Hi,
There was some talk about hosting a seperate site for the club. This is possible and it would cost about $10 to $30 a month to host with unlimited bandwidth (same hoster as canreef). So, this is a possibility. This hoster will probably survive this downturn, but I am not sure. Otherwise, most large hosters are offering around $5 per GB of bandwidth. Dedicate Co-site server start at $200 per month and up. So, hosting is not as expensive as we first thought and it can be support by our membership fees. UBB is $200 and $100 per year for updates.
http://www.ehosting.ca/welcome2.html
Hosting future meetings are going to be a big problem. The January meeting was fairly sizeable and I think I could have had an addition 10 people (standing room only)...but that's it. We might need to find another method of meeting and a different way of looking at other member's tanks (like a tank tour). Burnaby public library offers free meeting space and I am sure other public libraries are offering the same (or for a nominal fee).
We could also have guest speakers from our local experts (like Jamie, Darren, Dale D and others) to give us talks about fraging, DIY tips, and etc. And, we can get some of the universities involved and ask some of the not-so-well-known experts to give some talks. Some of the bigger name experts will cost us a lot of money, but we may be able to bring one of them in if we have enough cash.
In my humble view, I think the club should serve serveral purposes :
a) Provide a time and place for new and old reefers to get together and trade information/frags/ideas/equipment. This can be done with meetings, auctions and tank tours.
b) Keep reefers up to date with latest trends and technology by presentations and seminars from experts (local or abroad).
c) Arrange group purchases and distribute them at the meeting.
So, our club costs would only need to support the meeting place and a possible full blown club website. That would amount to about $120 to $500 over the year. This money can be raised in a number of ways including membership fees, raffles for equipment, or even auctions.
Getting discounts from our retailers are going to be tricky. I think we can get better deals if we buy in volume as a group purchase.
We should also make our presence more aware through newsletters and postings, but those are just some of my thoughts. As long as we don't end up like MASNA, we should be fine.
Does anybody know about a reef club that existed in Vancouver a long time ago ?
- Victor.
[ 27 January 2002: Message edited by: reefburnaby ]</p>