Meeting Format Due to Club Growth

[krisw]

All,

The GWAPA Board needs your feedback on a very important issue related to the club. Over the past 6-12 months, GWAPA's membership has consistently expanded each month, culminating with our February meeting drawing 39 people in attendance. This is fantastic! The enthusiasm and knowledge brought by our new members has been irreplaceable, and surely confirms that the planted aquarium hobby is strong in our area.

The unfortunate downside with this success is that our numbers have started to push the limits on what we can reasonably expect most of our members to accommodate in their homes. We do not have a magic number that defines this threshold, but we have had feedback from numerous members that necessitates we ask the question, "Do we need to find a larger space to meet for our meetings?"

Of course, the downside to leaving our member's homes, is that we won't get to see each others tanks in person with the same frequency that we do currently. The upside of a larger space is that it would allow for more room to grow our membership, facilitate workshops and presentations, out of town speakers, and provide a consistent central meeting place for each meeting.

The Police Hall in Silver Spring, MD (12751 Layhill Road), where CCA currently meets, has an opening on the 4th Saturday of the month if we were interested in switching to that venue for our meetings.

The board believes that the club has three options:

1. Do nothing, continue with status quo: This will require our hosts to be able to accommodate 30, 40, 50+ people in their homes by the year end, if we continue to grow at the rate anticipated.

2. Meet in Silver Spring, MD: Every meeting will be at the Police Hall in Silver Spring, MD, with the exception of the holiday party, which will be at a member's home. Any member wishing to open their house for tank viewings, could certainly host an open-house post-meeting, but officially, the meetings would be in Silver Spring, MD.

3. Some 50/50 Arrangement: If enough members feel they want accommodate large groups in their homes for meetings, we could attempt an every/other month arrangement where we switch between the meeting hall, and a member home. Again, this relies on members being willing host these numbers.

This is where we need your input. Please provide your thoughts on this matter by voting, and providing any comments in this thread.

[DelawareJim]

How about in Havre de Grace; right at the mouth of the Susquehanna?

Cheers.
Jim

[JMLenke]

as I posted in another thread I can also talk to my building (alexandria) about use of the party room (unknown cost if any).

PREFERABLY METRO ACCESSIBLE!

[Cristy Keister]

It's the in-home meetings that make this club the best in the area, IMHO.

We've already got hosts for this year, right? Meeting attendance shrinks in the summer months, so those hosts probably don't have to worry about 30+ attending. June-Sept can also be field trip time. Perhaps this decision can wait?

The meeting hall may or may not be necessary next year. We have, I think, about 5-6 regular hosts that can accommodate the higher attendance. If we have to use a hall, I'd rather not have all the meetings there, the 50/50 arrangement would be preferable.

[maddog10]

I am torn on this issue and don't know how to vote.

I enjoy going to the members homes and seeing their set-ups. It gives me a chance to ask "how" or "why did you do that". It is hard to expect the members to host 30+ people, if the trend continues you won't get near as many volunteers for next year.

Demonstrations could be harder at a regular meeting place. Someone would have to bring a tank, do the demonstration (say on aquascaping) and then tear the whole thing down and take it out of there.

I just don't know which way to vote on this one.

[RTRJR]

I'm with the group for holding as many meetings in member's home as possible and agree with Cristy that in-home meetings are one of the clubs's big strengths.

[Judi]

I also agree with Cristy. She said exactly what I was thinking.

[marge618]

It's the in-home meetings that make this club the best in the area, IMHO.

We've already got hosts for this year, right? Meeting attendance shrinks in the summer months, so those hosts probably don't have to worry about 30+ attending. June-Sept can also be field trip time. Perhaps this decision can wait?

The meeting hall may or may not be necessary next year. We have, I think, about 5-6 regular hosts that can accommodate the higher attendance. If we have to use a hall, I'd rather not have all the meetings there, the 50/50 arrangement would be preferable.

Yes, I love the in-home meetings! This is my chance to see planted tanks that are planned and thriving. Actually a 'what I wish I had been able to do" view. (All of my plants live and grow...I just don't yet have a feel for how to plan a planted tank...)

Please put off the decision for change.. at least for awhile.
Later,
Marge

[krisw]

At this point, no decision has been made, but we'd rather be ahead of the curve then behind it. We've had one existing host drop out due to the size of the 2008 meetings thus far, and of the remaining hosts, about half of them don't have homes that are townhomes or smaller.

I definitely agree that one of GWAPA's strengths has been the personal feel of seeing each others tanks. All I can say is to vote according to how you'd answer this question if asked: "Will you host a meeting?" If yes, then maybe we can continue as is. We also don't want to burn out the folks who happen to have large homes, as they'll eventually tire of hosting. I don't know the right answer to this yet -- hence the asking your input.

[JMLenke]

Ill host a meeting in my 840 sf condo, as long as you dont mind sitting in the bathroom and not being able to see what is going on.

/serious