DRC 2013 Frag Swap

DRC Archive Frag Swap
21

Ken - I will be there Friday night. I will try to be there Saturday morning for a little bit during set-up. Unfortunately a little rain isn’t enough t cancel our games, we’d need a monsoon.

Food is on you - if you want to put up a “Build your own hoagie” table feel free, your choice as to wether you want to charge for it or give it away. If someone wants to but some 12 packs of soda and bring a cooler with ice to sell cancs of soda, feel free. I wouldn’t go too overboard, based on the registrations on fragswapper it doesn’t look like it’s going to be as large as last year.

Tables will be 1st come 1st serve this year.

John they should be put up much like they were last year.

22

Its too late for me to get food. Ive been busy with some personal business. and other things. i havent even set up frags yet or dug out my frag tank set. so perhaps we dont need food. its only 4 hour swap.

23

Did we do T-shirts like we did last year?

24

We did not do t-shirts this year. We still have towels and lunch bags available from last year (I just have to find the box).

Received more bad news today - this is my on-call week for work and I have to be at work at 8pm Friday night. I’m gonig to try to be there at 7 to start getting things set-up and drop off a frag tank and other supplies, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to be afforded the opportunity to hangh around.

Not that I’m important, I have all the confidence in the world in the members we have in this club and your ability to make sure everythig runs smoothly and effectively in my abasence.

25

I will try to be there to help with whatever is needed. Sorry I could not give notice, but I have an odd retail work schedule.

26

Murphy’s law or what???
Emergency tank issues tonite…I won’t be able to make it now. I’m sorry to bail last minute… see other thread i’m posting.

bobby

27

Hope everything goes well tomorrow.

28

i just packed my LED light and swingset stand for it for the raffle frag tank. we can use that if we like. making a couple frags to add to the raffle tank too.

29

Thank you for another great frag swap turnout this 2013 year. It was not as great as it was last year, but it did past my expectation with the turnout, I think it was about 40+ people today. Thank to all sponsor/vendors and those who help put all this together. All in all there was lots of nice corals to be had, even fish and inverts. Wish I have my tank up and running!

30


abcd abcd abcd

just wanted to say thanks for the good time got some great deals won some raffles and bought some great frags

thank you to the DRC for putting on the event see you again next year
::thumbsup:: :FLUSH)

31

Had a great time at the swap. I got to meet some very nice people, who are really into this hobby.
Thanks to the members who were there to volunteer their time for a few hours to make this happen. ::thumbsup::

32

Sounds like it was a good time… wish i could’ve came, but had to work friday night and all day saturday.
good job on the pics A

33

Yes John, it was a good time.
But truthfully, with the lack of member participation and only @ FIVE vendors there and no high end dry goods for the raffle prizes, this was probably our last frag swap.
We had HALF the amount of people show up at the door. You think anyone will want to come back after seeing only a few vendors and five DRC members selling things. I seriously doubt it.
Most of the sellers, including vendors and non-vendors had driven, 2-3 hrs to come to the swap.
I know no one wants to bring these negative facts up, but we CAN NOT expect to have a club, when the members aren’t active at all, haven’t paid their dues and only some want to come to the meetings and spend $5 on a raffle ticket, knowing they are going to get a frag.
As a club, we have to address these issues and bring them out in the open.

34

I am fairly new to the club and to the hobby. I went to the frag swap(this was my first one) and enjoyed it. I got a lot of good deals. To be honest though I was expecting more. I hope it isn’t going to be the last one, despite the lack of participation I would definitely go again next year. I haven’t been to any meetings because it’s hard for me to get to them. It is an hour away and I have two small children one of which has to get up for school the next day. Maybe there would be more members attending meetings if it was on a weekend? Just a thought! I am not aware of the dues. If someone could elaborate more on that for me I would appreciate it. TIA As far as the lack of participation and people not showing up for the frag swap, is it just advertised to the club members and their sponsors or are there others means of advertising. So that people who are not members would be aware of it.

35

Registered members are not required to pay dues.

36

John,
You bring up some very valid points. We had a few things working against us this year that we didn’t have last year. This year the swap was nearly 2 months later, spring is tough as people have “honey do” lists, kids have baseball, grass needs to be cut, golf courses are open.

NCPARS is next weekend. The only other swap we had to compete with last year was in Connecticut, there was nothing else local within a month of us. The people from NCPARS that we would have had either selling things, or buying things didn’t come as they were preparing for their own swap.

Believe it or not we were criticized last year for our dry goods prizes. Some attendees didn’t like that we had things geared towards people getting in to the hobby (lights, additives, chemicals, etc.) I thought we had a really good mix.

Which brings me to the important part - I agree about participation. When the club asked to do another swap this year I said no. I didn’t want the headache of organizing, contacting, arranging, stressing about everything, etc. I posted numerous threads, mentioned it at every meeting that we need people to step up and take the initiative to get things done. Bill reached out to contact sponsors, I contacted sponsors and vendors, Frank organized the volunteers, but no one (and I apologize if I’m missing a contribution) stepped up to say “Hey I printed flyers and hung them in the LFS”, “Hey I’ve been posting about it on other forums”, “hey I talked to so-and-so at such a store and they want to set up a table”.

This club is run by 3-4 people, the club should be run by the club members, the people that attempt to get the most from it. This club has come a loooooonnnnnnggggg way since I first joined, and I feel it can still improve, but you’re right, we need more people to step up. I don’t are about who’s paid dues and who hasn’t, I don’t care how much you spend or don’t spend for raffle tickets at the monthly meeting, hell I don’t care if you take a plate of food home to the wife after the meeting. I just care about people showing up, sharing, offering ideas, helping others, and maybe putting on a demonstration once in a while.

Tank Tour anyone?

37

Tank Tour? who’s selling at the swap? I’ve asked these same questions with no response… i take that back, one member wanted me to do their TT for them… Honestly, i haven’t had the time, and more honestly it seems like there aren’t too many people willing to do anything…

oh well… A huge thanks to those of you who have been running the club…
And Craig, i know you’ve done your best with what little time you had to offer.

38

I would be more than willing to do a tank tour. If you can shoot the pics Saltcreep. I cant seem to get my white balance right to do the corals justice. Just let me know. Did anyone pic up those suncatcher zoa from Mike (Aquarium Specialty) at the swap?

39

I think a DRC officer appreciation day is in order ::thumbsup:: :BEER

40

I say we take the lesson learned and come back and have a great one next year.

I say start a committee On our first meeting next year that will give us 5 months to get sponsors, vendors maybe a speaker, make it big and advertise, I think if the sponsors & vendors can see the club making a big commitment to pulling off a nice event they will be more than happy to come, I have spent a few hours today looking at other swaps around the country and some of them are small clubs bringing in 300 or more customers from up to 4 hours away.