Open Meeting for all involved~

Amp...LOVE those Ideas!! Hope you come to this meeting to brainstorm!
Ira...is one certain Monday bets for you, Sir?? I think THIS Monday 25th is not good because we are still pending on a group Kens order.

I am going to agree with Bill on the merger idea...JUST FOR NOW! Our intent for the meeting is to focus on THIS group and it's success. Marvin is salt specific.

I did propose a time and place already. Monday at 1:00 for a casual pizza & beer lunch at Angelos. Would be great to get together and bounce ideas!! Anyone that CAN NOT make that?

I'm down for Monday at Angelo's . Just need the address.

I'd love to be there...but... I'm heading for NY to surprise my parents for Thanksgiving.. on the Tues before, returning the tuesday after. I can make it this coming monday.... No need to await the Kensfish order in my opinion... it was just an initial thought... Bill

Ok....Who else can make it THIS Monday..the 25th at 1:00 pm at Angelos Italian restaurant 11643 Midlothian Tnpk 23113
I'm a yes...Bill? Ira? Amp? Neo?

Bill's a yes... I will collate all the suggestions for discussion points.

It's a yes for me too. Just need someone to contact when we get there. Sorry didn't see the post until now. Kens order won't be here until next week, since I'm placing it this week. Busy season so giving it at least a week.

Ok...awesome!! So.....Jules, Bill, Anik so far.
@ Kat...you'd mentioned some tear offs to place at local businesses. Do you think you could come up with a flyer w/ tear offs for us to "proof" by tomorrow? If you can still make it for lunch??

Can't make it tomorrow. Someone take notes and post info after?

So its just going to be the three of us. We can always meet somewhere more private.

Ira's coming to my place about 12:30... ...So it's four...Angelo's has a separate room that will ensure the privacy you speak of Neo...

Oh! cool See you guys there then I'm working on the order right now. I should be done in a bit, once I'm done I will post in the forum the final order and what everyone should be getting and when.

I'm sitting at the bar next to a dirty fish tank. See you guys when you get here. I can only stay till 1:30.

well.. given that we all had like 3 days notice, on a monday at mid-day, getting 5 folks to show up and participate was a yeoman-like effort...
So, the topics we'd HOPED to cover were the following:
Flyers in the stores:... Ira volunteered to get them in a few stores but is just awaiting the development of the flyer itself!  Which brought up yet another few issues:  Logo and flyer design!
We also discussed the options of Libraries, community bulletin boards, community associations etc. (If you've other venue's for spreading the word, please chime in!)
Flyer's.. umm.. this one went back and forth but it seems that Doxiemom has access to some graphic designer types but they shouldn't be tasked with the message but solely focused on the presentation so we've still at a stand still for our "poster".... A few years ago, in a moment's effort, I drafted the "Old Club" poster but have since lost the text/doc for replication.. So I/we/you'll be tasked with drafting a new VaFA poster for use within the aquatic community as well as other venues identified.
Monthly Meetings/Plant Swaps.... after a bit of give and take, the thought was that we, bi-monthly, host a group meeting with a plant/stock/equipment stock SWAP/market as an inducement of participation. Further discussions about host sites resulted in a consensus that meetings should be hosted at sites that accomodate the dispersed locations of each member so we'll be hosting meetings out towards the Midlothian area as well as a designated spot (Ira's tasked with contacting Azalea Aqua for hosting.. me with Skoolz...)... in the eastern portion of our area.  
The final analysis was that we have three distinct "mission statements" within our group or at least among those that were present.  
1.  This club/forum should be focused on community of fish keepers.
2.  We cannot be everything to everyone  (sorry for the salt keepers).
3.  What was the 3rd thing? .......Oh.. we have a group of dedicated hobbyist that so far have suported the Angel/Discus/Catfish threads and that we need to evaluate the extensive list of threads we have so that we may present our group as focused on a particular area of interests...

Since this was an informal and impromptu meeting, I'm sure I've missed about 50% of the discussion and hope that others will chime in on their thoughts and insights.    Bill

what about finding places on campus to post flyers? I'm sure some of the students, not just bio students etc would be interested especially since the only pets usually allowed in dorms are fish tanks.

Kat.. I'm a lousy recorder of conversations... (I'm half deaf)... but your point is spot on... Someone brought that up and I forgot to include it... NOW... who's capable of posting flyers on campus? Bill

Yeah, Bill...blame it on your hearing! Not all that beer!! LOL
I have access to a graphics guy. He does vinyl lettering, signs. I'm going to ask if he can do a car "cling" for us when we narrow down our focus.

As far as the flyers...I don't have a template for the tear off type so if anyone would like to offer to come up with a proof...let one of us know!
(note: From a marketing view....colors should be BRIGHT, CHEERY....RED BLUE YELLOW/simple in wording as you only have a 3 second window to grab attention)

NEO is revamping the banner, right Anik??

Yes! I will start working on it but a little help is always appreciated. Since I'm new to photoshop.