Regional Frag Swap

[bkv1997]

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This is a split of a previos post to keep things clean
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Regional Frag swap--April 8th We'll invite all area clubs to participate. This year, we'll ask for $5.00 per table for sellers. We should ask vendors to participate well in advance (like now) before all the other clubs get the goodies. Last year, the vendors were out of donations by the time our swap rolled around. Planning this event is up for discussion, so please give your ideas.

 

[CrazyFrags]

Put me down for a table, and I'll bring along some donation type stuff as well. :mrgreen:

 

[bkv1997]

Crazy:

One of the things that I heard went over real well last year was a fragging demo. Not sure if you would be interested in that, but apparently someone fragged a couple large pieces into x pieces and everyone got to watch and take some home for like $5........

I'm not sure if anyone is lined up for that or not, just a thought I would see if you were interested in doing something like that.

Brandon

 

[CrazyFrags]

Would be something I'd consider if there was enough interest. What did you guys frag last year?

 

[bkv1997]

I wasn't there but from what I heard I think there were two different demos and there was a big interest in it.

Think they fragged some type of montipora and a leather of some sort.

David and Angela should be able to answer this for sure.

Brandon

 

[Pterois]

Yes, we had great success with the fragging demo. Around 40 people participated. Dave and Mel from Knoxville came down and demonstrated fragging a montipora and a spaghetti leather.

 

[CrazyFrags]

Sounds like a good time. I'm sure I can come up with something. Leathers are easy to keep and easy to frag...acros may be a bit out of some people's interest area due to difficulty in keeping? I'd hate to do another montipora...maybean acanthastrea or something along those lines...

 

[RevReefer]

As far as a difficult coral to keep, many folks that come to the swap could keep them. There were tons of people there that had many different types of tanks.

 

[sailfin]

Actually the majority, if not all, had SPS tanks.

 

[CrazyFrags]

Cool deal, I'll keep that in mind when looking for something to frag.

 

[Pterois]

Time to start planning our swap. Go over to the RC post at the Middle TN reef club and see the response to their swap. It was tremendous!

I really want ours to be bigger this year, so let's start putting out some ideas.

They had a vendor come all the way from California! Geez, how do you work that?

Our venue is free, so we should be able to work a guest speaker. I'll start digging into that.

 

[CrazyFrags]

Who was it that came from CA? I was stuck at my table for the first 2 hours and didn't get around very much. Missed out on some stuff I wanted...it'll come around again though.

I only came come with a few zoanthid frags and an A. efflorenc colony and a Mike Paletta blue frag. That's it!

 

[RevReefer]

Ok I think we should spend some time discussing the swap at this months meeting. NARC (North Ala. Reef Club) is interested in coming and say they may just use this time as their monthly meeting.

I will be in touch with Anthony from Aquadesignz.com and see what he will donate. I know he donated last year and did for the Nashville swap. He has also donated to our club.

I think we should try to get a tank, lighting, or a skimmer or something donated to increase the interest in the swap.

Also we need to def. do a frag demo and give away cheap frags for about $5 per. I say do a nice size sps and a nice size softy.

 

[bkv1997]

David I hate to ask you this, but must admit you are the man when it comes to artsy fartsy stuff.

Do you think you could put together a flyer for the swap and leave some space around the outsides where we could add praticipating parties as we get varification?

I have talked with Mel from ETRC and she said they would participate, but being so far away couldn't say how many people would participate etc.....

Do you mind David?

The next step would be then to post the sticky thread here and then point others back to the thread here on livingreefs.com.

Let me know if you are to busy i understand and i'll try my patients with paintshop again.

Brandon

 

[RevReefer]

No problem I have the same from last year that I can brush up and change around.

 

[Pterois]

Thanks David for the flyer! Please remove the selling part of the flyer. We can allude to it, but not come right out and mention selling.

Things to think about and duties to divide up:
Who wants to coordinate out of area vendor donations and receipts? We need to have some sort of receipt on our letterhead so they can get a tax write-off. I do think big ticket items get a bigger draw. I would try to find out approximately how many people were in Nashville and use this as a selling point for vendors to participate.

Coordinate local fish store donations and receipts?

I have a listing of all the fax numbers from the local radio stations, so we can get on their announcements. We have bulletin boards at TVA. How else should we advertise?

Fragging demo and/or guest speaker

Other ideas? Look on the MTRC site for ideas for improvement http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=752359

This will help us in our planning.

Looking forward to a bigger event this year!!

 

[CrazyFrags]

We need to have some sort of receipt on our letterhead so they can get a tax write-off.

Forgive me for asking because I don't know, but is the club officially structured as an entity that would make this possible? Anything donated would be a "writeoff" so to speak for a business, but it needs to be done properly, as donations are only "tax deducatable" if they're donated to a tax-exempt organization. In reality, they're otherwise just given away as a gesture of goodwill. Otherwise people could be "donating" things to their friends all the time. As I said, I don't know, so I'm asking the question.

Count me in either way. I'll be there unless something else comes up (something big, like a dump truck)...I think you all know that!

I don't do very well in the whole "group presentation" atmosphere...you may want to ask Dave if he's willing to do an SOS fragging display. If nothing else, I suppose I could psyche myself up enough.

 

[bkv1997]

Crazy:

They idea was to be a tax exempt entity.... i know angela and chris's accountant were going to look into this.

As to were it stands and has all the needed paperwork been completed I can't truely say.

Angela/Chris can either of you comment here? These are all great points that we should discuss and be prepared to address at the next meeting.

Brandon

 

[bkv1997]

Angela:

I have no problems talking to the local stores and even some of the ones i regularly visit in atlanta.

When i called for donations before the first thing people wanted was me to fax a flyer of the event, so getting this done and having it look profesional needs to be our first area of focus.

I also agree that if we can get everything structured so that we can provide our sponsors with a tax write off for donations that would also help. Not sure how tax laws really work, but I'll ask tomorrow at work sit two offices down from a couple. Did you and chris get this taken care of?

Thanks
Brandon

 

[Pterois]

We can work with Chris's accountant to get this done before the event. Please PM me his name and number. I've got a Tax ID already.

Thanks so much for your support of our club, Fred.

You know how little time you had to get away from your table in Nashville, so we'll need to find a fragger that has the time. I don't want to take time away from your customers (us!).

I'm going to call the aquarium today about freebies and maybe a speaker. Just to see what it would cost.