Discus Hans in Erie PA

[Discus-Hans]

Friday September 18th I do a talk in Erie ~ PA

meeting start at 7:30pm

meeting place:
West Ridge Fire Hall
3142 West Ridge Rd. (also known as West 26th St and Route 20)
Erie, PA 16506

Joanne & I will bring some Discus as donation to the club to auction after the talk,

Hans

[snoopy65]

I will be there!

[Discus-Hans]

BUMP

[csarkar001]

Hans:

Why dont you video tape it and put it on youtube? i'm sure a lot of us would be interested ...

Chandan

[Discus-Hans]

Chandan,

very easy, I don't want to.

Why........speakers at club meetings come to take the people away for a few hours from their key board and computer screen.
Speakers keep clubs alive (for a part) and other thing, I do my talks for free, that is, real travel expense, if the drive is over 3 hours I want an hotel room for the night. getting to old to drive more as 3 hours, do my talk and drive more as 3 hours back.
Every club meeting were I do my talk, I bring Discus to auction off after the talk (donation to the club), think there has never been a club meeting were I did a talk were they "lost" money.

And, I do it for my own enjoyment, an "evening" away from the fish house, Joanne always comes with me (kind of package deal lol) I've seen this way the last 4 years about 35 states and have a few more on my list when we've a little more time, places were I want to stay a week and not because it's cold there lol lol lol

So if you want to hear/see my talk, contact your local club, send email and we try to fit you in,

Hans

[HHaley]

Hello Hans,

Do you have any upcoming talks in the Boston area?

Harry

[jeff@zina.com]

very easy, I don't want to.

I love that answer!

And by the way, you've earned the right to not do anything you don't want to. But you also made me think about why our local group is so poorly attended/organized, we rely way too much on the internet for our information and entertainment. When our group does manage to get together, there's not a lot of interest involved since we often have discussed everything via forums or emails and didn't really need to get together anyway. I'm now wondering whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps we just need to move to the virtual world and forget the physical interaction. Or perhaps we need to generate more interest by having speakers, demonstrations and tours.

Jeff

[MostlyDiscus]

Great points Hans,,, well said.

[Discus-Hans]

Hello Hans,

Do you have any upcoming talks in the Boston area?

Harry

Harry, nothing yet, contact the local club, let them contact me.
discus-hans@comcast.net

I love that answer!

And by the way, you've earned the right to not do anything you don't want to. But you also made me think about why our local group is so poorly attended/organized, we rely way too much on the internet for our information and entertainment. When our group does manage to get together, there's not a lot of interest involved since we often have discussed everything via forums or emails and didn't really need to get together anyway. I'm now wondering whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps we just need to move to the virtual world and forget the physical interaction. Or perhaps we need to generate more interest by having speakers, demonstrations and tours.

Jeff

Jeff, I emailed my buddy Finman57 he's the chairman of one of the clubs I'm member of, the CCA it's a great club, with meetings/speakers every month, trips to fish houses, Discus Hans USA, Julie of Frybaby's ~ http://www.frybabies.com/

Te CCA is very well alive and I'm sure Pat will impress you with some numbers.

At the ACA they made a CD of my talk, they had to swear to me it was only to take parts and make a CD of the convention for club use only etc etc etc.
I just got a copy and have to see what's on.

Great points Hans,,, well said.

Thanks Ed, sometimes I say the right things lol lol lol

[Finman57]

I love that answer!

And by the way, you've earned the right to not do anything you don't want to. But you also made me think about why our local group is so poorly attended/organized, we rely way too much on the internet for our information and entertainment. When our group does manage to get together, there's not a lot of interest involved since we often have discussed everything via forums or emails and didn't really need to get together anyway. I'm now wondering whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps we just need to move to the virtual world and forget the physical interaction. Or perhaps we need to generate more interest by having speakers, demonstrations and tours.

Jeff

I don't want to take over Han's thread but he asked so I figured I would put a little in.
And I am sorry if this sounds too much like preaching. lol. not meant that way.

Forums, the internet, email, AIM, are all great. But, nothing can beat that personal interaction. That face to face talk with other fish nuts like yourself.
The CCA in the last few years has grown like crazy. Why.
There are multiple reasons but here are a few
1 We are very active with the forum and pushing the meetings.
2 We have a couple people, like Hans, that help by getting the word out.
3 Big name speakers.
4 No club business discussed at the meeting. It is for education and entertainment.

If you go back just a few years the CCA was averaging 25 people per meeting and our membership was in the 60s. We decided to try bringing in a couple "Big name" speakers. Fly them in. We used Ken Davis and Rusty Wessel. The turn outs were great and we picked up some new members. They donated a few fish wich helped offset the cost of the airfare. They stayed with a member.

In O7 we flew in 3 or 4. That included Ad Konings. We had the biggest turn our at that point. 70 adults in the room.

In 08 our Treasurer told me that we could only afford to fly in 2 speakers.
I went home and invited, Dan Woodland - Ohio, Spencer Jack - Canada, Steve Edie, Dick Au - California, Ted Judy - Wi, Ken Davis. All 6 of them flew in. lol. I don't listen well. What was the outcome? We grew from 79 members in 07 to 115 members in 08. We had a record number of people in the room for Dick Au. Bottom line the treasury almost doubled because we spent money to make money.

Now it brings us to 2009. We have had speakers from all over the country again as well as our own speakers.. Heck we had our VP do a talk in Feb about aquarium photography. There were 91 adults in the room. Plus kids.
We had Ad again in May. There were 100 adults plus at least 15 kids.

The bottom line is you need to give the membership something they want. You just cant meet to meet. You have to entertain too.
We are averaging 75 adults per meeting.
We have purchased a PA system, a Projector, and still have money in the bank.
We have raffles of donated items each month.
We have our "mini" auction at the meetings have gone from 10 items a month in 06 to about 120 per month in 09.
Our membership has grown to 139 right now.

Like I said, I don't want to preach.
I am just saying that we got rid of the work/business talk.
We tried to make it entertaining and informative.
We spent the money on the speakers. What is the money for.

If you make it worth the time. They will come.

[csarkar001]

well, i hope you will be in the NYC/CT area soon!

chandan

Chandan,

very easy, I don't want to.

Why........speakers at club meetings come to take the people away for a few hours from their key board and computer screen.
Speakers keep clubs alive (for a part) and other thing, I do my talks for free, that is, real travel expense, if the drive is over 3 hours I want an hotel room for the night. getting to old to drive more as 3 hours, do my talk and drive more as 3 hours back.
Every club meeting were I do my talk, I bring Discus to auction off after the talk (donation to the club), think there has never been a club meeting were I did a talk were they "lost" money.

And, I do it for my own enjoyment, an "evening" away from the fish house, Joanne always comes with me (kind of package deal lol) I've seen this way the last 4 years about 35 states and have a few more on my list when we've a little more time, places were I want to stay a week and not because it's cold there lol lol lol

So if you want to hear/see my talk, contact your local club, send email and we try to fit you in,

Hans

[Discus-Hans]

No problem at all Pat (Mr. Finman) you can always post in my posts, you know that,

Hans

For those who want to know http://www.capitalcichlids.org/

[Moon]

Hans
Are you prepared to come across the border to Canada?
If so let me know I can arrange a meeting in Hamilton Ontario.
Joe

[Finman57]

If he gets out of the US we might not let him back in. lol

[Moon]

That's OK we will keep him in Canada. More discus for us Canadians.