Club history

[Greg Owen]

is there any posts in our archive or does anyone have any information on the club's history like when it was founded and who the original founders are?

 

[BAYMAC]

Not that I know of.

First club started was BARE (Bay Area Reef Enthusiasts)
there was a thing, 99.99% of the club formed BAR.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

is there any posts in our archive or does anyone have any information on the club's history like when it was founded and who the original founders are?

We still have some founding members (as well as prominent second-gen members) active on the board. If they want to put themselves out there and fill in some blanks, they'd be welcome, too.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

I love that someone's asking.

 

[BAYMAC]

We still have some founding members (as well as prominent second-gen members) active on the board. If they want to put themselves out there and fill in some blanks, they'd be welcome, too.

<<<< founding member

We've talked about it in a few threads, but I cannot find them.

It was also drama, and some people don't want to drudge up past drama.

BARE>BAR

is you skip that, its all drama free.

 

[Greg Owen]

I love that someone's asking.

<<<< founding member

We've talked about it in a few threads, but I cannot find them.

It was also drama, and some people don't want to drudge up past drama.

BARE>BAR

is you skip that, its all drama free.

year?

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

I know three founding members have commented on these recent threads (and yes -- one is Baymac.)

 

[BAYMAC]

year?

year of what, BAR's founding? I don't recall, 2004 or 2005?

If I could regurgitate it accurately, I would have offered it already, sorry.

 

[Greg Owen]

well who has the oldest account? Mines from 2009

 

[DerekWatanabe]

I know from maybe 2005 or later Arnold Pon was a part of BAR I think it mya have been too that far back but can't remember. I just know Arnold would alwyas come in asking for donations or raffles for BARE. Im pretty sure my old Dentist Ian Iwane was part of BARE too. Im sure there were a couple of other but no maes jump out.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

I know from maybe 2005 or later Arnold Pon was a part of BAR I think it mya have been too that far back but can't remember. I just know Arnold would alwyas come in asking for donations or raffles for BARE. Im pretty sure my old Dentist Ian Iwane was part of BARE too. Im sure there were a couple of other but no maes jump out.

Yep. Apon was there.

 

[Patio]

well who has the oldest account? Mines from 2009

It might be Thales from 04

 

[PjFish]

Saltwater Enthusiasts Association of the Bay Area 1995​

was formed which was BARs predecessor.

Saltwater Enthusiasts Association of the Bay Area

SEABay is a nonprofit organization. Created in 1995, the club's primary objective is to provide information and instruction in the care and well-being of aquatic marine life. We are made up of hobbyists and professionals all over the Bay Area.

forums.reefcentral.com

 

[PjFish]

Internet archive site has some data from 1998 but Looks like domain seabay.org is for sale currently @Alexander1312 ? LoL

 

[DerekWatanabe]

Saltwater Enthusiasts Association of the Bay Area 1995​

was formed which was BARs predecessor.
View attachment 81497

Saltwater Enthusiasts Association of the Bay Area

SEABay is a nonprofit organization. Created in 1995, the club's primary objective is to provide information and instruction in the care and well-being of aquatic marine life. We are made up of hobbyists and professionals all over the Bay Area.

forums.reefcentral.com

Whoa

Saltwater Enthusiasts Association of the Bay Area 1995​

was formed which was BARs predecessor.
View attachment 81497

Saltwater Enthusiasts Association of the Bay Area

SEABay is a nonprofit organization. Created in 1995, the club's primary objective is to provide information and instruction in the care and well-being of aquatic marine life. We are made up of hobbyists and professionals all over the Bay Area.

forums.reefcentral.com

Whoa I remember that group,some of those names look so familiar.

 

[Thales]

The club was started in 2004 by about 8- 10 folks who had been active in BARE, but became unhappy with the direction of the club. SEABAY was pretty dead by then (also notice how different SEBAY's mission statement is from BAR's). We had a meeting in my dining room and fleshed out the new direction. We got going, and a few month in I became President and Jim Adelberg became VP. The BOD shared the same feelings around the mission. We had local frag swaps and regional frag swaps with like 500+ people, had monthly meetings, regularly brough in speakers, had demos. We didn't try to cover the entire bay area because that is pulling teeth.

There was some drama after we became BAR, mostly from people who didn't like the direction of the club, but never wanted to do anything except complain. It was actually very hard for me for a while, but eventually it because clear that they were just belly aching and had no intention of doing anything, so out they went with our happy hope they would start their own club and be happy.

We never tried to grow the membership as a goal, we always thought that if we kept doing activities that we liked, people would find us - qualified leads rather than bulk leads (if you start catering to people that just want free coral, the club loses its way pretty fast, for insatance). If we did activities that we didn't really enjoy, what was the point? Not that we didn't encourage membership by having display frag tanks in stores and stuff like that. I think we has some school tanks we helped with as well.

What else do you want to know?

 

[Thales]

The spirt of the swap was super important. We wanted swaps not sales, and the goal was that folks should bring more and 'better' frags than they took. It made the swaps about sharing, not getting. This was not easy, but was totally worth it.

 

[DerekWatanabe]

The spirt of the swap was super important. We wanted swaps not sales, and the goal was that folks should bring more and 'better' frags than they took. It made the swaps about sharing, not getting. This was not easy, but was totally worth it.

I went to a few of those swaps and I thought it was great. I think at Ocean Treasures we even hosted an event for BAR one night where we had extra discounts and for people to swap and trade coral. I haven't been around recently but from what I've seen elsewhere people may be a bit more greedy now than back then.

 

[Greg Owen]

The club was started in 2004 by about 8- 10 folks who had been active in BARE, but became unhappy with the direction of the club. SEABAY was pretty dead by then (also notice how different SEBAY's mission statement is from BAR's). We had a meeting in my dining room and fleshed out the new direction. We got going, and a few month in I became President and Jim Adelberg became VP. The BOD shared the same feelings around the mission. We had local frag swaps and regional frag swaps with like 500+ people, had monthly meetings, regularly brough in speakers, had demos. We didn't try to cover the entire bay area because that is pulling teeth.

There was some drama after we became BAR, mostly from people who didn't like the direction of the club, but never wanted to do anything except complain. It was actually very hard for me for a while, but eventually it because clear that they were just belly aching and had no intention of doing anything, so out they went with our happy hope they would start their own club and be happy.

We never tried to grow the membership as a goal, we always thought that if we kept doing activities that we liked, people would find us - qualified leads rather than bulk leads (if you start catering to people that just want free coral, the club loses its way pretty fast, for insatance). If we did activities that we didn't really enjoy, what was the point? Not that we didn't encourage membership by having display frag tanks in stores and stuff like that. I think we has some school tanks we helped with as well.

What else do you want to know?

this is excellent information that should be archived somewhere.

Im trying to learn more about our past, so that it might give better direction to our future.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

I know there was a bunch of info that was lost when there was an "upgrade" to the site.
There were photos of tank tours that included my systems....2010