# Club re-orgnization meeting 19 January



## Michael

Our next meeting will be on 19 January at 1 PM at my home in east Dallas near White Rock Lake. Please send me a private message if you need my address or directions, I would rather not post my home address on the internet. Please include your real name in the PM.

Please bring plants to trade and snacks. The main item of business will be to discuss the future of the club and how it should be organized. We normally elect new officers in January, so if anyone would like to serve, please volunteer! Elected officers are president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Additionally there is an executive committee of volunteers approved by the officers who take on various tasks and projects. At least that is the way it is supposed to work.

There will be one vacancy for certain. I have been vice president for two years, and on the executive committee for four. As of the January meeting I will resign as vice president, and do not wish to hold any other office. It is time for new leadership. Since the club purchased our PAR meter, I have stored it and loaned it out to members as requested. I can continue that task, or someone else can do it.

Between now and the January meeting, I will post my observations about the club in this thread. These will be my personal opinions, and not any type of official policy. I invite all of you to do the same. Please be courteous and constructive.

Extra thanks to Pam for lining up a meeting location in February!

--Michael Parkey


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## Michael

All of the following is personal opinion.

Everybody wants to have a planted aquarium club, but nobody wants to do the work and organization necessary. For various personal reasons, the current officers ran out of time and energy in the last six months, and no one else stepped up to host meetings or do anything else.

In the last two years, we have tried some different formats for monthly meetings. We have had in-town and out of town field trips. These have been very poorly attended. We have invited guest speakers (who are hard to find), and the club did not give them good attention. Tank set-up demonstrations were better received, but some members still complained that they could not hear the explanations over side conversations.

The main activity that people seem to want is a very informal, minimally structured meeting where we can look at other members' tanks, trade plants, eat, and talk. This is fine, I like those meetings! But the essential component is a member who is willing to host the meeting. And no one wants to do this.

Meetings at aquarium stores have certain drawbacks. Few retailers have space they can devote to a large group without severely interrupting their normal retail traffic. Typically, our membership does not make many purchases at a meeting, although this is hard to track. After all, we bring plants to trade, which is the primary thing we would be likely to purchase other than normal supplies. Few stores have good planted display tanks to look at, few have a very interesting selection of plants for sale. All of these factors make retail stores unreliable meeting places.

We could meet in other public places, such as recreation centers or restaurants. Both have the disadvantages of no aquaria to look at, and usually no good place for our somewhat wet and messy plant trades. Recreation centers, libraries, and similar places usually have a fee for use of their facilities. Restaurants want you to buy food, and often are very difficult to conduct any meeting business because of space constraints and noise.

So that brings us back to having meetings in members homes. Nancy (Haiven) and Drinda (Tex Gal) were very generous to host many meetings, but that became an unfair burden for one person, even without other difficulties. I've hosted several, and you will have the chance to look at my small Walstad tanks again in January. But we need more variety and more willing hosts.


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## fishyjoe24

if I can clean up, and kick out family for a few hours I can host possible host a meeting.


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## Michael

Some thoughts about the club web site, again, these are personal opinions.

DFW APC has its own stand-alone web site at http://www.aquatic-plants.org/ The site is very attractive and contains some really good information. It is also completely obsolete. I have only a layman's understanding of the internet. People more knowledgeable than me tell me that the programming language or coding used to create the site hasn't been used by anyone in years, and is unsupported. The people who originally created the web site many years ago are long gone and unavailable. We have great difficulty even updating the meetings page and auto-responder for reasons that are not clear to me.

If the club wants a separate web site, the only feasible option is to build a new one from scratch, a very labor intensive and time consuming task. There have been some volunteers to do this, but nothing has actually been accomplished. We may be able to salvage photos and text from the old one, or maybe not. As far as I know, we still own the domain name and several similar names that help to direct internet searches to the site. Although with no new content, the spiders largely ignore it.

Fortunately, we have two other active forums that we can use to communicate about the club: our forum here on APC, and DFW Fish Box. The great advantages of these are that someone else maintains them, keeps them running, and any of us can use them. We owe great gratitude to APC and DFW Fish Box.

Unless an internet savior volunteers to rebuild the club web site (and actually delivers), I suggest that we abandon it and use the functioning web sites available to us.


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## niko

I can host too. Looks like there are two hosts already - for January and February. March is ok for me.


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## Tugg

Woo hoo!!!


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## Michael

Great! This will be a real help to the 2014 officers.


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## digital_gods

As for meeting location, I can get you contact information for BRIT (Biological Research Institute of Texas) at Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. They would be willing to have a meeting topic of Aquaponics. It's same science as our tanks.


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## digital_gods

For the website, from my experience with Tarrant Makers, we have far more success using Meetup.com and FB.


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## Dejlig

I would love a meeting topic of Aquaponics.


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## Tugg

Dejlig said:


> I would love a meeting topic of Aquaponics.


Ditto


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## Michael

OK aquaponics fans, find a knowledgeable speaker and a suitable location.

Re Meetup and Facebook, do they actually have any important advantages over the existing forums? I belong to a Meetup group and find it a little more cumbersome to use than APC. It also is much less active. I don't have much experience with FaceBook mostly because when someone tells me to go there, I always get a demand to set up an account first and divulge large amounts of personal information, which I do not want to do.


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## Tugg

Personally, I wouldn't recommend either. With other non-plant specific stuff like dfwFishbox, TCA, and the like, I think it should sticking to just the APC forum as the only official channel helps keep the information from becoming fragmented. Keeping all the club stuff here makes it easier to find.


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## fschendstok

Michael, first let me thank you for your hard work for the club!

You asked for ("gentle") feedback. My main 'gripe' is that it is cumbersome (for club members) to almost impossible (for not club members) to find out when and where the new meetings are done. I can imagine that not everybody wants their house address published on internet, but can we at least publish a calendar on our own website (so not the forum) with the dates? 

Can I suggest to send email invitations or (perhaps better) eVites to members to 1) remind members of upcoming events and 2) get an idea who is coming. As said, eVite would work great for that purpose. I think one week in advance should be OK.

Fred


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## Phil Edwards

Some thoughts from a former member-

1. Location: The Atlanta club used to meet at a restaurant with a modest, but sufficiently sized, area. Perhaps there's a place that could use some extra business on an off-night? After some growth they started meeting in a lecture hall at a local university. The Charlotte Reef Club met at a local community college. If there's no restaurant willing to set aside space, perhaps BRIT or a community college will let you use a classroom?

2. Regularity: I think it's time to put the cart before the horse and set up a regular meeting day and then find a topic for meeting/speaker rather than vice versa. If people know the club will meet on the 2nd Monday of every month in regular location it should help increase attendance. It'll also help maintain internet privacy as "home shows" can be discussed in person rather than broadcasting online.

3. Facebook: Just make an anonymous gmail account and give FB fake info. Who cares if your birthday isn't 1/1/1951? FB's program doesn't. 

4. Website: I think it's worth maintaining the site if it doesn't cost anything. The photos and discussions hosted there are valuable archives if nothing else. 

5. Speakers: All of the best clubs I've belonged to or spoken at had regular out of town speakers, with locals to fill in spaces where other folks weren't available. Unfortunately this costs money…but that's where club dues come in handy, ne? Also, having a monthly mini auction where a portion goes to the club and the rest goes to the person selling the plant/fish is a great way to make the club money. I rarely left a meeting in Atlanta without something and usually spent all the $$ I would have made on plant sales buying other plants, fish, or shrimp. Plus, the club made money to bring in speakers. Win-win. 

Why not contact LAERF and see if anyone there would be willing to give a talk? There's lots of cool stuff going on there and I know for sure they've got a load of awesome native plants...

For what it's worth, I'd be happy to come in and speak on any number of topics.

6. General Organization: May I suggest that the newly elected officials contact an officer from GWAPA, GSAS, and AAAA to see how they organize and maintain their clubs? 

7. Motivation, Inertia, and Critical Mass: It's an unfortunate fact that in most clubs 90% of the work is done by 10% of the people 100% of the time. The club's not going to grow unless the officers are dedicated to putting in the time to get the club some inertia. Waiting for the general membership to do anything won't work. It's definitely an "If you build it they will come", not "build it if they come" scenario. Depending on generous souls to host a meeting and having meetings that consist primarily of home shows won't grow the club. Regular meetings in a regular location with speakers to draw people will be what builds the club. If folks know that there'll be something worth going for other than plants; which can be had in trade via a forum like this one, then it'll increase motivation to attend. Which leads us to... 

8. Growing: GSAS has a policy of "first one's free" with their meetings. Anyone's welcome to attend a meeting for free to get a feel for the club, then after that they're expected to join. Why not schedule a good speaker and invite the local fish clubs to attend to? Let them know that DFWAPC can and does do great things then get them to join. 

Regards,
Phil


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## Tugg

I'm still new to the club and this is the first meeting since I joined, but there is an email address for getting the next meetings info or is it something that became antiquated and isn't used?

http://www.aquatic-plants.org/meetings.html

http://www.aquatic-plants.org/meeting_cal.html


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## TanyaQ2000

many times the automated meeting did not work.

i like the idea of a set day of the month at a set location even if it is not a place with a tank

I'm not going to lie, I joined to obtain free plants since so much is trial and error, imo. I didn't have the $ to spend to find out a certain plant wouldn't work in my environment. I do like the idea of a plant auction though.

Also, when you have a meeting at some of the very nice homes we've been blessed to have them in, it is a little intimidating when your home is a dump


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi All,

As the recently retired President and a current Board Member of GSAS I concur with Phil's comments and suggestions. I especially recommend a regular date and location for meetings.

When I joined GSAS in 2008 our membership was under 75 and our average meeting attendance was less than twenty. Currently our membership is over 275 and average meeting attendance is over 80.

How? Phil covered most of the items but in addition I would add:

1) Advertising / Promotion - let folks know you are there!a) Posts about upcoming meetings to local Craigslist and various aquarium forums
b) Flyers in LFS with upcoming meeting information
c) Postcards with club and website information for LFS personnel to hand out if someone asks about a local club in the area (our LFS give out over 1000 of these per year)​2) Financesa) Determine sources income
b) Make and adhere to a Budget​3) Make it F-U-N not only for the members but for those doing the work.

Christel during the lecture; approx 1/3 the audience; can you pick out Tex Gal??!!







This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image.









Here is the front side of our LFS handout card









Here is the back side of the card


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## Michael

Good comments, keep them coming.

The main problem with the meeting updates on the club web site is that we can't seem to update them reliably. Whether this is a technical problem or lack of follow up I don't know. Personally, I have no idea how to do anything with the club web site. We had some meetings last year that no one could find because the auto-responder would not work.


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## niko

_" It's an unfortunate fact that in most clubs 90% of the work is done by 10% of the people 100% of the time. "_

That is true for virtually all US corporations. People have amazing ways to avoid work. My point is -that 10% Murphy's law is not going anywhere. Actually I think it is more like 2% but that doesn't change anything.

"Average meeting attendance 80..." Geez!!! I wonder if that's a result of actual planted tanks being on display in stores or something. Down here in Texas every single planted tank setup by the club, or by a store, or by a guest Senske has gone South in a jiffy. Usually because the store owners "know best" how to maintain it. Also brochures have failed royally in the past - not even kept on the counter a week after left there. Store owner leprechauns are not in my "favorites" list for that too.

All of that makes me think that the onoging maintenance of a planted tank club down here maybe more of a monumental effort than we all like to think. One suggestion that I really think will work is to have a set place and time to meet. We have not tried that in the past and it maybe a much simpler to make happen and make work.

Great discussion.


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## TanyaQ2000

TCA has most of their monthly meetings at the Spring Creek BBQ in Irving right off 183...there is a small room there and there is a bigger room and having our plants displayed on trays would not cause a problem. So far, Jan, Feb & March appear to be booked so maybe try this for April which is Easter so might be hard to have it in a home. 

Of course first we have to be able to elect officers....Michael has resigned, Alex and Nancy may not renew for personal reasons and seldom is Mike C on the forum so who will even be an officer?


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## Phil Edwards

Free plants are great and all that, and Lord knows sometimes we don't have the money to spend on them. If the topic of a meeting auction comes up, consider it an investment in the club rather than money lost. Who knows, you may even make money. 

Another thought; why not get the local freshwater club(s) involved too? Neither GSAS nor AAAA are strictly planted clubs, but they both have large planted contingents. Some fish people like plants and most plant people like fish, right? Maybe you could work out an agreement that PAYING members in good standing of each club on Jan 31st can drop in on a partner club's meeting for $2 if they're having an interesting out of town speaker, or something like that.


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## Michael

Roy and Phil make good points about a fixed meeting schedule and place. Truthfully, I have been one of the people who has resisted holding meetings in restaurants or rec centers because I perceive them as boring places. But I could be wrong!

Here is an idea. Find a community center, school, retirement home, etc. that would like to have a planted aquarium, and offer to set one up and maintain it once a month in exchange for a meeting place.


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Michael said:


> Here is an idea. Find a community center, school, retirement home, etc. that would like to have a planted aquarium, and offer to set one up and maintain it once a month in exchange for a meeting place.


Hi All,

GSAS has their monthly meetings at a large classroom at Seattle Pacific University which is located about 4 miles from downtown Seattle. Good parking, security, and the classrooms have Wi-Fi, audio system, video screen and projector, and a computer terminal where you control it all. It holds about 110 people in a stadium seating arrangement. Cost per meeting is $75. They do this for many non-profit organizations and clubs.


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## digital_gods

What Meetup.com is good for scheduling and publishing meetings/events, and group emails. As far as for their forums, worthless. It will manage the reminder emails automatically. I like the RSVP features. You can set it up to handle the transactions(PayPal) for a paid class. I love it. I see it as a better solution to the cumbersome email list/auto responder. With meetup search features, it will help with organic member growth.


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## digital_gods

BRIT contact: Jason Best<8173324441>, Jason Best<[email protected]>


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## Phil Edwards

Mike,

That's an awesome idea!


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## alexopolus

I have talked to my mother in law, she teaches science at Martin high school, she is excited about the idea of having a nice aquarium but she still have to talk to the school. My wife also works for a high school, she is a speech therapist at Sherrod middle school, next week she will talk to the science teacher and see, both schools are in Arlington.

I love that members are posting all these ideas, let's hope that we have a very productive meeting in two weeks and everybody shows up.


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## TanyaQ2000

i just tried the meeting email and got info on Fred's Aug meeting. I'll send Michael a PM for his exact address


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## Pam916

I am going to contact the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens and see if they have anything available. Alex, I think that Martin High School is an excellent suggestion.


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## Michael

Another thought: Sunday afternoons have been our meeting time for years, but we could change that if need be. For example, we had an aquarium set-up project for a science class at a Mesquite high school two years ago, but it was vetoed by the school administration at the last minute. One of several reasons they gave was that we wanted to meet on a Sunday. Robert (Digital Gods) did a lot of work on this, and everyone on the executive committee was very disappointed when it fell through. Please note, this is not an argument against another school project.


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## alexopolus

Michael said:


> Another thought: Sunday afternoons have been our meeting time for years, but we could change that if need be. For example, we had an aquarium set-up project for a science class at a Mesquite high school two years ago, but it was vetoed by the school administration at the last minute. One of several reasons they gave was that we wanted to meet on a Sunday. Robert (Digital Gods) did a lot of work on this, and everyone on the executive committee was very disappointed when it fell through. Please note, this is not an argument against another school project.


I understand those issues, and I'm working on it. I usually go on Sundays to help my in law clean her tank and I know they are ok with a small group going there, but for a big group we need approval. What play in our favor is the donation and my in law, I think she mig been teaching sciencse at Martin for 15+ years.


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## BenChod

I really like the idea of set location every month. I would also suggest spring and fall swap meet at the meeting. I have some equipment that I want to sell/trade/give away to fellow hobbyist but don’t have time. This will also create incentives for more members to attend the meeting as the TCA auctions and swap meets attract decent attendance. I also love the idea of getting other fish club like TCA to merge with DFWAPC as I love fish as much as growing plants and both clubs share the same goal. This will also help with monthly meeting topics and speakers. If I had the time to participate, I would have joined every club in DFW that involved aquariums. I have kept salt and freshwater aquariums, I’m sure other people have done the same so why different clubs when we all have the same goals.


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## BenChod

One aquatic organization in DFW will attract more member as the organization will represent every aspect of the hobby and well as create businesses/vendors/manufacturers to sponsor events. This is my vision for the club and if other agrees I can assist in any ways possible to make this happen. Once created it will support itself for years to come as the membership can easily be in hundreds.


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## Michael

Ben, would you like to be an officer or on the executive committee? From that position you could determine if this is a feasible idea.


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## Tugg

@BenChod, You just described what FOTAS is supposed to be doing. But the problem with one large group is who gets to manage it and how are the resources divided between interests?

Having a DFW plant group, we know the needs of this topic and geographic area are covered. Saltwater FOWLR tanks and plantless African cichlid tanks are of no interest to me. It's the same reason they play over at dfwMAS and TCA, for many of them, plants are of no interest.

I'm not bashing them; it's just a matter of different interests and priorities.


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## fishyjoe24

what ever happen to the good old days? when I joined 3-4 years ago? we all knew each other, and had places to meet. we even had luis come up from ADA. 

I guess the main questions for the meeting would be where would YOU like the club to head for 2014? what do YOU want from the club in 2014.

I like the Ideal of having a regular meeting location, topic like drinda did about c02 and lighting, mikael did at rift to reef about different substrates, and go throw all the basics, I also like how we give away plants, and trade them..


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## BenChod

Great discussion, a lot of good ideas now all we need is to come up with a plan at the meeting. I can assist the club as an officer or committee member if needed.


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## Tugg

Woo hoo!!! We have two.

_I volunteered over in __THIS__ dfwFishbox thread._


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## snowball2020

I'm looking to get back into plants so I will see you guys at this meeting! 

Maybe next meeting can be at my house where I set up my tank, hopefully around 100g!


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## Michael

Great! Snowball, we have a tentative meeting place for February, and an offer to host in March. However, we could probably move you up on the schedule if you are ready.


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## snowball2020

Not sure if I'll be able to find a suitable tank by next month, though!
-Duc


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## niko

What size it that "suitable" tank that you need?


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## snowball2020

niko said:


> What size it that "suitable" tank that you need?


90-120g


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## TanyaQ2000

several for sale on dfwfishbox


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## alexopolus

My in law just called me and told me that we could use the Carrier Parkway church for the club meetings. The only catch is that the meetings will have to be after 2pm on Sundays or anytime Saturdays.


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## Michael

That's great! I'm sure we can adjust the meeting time. Is this free? Would they like an aquarium?


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## niko

Hm, talking about setting up an aquarium for a church: My church has a 30 gallon tank that has been waiting to be setup for months now. Has water and gravel and no plants or fish. I run an Eheim filter on it and I have T5HO lights or an LED light for it. Tank has a new heater too. Church in in Plano - on Legacy Dr. I think that it is possible to have a club meeting at that church too. Saturdays or Sunday afternoons also.


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## Tugg

YOU have an led light? I'm honestly amazed.


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## niko

I have a 30 watt flood light that I bought a year ago. It cannot be compared to T5HO. It is a "flood" but the light cannot cover a good size area very well. It is cheap and many people say "Aha! He has a cheap light and thinks he knows everything about LEDs." But truth is that a "high quality" LED will not make even 50% more PAR than the cheap flood LED.

To light up evenly the entire bottom of a 24"x24"x24" tank I need 4 of these flood lights. 120 watts. But 120 Watts of T5HO over the same tank will fry eggs on the bottom. I have a 5x24 T5HO at home over a 24x24x24 tank and I don't think it's a good idea to have all bulbs on for more than 1 hour a day. On the other hand 120 watts of LED will not fry eggs on the bottom of that tank, even a "high quality" LED won't. Last week I went to the Fish Gallery and I looked at a 150W Kessil LED. Unless the thing works as well as a $15 Halogen light and secretly gives out a monstrous PAR I could tell that a 150W Kessil will do very little for plants at a depth of 24". I think I read that at 24" the PAR was about 30, haha.

A bit more distain for LED: Below is a link to a great LED light. $280 to cover 14"x9" with PAR 0-100 at 24". For the church 30 gallon tank (30"x12"x15"tall) gallon tank it may work beautifully because it will give PAR 150 or so when suspended about 10" above the tank. At that height it may cover the entire 30"x12" bottom of the tank. Or so I dream. But we can get the same PAR with 4x24watt T5HO placed on top of the tank. We gain zero light spill but loose the open top. Price is LED $280 vs. T5HO $200. As always - LED almost wins when we talk small tanks 
http://www.rapidled.com/onyx-by-rapid-led/

Lame story aside - the church tank is not 24x24x24 and it could be outfitted with that flood light. I have tried it and the shimmer is great. But there is monumental light spill because the amazing LED does what all LEDs do - casts too narrow of a beam despite being a "flood light" or having funny optics added. I'm not sure that the people in that office will like the extra light. T5HO wins again.

There is also another problem - I may setup that tank before we, the club, gets around to come to the church


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## RandallW201

Alex, What is you mother in laws name? I graduated from Martin back in 2001...

And back on topic, I think it would be great to have the meeting at a regular time and place every month. I love the idea of Martin and/or the Botanical Gardens.


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## Michael

Everyone, Pam has confirmed that we have meeting space at Petworld on 23 February. This is good--the new officers will have over a month to make decisions about a permanent meeting space or other options before then, and an announcement can be made at the February meeting.


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## alexopolus

RandallW201 said:


> Alex, What is you mother in laws name? I graduated from Martin back in 2001...
> 
> And back on topic, I think it would be great to have the meeting at a regular time and place every month. I love the idea of Martin and/or the Botanical Gardens.


Thrutchley


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## fschendstok

Michael, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get the info where the next meeting is. I understand at your home, but where is that? And you tell to email you, but I don't get an answer. And I send a Meeting Request from our DFW Aquatic Plants website, but that returns the meeting from August 2013!! It's very frustrating that simple info about the next meeting is impossible to obtain.

Fred


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## Michael

Agreed! And I've sent you a private message.

When I asked everyone to send me a private message, I meant through APC. If you try to send something through the separate DFW APC website, I have no idea where it will end up.

For anyone who has tried the auto-responder on the club website, *please note* that the meeting will not be at Fred's home in Plano, but at my home in Dallas near White Rock Lake.


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## Tugg

Why not get the responder fixed? Is Ben Belton the only one with access to it? Is he still around/available?


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## Michael

OK, I don't know how to do it. I don't know Ben, never met him, and don't know where he is. Remember, this goes back over 10 years. I have tried to find someone who knows how, but have failed.

The new officers will need to act on this. The options are:

1. Fix the current site, if it can be done.
2. Build a new site, with some type of function that notifies members of meeting time and location.
3. Use some existing internet service to do the same. Suggestions so far are Facebook, Meet Up, or E-Vite.


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## Tugg

Regardless of officer assignments, I can help fix this. I would just need to get access to wherever it's hosted. If Ben is the only one with access and he's MIA, then we would need to get with Bailin Shaw since he's listed as the domains POC.

Sounds like an agenda item for the meeting


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## Virc003

Michael, do you or anyone else know where the site's server is located and who has access to it and/or the domain name? Instead of trying to raise the website from the dead I'm working on an idea to harvest the mail server. 

My main reason for not coming to many of the meetings is because I forget and sometimes problems with finding where it's going to be.


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## Tugg

A whois on the IP it's hosted from shows that it's from liquidweb.com up in Michigan as a shared vhost.

Bailin Shaw is the club POC they have on record. But it does list it as an orginization, so they may be willing to hand control to a board member if we can't get in touch with our primary web POCs.

The mail and web servers are one and the same. The domain's MX records point to the same host as the web server.

We may be jumping the gun here. Are either Ben or Bailin still associated with the club at all? If not, does anyone have their contact info? For all I know, they're still here and we just need to send a quick email saying "can you update the responder for the meeting." I mean, how did last Augusts meeting get set?


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## fishyjoe24

could we rebuild the site on to a server that every one can get too?


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## wwh2694

Hello guys. It's been a long time since been to the meeting. I would like to rejoin the club again. I have some Bucephalandra to trade if you have any cool plants. Anyways this is the only weekend that falls on my day off that's why I couldnt go to the other meeting. Anyways it's great I can attend this.


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## alexopolus

Tugg said:


> A whois on the IP it's hosted from shows that it's from liquidweb.com up in Michigan as a shared vhost.
> 
> Bailin Shaw is the club POC they have on record. But it does list it as an orginization, so they may be willing to hand control to a board member if we can't get in touch with our primary web POCs.
> 
> The mail and web servers are one and the same. The domain's MX records point to the same host as the web server.
> 
> We may be jumping the gun here. Are either Ben or Bailin still associated with the club at all? If not, does anyone have their contact info? For all I know, they're still here and we just need to send a quick email saying "can you update the responder for the meeting." I mean, how did last Augusts meeting get set?





Virc003 said:


> Michael, do you or anyone else know where the site's server is located and who has access to it and/or the domain name? Instead of trying to raise the website from the dead I'm working on an idea to harvest the mail server.
> 
> My main reason for not coming to many of the meetings is because I forget and sometimes problems with finding where it's going to be.


Guys, Michael and I are working on getting all that information, we are hoping to have it before the January meeting. Yes, the website was done a while back and Ben or Bailin are not with the club anymore.


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## Michael

Everyone, I look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow. Please bring plants to trade, and snacks and drinks if you like.

Plant trading and socializing will start at 1 PM. The business meeting will start at 1:30. Our major task is to elect new officers. Right now the slate is:

President--Alex Garcia
Vice President--Ben Chod
Treasurer--Brian Tuggle
Secretary--open

We will be open to nominations from the floor. If anyone would like to be secretary, please let me know. And if you have a particular idea that you would like to work on but do not want to be an officer, please let the new officers know. You can serve on the executive committee.

Thanks!


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## wwh2694

I did get any pm back on the address. Oh well probably next time.


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## CrownMan

Thanks Michael for hosting the meeting and for all of your hard work this past year.


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## fishyjoe24

thanks for the plants, mike. and thanks for hosting michael. it was fun seeing all the birds and people again.


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## Pam916

CrownMan said:


> Thanks Michael for hosting the meeting and for all of your hard work this past year.


x2. I enjoyed seeing everyone. Love your house Michael, I had to drag myself away, I could have stayed and talked forever, lol.


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## TanyaQ2000

so who are the officers?


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## Pam916

Tanya, look at Michael's post above, I think those were the volunteers and everyone agreed.


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## Pam916

Sorry, wwh2694 that you didn't get the address.


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## TanyaQ2000

secretary?


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## Virc003

Tanya volunteers as tribute!


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## TanyaQ2000

If I had been there, I would have taken the position but had to do gmaw duties as my grandson is in the hospital and i have his twin sister


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## Virc003

I was only poking fun. No one has taken the position.


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## wwh2694

That's ok I sold some my Buce for
$$$. .


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## Michael

The slate of officers in my post above was elected unanimously. The position of secretary is vacant.

Tanya, if you would like to be secretary, I think that would be great. The by-laws say that the secretary must be elected by the membership. Please contact Alex or any of the other officers, and we can have an election for secretary at the February meeting.

BTW, I really enjoyed having everyone in our home for the meeting!


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## alexopolus

Very nice meeting Michael, it went very smooth. I'm very excited that people have been contacting me and I will respond to all the pms tomorrow. Today It was a early work day for me (4am) and I'm dead! 
Tomorrow I will try to talk to Petworld owners and confirm February meeting, also try to confirm march (Niko offered to host) and April (Tim Cartier).


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## niko

Yes, March is fine with me here.


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## Michael

That's what I like, the orderly transfer of leadership!


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## niko

From what I see from far away there enough people that want to keep the club going. And as my grandmother always said: "You can when you want!".

Over the years that has proven to be so true. And we got it.


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## alexopolus

wwh2694 said:


> I did get any pm back on the address. Oh well probably next time.


Hi there, could you send me your name and email? I may not have you on my list. Also send me some pics of your plants, we may be able to trade


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## wwh2694

alexopolus said:


> Hi there, could you send me your name and email? I may not have you on my list. Also send me some pics of your plants, we may be able to trade


Hello I send you a pm. Anyways here is my big tank.


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## alexopolus

Very Nice!!!!! Is that a 120P ADA? Love the aqua escape!!! What is the plant in the back right corner of the tank?


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## wwh2694

It's a 120H. I'm not good on plant names but I will try to find it out. . Thanks


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## niko

That person knows how to grow aquatic plants. One of the meeting topics should be "What does Wwh do right?" because it is all fun and games but then I look at my tanks and I got nothing to say. Some people actually do.


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## alexopolus

Sherwin that's is a really cool tank, thank you for inviting me to see it. 
Niko He actually runs a full ADA setup! The tank looks even better in person. 
I hope Sherwin can host a meeting in the future.


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## wwh2694

Thanks guys. It's all your help on this forum that I ended up like this, addicted to aquatic plants lol. I still not consider my self a pro and never will. This Hobbie is always challenging, learning something new. But the most important part is learning the basic and you all gave me that on this website. Thanks again.


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## northtexasfossilguy

Glad to see the club is still kicking! I hope someday I can make it to another meeting and/or that I can move from Midland lol! (Probably next 5 years when oil crashes again and I have to look for other employment)


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