mhossom wrote:I used to be the President of Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society. We regularly
had 100 people at our meetings. This forced us to have them in large halls,
Isnt CMAS one of the largest aquaria related clubs in the country?
I remember reading something around the time MACNA was in DC
tht between WAMAS and CMAS, there are 800+ members or somewhere
around there. Is that correct?
I like the idea of separate auctions (could still arrange to swap plants between members at the meetings). I know of one club that would be willing to at least discuss a joint effort on that idea!
I don't think you want to exclude the non-members entirely. Probably do need to limit the number though.
I voted to keep the status quo. Moving the meeting into a hall would take away
so much from our unique aquaria club.
Tank tours are OK - I've been on several that the marine club WAMAS
has had over the past few years. They basically don't have regular meetings.
They have tank tours, a few times a year, large auctions / speakers and a
few social events hosted by LFS's in the area a few times a year. I enjoy
the current format GWAPA has much better. Its more intimate, I know everyone,
and its a boatload of fun. Move it to a hall? I'll start VAPS (Virginia Aquatic Plants Society) - quick somone register that domain!
halak wrote:I am for the mixed option. What if we make the in-house meetings open only to members? How many members do we have anyway?
I am seeing just over 50 current in '08, with several more who are not counted as they are not shown as yet paying '08 dues. Kris'd know it better, but that is what I see.
Dave's right. We have 50 members up to date through 2008, with 26 more members that expired in 2007 that haven't yet renewed. (I'll send out another email soon to these folks.) At least half of them are folks who are regulars, so, figure 60-65 members in total.
Have you ever had that many people show up for a meeting before? We could have the meetings at Silver Springs for a month or two and if you see that your not getting the large response, like you did for the February meeting, they switch back to having the meetings at someones house. If you do see a trend of larger groups showing up them continue to have the meeting in Silver Springs.
Jiga, we had 39 at the last meeting, and I think 35 at the meeting before that. You do bring up a good point that we may need to move in baby steps to see how it would work out if we end up at a meeting hall.
