Spring Fest is over

And as far as the waiting outside, the venue doesn't really allow for it but we will try to rearrange the floor plan next time to have a more open area near the entrance. We actually were not planning on having anyone wait inside the doors, everyone was supposed to wait outside until the event starts then the doors would open. I do really apologize to anyone that had to wait in the cold.

 

Did things go perfect at this fest?  No...   There are several areas where we can and need to improve, including some areas where we've done things better in the past.   However, the board recognized this before the the event and I believe that everyone understands that the entire BoD needs to remain involved in the planning of these events.   We all fell into the trap of thinking that these events are "routine" when they are not at all.   This is not the fault of any one specific person on the board.   So, I guess what I'm trying to say is it's real easy to criticize, but it's not nearly as easy to be part of the solution...   Anyone who doesn't like the way things are being run is absolutely encouraged to run for a position on the BoD, so they can put for the effort while subjecting themselves to everyone's critisisms.   Past BoD members should be keenly aware of this.
As for the event itself, all in all the event attendees, the vendors and the private sellers all seemed happy.   I know that this is was by far the most successful event that I've participated in as a seller.    The raffle had a lot of quality items that people were excited about...   That was great too.   Best of all, the event was in the black and made money for the club.   There is no way you can look at this event as not being a success...
As for the people pre-shopping.   I did a little of it, but as a seller, it's really the only good chance I have to get anything.  This is really the first time I've bought more than one or two items at a fest.   I agree that (once again) there were more people on the show floor "shopping" before the event started than their needed to be.   Some were "shopping" a lot more than they were helping.   We need to be more clear about the rules in relation to this, but I don't know what we can do about it without getting absolutely draconian and I think the vendors and sellers might not like that.
-JB

 

Oh, and Kudo's to Joe and Gered. Those guys busted their asses for this event and it showed...

-JB

 

I for one had a blast, came home with some nice corals and got to talk to alot of people and meet some new members from CR. I would like to thank all the vendors 
sellers and the orginizers for there hard work. they did a nice job. it's not easy to put something like this on and make everyone happy but it is getting better each time

 

Agreed.  You guys did an excellent job, you should be very proud of yourselves.
Also, PROPS to Steph for making things happen at the door.  Even though the baby bump is on you still kicked butt.

 

I couldn't make the show as I had prior commitments. I don't get the whole BOD members not doing enough. I don't agree they should do all of the work all of the time. There's nothing wrong IMO of just being a participant sometimes. We all know they do plenty behind the scenes also. If you are a GIRS member it's your responsibility to make the club events a success also. Look at the MACNA volunteer post. Those time slots should be way more filled in than they are. It's YOUR club. The board can't do it all.

 

Had a great time myself. brought home a cooler full of frags, was able to introduce some new people to the club and meet some current club members. Joel and Gered, you guys did a top notch job on putting this together and thank you for that.

Dont be too critical on what could/should of been better. No matter how well organised and planned things are there will always be snafus and things to improve on.

I also want to take a second to thank everyone I purchased from for the great deals. You guys made it worth the drive.

 

good job to everyone involved! this was the first show i stayed the whole time for and it won't be the last! i(big fat guy wearing grey vikings sweatshirt) was one of the people that was out on the floor early(rode down with Jeremy and Jason),but i only window shopped and bought nothing until the line was let in and then went up and payed the door fee before doing so.i tried to help out where it looked like it was needed but was mainly looked upon like i was a leper begging for food(this is mostly my fault as i need to be more involved in the club),so i mainly opened and held doors for people and helped Jeremy a little when needed. anyhow,a big thanks to everyone who stepped up and made the show happen!!!

 

I don't usually comment about much but I did want to speak my opinion out about people having to wait outside before the event started. Like most events if you go early don't expect to get in early. Look a new movie releases people camp out outside hours before it opens. Or a new product release in stores people wait outside all night in some cases their not aloud to camp in the stores. If a event starts at noon don't come and expect to get in before that, be prepard to wait inline.

I thought the event was great, I got about a dozen new sps. Between the raffle tickes and corals we bought we gave back every dollor we made selling at the event.

THANKS GIRS

 

I for one Thought it was a good event. I have never been to a frag fest before so take that as you will. That being said I thought the entire fest was handled very well . I talked with people i have had interactions with before and it was great. I was not able to stay any where near as long as I wanted to having a bored 6 year old. But I got 6 frags for my nano tank and they all look eye popping by the way. So In my opinion I thought it was wonderful and I will defiantly go to the next fest. Hats off to all who organized it and to the sellers for a great spring fest.

 

I had a great time and so did Richard. It was nice to see old familiar faces and some new ones. Glad so many Nebraskans came. We spent a decent amount and i was shocked i won 3 raffled prizes off of just 30 tickets.... 10 of which i dropped someplace in the bulding and never found. I'm glad i marked my initials.

Everyone was so pleasant and friendly. I just cant wait for next year!

Thanks to all those involved. I understand delegating responsibilites to other club members.. it gives them a chance to show they are good leaders as well. I like the idea of letting others take the wheel, i think it allows for more evenly distributed power.

Good job guys and gals! You really exceed my expectations every year!!

 

I don't comment on these boards very often, but I'd like to add a
few of my observations. Note that this is coming from someone who has been
involved in the club for less than a year, and who has attended two shows. I
did help with admission and food the entire time at Fall Fest, and helped with
admission and raffles for a few hours at the beginning of Spring Fest.
 




I thought the show went really well. Things were
fairly well organized, attendees seemed to be having a good time, and the
speakers were well attended. Of course there is always room for improvement,
but that should actually be the goal: to take what has happened with any given
event and look for ways to make it better the next time.
 




The doors were not supposed to open until noon, yet there were
several people waiting inside well before then. I understand that it was
frustrating to watch the sellers walking around before the show started, but
extra people shouldn't have been in the building at all at that time. It was
cold and windy outside yesterday, so I think it was a kindness on the part of
staff to allow people to come inside and wait before the start of the show.
However, if you come early, you should expect to wait outside. There is always
a rush right at the beginning of a show, and if you aren't willing to wait
outside in the weather, then you should probably wait at least a half hour or
so before showing up. I do agree that there should be a larger area inside the
doors for people to wait after the doors open. There was one vendor right
beside the door across from the admissions area. That area could have been left
open which would have allowed a large area for people to form a line inside the
building.
 




The admissions/raffle/food counter was well staffed the first few
hours of the show--especially during the rush times. Steph did an amazing job
with the food, and people seemed very glad to have the walking tacos back this
time. Honestly, pizza went well at Fall Fest, too, but there were some questions
from people who had come to expect the walking tacos to be there. So again,
thank you to Steph for bringing the food. I believe she was at the front for
the duration of the show, while others traded off to help with raffles and
admission. 
 




I don't agree that if Steph hadn't been there that things wouldn't
have gone just as well. Not to discount her contributions at all, but she was
far from the only person manning the front. There were others, including Terri (Sponge), Adam, and myself to name a few,
who were keeping track of raffle tickets sold, admissions, and food money. Steph wasn't at Fall Fest, and things went just fine. I think it just goes to show
that the success of any event does not hinge on the contributions of any one
person. 
 




n style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:" verdana="" mso-fareast-font-family="" new="" roman="" roman="" color="">I always thought that the BOD was responsible for the behind the
scenes running of the club, taking care of events leading up to shows, and
making sure that shows are appropriately staffed. The board is a relatively
small group of people and it wouldn’t even be possible to do these shows with
only their involvement. I think it’s great that events like Spring Fest, Fall
Fest, and the upcoming MACNA allow members who are not on the board to get
involved in club activities and contribute their time and talents to the
running of the club. There is a lot of time and effort that goes into running a
club like GIRS that most members don't see, and those responsibilities have
only increased with the growth of GIRS membership. When it comes to running an
event like Spring Fest, it shouldn't be expected that every single Board member
must work during every single show. The BOD are volunteers not paid staff, and
to exclude them from participating as sellers isn't fair to them. The
president, vice-president, treasurer, webmaster, and a QC area trustee all
participated as sellers this year. Without their contributions as sellers,
there would have been far less corals available for buyers. Many of the *deals*
to be had were from the member sellers and not the larger vendors at the show.
 




GIRS has many members, and an event like this allows participation
from all of them. There was an appropriate amount
of staff in all necessary areas, and the show was not negatively impacted
because the president, vice-president, treasurer, webmaster etc. were not
running the show. Having those people as sellers was actually a huge asset.
 




Again, I think Spring Fest was a huge success. The purpose of
these shows is to buy and sell lots of corals, listen to some great speakers,
and chat with other reef enthusiasts. I think the event did an awesome job of
accomplishing just that!




 

 

This was my 4th frag fest as a member. I don't have any complaints, planned to wait outside, and had no trouble distributing my budget among most of the vendors. Thanks and nice job to all that put this together.

 

Great event all the way around! Sure there are things to improve but considering things were done by 100% volunteers what an awesome production!!
I would like to specifically thank some people that are definite notables fro this event ( I apologize if I forget someone)
First Joe and Gered, you guys rocked this event. Especially the raffle which means signing up corporate sponsors. Thank you.
Steph and Nick, Thank you for heading up the front door ativities and food. The walking tacos are always a great success. As I said in the BOD forum, our events are always much better when you are involved. Thank you.
Jeremy Meyer for running audio and video and Austin Reynolds for supplying the PA equipment even when he was obviously quite Ill. Thank you.
Jason Glaspie for spending a huge amount of time helping at the front. I am happy to see you back involved again. I disagree with your comments in this thread but hey we don't seem to agree on much. Thank you.
Sone for tracking with better precision the financials for this event. Thank you.
Craig for also helping with sponsors, speakers and vendors and allowing us to buy many items for the raffle at cost!! Craig is responsible for most of these great connections we have with these people I belive with a bunch of help from Dirk. Thank you Craig and Dirk.
JB, Dave, Gered, Joe and Gonzo (sorry I missed your first name) for helping setup. Thank you.
Large list of people helping tear down, thank you.
Lets bask in success for a little bit here and talk about the overwhelming items of success.  These events do continue to get better as we put more things together so things happen more consistently. ON TO MACNA!!

 

I had a great time.  A special thanks to Joe and Gered for doing all the organizing and to everyone else that worked the show.  The speakers were just great!!  I sold at the two previous shows, and thus missed the speakers.  I'm really glad that I didn't miss them this time!!!
AJ - as for you selling and not working the show, I'm in agreement with those that think that that's ok.  Just because one is on the BOD, shouldn't mean that they have do do all the work.  Hopefully we've got enough members that can help with all the work load!!  I suppose though that I also agree with the suggestion that from a PR standpoint, it might have been a nice touch if you spoke (right before the raffle started), to thank people for coming, thank the speakers, sponsors.....  But my thought is that's a minor thing.
As for working the show, I've probably been lax and not volunteered when I could have (but I will be working MACNA).  I also don't watch the forum posts diligently enough, and missed any sign-up for helping at Spring Fest.  A suggestion might be to 'push' a message to the local people about sighing up to work the show - kind of like you 'pushed' the message that Spring Fest was just a day away!!!
All in all though - GREAT JOB !!!!!!!!!
And I came home with several new frags for my tank!!!
THANKS!!!!!!!

 

I also wanted to make a quick comment on this. Yes, Kylie came in after the event started, but the first thing she said was to please let her know if anyone needed her help with anything. The front was well staffed, and there was no need, in my opinion, for her to have to work the show, especially since she also brought two non-members with her. As I said before, I don't think it should ever be a requirement for anyone, BOD member or not, to work any particular show.

 

That was my main beef.  I don't have a problem with BOD selling at events at all.  But at some point during the event, the leader of the group should have taken the time to thank the people who drove hours and hours and worked their butts off during the show.  That's usually how it was done and it was overlooked this time. 
I'll publicly apologize to AJ right now if I came off too harshly but to me that was a pretty big deal.
That aside it was one of the better organized events we have had.  It was great to see all the people actually watching the speakers, and I sort of had fun playing announcer.
So yeah...let's do this MACNA thing!

 

Just curious, do the speakers select the topic or the club!? Sanjay was great, but I was wondering why his speech wasn't about lighting.

 

As I knew I would I forgot some thanks and will probably do so again with the huge number of people that helped. It was brought to me attention I forgot some key players.
First I would like to thank Christina (faviafan) for her post here. You stated your points very well and I agree with everything you said although I as well don't want to diminish the help of anyone up front and Steph did great as did others. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank you personally for helping at the front. To be honest I did not know this but have been told you were up there for a long time as I know you were at FF. So thank you.
I also forgot to mention Adam and Terri. Adam has helped so much at every event I just forgot as it is the norm for me for Adam to be a central player. Terri is always willing to jump in as well. So thank you to both of you.
Kylie has been very helpful as our new secretary. She helped at all times leading up to the event and offered to help during the event but was not specifically asked. She also asked as Christina stated when she walked in. I find Kylie very helpful but this is her first event to be involved in the organizing. If anything she deserves a break to ease into this. But I don't think she needs the break as she did contribute as has been helpful with everything in the club. Thank you Kylie.
It is very unfair to say 3/4 of the board was not involved. Its just plain false. All of the board was involved in this event as were many members. Just because someone didn't see someone doing something doesn't mean it wasn't done. Organizing, set-up and tear-down had heavy involment by everyone. I did not arrive until 10:30 yesterday so I guess someone can be mad at me. But I was there early in the afternoon on Friday and stayed until the doors were closed yesterday so good luck with me paying too much attention.
BOD Selling, come on. Our past president and others in BOD has sold. I sold this time and every-time. I don't think this is anywhere near problem.
Great event, lets concentrate on the good things. If someone was pissed during this show I don't think we could ever make them happy. As has been stated here many times, this was one of the best if not the best show thus far. That's the way it should be, continuous improvement. The next will be even better, it sure had better be! Great job everyone. Sincerely, this was an absolute GIRS success!!
OK, who did I forget now? I apologize beforehand.

 

He is saving his big LED presentation for MACNA I think. He also wants people to know he has a lot of other insight besides lighting.