Salties at OVAS Meetings

[Greatwhite]

I'm a saltie.. I've seen meetings planned, and to be honest - like lots of others here, I personally just don't have the interest in going.  I am here mainly for the forum. I pay my annual fees to help keep things running smoothly, and help with the cost of keeping the software up to date.

I am sure that there's more "freshies" who don't attend meetings than those that do...  I have always just noted that the agendas for the meetings were more fresh oriented than salt, but that's because there's more freshies going.  I didn't even realize that there was money spent to get guest speakers up, and really didn't know that there was a salt guy last meeting until this thread.  (but that's my fault for not paying attention to the meeting notices, and I probably still wouldn't have gone)

I appreciate what the coordinators are doing to keep this more of a social club than just an online forum.  This is NOT anyone's full time job, I'm sure.

[Jimbo]

I understand what you are saying. Based on past experience not many salties have attended the various OVAS talks.

Have you taken the pulse of the club recently to determine if more salties would attend OVAS meetings if each meeting contained a portion relating to salt water fish/coral keeping?

[robt18]

Our last meeting last season featured Ret Talbot, a renowned Salt Water guy who gave a fantastic presentation on coral and the marine environment around the Solomon Islands. It was incredible! The attendance level was about the same as usual with all of the usual people.

[charlie]

I understand what you are saying. Based on past experience not many salties have attended the various OVAS talks.

Have you taken the pulse of the club recently to determine if more salties would attend OVAS meetings if each meeting contained a portion relating to salt water fish/coral keeping?

Have you read the post that si in this thread?
Let time answer your question
(1)as mentioend our meeting this season is more interactive & less speaker driven thus giving all aspects of the hobby to make the meeting their interest.
(2) there is no more mini auction, all hobbyist are allowed to sell trade  as they see fit( swap meets at every meeting) their stuff, let`s see who or what is available.
Regards

[Fishnut]

There's going to be a salt water element to every meeting/gathering we have this season and the only wany it will happen is if the salt water community decides to participate.  If you want to bring frags to sell/swap, etc, join us.  If you want to wait until the Giant Auction, sell stuff.  It's all up to you guys this year!!

As I mentioned, there are more social events planned this year and very few speakers so neither SW or FW is going to be featured most of the time.

October is trivia and pizza night.  Remember the slideshow trivia thing I did for the May 2011 meeting?  It had an even number of FW and SW questions plus a few questions about OVAS...none were particularly difficult but the winners needed to have a good knowledge of the hobby as a WHOLE...which is exactly what happened.  This year's trivia will be no different...FUN FOR ALL!!  We're working on collecting the prizes for this year's trivia.

Lets start a new season with more representation from the SW crew!  Maybe I'll absorb enough to give it a whirl.

[Hookup]

If these stats are correct, are we wasting our time?
Why is this thread even here?
Regards

Got me why this keeps coming up.  I cannot for the life of me figure it out... but if you've been here for more than a season, its a topic that comes up at least 3x a season.


My recommendation; keep doing what you're doing and who cares if salties show up... if there are future complaints about no-salt-topics... address at that time... with a reference to this, and the 2 dozen other threads from the past 3 years on this topic...



If I can; it seems clear to me.  Many people want to participate only on the forum.  Of this group, most of those are salties...  Nothing more than that.




One question you might want to ask; 
    how many "new faces" are showing up to events?

What I'm getting at is are the club events/meetings drawing the same 10(?) people, month after month with 1 or two new faces mixed in here or there; or are the meetings growing?

[Jimbo]

There's going to be a salt water element to every meeting/gathering we have this season and the only wany it will happen is if the salt water community decides to participate.  If you want to bring frags to sell/swap, etc, join us.  If you want to wait until the Giant Auction, sell stuff.  It's all up to you guys
...

Lets start a new season with more representation from the SW crew!  Maybe I'll absorb enough to give it a whirl.

Thanks. Exactly what i wanted to hear. 

[Feivel]

Well i will show up with my daughter and i will find a few frags to bring up. And phil (njoyrid) will also put an effort into things and bring a few also.

[Jimbo]

I look forward to meeting you.

Unfortunately, I don't have any frags to bring, but I could bring some hermit crabs and a lot of empty snail shells 

[sylros]

Hi,

It seems to me that on a couple of occasions, salties were there but not spotted. I am wondering if it would be worthwhile to use an identifier tag...yellow dot for salties, green dot for planted folks, blue for cichlids...you get the idea.

Also, I would be interested in knowing who would be willing to do a show and tell about their tank setup. This was done at one of the plantaholics off hours get together and I so thoroughly enjoyed. Anyone that have documented their journey, lessons learned, what worked really well. Did you achieve your goal? There is still room during the January or February meetings. We've the equipment, just bring your powerpoint slides.

What do you think?

Sylvie
Program chair

[robt18]

I look forward to meeting you.

Unfortunately, I don't have any frags to bring, but I could bring some hermit crabs and a lot of empty snail shells 

Bring cash

Trivia will have SW questions! I'm making the questions, so please brush up on Latin/taxonomy, obscure things that I find interesting, and ichthiologic theory (haha just kidding). But seriously, there'll be good representation for both sides in the trivia, and it will be played in teams. Balance is the key!

The meetings are always open to everyone as we all know. As the executive, we try to do things that will keep everyone happy. If the people who show up tend to be more interested in certain topics, we may gear more discussion towards these, but we'll never completely chance the focus of the club because someone didn't show up for a couple months.

Everyone come to our meetings. They're fun for everyone, there's food, we talk fish, head out to a bar/lounge afterwards, and overall its a great way to spend a Monday night.

[Fishnut]

...and ichthiologic theory (haha just kidding).

Don't make the rest of the exec drag you off stage Rob

[robt18]

With me running it there won't be anyone to cut off our quiz master this year

[bt]

Also, I would be interested in knowing who would be willing to do a show and tell about their tank setup. This was done at one of the plantaholics off hours get together and I so thoroughly enjoyed. Anyone that have documented their journey, lessons learned, what worked really well. Did you achieve your goal? There is still room during the January or February meetings. We've the equipment, just bring your powerpoint slides.

I'm not really prepared to do that myself, but I love the idea.