Six meetings a year

[Thales]

Hey all,

As was reported in the November BOD meeting minutes (posted in the club business forum), the BOD and those in attendance voted to go from 12 general meetings a year to 6, as the last 4 or 5 meetings had low attendance. We feel that this will result in better quality meetings, less stress/burn out on those planning meetings, and more attendance at meetings. The current plan is to have 1 frag swap, one frag event, 2 DIY and 2 guest speaker meetings over the next years even months.

Rich

 

[dswong01]

Rich,
Do we have a schedule of the meetings for next year? Besides frag swap in january

 

[Thales]

I believe you can delete your own posts.

I was just going over the calendar, and it looks like our meetings will be in the 'even' months as to not conflict with Seabay meetings - so I think our swap will be in February.

 

[bareefers]

so it not 6 bod meetings its 6 bod meetings and only 6 general meetings?

 

[Thales]

6 general meetings. It is currently undecided if the BOD meetings will be on meetingless months or on continue to be before the general meetings.

 

[capescuba]

The BOD is pretty active on here (in our BOD forum) which helps minimize our need to meet face to face all the time

 

[bareefers]

I'm probably alone but I dont understand why you guys ran for the positions (BOD) if you dont have time to organize a meeting every month, I believe this was probable spoken about prior to you running for office....and only after you took permanent possitions did you decide to vote on cutting the club activities by 50% . I know what it takes to organize a meeting, some are more difficult than others, but most take vary little planning and over sight, and some just take members participation. Do you really believe more members will show up to a event if you have fewer events? it really goes against logic.

 

[GreshamH]

I'm sorry, I must have missed the post from you, or anyone else for that matter, about wanting to run for BOD.

You could have spoken up at the BOD meeting prior to the vote

 

[jedininja]

I'm probably alone but I dont understand why you guys ran for the positions (BOD) if you dont have time to organize a meeting every month, I believe this was probable spoken about prior to you running for office....and only after you took permanent possitions did you decide to vote on cutting the club activities by 50% . I know what it takes to organize a meeting, some are more difficult than others, but most take vary little planning and over sight, and some just take members participation. Do you really believe more members will show up to a event if you have fewer events? it really goes against logic.

I really dont think the determining factor was how much time the BOD had to plan meetings. Its more about attendance. Instead of having 12 so so meetings, the emphasis will be on 6 meetings that have great projects and speakers. There are only a few meetings a year that have a huge turnout, so why hold 12 meetings a year when 8 of those meetings only have 12 people attend, where we could have 6 meetings that 50+ members attend. This had been spoken about this at the BOD meetng (which as stated many times that everyone is welcome to voice concerns) and it was agreed upon by the BOD as well as other members who attended to change it to 6.

As for the comment about BODs runing for office and then not having time, I'll leave that to a BOD member.

 

[Thales]

I'm probably alone but I dont understand why you guys ran for the positions (BOD) if you dont have time to organize a meeting every month,

We do have time, and no one ever said we didn't. This isn't necessarily about time.
Planning monthly meetings with such a small staff really takes it toll in terms of burn out. Combine that with small turn out (I find it slightly embarrassing to invite speakers to speak and then have only a few people show up to the meeting) at meetings, and it seems to make more sense to put that work into fewer, better, meetings.

I believe this was probable spoken about prior to you running for office....and only after you took permanent possitions did you decide to vote on cutting the club activities by 50% .

We have been discussing this at BOD meetings and online for at least 4 months. The positions aren't permanent, and the single new BOD member was brought up to speed before we voted. With all the talk about the BOD meeting prior to the last BOD meeting, I was surprised at how few people actually showed up - a big thanks to those that did.

I know what it takes to organize a meeting, some are more difficult than others, but most take vary little planning and over sight, and some just take members participation.

With respect, you are wrong here.
Every meeting takes considerable amounts of time to organize - to say otherwise disrespects the amazing amount of time the people who have volunteered to help administer this club have put into this club. Every meeting takes considerable oversight. Also, the other non meeting club needs also take considerable amounts of time.

There is no compensation for being a BOD member - perhaps that should change.

Do you really believe more members will show up to a event if you have fewer events? it really goes against logic.

Less members are already showing up while we are having more events.

If the people who organize the meetings have more time to put together better meetings, and more time to properly get the word out, yes I think there will be more attendance at meetings. If there are fewer meetings, the meetings feel more special and are more difficult to blow off. If we are wrong we can always change back to 12 a year.

 

[bookfish]

I think it's impossible to speak definitively about what it takes to run this club until you've tried it yourself. There seems to be an all too common lack of understanding about how much work the BOD puts in and Nichols' post is a perfect example.
Let's look at the last workshop for example:
Do people realise that in order to make sure the club had good colonies for the workshop, I put in the order w/ ASAP 2+ weeks in advance, followed it up with a few phone calls, drove to ASAP once the shipment arrived (this was early morning so all the good stuff didn't get swooped by walk-ins), cherry picked 13 colonies, segregated them into their own area w/ not for sale signs. Then, myself and a couple of BOD members showed up at ASAP at 11 am the morning of the meeting to select the remaining 20 softies etc... for the meeting. There is also a required amount of chatting with Bob and Robert out of appreciation for what they're doing for us and someone (thx Gresham) went out of their way that morning to get a box of pastries for ASAP. Then there was the listing of the coral and the sitting w/ Bob to go over the pricing and see if we had more headroom for more buying. The club is responsible for its own set-up, supplies (bags, clips etc...) management and cleanup. Finally there is another necessary chat and thank you w/ Bob and Robert at the end of every event. Next I'll explain what a "simple" meeting like scheduling a speaker requires.

 

[bareefers]

Nickolas, welcome back as an active club member. Even though you weren't aware of it, they have been discussing since spring scaling back the number of meetings. The BOD has clearly invited all members to attend their meetings and assist with the planning and decision making.

We've done monthly meetings a year and a half now. Perhaps it is time to try something different. You and I can, of course, plan some sort of additional event, such as a tank tour or DIY project, something that could complement the regular club activities. That might be nice for an off month perhaps, and we wouldn't have to compete with a club meeting then.

 

[bookfish]

As far as an "easy" meeting goes:
most guest speakers have to be contacted months in advance, contacted a few times before the meeting, often have specific scheduling requirements, specific a/v needs, often they need background on who BAR is so that they can customize their presentations to our club. Then they need to be contacted to obtain an abstract of their presentation. This abstract must be reviewed, condensed and posted.They may need to be transported to/from the event, fed, put up for the night (hotel arrangements etc...). Granted, not all speakers require all of this but most require much of this. Finally, on a personal note, I've busted my ass for this club and I am frankly offended by Nicholas' easy dismissal of my and the BOD's effort this past year and a half. If it was half as easy as he suggests, we wouldn't need to be begging for help all the time. Nicholas, you're my friend and I know you'll understand my reaction to what I'm sure was an offhanded comment.
If I'm overreacting, I'm sorry, but this club WILL lose all the motivated administrators it has if it continues to misunderstand the effort these VOLUNTEERS are putting out. Noone is paid in any way except by the appreciation of the club members. If that's not there, why do any work for the club at all?-Jim

 

[bareefers]

Thank you BOD Members for all your effort that we don't know about.

I'd like to contribute more to the club but am not in the loop of what items I can help with. I've been visiting Natural Life pretty consistently so that Manfred knows me now to prepare to be the rep. for Natural Life. I'm not sure when or how that will happen though.

 

[GreshamH]

this club WILL lose all the motivated administrators it has if it continues to misunderstand the effort these VOLUNTEERS are putting out. No one is paid in any way except by the appreciation of the club members. If that's not there, why do any work for the club at all?-Jim

Amen!

 

[Apon]

I have only been in the club for less than a year, but I also want to thank to the BOD for the work that they have done so far.