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2014 Calendar of Events

Thanks for posting up the schedule of events, Felicia!

Just a reminder, folks, this is still tentative and subject to tweaking. Cutting back on the events compared to the previous year has dual-fold purposes:
1. Quality over quantity: It takes considerable effort to plan and execute an event, and having monthly events can take its toll.
2. This is your club and your community, so you should have the opportunity to put together tank tours and other events you enjoy doing with your fellow club members.

Guest speakers was one of the primary draws for me personally. It's incredible to have speakers on the national circuit come through, whereas you would typically have to attend a convention to see them. Given that we typically see only 30 to 40 members show up for guest speakers, and it costs a couple grand for flights, hotels, and transportation, it does not seem to represent the best bang-for-the-buck. It also does not bode well when members prefer to chat with each other outside while the speakers are presenting.

That said, we are in discussions to try to have more guest speakers come through, while defraying some of the costs. One major goal is more interaction with guest speakers, rather than have them talk at us for a couple hours. Those of you who were present for Rich Ross's talk and extended Q&A session got a real treat in terms of having rapport and an ongoing dialogue with an expert in the field - this is what we want to see going forward.
 
The speakers would not necessarily have to be nationally known.... we have a vast amount of talent in this and surrounding clubs. Perhaps a series of small topics on a single day (e.g. 2 or 3 short presentations and a DIY. Or have a single presentation and a gear swap for the balance of the meeting)? Any chance for joint meetings/speakers with sister clubs?

Just some thoughts.....

-Gregory
 
Some speakers are better than others, some speakers are entertaining and know how to work an audience, others while they might write excellent articles for the trade listening to them speak is not very fun. Rich is one of those speakers that knows how to work an audience.

For instance if I want to hear a talk about LEDs and the options are Jack Adams or Sanjay Joshi, note that one will be a more opinionated pieced based upon experience he's had, the other will be a science lecture, what is it you want to hear? Usually a synopsis of the speaker's talk isn't going to tell you what you'll get.

That said, I haven't been to a lot of speakers lately, sometimes I just don't give a flip about the topic and the gas/bridge/parking money it costs to go to a meeting is better spent elsewhere.
 
As former vp, I tried to find a balance of quantity and quality events for the club while bringing in well known speakers in the hobby to cover a variety of topics. Granted some speakers are more entertaining than others, but I always found I could take something from a talk and apply it to my husbandry skills...which is all our goals isn't it? Admittingly some turnouts were rather disheartening considering the level of speakers we brought in (especially considering the aforementioned cost and time involved). I believe Bob Fenner had the largest turnout with around 60 attendees (he easily should have packed the room out). I can understand the current BOD wanting to scale things back and utilize local talent and venues this year. Until the club figures out how to generate more income via donations, sponsorship, raffles, auctions, etc. (to justify flying in outside speakers) this will have to be the norm. On a side note, we are very fortunate to have nationally renown speakers such as Rich, Matt, & Charles in our backyard. Finally, we can get creative by piggybacking speakers. We've done so in the past with Tony Vargas, Gary Parr, and Dana Riddle. Jack Adams was tentatively scheduled for this year after his SCMAS presentation...I hope we can still get a chance to hear him speak.
 
Speakers need not cost "thousands of dollars". Like Jim mentioned, speaker sharing is rather common and something the club used to do with MARS, etc. We used to have a lot of interaction with the other clubs, not to mention we brought in a lot of Cali speakers that don't cost much at all (and they'd stay at house, etc). LA has quite a few speakers living down there. MAX is in April, RAP in Oct, both will have speakers already in SOCAL.

Have you reached out to anyone that might know a lot of national speakers to see if someone might be planning to come out here anyways? There's a few of us in that category in the club ;)

What about looking into MASNA SPEAKS? http://www.masna.org/ClubResources/MASNASpeaks/tabid/390/Default.aspx

What about companies that sponsor speakers beyond MASNA SPEAKS? Some have people on staff that do presentations, and some sponsor speakers to talk on their behalf. I know a few of them... wink wink
 
GDawson said:
The speakers would not necessarily have to be nationally known.... we have a vast amount of talent in this and surrounding clubs. Perhaps a series of small topics on a single day (e.g. 2 or 3 short presentations and a DIY. Or have a single presentation and a gear swap for the balance of the meeting)? Any chance for joint meetings/speakers with sister clubs?

Just some thoughts.....

-Gregory
Click to expand...

Our old DIY CA Reactor builds, skimmer builds, etc where awesome. I enjoyed those, and those took FAR more work then bringing in a speaker. For the reactor build I spent a good 40 hours prepping material, etc for it.
 
I like this schedule , more club interaction. Personally I cant sit in a classroom type setting and listen to speakers all the time. Just my preference. Some speakers have been great and some not so great
 
The speakers were great last year and I thoroughly enjoyed them but sometimes just a simple Q&A can be more valuable to the audience.

Either way, the proposed calendar of events for 2014 looks really good!
 
Sorry for not having quite so many speakers this year everyone! They just weren't getting the turnout they deserved, especially for how much it was costing the club to fly people in and put them up for the weekend. Also, as fun and educational as the talks are, they just aren't engaging to some people. We wanted to mix it up a bit this year and try to find a good balance between talks and more interactive, hands on events. Plus we have to balance the budget as well! I thought it would be nice to have a good mix of different types of events instead of mainly speakers, so that people with different interests can all find something they want to attend. A lot of the fun of this club is getting to interact with the other members and discuss the hobby, and that doesn't happen much at the speaker-only events. With some more hands on workshop type events thrown into the mix, hopefully the club members will get more opportunities to mingle and socialize with one another. I'm definitely doing my best to keep everyone happy, so please keep chiming in with suggestions. This schedule is tentative and still flexible, so we may add in some more events and/or speakers.
 
Not enough activities? Don't see anything that really speaks to your interests?

This is your club - take charge and put it together! The directors will provide supporting resources/tools/advice. A few things you can organize include:
1. Tank tours
2. LFS flash mob
3. Coral growth challenge
4. Fragging parties
5. Fish/coral food mixing parties

The possibilities are endless!
 
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