# SWOAPE Swap Meet???? (!CAFE's having one)



## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

At the auction last Saturday a swap meet was announced. CAFE will have a swap meet sometime in March. I believe it will be in the same location as the auctions are held. Tables will be $25. 

There's been some discussion behind the scenes here about a SWOAPE swap meet. The original idea was to share the risk, share the wealth, doing one together with CAFE. 

They decided to try it out and make a commitment to do it, so if we do one for our group, it will be by ourselves now. But we wouldn't have to compromise on the location now (CAFE wanted it in Columbus) if we had a swap meet.

Is there any interest in a SWOAPE swap meet? Or an auction?

CAFE rents a community building to have the auctions. It's not as nice as the one GCAS uses but it works well, and they seem to have a way of getting the word out about the auctions, so maybe we can learn something from them about advertising if we do something like this. Initially there are so many people that some have to stand for an hour or so until some people leave the auction. 

We could rent a community center or a fire hall or any other building that would allow for a swap meet. I would recommend having a basic test bench for quick tests of pumps and filters, but GCAS didn't have that--you had to rig up your own tests if you wanted to test anything. 

At $25 per table, it wouldn't take too many tables to pay for a community center. But to make it work on a repeated basis, we'd have to have a successful first one. 

I just thought I'd throw this out now since I was originally supposed to air this at a meeting, but the meeting attendance dipped pretty low over the summer. This would seem to be a good place to discuss this and get ideas on how to make it work or learn why it wouldn't be a good idea for us to try having one. If there's sufficient interest, we can have a formal discussion and even a vote at a meeting in the winter or spring months when more members would likely attend. a meeting, especially if this is on the formal agenda. 

CAFE members might be nice enough to give us some tips on how to do this after they have their first one.

And if there's interest in a SWOAPE auction, we could discuss that as well.

My thinking is that since most members live in or near Cincinnati, an auction might not go well since GCAS has one every so often. But they only have one swap meet, and that's in February , so we could have one in a month that isn't close to that event. 

What do you all think?


Donald Hellen
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In case there is interest in an auction, here's how the CAFE auction works.

Admission is free. Sellers register and mark their bags with their initials (sometimes there is a problem with duplication of initials, so I think a numbering system might be better). CAFE gets 30% of the selling price, sellers get 70% (we could change this amount but I would not go higher). Buyers can run a tab or pay by cash as they go (if on a tab you sign for each item won and pay at the end or when you leave). I think sellers receive a check by mail after it's over but I never sold anything there. (I like the idea of cash only from buyers instead of checks but CAFE doesn't seem to have a problem with it.) There are certain rules for the number of bags of a species sellers can auction. Sellers get one priority sticker to put on a bag for every 5 bags of fish or item sold. A priority sticker gets the bag or item moved up to the beginning of the auction. Sellers or buyers can pay $3 to have an item put in the "express lane" and have it auctioned immediately, so if you want to leave soon but wanted a chance at an item, you can pay the $3 and have it auctioned right away. There are other rules but these are the ones I remember. Check their web site for more details. 

They have a raffle for items on a table that are given to them by sponsors and possibly bought for the purpose of the raffle. I don't like raffles but if we had one, whether at a swap meet or a SWOAPE auction, I have thousands of strip tickets that the club can have (a couple of rolls of them). Plenty for the first few events, I'm sure!

If we had an auction I would be willing to be one of the auctioneers if it's on a day that doesn't conflict with any long range plans I might have. Most things I can work around for something like this. But someone who has a greater knowledge of all the kinds of fishes available for the aquarium would be a better choice. I think some brief facts about a fish being auctioned helps bring a higher price.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Don-

I know not many people like to drive for fish-related functions (not me, I go to michigan for reef conferences to meet up with friends, and will be going to strongsville for the OCA), but I think getting together for a swap would be good. Our president has only been so for CAFE for a year, so he is not the best at communicating. Meaning, I thought you two had talked about a swap. I gave him your info and was under the impression there was interaction. I guess not. 

Im working on getting information out on campus (OSU) to get more people to the events. We have issues with attendance at our information sessions (ie; meetings), but our auctions seem to draw in all those other people. I'm the advertisment director for the club now, so we'll see what magic I can work. I don't know if I am worthy of it due to my work and school schedule, but we'll see! Anyways, let me know if you guys are interested in coming to the swap. I'll see what strings I can pull to make it a joint swap (meaning SWOAPE will have their name in the information I hand out about it.) Regardless, I think if you brought information flyers on the SWOAPE club that were handouts at the swap that may go a long way for advertisement for your club. I dunno. 

LMK what you guys are thinking. 
Liz


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## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

Just glad to see that we're going to have another swap meet. Whether it was bad timing or poor communication it's not a problem. If SWOAPE members want to sponsor one, we can learn from CAFE and GCAS.


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