# Starting a Society



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

When I first moved here, one of the things I was looking forward to was joining the local Aquarium Society.
There isn't one!
Hard to believe, but despite the size and wealth of this area, there are no fish clubs, except for one little reef club a few towns over which seems to be barely alive.
I guess the only thing to do is start one.
I was involved several years ago with the formation of the FPRS, ( Florida Panhandle Reefkeepers Society ) so it's not my first rodeo.
Still, the FPRS is a specialty club. I'm envisioning a large all-species club this time, and it's a little daunting. How many of you are in local clubs? Are they mixed, or specialized?
Do you think I can make a mixed club for both fresh and saltwater work? That sort of thing isn't very common.
Would a splintered meeting/events schedule work, you think, keeping the freshies and salties separated, or do you think they'd be interested in meeting together?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

i've never been in a joint club. i've been in cichclid clubs and AAAA, which isn't technically restricted, but only rarely sees a few frags at our auction. But i would go for a big block of time and divide in half so that people can stay for all or leave or come in halfway. That way the ones who do both only have to drive in once. The main concern i've have would be money. what SW and FW people consider reasonable is often quite different. There was chatter on our forum about doing something like NEC for the southeast., cross-promoting clubs and possibly doing workshops together on a rotating basis as it is hard for any one group to pull off something like that. 

AAAA has been concerned about membership drifting down over time and increasing publicity to pull in new members. It seems to mainly be an issue of getting people to know we exist. I think just getting the word out will be your biggest challenge. We stay afloat by having volunteers do everything and running on shoe-string.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i first joined the CAS...Cleveland Aquarium Society back in the early 70s....the CAS is one of the oldest (if not "THE" oldest operating aquarium society in the US...the CAS has always been a mixed club...i am also a member of the OCA....Ohio Cichlid Association...they are almost exclusively cichlids and plecos..
i think that a mixed club is a better idea as it will benefit peopl keeping any kind of fish....


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

TOS....let me know when you get it going and i will send you some food to raffle off to the members...


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Oh, cool! Thanks. 
I'm leaning toward a mixed club, and now I see that it's feasible.
There is/was a reef club in Decatur called NARC, the North Alabama Reef Club, but it seems to be either defunct or dying. There is a Facebook group serving this area, the North Alabama Fishkeepers, but it's not a real club. There's nothing here in Huntsville, but there is a large aquarium shop which has managed to stay in business for 28 years, so that's a good sign.
Maybe I can get a meeting place at the library and make something happen. That's the easy part. The hard part is getting people to join a dues-paying society when they have facebook for free. That wasn't a problem for me last time, in the pre-facebook days.


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