OVAS Nov. meeting Monday Nov. 23rd @ 7.00PM

[charlie]

first and for most frank's prez was amazing..and im glad i got to hang out with him after, thanks to the host and hostess for having us all.

Not to stir the pot but, here are a few things i would like to see changed..maybe others feel the same way...

1. It seems that are club is doing well and what not, but when u have amazing speakers .. I think they need to be promoted. There are many members who travel to, toronto, mtl, cornwall, brockville, ect.. .. Give them a few flyers to give to a few hobby stores.. Ppl WILL travel an hour or so to these lectures. Then this will generate more revenue..for other events.

2. I know the auction is a hit, but it needs to be fixed.. These speakers are paid a chunk of coin to give a prez...so let them give it... We should NOT be cutting them off to do the auction..to me thats rude. If they are willing to shed knowlege on os for 3 hours let them. Sorry to say this but im not a fw person but xxxx au prez was super dope..and the guy got the hook off the stage to do the 'dollar store' auction. Dont get me wrong i looove the auction is a great idea, but come on show the speakers respect.

3.  When we have break for coffee, it should be a good SOLID 20-30 min..this is the chance for people to have face time. Not cut short.

4. WE NEED MORE LOCAL TALENT.. What does it matter is some members give a prez. I know there are many diy'ers ... Im sure there are ppl with 10+ yrs in salt and fresh. Let them give a 30min prez. This was we save the club a few bucks..and we can put it towards proper promotion of a event. 
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Idk, sorry, i have LOTS to say, i dont have the time to type. But i have a lot more i want off my chest. Dont get me wrong i totally respect everyones involvement and appreciate it. Just trying to involve myself..

I`ll just weigh in on a few things to clear the air so to speak, i welcome your suggestion etc, but some of it seem to be coming from misinformed info or assumptions, also let me say you are always welcome to talk to me one on one for the straight up facts & reasoning, i`m not particularly prone to forum discussion , so i would most likely not engage in any further discussion in this thread after this post.
(1) Promotion - for our last big hitter xxxx L. Au- there were posters in the following stores well over a month ahead of the meeting - Big AL`s ( East & West), Critter Jungle ( Hampton Park), La Niche ( Quebec), Rick`s Hobby in the Valley,Montreal Aquarium society, Durham Region Aquarium Society  forum & our local Used Ottawa club events.
(2) Not exactly sure where you got the impression these speakers are "paid a chunk of coin", that is so far from the truth, both xxxx Au & Frank came here to speak requesting only their expenses paid ( travel & accommodations).this is the same for all of last years program, in fact i can recall only one or perhaps 2 speakers that the club paid , but that was when i was not doing the program.These guys travel & do presentation out of pure love & passion of the hobby.It was important i clarify the paid part, since these speakers read this forum & might be puzzled
(3) The club has to sign sign a contract & pay when booking the meeting location for the entire year, starting a meeting @ 7.00 PM, having a i hr presentation, announcements, draws mini auction  & a 30 minute break is a tough one, hence why my approach to the program includes a few meetings of a social atmosphere such as our first meeting in Sept.
(4) Last year out of a possible 8 meetings we had 2 local speakers .I might as well include here, in a club season of 8 meetings for a Aquarium club that covers all aspects of Aquarium keeping, it`s no easy task to try & present a balance program, many have great ideas & i have not seen any on how to please everyone.
In wrapping up, i`m obligated to the paid members that show a interest in attending meetings & partaking in events , such as yourself, hence why i choose to reply to some of your concerns here, i`m always open for one on one, be it at meetings, phone etc.
Regards
Charlie ( Errol)
Program chairperson
P.S. On the DIY`ers subject- the first quarter of this season already included a DIY w/shop by a local talent & you will remember you & myself having a short discussion on a proposed one for next season.

[OttawaFolkFestivum]

I think that Vince's point still stands that since these guys do the presentations out of pure love and passion for the hobby that it might be perceived as rude to cut them off to run the auction.

Charlie, you are bringing in amazing speakers and the club is suffering from over-enthusiasm about these speakers. A good problem to have. Keep doing your magic.

I think the forum is a good spot for these discussions and suggestions even though in person is far better. The problem is there is little time at the meetings.

[Vincenzo.]

first off charlie, im not trying to start anything... i will admit, that i guess what i have said was not sentenced properly and infact not everything was based on pure facts.
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I`ll just weigh in on a few things to clear the air so to speak, i welcome your suggestion etc, but some of it seem to be coming from misinformed info or assumptions, also let me say you are always welcome to talk to me one on one for the straight up facts & reasoning, i`m not particularly prone to forum discussion , so i would most likely not engage in any further discussion in this thread after this post.
(1) Promotion - for our last big hitter xxxx L. Au- there were posters in the following stores well over a month ahead of the meeting - Big AL`s ( East & West), Critter Jungle ( Hampton Park), La Niche ( Quebec), Rick`s Hobby in the Valley,Montreal Aquarium society, Durham Region Aquarium Society  forum & our local Used Ottawa club events.

i dont mean that we dont. i just mean, it would be nice to rally more people from all over

(2) Not exactly sure where you got the impression these speakers are "paid a chunk of coin", that is so far from the truth, both xxxx Au & Frank came here to speak requesting only their expenses paid ( travel & accommodations).this is the same for all of last years program, in fact i can recall only one or perhaps 2 speakers that the club paid , but that was when i was not doing the program.These guys travel & do presentation out of pure love & passion of the hobby.It was important i clarify the paid part, since these speakers read this forum & might be puzzled

i deff understand that these people do it from love and passion, so it is great that they are not always wanting to charge. when i said a 'chunk of coin' - i did not mean to exaggerate

(3) The club has to sign sign a contract & pay when booking the meeting location for the entire year, starting a meeting @ 7.00 PM, having a i hr presentation, announcements, draws mini auction  & a 30 minute break is a tough one, hence why my approach to the program includes a few meetings of a social atmosphere such as our first meeting in Sept.

understandable, maybe we can have the auction .. every other month? and the month of no auction, have 6 raffle's? or mix it up? just figure out a diff set up? -- i am happy with whats going on, but more face time with people is nice as well.

(4) Last year out of a possible 8 meetings we had 2 local speakers .I might as well include here, in a club season of 8 meetings for a Aquarium club that covers all aspects of Aquarium keeping, it`s no easy task to try & present a balance program, many have great ideas & i have not seen any on how to please everyone.
In wrapping up, i`m obligated to the paid members that show a interest in attending meetings & partaking in events , such as yourself, hence why i choose to reply to some of your concerns here, i`m always open for one on one, be it at meetings, phone etc.

^^ i understand again, it's hard. maybe we can work on one month of the year we have 2 meetings? if people are interested. im sure we have the support of members to have 2 meetings a month, i know the prep is hard and stressful, but with some more help im sure it could be done

Regards
Charlie ( Errol)
Program chairperson
P.S. On the DIY`ers subject- the first quarter of this season already included a DIY w/shop by a local talent & you will remember you & myself having a short discussion on a proposed one for next season.

^^  yes i wish i was able to make the workshop. and yes i remember speaking wit you about the idea. it would be great and interesting.

all in all im not trying to 'bust the backs' of the execs, because i do acknowledge the hard work you all put in. and if it was not for you especially we would not have great speakers. so, once again, -kudos.

although, im sure there are members in sw that could have went over the basics of starting a sw tank, and we could have saved on expenses .. i just feel .. at the end of the day does it really matter who is giving the speech? i'll use myself for example, if i could talk 2 hours about a general set up with a power point or some one else, does it matter who presents? i agree with having speakers because it is exciting and they are speaking from knowledge and research. and hearing form someone of that caliber is refreshing.

on the point of me blabbing about: promotions and money : for the record, i was blabbing, it was not based off facts... it was just me putting it out there. so i'll apologize . but at the end of the day, with having such great talented speakers, are we really getting non-locals to our events?

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and to jen - i would love to help out ovas in any way. the thing is i dont travel much, so i would not be the best for posting flyers.. but i could use my photoshop skills to make the flyers.

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none the less, i dont want this to turn into a flame war / battle ..
for the record me yapping is just my 2 cents.


btw, errol maybe we can chat a little,
& i hope i did not offend anyone

vince

[charlie]

No worries Vince , just wanted to clarify that paid bit for the benefit of the past & future speakers that read here from time to time & might just be a tad worried as when i will forward the payment, hence why i don`t pursue these types of discussions on a public forum such as this, a breathing ground for wrong interpretation, perhaps the membership forum is better conducive to this type of discussion, just my thoughts.
My last clarification- regarding speakers allotted time, every speaker i contact to come & visit is asked how long is their presentation, the time given is then considered with the other aspects of the evenings events, such as club activity, auction, & question & answer before we decide on having the other activities, as was evident in Mr Au`s presentation the time forwarded to me did not quite play out in reality for several reasons, a few of which was late start( we did not get going until approx 7.40PM) no fault of the speaker & diversion from the topic due to fielded questions during the presentation ( unpredictable), i have never had a speaker tell me his presentation is 2 hrs long- longest i was told was approx 1.5 hrs & shortest 45 mins.Again keep in mind 8 meetings per season to accomplish & attempt to cover the full spectrum the club covers, as opposed to some one dimension clubs/society that have 8 mths to cover one single niche of a hobby.
Hope these clarifications help the members to see the flip side & have a better understanding.
Regards

[alongfortheride]

Not trying to stir the pot either but I think this dialogue between Vince and Charlie has brought up some good points. One of them promotion.

"(1) Promotion - for our last big hitter xxxx L. Au- there were posters in the following stores well over a month ahead of the meeting - Big AL`s ( East & West), Critter Jungle ( Hampton Park), La Niche ( Quebec), Rick`s Hobby in the Valley,Montreal Aquarium society, Durham Region Aquarium Society  forum & our local Used Ottawa club events."

Fair enough - but very little promotion was done for Frank Aguire.
As Severum posted - a notice wasn't even put in the Saltwater discussions forum.

Perhaps OVAS would want to check to see if local shops and OVAS want to sponsor some of these speakers as well.

[Hookup]

I really wish I could have made this presentation... From what I've heard it was pretty darn good, not too basic, but not too advanced... something for everyone....

As a salt-nut, I would hope that all events, salt and fresh are treated the same way...  Sure there are bound to be more fresh-water focused events due to numbers, but the only way to get people to the 'fun-side'.. lol.. is to show them how easy, and rewarding salt water can be.

Even though I couldn't attend, thanks to the executive for getting the salt-content into the program...