Fish club startup advice

[Cowboy aquatics]

Hello everyone! New to the forum and had a question about starting up a fish club in your local area. I’ve found interest from about 15 people and we plan to have a meeting the 24th of this month. At our first meeting we plan to do a small auction of aquarium related items (fish,food cultures,etc.) and have a small presentation on some diy filters and plumbing for a large fish room. My question is what is it you like to see in a fish club? Any ideas for what would be good to attract people for a first meeting/continual meetings? What yearly dues is average? Our local store is hoisting the first meeting but I’d like to find a neutral location after this because we have 2 local stores and don’t want to leave one out 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Hi @Cowboy aquatics, welcome to the forum! I have to preface this by saying I'm not part of my local club but I interact with it a decent sum and I would join but haven't made it to a meeting yet. (Weekends are tough for me to attend). 

I was just listening to an old podcast where Cory was responding to the same question and he said something like starting a fish club is like working at a job and not getting paid- because it is a lot of work. I think what may be important is to make sure you have other members willing to take on some of the work too.

Having someone (if it's not yourself) that is good with outreach- someone social (ideally a few people) who can recognize new members and their comfort level with greetings. Making people feel welcome is a big part of being in club. Too many times in my life I go to small gatherings and nobody acknowledges me- I don't want to stay and on top of that I don't return. I can be a social person but when you're new it's nice when the group welcomes you. 

Auctions are great, my local aquarium club also has a forum on a site/app called Band where we can interact with each other and trade/buy with them when there's no chance to go to meetings. I've found this very helpful. Of course they also have a facebook page where they talk about fish/aquariums (but I don't have social media so I don't partake), however this is where most of the questions about fishkeeping get resolved. There is a little bit of that on the Band forum. 

Dues for my area club are $20/yr. Which is really cheap. I'm not sure how many members my club boasts though!