Starting a University Fish Club

[KeeganKeepsFish]

Hello my name is Keegan and I attend the University of Wisconsin Madison. I recently have been plotting to start or reactivate my own fish club as a University sponsored club. I have done a decent amount of research as to how to get things going, however, I do not know anybody at my school that is into fish keeping. I plan to keep the club very general to get as many members as I can and have begun planning possible yearly trips or fun events for us to do. I am looking for any advice at all including ideas to do as a club, how to reach more people and gain members, anybody's experience in a University Fish Club, or maybe even a fellow Badger that would be interested in running it with me. Please let me know what you think and any ideas you have!

[PineSong]

Keegan, I think yours is a great idea. Not sure how they do it at UW, but at our university, sponsored clubs need a faculty advisor and it seems logical that a faculty member from a department that studies fish, biology, zoology or environment might be a natural choice, and getting the word out to students in those departments might be as easy as hanging fliers in the elevator of their office buildings, or the buildings where your university keeps lots of fish, amphibians etc that are studied in those departments. At the university I attended, there were large greenhouses run by science departments where mostly grad students were in charge of keeping all kinds of creatures, and many of them kept the same kinds of collections at home.

If there are mom and pop LFS around, they may have bulletin boards or Facebook pages where you could advertise that you're starting a student club. If your school has specific libraries like a biological sciences library, that might be another place to put up fliers. Just my own experience, but a lot of engineering types seem to like fishkeeping, so targeting students in that department or the engineering library may be another approach.

I hope you have fun with starting a club. I wish I'd been in such a club in college!

 

[KeeganKeepsFish]

On 6/17/2022 at 6:31 PM, PineSong said:

Keegan, I think yours is a great idea. Not sure how they do it at UW, but at our university, sponsored clubs need a faculty advisor and it seems logical that a faculty member from a department that studies fish, biology, zoology or environment might be a natural choice, and getting the word out to students in those departments might be as easy as hanging fliers in the elevator of their office buildings, or the buildings where your university keeps lots of fish, amphibians etc that are studied in those departments. At the university I attended, there were large greenhouses run by science departments where mostly grad students were in charge of keeping all kinds of creatures, and many of them kept the same kinds of collections at home.

If there are mom and pop LFS around, they may have bulletin boards or Facebook pages where you could advertise that you're starting a student club. If your school has specific libraries like a biological sciences library, that might be another place to put up fliers. Just my own experience, but a lot of engineering types seem to like fishkeeping, so targeting students in that department or the engineering library may be another approach.

I hope you have fun with starting a club. I wish I'd been in such a club in college!

 

That is great advice cannot believe I didn't think of that. I am studying veterinary medicine and have seen some fish tanks in some of our campus buildings as well as a local store. My family also runs a print shop so I think fliers and bulletin boards as well as electronic versions will be a great idea. I'll also make sure to ask around for someone who works with freshwater fish to recommend some students or resources. Thank you so much!!!!

[drewzero1]

Not sure what the scene is like in Madison as I don't get down that way much any more, but a great local resource up here in the Fox Valley area is the Green Bay Aquarium Society: https://ww.gbasonline.org

They do periodic meetings, swaps, and expos at a bowling alley in Menasha, definitely worth checking out but come early as I've found a lot of vendors sell out quickly.

I spent some time visiting the UW Madison campus some years ago, and was fairly impressed by the Center for Limnology right on the lake. It looks like they're doing an open house next week which might be an opportunity to meet people who are interested in aquatics: https://limnology.wisc.edu/news-events/open-house/

[KeeganKeepsFish]

On 6/17/2022 at 8:20 PM, drewzero1 said:

Not sure what the scene is like in Madison as I don't get down that way much any more, but a great local resource up here in the Fox Valley area is the Green Bay Aquarium Society: https://ww.gbasonline.org

They do periodic meetings, swaps, and expos at a bowling alley in Menasha, definitely worth checking out but come early as I've found a lot of vendors sell out quickly.

I spent some time visiting the UW Madison campus some years ago, and was fairly impressed by the Center for Limnology right on the lake. It looks like they're doing an open house next week which might be an opportunity to meet people who are interested in aquatics: https://limnology.wisc.edu/news-events/open-house/

Awesome thanks for the info ill check it out! Thank you!

[drewzero1]

On 6/17/2022 at 10:52 PM, KeeganKeepsFish said:

Awesome thanks for the info ill check it out! Thank you!

Looking at the GBAS site, it looks like their next event is a picnic July 10th at the Vilas zoo in Madison. I didn't know they did events down there too!

[KeeganKeepsFish]

On 6/17/2022 at 9:26 PM, drewzero1 said:

Looking at the GBAS site, it looks like their next event is a picnic July 10th at the Vilas zoo in Madison. I didn't know they did events down there too!

I love the Villas Zoo I will look into it thank you so much again!!!