Meeting Date Question

[GKarshens]

Any particular reason our meeting is on the same day as the MAAST conf.? I can't make either but I thought that was curious. I feel everyone would benefit from going to hear Anthony Calfo. He is one of the giants of the industry.

[caferacermike]

Just to be spiteful.

No honestly our meetings will be held whenever our gracious hosts offer to open their doors for us. I haven't participated at MAAST in over 5 months so I had/have no idea when their meetings are. Besides what is the point of bringing up another club's meetings? If our members want to go to the ARC meeting, let em. If our members want to go to the MAAST meeting, let em. If MAAST members want to come to the ARC meeting, let em.

James has a very busy schedule and had expressed a desire to host a meeting early on but only when the weather would be good for hosting outside as his home is smaller and he wanted people to be able to choose between the living room and the back yard. March was decided upon and a few dates were vollied back and forth until James picked the 21st as his preferred date.

I'd like to take this opportunity to once again thank James for offering to host a meeting for us and for picking a date that works well for him.

[GKarshens]

That's cool. I thought it might have been contingent on James. And it is great of him to offer it up. I just thought it is not often you get an opportunity to hear a speaker of Anthony's caliber.

[jsr]

Oh crap. I did not know that. If there are lots of people wanting to attend the MAAST meeting we can always slide the meeting to Sunday. Saturdays do work best for me, but I not opposed to moving it to Sunday so that people can attend MAAST. Whatever works best for ARC members will work for me.

[Entropy]

I find it pretty humurous that I moved 1400 miles to the right just to end up in the same reef club situation that I left. My old club (MASVC) in Ventura CA was always in the shadow of MASLAC (Los Angeles) and we were invited to quite a few unique functions that MASLAC's size allowed them to put together, but I think it hurt our own clubs identity in a way because we never made the next step on club size. I guess this is a discussion for another thread, but I wouldn't change the date to the same weekend if you plan on changing at all. Anyone driving down to SA to attend their function will more than likely be burned out after that and probably not attend a meeting the next day at least IMO.

[caferacermike]

Personally I say we leave it just like it is.

Reason 1: Many of the members that had already committed to coming probably are not regular MAAST members, or like myself, could care less for MAAST and what they put together. Until someone told them to go to another meeting instead, they were more than happy to go to our meeting.

Reason 2: Not every member will be heading to the MAAST meeting, it is a choice as to what meeting they attend. No choice is more right than the other. Calfo has attended several meetings within the area over the years and for all we know some had chosen to attend the ARC meeting based upon the fact that they've already seen a Calfo presentation.

Reason 3: There might be several members that for whatever reason are not interested in making a trip to San Antonio but Cedar Park/Leander might be in their backyard.

So the meeting might be smaller if many choose to attend the MAAST meeting, and that's fine by all of us. The only way I could see a conflict of interest here would have been if MAAST had invited ARC at all. Remember the old days when they'd start a thread inviting the good folks at ARC to join their events?

[+ACampbell]

Apples and Oranges if you ask me. Our goals are different. If you want to go see Anthony, go a head. ARC is comfortable if you want to experiment with other clubs. I will see you at the meeting on Saturday the 21st at 3:00 pm.

[GKarshens]

I wasn't trying to cause a problem here. I just thought we might want to look at this a little. Even though you and I may not be big MAAST fans Mike, doesn't mean everyone else here isn't either. You guys can do whatever you want. Like I said I can't make either one since I have a class I have to go to all day that day. I just thought that since MAAST was having a special meeting with a great speaker and for once it wasn't in SA (San Marcos this time) people might want to make both if possible. Carry on.

[+ACampbell]

In order to keep the meeting thread on topic, I have split the above post into a separate thread.

[caferacermike]

Now that this thread has been split into it's own topic area I will say a few words and then no more about the subject ever.

There are a lot of meetings held everyday, everywhere. It is not my duty, nor my job to search each and every club, business, scout troop, Red Apple Sale, Hill Country Cichlid association, Hill Country auto touring, Austin Road Runners Club, Austin Home brewers, Pist-on-broke, Moped Army, BMOA or any other meeting. Austin in general is full of clubs that will and do conflict with our own meetings, that is one of the many things that makes living in or near Austin so wonderful. Some members will be forced to decide if coming to an ARC or MAAST meeting is more important. Some will feel forced to decide if their green thumb gardeners club is more important. Some members will have a Birthday party on the same day. I rarely ever get a day off from work, about 3-4 a month, in fact I'm home sick with the flu today and they asked me to still come in. So by helping to put together a meeting I've now lost one of my free days that I could be rebuilding a motorcycle or flying my plane, or better yet doing a water change. I will not apologize for overlapping a meeting that I had no idea existed. If another club had expressed interest in extending their meeting to us they would/ should have made a thread or at least sent me a PM. If you somehow feel that the other clubs would/will resent me being the ARC meeting coordinator thereby not asking us, just ask me to step aside and offer your service to the club. It would be foolish and childish of any club to feel that any differences could not be put aside to put together a meeting, or at the very least invite members of this club to join in on their meeting.

My personal thoughts on this subject are that there was no reason to bring this up other than in another thread. Mentioning, and or questioning the logic behind the meeting seems to only have derailed the kindness and hard work put in by those that are only trying to help give back. Personally I had to take a step back and ask myself why would I bother continue to attempt to coordinate meetings in the future if the intent will always be questioned. There were not just 1 or 2 replies questioning the event but 3. And in each reply a rebuttal was made that possibly the other meeting would somehow be greater than our meeting, which I am humble enough to say might be a worthwhile event to attend. But was it a necessary evil I ask? It has taken over 8 months to get ARC meetings back on track. I was somehow jumped in to this position like a gang initiation. Because I like our Admin as a friend as well as an online member, I accepted when he asked me to help out. I did not ask for this position, I did not overthrow anyone for the position, I do it strictly voluntarily. I ask that if anyone else feels that they could do a better job of asking members to host a party and to nail down a working date please feel free to take over.

[GKarshens]

OK here is my final statement on the issue:

Mike this was in no way a personal attack on you or anyone. I am very sorry if it came across that way. I was also not implying that the date was set on purpose to conflict with MAASTs meeting. I think the job you are doing for the club is by far harder than anyone else, possibly even Andrew, because of all that goes into putting a meeting together. I know, I did one here a while back. I also don't think there is anyone else that would do a better job at it.

The only reason I brought it up was I figured it had been over looked and it might be worth looking at. 999 out of 1000 times I would rather go to one of our meetings than one of MAASTs. In fact I have only been to one MAAST meeting and that was when it was combined with ARC. However, this one is a little different in that they are having special speakers, vendors, the whole bit. Yes they did not officially invite our club, but a thread was started here by prof bringing it up. That is how I found out about it. I just thought that since there are a lot of members here that are also members there we might look at trying to move the date of our meeting if possible. If not that would be fine too. I just thought it needed to be addressed.

Again I am sorry if it seemed like I was attacking or implying anything. I really did not want to cause any issues.

[Truck0000]

So have I, but was that really him or just a paid actor?

Same day as TMAC isnt it?

[MrsBigbird]

Not to cause any problems, but I will chime in....Steve and I have both tried to "Log on" to ARC, for a while now, with no luck. Until about 2 weeks ago, I was not able to log on. Steve asked "Prof" to announce the invitation of TMAC, to ARC. Which Prof graciosly obliged.

We at MAAST, respect ARC, as many of our Members are Members of both clubs, as are we.

I will update the TMAC thread, and hope to see some of you there, but also we do not wish to take anything away from the ARC Meeting.

Sincerely,

Cheri Byrd

[+ACampbell]

I will PM you to get your log on issues resolved.

[stoneroller]

Yes, the Texas Marine Aquarist's Conference is at the new convention center in San Marcos on Mar 21. Calfo talking....

[+ACampbell]

If you have not seen calfo, then go check him out. If you do not want to go to a conference, but might want to hang out with local reefers, then come visit us.

[prof]

TMAC is from 9-6. So you could make TMAC and the ARC meeting. No itinerary has been listed by MAAST yet.

[subsailor]

If you have not seen calfo, then go check him out. If you do not want to go to a conference, but might want to hang out with local reefers, then come visit us.

What aboutall the Coral Vendors that are going to be flying in?

[subsailor]

Wouldn't it make sense for ARC to set up a booth there seeing as San Marcos is pretty close to Austin?

[+ACampbell]

Wouldn't it make sense for ARC to set up a booth there seeing as San Marcos is pretty close to Austin?

A booth for what?

[subsailor]

to promote ARC

[subsailor]

Personally I say we leave it just like it is.

Reason 1: Many of the members that had already committed to coming probably are not regular MAAST members, or like myself, could care less for MAAST and what they put together. Until someone told them to go to another meeting instead, they were more than happy to go to our meeting.

Reason 2: Not every member will be heading to the MAAST meeting, it is a choice as to what meeting they attend. No choice is more right than the other. Calfo has attended several meetings within the area over the years and for all we know some had chosen to attend the ARC meeting based upon the fact that they've already seen a Calfo presentation.

Reason 3: There might be several members that for whatever reason are not interested in making a trip to San Antonio but Cedar Park/Leander might be in their backyard.

So the meeting might be smaller if many choose to attend the MAAST meeting, and that's fine by all of us. The only way I could see a conflict of interest here would have been if MAAST had invited ARC at all. Remember the old days when they'd start a thread inviting the good folks at ARC to join their events?

Not starting anything but mike you say ARC wasn't even aware this was going on?

http://www.austinreefclub.com/index.php?sh...amp;#entry25518

what about this thread??????

And Mike as stated several times it is closer to Austin than it is SA.

I live San Marcos and have done everything in my power to try and put something on for you guys as well as MAAST, Hence why it is in San Marcos, Its not just CALFO as you would imply. It is a day long event to include manufact and coral vendors

and a whole lot more speakers, oh yeah and what about all the Austin Vendors that are supporting this. Its sad you can't put aside your differences for just one day to have everyone have a great event. Who is the childish one now???? Ban me, do whatever you need to do, but this is so stupid.

If ARC would like to have a booth to promote ARC then we will be happy to oblige either way try doing something good for your club, not doing stuff to spite another club.

[+ACampbell]

Thank you for your feedback regarding this issue, however many of your concerns have already been answered in this thread. Your implications, while logical, are incorrect. Prof's thread was not an official masst invitation, but rather a statement. Our monthly meeting was coincidentally scheduled on the same day and will continue as planned.