Meeting Format Due to Club Growth

[JMLenke]

I brought up a suggestion to the PVAS BOD that you might want to consider. It was based off of last months GWAPA meeting.

ALL items FS must be posted by X time prior to the start of the meeting. Follow the rest of what Rob/Ghaz said.

No items can be sold if they werent listed, it makes it easier on Kris and anyone else who takes up that spot for any reason.

Download the list and merge the files, poof done with who is bringing what etc..

[finman57]

CCA has started a thread about what we bring but....

Not everyone uses the Forum and I, for one, don't always decide what to bring until that morning and if I have time after packing the truck.

Does everyone that comes to GWAPA meetings use or belong to the Forum?

[JMLenke]

It makes it easier.

Hell I stripped my 55 and said I am bringing X. It isnt that hard to say "I am bringing W,X,Y, and Z items".

[Ltrepeter2000]

I would say alot more so than CCA. This isnt something that has to start right away so it leaves time to make it clear to the membership how items for auction will be handled.

[krisw]

Hell I stripped my 55 and said I am bringing X. It isnt that hard to say "I am bringing W,X,Y, and Z items".

As Pat and I mentioned, it's not hard, but it's not always something done with a lot of fore-thought either. I would rather a member bring a great plant last minute, than not bring it at all.

I think that nearly all of the GWAPA members have forum accounts. I don't have numbers for use, but there are certainly some that mainly show up for meetings. There's a large group of regulars on the forum, however.

If we allowed auction pre-registration, I don't think we would make it hard and fast. If it just knocked down the number of items needed to be entered at the meeting, it would accomplish something. Perhaps we could offer some sort of an incentive to register early, but we'd have to think through that. Perhaps it would be better to split off this discussion to it's own thread?

Thanks again, Pat, for your response. Very insightful!

[Aaron]

I like the idea of pre-registration.

However, I'm not sure making it mandatory is a good idea. As Kris already said, I'd much rather someone bring a cool plant last minute than leave it at home because they didn't list it in time.

Instead, I would propose we strongly encourage pre-regristration. Perhaps we could even offer an incentive such as 20% to the club instead of 25%?

[JMLenke]

Thats BOD side stuff.

PVAS is changing to where you have to be a member to sell at the Monthly, unless you are jsut gonna donate.

[ingg]

Please keep the thread on topic. Pre-registration of auction items doesn't address the issue at hand.it is space we are concerned about here, not administrative time in database entry and auction length.

It is a good topic that deserves some thought - in another thread.

[rich_one]

Hi Kevin,

I don't believe so, as the January meeting at Dave's house in Mt. Airy MD drew nearly the same number of people, and is no where near the Virginia line.

Using 2007-2008 years, here's the geographic breakdown of members by location:

DC: 5
MD: 42
VA: 36
NJ: 1
PA: 4
OTHER: 5 (people we don't have a mailing address in the system, but I think the split is 3/2 MD/VA)

you mean to tell me MD has the majority of members, and I am the only jabroni in Southern MD? sheesh.

oh... sorry. back on topic. was just surprised... lol.

[Ltrepeter2000]

I think that every meeting in Dave's basement so that we can drool inside his big tank sounds like a great alternative....that or alternate between Dave and Ghaz.....the automatic water changers will remove the drool after a few days I am pretty sure.