AquaMania 2014 - Would you go? Volunteer?

[verbal]

I think the question for whether to repeat a successful event should be "Why Not?" rather than "Why". I agree that the timing is good, the only semi-local aquarium event in Winter or Spring I can think of is the Raleigh workshop which is far away and 6 weeks earlier.

I think part of the reason people are willing to volunteer, is because they saw the enjoyment that other people had from it. Also it generally was a manageable level of commitment. One of the things I thought was really great was to see the board members being able to actually enjoy the event.

The thread for the 2013 volunteering had 26 positive responses. This poll has a similar positive response with much less time and urgency.

I think the question we that might need answering here is "We got 200+ people(100+ from outside the club) to come to Aquamania, how do we communicate with them?" If we need more feedback from attendees, maybe next year we should do a survey with a drawing for a gift certificate.

Wendy - "biting off more than we could chew" certainly wasn't what occurred at AquaMania. It was designed from the start to minimize burden on the club.

Imagine tearing down and putting away hundreds of tanks and stands from a fish show after running an all day auction. Think about the number of volunteers that are needed for that. Lot's of much smaller clubs than ours do it. Every year. But that's not the road we took. I don't think any AquaMania staff person was at the hotel after maybe 5 PM on Sunday!

But that's missing the point of this thread.

Forget volunteers or help needed.

Holding ANY event isn't worthwhile if club members aren't excited about doing it...and aren't planning to support it by at least registering to attend.

I'm just not seeing that excitement or enthusiasm at the prospect of holding another event.

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm done asking...

Matt

 

[Andrew]

I think the question for whether to repeat a successful event should be "Why Not?" rather than "Why".

+1. Couldn't have said it better...

 

[Becca]

I'm late to the party and haven't read the whole thread (maybe someone already suggested this)- but you might get more volunteers if they got discounted registration. Particularly for those volunteers who might be manning posts that would prevent them from seeing the speakers. It might also be nice to give a slightly discounted 1-day option ($20 instead of $30?) so if there's a specific speaker you're interested in you're not paying for the whole weekend.

I'd like to attend more than marketplace next time and, depending on when it's held, would likely be willing to volunteer. For me it's a matter of knowing far enough in advance to get it into my schedule, secure childcare if needed, and make sure I don't have any scheduling conflicts with other volunteer activities.

 

[Pat Kelly]

You must do AquaManiaII
Even if it were to loose money it would be worth it for the membership.
It's not about making more money but actually doing something.

It took this club many years to finally hold an event. We must have put 5 of them on the schedule over the years but kept dropping them as they got closer.

You finally did it. Keep it going.

As to booking in advance? AM1 was in discussion well over a year in advance within the Board.
CCAdoesACA was in discussion and planning for 20 months. The ACA conventions are usually planned from about 30 months out. A club gets the hotel and bid ready and its voted on by the ACA 24 months out. Of course the ACA is a little larger project but you cant wait until next year to start planning AquaMania2.
Besides the hotel scheduling, things like speaker must be done in advance. We had Ad this year. I had scheduled him 18 month before the event. Why? Because he was booked up.
The speaker for September has been on the schedule for almost 2 years. Most of these people have other jobs and can only take off so many days a year to travel and give talks.

The event, as held last year, takes far less people to run than a full convention but you still must have people to do certain things. You must have people tracking things like money, registration, sponsorships, donations, etc. Its not a lot of work if done over time but still needs to be done and can not be done by the Board alone.

Will I be there? I should be.
Will I help? If I can.
We had a nice turn out with the membership. We just need to register earlier. Get the money in so the club has the funds to pay its bills on time and so the club does not have to dip into its operating funds to make its payment dates.
I know I am strange but I pay as far in advance as I can. I paid for AquaMania the first day the site was up. I paid for the MFK event the first day the site was up.
I know from working these events that you need money. You also have your vendors asking how many people are registered. If you have very few early registrations, they may cancel or at the very least, not bring as much stuff to sell. Sponsors are the same way. They try to get numbers out of you sometimes before they decide to give you a sponsorship or it can decide how much sponsorship money or items they send.

Another reason to sign up early. A few years ago for I kept track of registration for Aquafest. Everyday I spent a couple minutes putting the info in the system/ Excel spread sheet. For the first few months it was easy but then the last 2 days we got like 70% of the registrations. OMG. Drove me nuts. I could not keep up and get my work done. Plan ahead.

 

[Pat Kelly]

I also saw something about pricing in this thread. This was a very inexpensive event.
Catfish convention, ACA, etc are much more expensive and yes I know there are more speakers but keep the price reasonable and do the event like you had it this year and more people will come.
It should cost more this time because in all reality we need more space. But I am sure the Board will work on keeping it reasonable.

 

[Avatar]

'Nuff said

Well alright then. When may I register?

 

[chris_todd]

Yeah, I'm sorry if my post sounded critical, just want to make it clear that I think CCA should do it again, so long as it is scoped appropriately. CCA does conventions that absolutely rock, and I would love to attend another Aquamania. I'll be there, and I'll volunteer to help, within my abilities.

 

[dogofwar]

Chris - you're a great example of a member contributing to get AquaMania 2013 off the ground.

Folks: Chris put the framework for the AquaMania 2013 website together, hosted it and then tranferred it to the production site (hosted by Li).

See you at the next one!

Matt

Yeah, I'm sorry if my post sounded critical, just want to make it clear that I think CCA should do it again, so long as it is scoped appropriately. CCA does conventions that absolutely rock, and I would love to attend another Aquamania. I'll be there, and I'll volunteer to help, within my abilities.

 

[dogofwar]

Exactly, Pat!

Committing to hosting an event like AquaMania was largely an act of faith that members of the area fishkeeping community would step up to make it a success.

We made it a success because we:

1. Made money to support the club and future programs,
2. Attracted over 250 registered attendees and many more vistors (thanks to the Gazette article, social media and Craigslist), including at least 50 kids, and
3. Received really positive feedback from key vendors, sponsors and the hotel (they want us back!)

In addition, folks seemed like they enjoyed themselves and really had fun.

So really, what more can you ask for?

In prior years, we pulled the plug on holding a weekend event out of concern that not enough members would step up to help and because holding an event is a big step that requires really deliberate planning.

In planning AquaMania, we intentionally de-scaled and tried to focus on what (we thought at least) was most important to people likely to attend: buying, selling and winning stuff from quality vendors, quality speakers and comradery / having fun. In addition, we focused on bringing in the general public by having an Aquarium Beautiful Display, Give a Kid a Tank Competition, a low barrier to entry for the Marketplace and other aspects of the event that would appeal to them.

Thanks to generous sponsorship and donations (that needed to be solicited!) we were able to keep the price of the event low, which was also, I think, a key part of the formula.

I hope that members appreciate and respect the extent to what we didn't do:

• Start on Thursday: set-up on site began on Friday afternoon so we didn't need volunteers (to take vacation / not be at work) on Wed or Thurs to do things like set-up, man registration tables, etc.
• Hold a fish show: Arranging for a truck, driving to Southern MD, loading, unloading, setting up the show, breaking down the show, packing, driving, unloading and arranging hundreds of tanks in storage is something that we didn't need volunteers for at AquaMania.
• Holding an all day auction: Imagine the staffing needed for registering buyers and sellers, running bags, auctioneering all day, set-up, clean-up, security, etc. About 5-6 people did everything to pull off the rare fish silent auction and raffles.
• Have an awards dinner or charge for meals or hospitality: The wings and other food at the AquaMania awards ceremony was included in the (low) price of registration. Often the awards banquet for a fish event costs $35 or more...on top of the ($50-60) registration. Hey, that's what a sit-down dinner in a hotel costs. But we decided to include it because we thought that it would enhance comraderie (kind of like we do for monthly meetings!).
• Create an elaborate website: An easy way to spend many man-months of effort...

So, after our Board finalizes voting on whether to hold another AquaMania...and as we hopefully embark on planning and preparing for AquaMania 2014 (most likely Mar 14-16, 2014), please think about how much thought has gone into trying to make the event both fun and easy on our membership.

I realize that some people can't come because of work or prior committments. And some will just never pay to register for anything (including club meetings) no matter how inexpensive. And some folks will just never help out (no matter how many times you ask). And some will never let you know what they want or like or don't (until after the fact...or through the grapevine).

But we can't let that hold us back. The fish community expects us to hold another AquaMania. We can and should.

Thanks so much to the folks who have responded to this poll and agreed to step up for the club. We have a lot to be excited about for AquaMania 2014! Let's make it a success.

I'd ask that this thread please be closed and that any further thoughts or ideas be sent to me and/or the Board member of your choice. It's in their hands now...

Matt

You must do AquaManiaII
Even if it were to loose money it would be worth it for the membership.
It's not about making more money but actually doing something.

It took this club many years to finally hold an event. We must have put 5 of them on the schedule over the years but kept dropping them as they got closer.

You finally did it. Keep it going.

As to booking in advance? AM1 was in discussion well over a year in advance within the Board.
CCAdoesACA was in discussion and planning for 20 months. The ACA conventions are usually planned from about 30 months out. A club gets the hotel and bid ready and its voted on by the ACA 24 months out. Of course the ACA is a little larger project but you cant wait until next year to start planning AquaMania2.
Besides the hotel scheduling, things like speaker must be done in advance. We had Ad this year. I had scheduled him 18 month before the event. Why? Because he was booked up.
The speaker for September has been on the schedule for almost 2 years. Most of these people have other jobs and can only take off so many days a year to travel and give talks.

The event, as held last year, takes far less people to run than a full convention but you still must have people to do certain things. You must have people tracking things like money, registration, sponsorships, donations, etc. Its not a lot of work if done over time but still needs to be done and can not be done by the Board alone.

Will I be there? I should be.
Will I help? If I can.
We had a nice turn out with the membership. We just need to register earlier. Get the money in so the club has the funds to pay its bills on time and so the club does not have to dip into its operating funds to make its payment dates.
I know I am strange but I pay as far in advance as I can. I paid for AquaMania the first day the site was up. I paid for the MFK event the first day the site was up.
I know from working these events that you need money. You also have your vendors asking how many people are registered. If you have very few early registrations, they may cancel or at the very least, not bring as much stuff to sell. Sponsors are the same way. They try to get numbers out of you sometimes before they decide to give you a sponsorship or it can decide how much sponsorship money or items they send.

Another reason to sign up early. A few years ago for I kept track of registration for Aquafest. Everyday I spent a couple minutes putting the info in the system/ Excel spread sheet. For the first few months it was easy but then the last 2 days we got like 70% of the registrations. OMG. Drove me nuts. I could not keep up and get my work done. Plan ahead.

 

[neoprodigy]

i will support.. count me in...