Meetings with a theme

[angel]

You guys would have a lot of fun having real structured meetings. Let me tell you how the reef club does it. In May they had a meeting at Aquatic Critter in the back room. They did (as they usually do) a door prize thing for frags.
Last month they had a BBq at the president's house, and more door prizes for frags, but they all brought a dish and the club bought the burgers and dogs. They enjoyed it. I joined by that time but had a gig, so I couldn't go.
This month they had a meeting at a member's restaurant. Same deal--club pays for the meat, but guests would pay $6.50 for a plate. No door prizes this time--they had a dirty santa frag swap! They had SO much fun.
Next month they're having a pool party at another member's house, and two other clubs are said to be joining in for this one.
My point is, every meeting doesn't have to involve selling fish to make it worth showing up. These guys get together and have fun once a month seeing eachother. Sometimes there's a speaker, there's always food and drink, and they don't need a formal location to do it. A topic can be chosen for discussion, and you could even do a true fish swap like they did the dirty santa frags. Just some food for thought. I know you all had fun at the one Mark had.

[angel]

And now that I'm awake I realized I should have put this in suggestions. Would a mod care to move it? Thanks!

[jon carman]

That sounds like some great ideas. We need to be creative.

[davidtcb1]

Good info Tina.

[angel]

Another thing we need to know is, the reef club is mostly about corals. So even though they specialize in marine things, and talk about inverts(as clean up crew) and fish(though they take a back seat to corals) the coral is the main focus of their members. So if we know saltwater fish enthusiasts they can still best be served by joining here if we would expand our discussions of marine fish. There's just not enough info available in a forum IMO.
I've told members of the reef club about us here, and do try to talk fish. There are a couple of members that really do enjoy their fish but I still feel like a special interest in marine fish is nowhere to be found. I'll gladly retract that if I'm wrong, as I've only been there since early June, but there just has to be a group of marine fish nuts somewhere!
They are a great group and I'm learning a lot. They cover things we haven't even approached here.