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Starting a new aquarium club

Simi

By Simi,
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ScottieB Community Regular

ScottieB

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I’d say your starting in the right place!

what city are you in? There’s prob some folks around here that might be willing to help. 
in general, start with a couple of fish friends, a local store or meeting spot and an idea of you club vision or mission. Gather some folks together on a regular monthly day/time and grow from there.

 

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Simi Contributor

Simi

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@Cory Can you share your groups' goals, etc... I really want to start this off on the right foot. I recently watched your video you posted on youtube about your summer tubs, watching you interact with your club made me (slightly) jealous. Is there a guide or video I can read/watch to get tips on how to get a local club going?

 

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H.K.Luterman Grand Master

H.K.Luterman

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I'm in Madison, AL and I always thought it strange there's no fish club here, considering Huntsville is a pretty big city. There's a few FB groups, but I really wish we had an actual club where we could trade fish and plants and such! I do know some people were planning on trying to get one started, but then Covid hit. 

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Cory Grand Master

Cory

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Starting a club is very difficult in my opinion.

I think most people romanticize starting a club. Obviously some clubs make it, but clubs are started and die every year. I think the part people underestimate is the amount of work. It's no less work than starting a successful business.

Be prepared to work for no money. Think about this, it's not, I'll donate some time. It's working 10+ hours every week for the next 10 years, if you want the club you start to have a chance. During this time you'll also need to recruit 3-5 others who are willing to do this. This can lighten the load to 4 hours per week. Lets assume you're willing to do that.

Next you'll need financial resources. Someone has to be the seed money to rent out the initial meeting space for 6 months, print up the flyers to put in local stores, fly in the speaker etc. Eventually, you can then get the club to say 50+ members. Then you can put in a membership fee and it will become sort of self sustaining.

Then after all of that, your time is now met with, you're doing it wrong, you should serve the members better etc. It's usually hard to transition from here as now you have paying members and each think they've got the best idea to take the club forward. Having a board of directors helps remove all this weight from just 1 person.
 

Other things you'll want to consider

Breeder Award Program
Plant Award Program
Philanthrophy
Bowl Show
Auctions
Sponsor stores
Christmas Party
Summer BBQ
Who handles membership?

This is why I am such a big believer in clubs and do what I can to help them. The amount of work that goes into them is HUGE and no one is getting paid. It's a community effort and can be very hard on leadership. It takes strong leaders, resources, both time and financial to create a club that serves the local area. Too often clubs end up being nothing more than a local buy/sell group on Facebook instead of the real purpose. Being a get together once a month to share the experience of the hobby.

I want everyone to understand what they are about to take on, as a failed club start makes it harder for the next person. When a club is up and going, it's magical. However people become jaded to, "another club is trying to start" both the public, store owners, etc. It ends up being a chicken and the egg scenario. Hard to get people interested unless you have a thriving club. You don't have a thriving club unless people are interested.

The last take away is, sometimes there isn't a club locally because there isn't enough interest. The problem is, it's very hard to know. Often if you ask a group of fish people if they'd go to a club, they'd say yes. But it takes 100 people saying yes to get 10 to show up. When they show up, they then have to be impressed to come back.

You're on the right track with researching. You may want to reach out to some other clubs, especially if they are newer and ask what mistakes they made, where they had success etc. It's a lot like seeking out a business mentor.

I do wish you luck, as more clubs would be great.

 

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Simi Contributor

Simi

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Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, Cory. I understand it's a lot of work and initial out of pocket money to get going. I appreciate your insight! It's giving me a list of things to work off of. I'm big on researching and making lists. I'm also semi-retired so, time isn't an issue for me. And I was a stay at home mom for almost 20 years, I'm used to to hard work for no pay...lol. I'm very determined to see this thru, I've already been talking to a couple lfs about hosting/donations, and there are quite a few local libraries that have event spaces for free or small fees. The Facebook group I'm in that's local, has about 700 members, and it's semi-active. I post there a lot about starting a club.

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Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics Experienced

Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics

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I’ve been in the same boat. There are a few trading clubs in my area, but I hadn’t found a fish club before COVID. I started a Facebook Group for my area in hopes to meet other aquarists and to eventually consider forming a club. Then the pandemic happened and we are still a Facebook Group. We currently have 140 members in the East Tennessee region, despite my declining membership requests daily for not accepting the rules.... How is that so hard?

 

Of the 140 there are only a handful of us active on the group. I hope that as things continue to improve we might be able to consider a meet up of some kind in the future. 

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MJV Aquatics Collaborator

MJV Aquatics

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You might explore another club's constitution and member handbook.

You'll need a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, public relations, editor/publisher (for a monthly newsletter). Board of Directors. Chairmen for BAP, AHAP, WAP, bowl show, auction, membership, exchange editor, hospitality/refreshment...

Rules for BAP, AHAP, WAP, (@Cory forgot the writers award program).

As @Cory points out, it's all a large undertaking and not for mere mortal casual fishkeepers. 🙂

 

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Aubrey Experienced

Aubrey

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I think there is a lot of interest in swap meet style groups, but the question comes down to how do you turn that into a group with other common goals and interests? 

 

 

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Andy's Fish Den Veteran

Andy's Fish Den

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I was a founding member of one of the clubs I am in. It started on Facebook with a group of about 10 of us that decided to get together one Friday night and talk about our fish tanks over some wings and beer. The group grew, we found a meeting room we could use and held meetings there for a couple years. The thing is, there was only a few of us that would do the work for the meetings, getting a speaker, getting donations or purchasing stuff for raffles, running the meetings. It will wear a person out if you can't get any help. You'll ask for help and everyone will have one reason or another on why they can't be on the board or help, but they sure can give their two cents on how to make it better. Like Cory said, it's like owning your own business, a lot of work, for no pay. 

I wish you luck on getting a club off the ground and running, it is great to be able to get together with other fish needs and talk fish, buy, sell and trade fry, plants etc especially if your significant other isn't into the hobby. I have missed the monthly meetings and the club auctions, and I can't wait until we are able to have them again.

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Eric R Proficient

Eric R

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On 3/1/2021 at 6:51 PM, MJV Aquatics said:

Now may be a good time for planning, but not starting. With covid nearly all club meetings are cancelled or using Zoom. I really miss the meeting auctions.

@MJV Aquatics @Andy's Fish Den if you're part of a local club that's doing zoom meetings or at least has an active mailing list, you can try out this site to do virtual auctions: https://auction.fish/

It was started by a local club member here, and we've had several different clubs, most in the NE but some in other parts of the country using it for local and regional auctions. It's pretty easy to use, and then you can meet in-person following covid protocols to exchange fish.

Edited by ererer
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Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics Experienced

Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics

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29 minutes ago, Simi said:

We already have an active FB group, but, it's a typical FB group, AND fb has all those nasty rules about selling live animals, so... 

I am a member of the Aquarium Group Support, but this group is more of a local hobbyist group. Not trying to recreate the wheel, just a place for local people to talk shop and encourage one another. 

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Simi Contributor

Simi

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13 minutes ago, ererer said:

@MJV Aquatics @Andy's Fish Den if you're part of a local club that's doing zoom meetings or at least has an active mailing list, you can try out this site to do virtual auctions: https://auction.fish/

It was started by a local club member here, and we've had several different clubs, most in the NE but some in other parts of the country using it for local and regional auctions. It's pretty easy to use, and then you can meet in-person following covid protocols to exchange fish.

This is really great info, thanks so much!! I'll see if it works for us!

 

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