Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Barr
Within the club: monthly plant swaps are often the best method to attract new folks and get them to meetings.
Open houses are fun, form good friendships and the4 sales from plants pay the host the extra cost incurred as well.
Tank redo's for an open house is also good, so that other's can learn from the folks with the scaping skills and ability. There's always one in every group and one person who is clueless about any sense of design.
|
The open house format is a really great way to get started ... and in my personal opinion, the best way to keep going until you just out grow it ...
Unlike fish, it is pretty hard to pick up an aquascape and bring it to a central meeting location to discuss ... and no matter what, traditional amateur pictures just can't do justice to even the typical planted aquarium ...
This also keeps your club in a more personal social gathering format ... where you can really learn from each other ... I drive almost 72 miles to my "local" club meetings. Now I can't always make "every" meeting, I do try to make as many as I possibly can ... for example, tonight, I will be on the road at about 5:30 to make it to our 7PM meeting tonight ...
If you go the open house route where you meet in individual people's homes, I would also encourage you to have one annual "recruiting" meeting scheduled in a restaurant meeting room ... this will give you an annual recruiting focus, plus an opportunity for potential new members to meet everyone in a nice safe neutral location ... this is an ideal opportunity to demonstrate a dry setup (i.e. setting up a new aquascape adding all of the elements just not the water) ...
Greg