For those of you that were not able to attend the last two meetings, we have made some adjustments to our meeting format.  We have had some great response so we will continue this. The current format has the meetings starting out with some announcements and discussion on various club matters. We will then have a presentation or two if there are any members who have put something together. The rest of the meeting is free time for members to use how they wish. You can buy/sell/trade dry goods and livestock, get into small discussion groups, or spend time socializing with other members. Use the time how you like. We of course often have raffles at the meetings end and as always pizza and pop!

Can we have a frag swap?

Of course! Julie, why don't you start a frag swap thread for our next meeting!

I find the new format to be a lot more fun and interactive. Having a few presentations is fantastic since we can openly discuss it if any questions come up. But being able to just chat with other members if awesome. What might take days on here to discuss can be hammered out in 5 minutes in person.

Plus swapping stories that just come up in the middle of conversations is great too. Always something funny comes up. Meeting people you don't see but maybe once a month is fun for me.

As being a sponsor/Store owner its nice to be able to get out and mingle with customers and chat with people about their aquariums and also listen in on the presentations, i find myself to still be a hobbyist at heart enjoy comeing to the meetings wish there would have been something similar that i knew about before.

Hey Julie, I just set up a thread!

Frag Swap Thread

As Burks reflected “Meeting people you don’t see, maybe once a month, is fun for me”, and I totally agree. Human connection is very vital to every club. That’s I will call way of life.  We build very important bounds between each other, and we may have a chance to go beyond username image. I wish next time in February we will have opportunity to introduce our self to our club’s family just simply saying our username and few another words if we wish. That’s how we do it in Michigan Guppy Breeders Club. After two meetings I have known only few people by their usernames. I always belief, in our hobby’s industry peoples are more essential, and hobby that’s only what keeps us together.  

A couple suggestions and questions:

We should ask who is new at each meeting, maybe just before we break up into groups. We could also ask them to mention their aquarium interests if they feel like it. Or does that put  them "on the spot" too much? It would be easier to welcome new people if you knew if they were just starting out, or if they're an expert on breeding Bellyupens foolyeri.

Name tags were also mentioned. What do 'yall think of that? It would make it easier to match up screen names, faces, and real names. Maybe add if you're FW, SW, or both, or crazy about them big chicklet fish.

When we break up into groups, we should perhaps indicate what those groups are. Having some papers and markers to fold in half and right a topic on might be worth trying.

Hey Paul,

New Members- I completely agree Paul, introductions would be nice. My only concern is that meetings are getting so big time may be an issue with so may new members. If we can figure and efficient way of doing this lets do it.

Name Tags-These seem like a good idea. Scott mentioned the to cut down on costs and having to creat one each meeting on a blank label, that we create permanent tags that people could take home with them or they could just leave it at the science center in a basket and find theirs next meeting. Discussion how to accomplish name tags would be good.

Groups- A sign for each group could work or when the large group breaks and begins forming the small groups one person from each group could say "Guppy Discussion Here!", etc, etc.

These are great points you brought up Paul, we would definitely like input from others on this.  This will help structure and streamline the meetings so that everyone can maximize the 2 hours  we have the building for .

If we just ask for name and a couple sentences on the intros it should be OK for time. But you're right- we don't want people to think they need to come up with a fishy resume of every species they've ever kept!

We should keep an eye on the flow of the meetings- making sure we're starting on-time and avoiding long "dead" spots. We could do some announcements while someone's setting up for a program, for example.

On the name tags- I know they have plastic sleeves with a pin in them that you can slip a piece of paper into. We could use something like that, and either write our info up or make one at home with a photo of your favorite Bolivian ram on it. Keeping them at the center might be a good idea- some of us can barely remember to come to the meetings, and bringing along your nametag is just way too much to ask of us!