Is this the right way to promote the club?

Is this the right way to promote the club?
Is this really a good way to promote the club? <a>Originally posted</a> by boviac I've posted a link there to this site since this is where I started it. Also, I personally prefer this site as I have others on RC that I know that might visit this link than one on the Chico site. <a>Originally posted</a> by boviac A little off-topic here but as far as local forums... I personally feel local forums can be more disastrous than the drama sometimes experienced by moderators on RC. I personally like the fact that RC has specific rules and is pretty good at enforcing them. For the most part I also like that RC moderators are generally above and beyond the local drama of the club and can keep it level. I do participate in and appreciate the local club site. I'm all for the club having a local informational web page much like MARS but I think unless otherwise unknown to me, the forums here are more than sufficient to gain the most exposure and a one-stop site to get more than enough info that I could handle with my time. I do understand MARS is setting up its own member-privileged forum. With a club that big I can see its usefulness. But I doubt that much traffic will be routed there specifically and be left out of the MARS RC forum. Plus, RC is generally free and it looks like we have to pony up $5 again (and again...) to remove the annoying, juvenile, and lame advertisements on our CRC site. The ones here at least are reef-related and often I find they sometimes flash the new or improved items out there that catch my attention as I don't often have time to keep up on all aspects of my hobbies. All that being said, I often have both RC and CRC sites tabbed open in the same window. I suppose from this point going forward, I could easily post progress and updates to both sites. Thanks for tipping me off to do this. :D

IMO
Chris, I think that if SO many members find an issue with what you wrote then hey maybe there is a problem "man" up to it and take responsibility for what you posted! Also since we are on the "childish" note I think that EVERYONE should know what is going on and how it is you that is making our numbers of members decline. I have to say the way you are just pushing people out of office and making this Chris' Reef Club is amazing, does everyone agree with you and the pushing that you are doing? I bet if I went to all the members (since I have all the emails and numbers) and asked their opinions of the club and you or how you keep paid members in the dark how they would appreciate it? Seems to me I should ask for a "guarantee refund for membership" you all are sitting on OUR money doing what with it?!?!?!? I would like people to know that I was pushed out of my position and if I had the energy for "CHRIS" I would have said since the club voted me in maybe they should be the one to vote me out! Now in you so NICE POLITE way doing the same thing to Josh which he has done NOTHING wrong in asking you to own up to what you said! Yes Chris lets talk about CHILDISH, because my list can continue!! I have to say for those of you who feel like you are professional in this club are the biggest back stabbing whining children I have ever met! Just when you think that you have made friends never worry the knife will come! While you might find this to be CHILDISH there is truth to every word AND I never claim to better then the rest like the rest of you do I can be a childish at least I know when I am WRONG! Maybe we should all ask you and push you out of you position?!?!?!

Also in "Bylaw" talk isn’t this comment a conflict of interest? Which is why I got kicked out!

the reason im not letting this go is that yes, i am offended that the president of the club has such a low opinion of what he has and is in control over. promoting our site and club is mandatory IMO. by posting negativity on other sites doesnt do a whole lot to bring in new members. We constantly are in the hunt for more members because thats what makes the club. with talk like that i wouldnt want to join either. its a struggle to stay and support it anyways. we need to grow and make this club into something. pushing-out board members and those that are willing to help isnt right. Unlike mercedes i wasnt forced to leave my position i did it willingly, but the samee gestapo tactics were being employed. ALL talk of incorporating has stopped, ALL fragswap talk has stopped. THE CLUB IS STAGNATING. we need someone that will look to progress the club not put it on a resume and let it sink or swim. the summer is over, did we do ANYTHING as a club? nope. was it talked about by the club? nope. we had it lined out, there was going to be a swap this month, and were shot down at the last second for incorporating $$. neither has happened,swap or incorporating. BTW...someone still has a box of cash and is just sitting on it unwilling to do anything with it. we dont even know who has the cash or the balance since the treasurer left. I hope this opens some eyes that we need better (any) leadership that holds the club in a positive light, not talking shit on it at another site.

I have read Chris's post three times now and I have yet to be offended. I really don't get it. His comments state that the boards on Reef Central are sufficient. The Moderators control the boards with there set of rules. He also states that there is "drama" on the local boards and what is the first thing you guys do...... Create even more drama! You ask Chris to step up do something and when he dose you call him a Natzi and Gestapo. Chris I think you are doing a fine job as presidnt. You "step up" when needed and I truly belive you are the reason this club exsist today.Not one person I have ever talked to has anything bad to say about Chris. As far as this summers meetings well the fires put a damper on at least one of them and Julys meeting with Ed was the best one to this date. People are just not as interested in there aquariums during the summer months. I know this from years of experence. If Josh, Mercedes, and Rick are so unhappy with the Chico Reef Club then start your own club. You can call it The Paradise Reef Club. Build your own website and create your own bylaws.

i have to agree with the summer down time. I don't know how my tank survived the summer with so little attention. I know the stores take a big loss in revenue during the summer. I know as far as Matt and myself we have not been down there due to gas prices, a lack of funds, and my wife and I having a baby. Matt and I have discussed starting to come back down there for meetings but, probablly only every other meeting or so.

I do not really see any negative comments about the club in his post, only about the troubles that come with having a separate forum away from Reef Central. This is actually something I have complained about to him, having a forum with so many different topics is silly most of them are empty or barely have posts. If we just used reef central I could look at the top post on a single page and know it is the most recent. I think its fine that you cross posted his post into this forum to have a discussion but putting up a sarcastic poll like this was not the right way to go about it and only supports his claims about this forum. I always like going to the meetings at talking to EVERYONE but stuff like this makes me just want to walk away, the last thing I want from a hobby is stress and drama.

ok well i guess im just being sensitive. have a nice day then. sorry chris and the rest of yall.

There are obviously things that happened between a few members and/or board members that everyone doesn't know about. I don't know if these are things that everyone can put behind them and try and start over. Lets hope so. I do agree that we should all try to support the local club and try to keep negative material to private messages (not here or other forums). I also appreciate all the effort put in by all past and current board members. I think it would be a good idea to have a post regarding the club $ and monthly updates regarding expenses and money brought it. Even if it is as simple as- (I assume this would be ok?) End Aug. total $410 aug raffle +80 books bought for library -120 End Sept. total $370

Hey everyone, Here is a current update on some of the things that seem to be a concern with the club. Raffle: For me it is getting more difficult to keep asking the LFS to donate to the club when I have been told by them, what do I get out of it? Now, that is a valid question for all of them. And thanks, as always, to all members and LFS owners who donate to the raffle. The less money we actually spend, the more money we can continue to make so we can have more speakers like Ed Fernandez. Also, as far as the raffle goes, I have asked the advice of BAR and MARS about how they go about getting the stuff for their raffles. They made a database of the distributors of the products we all use in our tanks and sent out a form letter to each one asking for samples of their products. This. to me is a great idea and one I am working on currently. And I would gladly like to hear what other members of the club would suggest for making our coffers larger so that we can have a nice frag swap for everyone and also have more speakers and planned events. We are a new club, ok so we are a year old. The paperwork for incorporation took some time to have the state complete it. It took me 5 minutes to fill out and sign and send of course, but we all know how fast the government works. Now, we have 2 more sets of paperwork that are about 45 pages long that we are working on filling out for our tax exempt status so that the government doesn't take the money we have made so far. I regret that this particular process isn't getting done fast, but the government practically wants everyone's first born child's entire life history in paragraph form. And unfortunately, life tends to get in the way of the progress of this paperwork at times. I have made a flyer that we we can post around about the club and the club meetings information, but I need some ideas on places to post besides the LFS. I know there are probably tons of places all over town that we can post a simple flyer about the club. I could use some suggestions from club members on places to post some of them around town. At this point, we are not spending any money because there is no need to do so until we come up with a plan of attack on taking the club forward. When I talked to Brian Prestwood at MARS, he made the comment that their club barely made it when they started because of all the paperwork needed and that it took a couple of determined people to get it done and make their club what it is today. I think that we also can do this as a group. This, as I understood when I joined, is a social club. Yes, not everyone gets along with everyone, but we have to remember that we ALL have one thing in common. We all enjoy the hobby of reefkeeping. It's great to see so many people who are building new projects and upgrading their tanks and sharing all that they are doing. I am even upgrading to a larger tank at this time and I may not always understand some of the plumbing or other stuff, but I enjoy hearing about and seeing everyone elses ideas come to life. Brian(Camlov) the post about the club's funds is great and I will take care of it right now. Since our August meeting was not a large attendance I will follow Brian's example and use July as our start total. End July Total $870.14 July Raffle + $172.00 Payment for speaker -$300.00 Current club fund total $742.14 I hope that this post helps with some of the questions regarding the status of the current club activities. Sorry the post is so long, but I wanted to cover as much as possible. If there are any more questions let me know and I will do my very best to answer them. And suggestions for getting more people joining our club and enjoying the hobby that all of us "Reef Geeks" love are welcomed.

Excellent post Melissa! I am glad the you got in contact with people from both MARS, and BAR. That should help the club a lot in the ability to learn from two of the larger clubs. Kinda sucks having to go through the bureaucratic crapola for the tax exemption, but I have to say I am glad you are doing <and> I think things will start picking up for all the clubs in the next couple of months.

ok well i guess im just being sensitive. have a nice day then. sorry chris and the rest of yall. Thank you Josh and nearly everyone else here. This thread did start on the closed Officer Discussion's forum. I did post an original comment there before it was opened up for all to see here. So after it was again moved here I was fine with letting everyone else seeing this and letting whatever you guys wanted happen. As I do say in my profile: I do want the Chico Reef Club to be a success!!! :D If it turned out that there really was overall interest and a desire to ask me to resign or if I really was taking the club in a negative direction, I would seriously consider resigning. Who am I to stop progress? But alas, I sense I will continue and the club's prosperity will return over the next couple of months. Yes, the club has had some growing pains and other drama over the better half of this year. But until this brief hiccup, I thought we were letting emotions die down a bit, summer pass, and let everyone realize we simply want to make the club be someplace everyone can be civil, have a good time, and gain something from. I too echo Melissa's comments after talking with the MARS President several times now... he laughs at me and says, yup, this is they way things happen sometimes. So I roll with it. Further, the August meeting there was no raffle or any new members or new business so I expect the value posted for the end of the July meeting to be current as of today. And from this point forward whether money is transacted or not, whoever is treasurer or acting treasurer will post shortly before the upcoming meeting: previous balance recent transactions balance and pending future obligations. We'll consider Melissa's post here to be the one for this month. Melissa, I think a place we can get attention for new members beyond LFS is Craigslist. I think brief detail verbiage and a copy of the flyer maybe scanned in top and bottom as they repost the photos quite small. I suggest reposting this every month a week or so before the meeting. People selling and interested at all levels of the hobby I believe check this for good deals from time to time. Thank you for taking the time to make a wonderfully positive, detailed and informative post. One thing I posted briefly while all this was going on was the potential to have a local CRC member’s frag swap. I was thinking, barring my relocation, My garage, October 25. I'll start a thread discussing this in here too. This might be something we can do to bring in more members as well as provide a potential benefit to those existing members. I'm going to be in LA this week but hope to be checking in on the comments here and I'll be completing as much of the Tax Exempt paperwork that I finally received from Melissa (This was my fault for not getting it from her sooner. Forgive me for I do have many hats to wear) From this point forward, if anyone has any further comments about how I am taking this club in any particular direction or otherwise opinion about how or what I do relative to my position here, please feel free to Private Message me and I will get back to you. If it is something that is truly worth discussing outwardly here, I will be happy to post it for discussion or recommend you do so. But any further attempts at sabotage like this only seriously mar our image and hurt the club’s growth when handled this way.

WOW, I didn't realize my Post on RC would spur such a backlash and replies, not my intention at all!! When I made that post it had nothing to do with the lack of members or the Slow summer months as I am aware of all that being a business owner. My concern was with the overall status of the club as a NP and getting recognized as a "real"club. Membership comes with time and orginazation. Without a organized club IMO memberships will decline and you won't have any new members. All of the grumblings I heard from different people sounded more of people looking out for themselves rather then trying to set up a club ( Just to note Chris was never one of these people as I have never really discussed the club with him on a personal level) From an outsiders point of view I seen this club going in the same direction the MARS club went through a couple years ago. People too concerned with there personal interest rather then the Hobby and club. I think I have supported the club just as much as the Chico stores (with the exception of Jody) but have less to gain from it. I like to see these clubs do well for the good of the hobby not just so I can hopefully have a few more customers from it. I appologize if my comments were taken the wrong way. And I agree that these type of Lynchings should be done privatley or in a meeting format with all of the officers. I also feel that if one or two people are doing all the work and the others just sit back and watch and want to have a Say due to there "title" then that's BS. I am not taking anyone's side here but the clubs!

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