Fun Poll #21 Election for President

[jgentry]

Good lord that was a book. Rick I respect and appreciate many of the things you have tried to bring to the club. But in the end nothing has happened and participation and membership is all but dead. We have at most 10 active people on this site and that is probably a huge over estimate. You simply make everything harder than it needs to be. You are trying to make the club into a massive government when there are only a handful of people that are even here. Swap locations and dates continue to be a debacle with no one doing anything. Every year officers just delete there membership and dissappear? How does that even happen? Red flag maybe?

Like I said Rick, you are a good guy and have done some great things to get the club established and ready to move forward. I think at this point you are in the way of progress though. It's not personal in anyway. I enjoy your company and we can talk fish anytime you would like.

On to the next thing. I voted for Jon just because I think it is time for change and for someone that can make things happen at a faster pace. I agree with Rick in many ways that no one should have complete power. Unfortunately this is a problem this club has right now and will proabably limit its ability to grow. Jon setup this site because he wanted a local club and because he was stating a fish business. Jon has a lot invested here time and effort wise. In order for this to be a complete club that flourishes at some point Jon will have to relinqish all power. Being a complete club means other breeders, other sellers, competition, and much more. At this point I think Jon is a better option to get the club moving forward again. Hopefully he can rebuild some of the membership next year and bring in some people that can be trusted to move the club in the right direction.

I like and respect both of you. But there are a lot of changes that will have to happen no matter who is elected to make this work and grow. Maybe Nashville is not ready for a club anyway. Maybe this just needs to be a forum and people can get together and chat fish without all of this other BS. I'm with it fine eitherway, I keep fish for fun and come to this forum for fun.

[jon carman]

I unfortunately have to respond, but that shows I read it. First off Rick I thank you for what you have done and hopefully what you will continue to do. I am sorry that you have the perception you do of me. I guess I am lucky you didn't post your first draft before it was edited.

I have no desire for power. As JD stated, maybe 10-15 people that may not be here much longer. I don't want to be president, but I don't want to throw three years out the window. I have a son and a wife that need my time. I work 40-50hr a week. I ship fish in the morning a couple days and sometimes after work. I meet customers at the fish house. Last thing I need is something else. But maybe if I step up, maybe others will as well. This next year will be all or nothing. If it is in this same state next year, forum is fine with me.

I created this poll without consulting you because you vanish without telling anyone. You can't tell club in one week there will be a vote and then not do it. Not only not do it, but not let officers know that you will be leaving and when you will be back. Same thing happened when planning swap. You waste our time when you don't let us know your schedule. We all have to wait on your return when we don't know when that will be.

I am more than happy to do another poll, but I don't know what it will accomplish. I might be able to modify it, but I did it the way I did with reason behind it.

I want to delete officer titles because I DON'T WANT THE POWER YOU CLAIM I DO! I will be demoting myself to be a TEAM with others that are giving there time. By TEAM, I want to set a few goals to reach. I want to get the three or four most important and split them up between us. Such as Advertising, Auction/Swap, Budgeting, BAP, Etc. I take one, David or another officer takes another, and we ask for help from other club members to do it. I will trust David or Allan or whomever that they will do there best and I won't micro manage. Then in our free time we do the best we can to tackle each goal. We might make mistakes and everyone might not like it, but we need action and not polls. I also plan to add another person to help me with the webmaster stuff.

If a member does not like what we do,they can volunteer. If we have 20 officers over 20 different goals, I don't see that as a bad thing. I have a few other ideas that may or may not be good, I will expand later, I am sure no one is reading by now.

Instead of arguing about rules, we need to post about fish. We have lost our way with that, and if I were a new visitor, I would be confused about what we are about.

[davidtcb1]

Good posts Rick, JD and Jon.

I too firmly believe none of this is personal (or it shouldn't be anyway), but something else has to be tried or this whole thing will be a memory by summer if not before - forum included. I too have no desire to be president, so a leadership team is a good idea IMO instead of rigid titles that really do nothing but give someone a title. Obviously the titles aren't creating incentive for officers to participate, since we've had two disappear from the face of the earth in the last six months.

As I've stated elsewhere, fish and aquariums have taken a backseat to the politics of the organization and we somehow have to get the focus back to the former. Waiting weeks for something to get "approved" by the President when it should take a few mins with just a trusted body of like minded leaders is appealing. As we've all stated, family, jobs, etc. all come before fish, but when the gears don't turn for days on end, it's an issue.

We may find a different route doesn't work either, but we are at the point of a last ditch effort here so it's gotta be worth a swing even if we miss. We're not running a Fortune 500 company here, it's a fish club - a hobby.

[AlanM]

I agree, good posts from everyone mentioned. I joined the forum and club a little over a year ago because it looked like a fun group to belong to and scanning the previous posts led me to see that there was (is) a lot of good knowledge and experience here. We need to promote that, tend to our fish and have fun. I hate politics and there certainly doesn't need to be any in a small fish club. If a few of us pitch in and handle the little bit of administrative things that need to be done, it will make it easier on everyone and we can all have fun (and grow) in the process. People having fun and getting along promotes growth. I look forward to working with all of you, including the current officers. Kumbaya!

[jon carman]

I guess a follow up question to this is what should be done with current vote? I can't modify, but I don't know if it is worth the effort to delete and redo. I don't know who is left to vote that wants to. Should we just end now and let results be what they may? I am fine with whatever outcome- if Rick is not he can I guess ask for a revote.

[davidtcb1]

Either way is fine with me.

[jon carman]

Considering I don't know how many members we currently have that can vote, I don't know what number of voters we need to look for. Rick, since it doesn't matter to me either way, I don't think anything will change any votes for or against us, I will let you decide how to handle as long as it doesn't take long to decide.

If I hear nothing by tomorrow I will close poll and results will be in. Then we can consider if it is valid vote or not. I was going to let in run two weeks, but if it is going to be contested as invalid, need to go ahead and end so we can decide what to do next.

[AlanM]

I'm fine with either choice.

[jon carman]

After re-reading what rick wrote a little better, I think in his opinion this vote is bogus. So I won't waste any more of our time. I did not vote, nor will I publicly say who voted how. I will send names to David. I hid them from Rick because I thought he might take how people voted the wrong way. I am sorry he perceived it the way he did.

[ericnjen]

I do not post on here but I feel that it is time. I have a couple of things to say and clarify.
A little over a year ago My wife and I got back into the fish tanks after several years of being out of the hobby. I was so happy when we met Jon and got to see the fish room. We were just amazed and so excited to get the cool fish. We were so excited we even got our neighbors Tim and Sher to go to Jon's. Fast forward to the spring swap meet and I could not go because I had to work. My wife came home talking about all the fish, decor and nice people. From that point on my goal was to go to the fall swap meet. I could not believe what I was seeing on the forum everyday about where to have it. I griped everyday to my wife about this and after weeks My wife then asked her family if we could use the Lodge for the swap. The only thing here family member wanted was 75.00 for the insurance to cover any accidents.
The club did not pay this money I did because I wanted to be able to go to the fall swap. The club did give money for rental although none was asked for.. Not only did we pay the hidden fee, the night before the swap no one even volunteered to put up signs to the event. My wife spent her money and time to make up the signs. Just remember at this point in time we were NOT members, we were just wanting to attend a swap were I planned to go and join at that time. Needless to say we had a great time, but for clarification Jennie is the one who got the swap meet location and then got the go ahead from Jon.. Not Tim ( Sorry Tim).
Last gripe to think about is if you were a new comer to this forum would you join a club that bickers back and forth between members constantly and can't make decisions?
I think there is good people with good intentions and knowledge, but if this club is to succeed it needs to get back to fish.
We personally want to say thanks to Jon for the encouragement towards being a member and the fish/knowledge we have gotten from him!

[jon carman]

I think the last swap could have been great. Thanks for stepping up, and lodge is a great location we plan to use in future. we paid some cash, but if they need it prior we will get it to you for sure and thanks for taking care of that and the signs. We plan to set a date for next swap soon and will get you whatever you need.

There will always been bickering with any club or forum, and on this site Rick and I are the main two culprits. We are both hard headed in vision, and reason officers drop like flies is probably because they get tired of it. We for sure need to get over our issues because it does not look good to new or even old visitors.

Thanks for input, and I will be in contact with you soon.

[tpindell]

Dec 8, 2012 22:46:30 GMT -6 ericnjen said:

Needless to say we had a great time, but for clarification Jennie is the one who got the swap meet location and then got the go ahead from Jon.. Not Tim ( Sorry Tim).

Oh no need to apologize, I have tried to make it clear I had nothing to do with it.

Vote speaks for itself at this point.

[davidtcb1]

To my knowledge, this is the first I'm hearing of the $75 insurance. I'm sure it would have gladly been covered if mentioned. We definitely would like to continue to use the location in the future!

[jon carman]

I new about it but I thought it was optional to protect club. Since we have little to protect and a $100 budget, Rick and myself thought it would be best spent going to the owner of the property than to insurance to cover us.

[davidtcb1]

Gotcha. Just making sure I wasn't missing something.