open only to members? How many members do we have anyway?