Ways to get new members?

I was talking with angella the other day about how to get the meetings bigger and of course like we talked about at reef club last week post on craiglist reefclub meetings, and post stuff at the fish stores. and it made me think how long it actually took me to join reef club after I had my reef tank. I would check out the site here and there but I didn't even think about joining until angella all of a sudden joined one night ;) . thats when I joined the site i didnt really post or goto the meetings until this year which is about a year later and my reef is about 3.5 yrs now. I think like me alot of new reefers think the site is for people with super awesome tanks for example I was delievering a frig for some guy who has a reef tank i asked him if he had join the reef club his response was "my (as in his tank" tank is not good enough to join the reef club " SO it got me thinking how do we appeal to newbies or people with simple tanks? I think a newbies coner would do a little bit.. and maybe say on homepage newcomers always welcome or something .. im not sure this is just a brainstorm anytways im late i'll blog more about this maybe

.... I think like me alot of new reefers think the site is for people with super awesome tanks and I was actually delievering a frig for some guy who had a reef tank would said my tanks not good enough to join the reef club" SO it got me thinking how do we appeal to newbies to the hobbie? Wow. :shock: Someone actually said after looking at your tank that it was not good enough??? That's not only wrong, but rather rude. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing here. Ironically, its the newbies are the ones that the club can really help out the most!!! 8) How many of us when we first got into this hobby, like shopping at Big Box store, LFS' were looking for advice, would like to have a friend who knows, who's been down that road... IMHO that's what the club is about. ;) But seriously, I'd like to have the club be able to point to someone who can help at all levels. Well that's one reason why I still like Reef Central. I've heard in other clubs, some people were offended by people posting glamorous photos of rare, costly, and hard to maintain corals and sometimes regularly because they felt they were showing off and putting other people down. You know, I can't help how everyone interprets people's comments and postings and I've certainly discovered how I can clearly be thinking one thing as I type then another can read the same words and come up with an entirely different point of view. Ha ha... Call me naive, but I certainly don't think people post cool pics of corals to put other people down. :twisted: :roll: But seriously, to anyone out there that has any intimidation about this club, by all means, please let that go. Sure, me being the president of the club, at meetings I'm not going to rush to you with all smiles and cheer, like I've had happen at a few churches. But most likely sometime during the night of the meeting I'll try to swing by and introduce myself and ask a few questions. But you're more than welcome to simply come and sit in the back and observe. When you're ready, your're ready. I first started with MARS and signed up with Reef Central. I would go to the meetings but until like three years ago I rarely to never posted anything. I think I'm still like 0.87 posts/day there. Like I said at the meeting Paul, I really think we need to simultaneously get new members while amping up our meeting agendas. But in this case, I'm a big fan of 'If you build it, they will come.' So I'm really working on ways to make the regular meetings be something worth attending regularly. Which is what will allow us to keep the members we've got, recall previous or lost ones, and simply by word of mouth and activities, we'll get new members. Though right now we need something to keep members interested attending, posting, and first and foremost, happy with the hobby so much that they want to participate.

Nonetheless, after that diatribe.... please continue to post any suggestions here. I plan to put something up on Craigslist when I get home. Thansk for reminding me. Up today, will come down in two weeks and that's perfect for another reminder before the meeting.

man i wasnt expecting you to post back so quick i needed to edit that since i was late and running out the door lol any how he said his tank not my tank wasnt good enough ... guy who had a reef tank would said my( as in his own tank) tank is not good enough to join the reef club" SO it got me thinking how do we appeal to newbies to the hobbie?

I think that is personal perception for that one person rather then the norm. I still say there needs to be flyers or cards in all the stores in Chico (the ones that will allow it). Also there needs to be a more consistent meeting agenda/topics/speakers. With those it will bring more members. With that said it took MARS years to get where they are and they have a much larger population of people then Chico and the surrounding area's do. IMO it will take at least 2-3 years and lot's of work to get 25-50 members on a regular basis at the meetings.

I believe you righ we all pretty fresh reefers here. I think a newbies coner would be a fun thread add we can do "what did you kill this week"and "fresh meat (brad spanking new to reefing)" threads =P maybe some other funny newbie things we all experiance. like i said its a brainstorm my Gumdrop just died so i replace him with some zoas and my first monapora frag ps LOLWow. Someone actually said after looking at your tank that it was not good enough??? That's not only wrong, but rather rude. your right if someone said that bout my tank i would slap them and ask them to leave before something bad happened to them

Hilarious... Now that makes much more sense that the 'gentleman' was saying that in reference to his 'own' tank. Ahhh. Silly how in person with all the visual cues I could have probably easily have interpreted that intent with the exact same spoken words as you had written here. But with words and words alone generally taken 'literally' :D That's the way I understood it ;) Rob is correct, I really think its going to take a bit more time to go through the growing pains and find a few more bell-ringing supporters that will help to really push to keep the momentum going. And simply the LFS's are still our best one point to find and attract new members and potentially persuade those who are on the fence to check it out. Cool... I like these blog-type postings... consider this a brainstorming room. :D :D :D

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