CRC FRAG SWAP Discussion
Greetings, As posted elsewhere, I am starting a discussion to have a local member's-only CRC frag swap. Here is what I propose: Having it at my garage in North Chico on November 8, Saturday. (NOTE: I did bump up the date to allow for memberships obtained in November being good through 2009.) This could also be a drive to obtain continued memberships fees for those existing 2008 members. This gives everyone time to make and adhere their cuttings over the next few weeks so they still have some time to recover before transit and transfer so we don't give anyone bonk frags. It is 2 months away. No specific rules other than maybe you have to bring at least 3 frags (no xenia or green star polyp), label your corals on the container (hard plastic - no zip lock bags), and maybe we'll hit up the frag stores for some of their frags to pony up the deal and spend some of our club dues cash back to the members for something besides food. This will be conducted with the true meaning of a Frag SWAP. There will be no rare specific categories or benefits. Look, were just a bunch of local members. If you'd like to Pay It Forward (PIF), I'm sure we'll do what we can. If you know you are donating something special, simply put "PIF" on there and we'll mention what that means. Of course, then these will be the first things to go. So maybe instead simply label it by its name and AFTER the swap post the details of obtainment of such corals and suggesting the new frag owners PIF. Ok so family memberships. If two family members wants to pick then at least three frags per picking member; minimum of six frags. No more than two picking members per family membership. Lunch will be provided by the club probably via the Pizza plan somewhat like originally planned for the larger scale one but of course scaled down. Pizza to arrive around 12:30pm Other than that there will be no cost to members. To participate you must be or become a member. To become a member, attend a monthly meeting, complete a form, and pay $25 based upon the calendar year. Also memberships will be available the day of the swap. Since November and December lie so close to the end of the year, any membership obtained during these months count towards the following year. So people who show up and pay $25 to become members will be valid members for all of 2009 as well. They will still have to bring three frags which will be obtainable from other members or LFS. Again this could also be a drive to obtain continued memberships fees for those existing 2008 members. Groups will be assigned by randomly picking a number ping-pong ball out of a bag. Then groups will be called 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1-1-2-3-4... If there are slim pickings left it will be an all-group call. At a minimum I’m thinking we will need three people at reception checking in frags and taking new membership. At least one person moving the checked frags to the pick tables. One person to oversee the frag area during previewing. One person to verify pick group entrance, One person to verify only one frag leaves (or two depending on group number in the cycle). We’ll need some people to take care of the pizza and set up for distribution. We’ll need some people to take care of trash. I think I like what MARS did earlier this year when timing your pick. So we should have someone timing the pick be 5 minutes the first round and 2 minutes after. This all depends of course on how many frags we actually start with. All this being said, What I learned from Pete that helped coordinate the last MARS swap, get more people than you think you’ll need. I'm thinking registration, group selection, and frag drop-off begin around 11am and frag picking begin at noon. We'll probably be done in less than an hour. So feel free to make any suggestions and once we either decide to do this or not, I'll post a more succinct brief detailed post of all the conclusions. Either way, now is a good time to start preparing frags. I think the club will eventually be able to pull off a frag swap near the scale of MARS but since we've never done one and do not have the cash nor administrative logistics complete to do one that big at this point, I suggest we do this instead. You know… to get our feet wet… :D
Greetings, As posted elsewhere, I am starting a discussion to have a local member's-only CRC frag swap. Here is what I propose: Having it at my garage in North Chico on November 8, Saturday. (NOTE: I did bump up the date to allow for memberships obtained in November being good through 2009.) This could also be a drive to obtain continued memberships fees for those existing 2008 members. This gives everyone time to make and adhere their cuttings over the next few weeks so they still have some time to recover before transit and transfer so we don't give anyone bonk frags. It is 2 months away. No specific rules other than maybe you have to bring at least 3 frags (no xenia or green star polyp), label your corals on the container (hard plastic - no zip lock bags), and maybe we'll hit up the frag stores for some of their frags to pony up the deal and spend some of our club dues cash back to the members for something besides food. This will be conducted with the true meaning of a Frag SWAP. There will be no rare specific categories or benefits. Look, were just a bunch of local members. If you'd like to Pay It Forward (PIF), I'm sure we'll do what we can. If you know you are donating something special, simply put "PIF" on there and we'll mention what that means. Of course, then these will be the first things to go. So maybe instead simply label it by its name and AFTER the swap post the details of obtainment of such corals and suggesting the new frag owners PIF. Ok so family memberships. If two family members wants to pick then at least three frags per picking member; minimum of six frags. No more than two picking members per family membership. Lunch will be provided by the club probably via the Pizza plan somewhat like originally planned for the larger scale one but of course scaled down. Pizza to arrive around 12:30pm Other than that there will be no cost to members. To participate you must be or become a member. To become a member, attend a monthly meeting, complete a form, and pay $25 based upon the calendar year. Also memberships will be available the day of the swap. Since November and December lie so close to the end of the year, any membership obtained during these months count towards the following year. So people who show up and pay $25 to become members will be valid members for all of 2009 as well. They will still have to bring three frags which will be obtainable from other members or LFS. Again this could also be a drive to obtain continued memberships fees for those existing 2008 members. Groups will be assigned by randomly picking a number ping-pong ball out of a bag. Then groups will be called 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1-1-2-3-4... If there are slim pickings left it will be an all-group call. At a minimum I’m thinking we will need three people at reception checking in frags and taking new membership. At least one person moving the checked frags to the pick tables. One person to oversee the frag area during previewing. One person to verify pick group entrance, One person to verify only one frag leaves (or two depending on group number in the cycle). We’ll need some people to take care of the pizza and set up for distribution. We’ll need some people to take care of trash. I think I like what MARS did earlier this year when timing your pick. So we should have someone timing the pick be 5 minutes the first round and 2 minutes after. This all depends of course on how many frags we actually start with. All this being said, What I learned from Pete that helped coordinate the last MARS swap, get more people than you think you’ll need. I'm thinking registration, group selection, and frag drop-off begin around 11am and frag picking begin at noon. We'll probably be done in less than an hour. So feel free to make any suggestions and once we either decide to do this or not, I'll post a more succinct brief detailed post of all the conclusions. Either way, now is a good time to start preparing frags. I think the club will eventually be able to pull off a frag swap near the scale of MARS but since we've never done one and do not have the cash nor administrative logistics complete to do one that big at this point, I suggest we do this instead. You know… to get our feet wet… :D