The New CT reefers

[kgstei]

I think they are working on getting the payment system squared away

 

[A.Jones]

Can someone provide payment information for membership dues? I used to pay through the link on the CTARS website but the site no longer exists.

Yeah, sorry about that, our website needed work but we had a website provider that was hosting it pro bono but they understandably eventually wanted to get paid and they more than the board felt it was worth for a variety of ease of use reasons so the club will have an updated website relatively soon.
Paypal is [email protected], please include your full name, address, phone number (cell y/n), email and R2R handle. That will allow us to mail you a membership card which still gets you discounts some places and helps keep track of who is an active member and ideally will allow for more forms of effective communication about meetings etc. As noted some people prefer R2R, some prefer facebook, the goal is to at least get an active member email list to share info like meeting locations times dates etc. as well as posting to the new website, R2R and facebook. Understandably folks aren't always checking the website/R2R/Facebook.

 

[Ti64reef]

Here is the link for tomorrows meeting.
Richard Merlino is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: CTARS Meeting
Time: Jan 13, 2021 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board...

us05web.zoom.us

Meeting ID: 881 3943 5170
Passcode: Q7pF15

 

[JMetaxas]

Yeah, sorry about that, our website needed work but we had a website provider that was hosting it pro bono but they understandably eventually wanted to get paid and they more than the board felt it was worth for a variety of ease of use reasons so the club will have an updated website relatively soon.
Paypal is [email protected], please include your full name, address, phone number (cell y/n), email and R2R handle. That will allow us to mail you a membership card which still gets you discounts some places and helps keep track of who is an active member and ideally will allow for more forms of effective communication about meetings etc. As noted some people prefer R2R, some prefer facebook, the goal is to at least get an active member email list to share info like meeting locations times dates etc. as well as posting to the new website, R2R and facebook. Understandably folks aren't always checking the website/R2R/Facebook.

How much are the dues. I'll pay today.

 

[kgstei]

How much are the dues. I'll pay today.

$20

 

[Dburr1014]

Hold on.... You know, last year I paid my dues. I was supposed to get a membership card but covid shut that down. No card, basically no meetings, not much of anything.
I propose to float payment this year or at least half price. ($10)
Not because I can't afford it, more like what, if any, bills did Ctars have to pay last year? From what I understand, we do have a healthy bank account. We can certainly float the payment. Any newbies will need to pay of course.
Thoughts?

 

[kgstei]

Hold on.... You know, last year I paid my dues. I was supposed to get a membership card but covid shut that down. No card, basically no meetings, not much of anything.
I propose to float payment this year or at least half price. ($10)
Not because I can't afford it, more like what, if any, bills did Ctars have to pay last year? From what I understand, we do have a healthy bank account. We can certainly float the payment. Any newbies will need to pay of course.
Thoughts?

That's not a bad idea, but probably one for the new board going forward. I have no idea what the club's finances or obligations are or even how many members it currently has.

 

[Mike_J]

Hold on.... You know, last year I paid my dues. I was supposed to get a membership card but covid shut that down. No card, basically no meetings, not much of anything.
I propose to float payment this year or at least half price. ($10)
Not because I can't afford it, more like what, if any, bills did Ctars have to pay last year? From what I understand, we do have a healthy bank account. We can certainly float the payment. Any newbies will need to pay of course.
Thoughts?

It's definitely a fair proposal.

 

[A.Jones]

It's definitely a fair proposal.

Totally fair proposal but that presumes that the club has "a healthy bank account" which really depends on how you define "healthy". We didn't spend a lot in 2020 but we didn't bring in much either. We are at less than 50% of where we were before the 2018 Christmas party to end all Christmas parties where the club deliberate blew through much of the savings anticipating that the club was going do dissolve because no one had stepped to take over the board. All members that attended went home with 2-3 free frags which the club paid for.
Without Fragtoberfest in 2020, which generates most of the clubs funds, pretty much the only revenue generated was from the sale of frags that Credible Coral Lab (now Capital Coral) donated along with frags donated by the board and member dues. We had about 40 memberships for about $800 and simply having an account with Bank of America to hold those funds eats up almost half of that.
But it's a legit proposal so lets discuss it at the meeting tonight and it can be the one of the first things the new board takes up.

 

[Dburr1014]

Okay, I was at that meeting and did get some frags. I did not know that the board was anticipating that the club might close and you are trying to eat up funds.
Yes, we can certainly discuss it tonight. I think I can make 8 pm if my 6 pm finishes by then.

 

[JMetaxas]

Totally fair proposal but that presumes that the club has "a healthy bank account" which really depends on how you define "healthy". We didn't spend a lot in 2020 but we didn't bring in much either. We are at less than 50% of where we were before the 2018 Christmas party to end all Christmas parties where the club deliberate blew through much of the savings anticipating that the club was going do dissolve because no one had stepped to take over the board. All members that attended went home with 2-3 free frags which the club paid for.
Without Fragtoberfest in 2020, which generates most of the clubs funds, pretty much the only revenue generated was from the sale of frags that Credible Coral Lab (now Capital Coral) donated along with frags donated by the board and member dues. We had about 40 memberships for about $800 and simply having an account with Bank of America to hold those funds eats up almost half of that.
But it's a legit proposal so lets discuss it at the meeting tonight and it can be the one of the first things the new board takes up.

OK, I'll wait to hear whether I should send $10 or $20. Either way, I'm fine.

 

[Mike_J]

Totally fair proposal but that presumes that the club has "a healthy bank account" which really depends on how you define "healthy". We didn't spend a lot in 2020 but we didn't bring in much either. We are at less than 50% of where we were before the 2018 Christmas party to end all Christmas parties where the club deliberate blew through much of the savings anticipating that the club was going do dissolve because no one had stepped to take over the board. All members that attended went home with 2-3 free frags which the club paid for.
Without Fragtoberfest in 2020, which generates most of the clubs funds, pretty much the only revenue generated was from the sale of frags that Credible Coral Lab (now Capital Coral) donated along with frags donated by the board and member dues. We had about 40 memberships for about $800 and simply having an account with Bank of America to hold those funds eats up almost half of that.
But it's a legit proposal so lets discuss it at the meeting tonight and it can be the one of the first things the new board takes up.

I have no idea about club finances since I never attend meetings. Perhaps the new BOD though, when confirmed, considers an account with a different bank. BOA is ridiculous with it's fees.

 

[Good_vibes_reefing]

Okay, I was at that meeting and did get some frags. I did not know that the board was anticipating that the club might close and you are trying to eat up funds.
Yes, we can certainly discuss it tonight. I think I can make 8 pm if my 6 pm finishes by then.

No one on the current BOD was on the board when they decided to hold the possible club dissolving Xmas party. We are actively doing our best not to eat up funds in anyway and as Aaron said no Fragtoberfest was a big loss to club funds this year as well as our free web hosting ending. If we hadn’t done so well at FFM we’d be a lot worse off than we are for sure. We will definitely go over all this in the zoom tonight.

 

[Mike_J]

For the prosperity of the club and investing in the future success of it, my opinion is we keep membership fee as it stands.

I also renewed my membership earlier today. No need to send me a card at this time.

 

[Good_vibes_reefing]

For the prosperity of the club and investing in the future success of it, my opinion is we keep membership fee as it stands.

I also renewed my membership earlier today. No need to send me a card at this time.

Thank you I agree with you and whether the new BOD choses to drop or not I will be paying $20 myself this year. Also if it’s not know all BOD members have to pay a membership as well.

As far as the cards go unfortunately they have been pretty much pointless the last 3-4 years. We haven’t had any stores willing to give discounts based on card showing for a bit. Instead we have been holding events at stores and giving discounts on that day. I’d love to see that go away and see stores give CTARS members a preference again but we need to make it worth it for them as well.

 

[Dburr1014]

Ha, I just noticed I don't even have a ctars badge next to my name. I've been a member of this club since early 2000s but I did take five or six years off.

 

[Mkus]

Sweet I’m in eastern Ct and my reefs been up since 2008 !!!
24 gal

 

[Mike_J]

Thank you I agree with you and whether the new BOD choses to drop or not I will be paying $20 myself this year. Also if it’s not know all BOD members have to pay a membership as well.

As far as the cards go unfortunately they have been pretty much pointless the last 3-4 years. We haven’t had any stores willing to give discounts based on card showing for a bit. Instead we have been holding events at stores and giving discounts on that day. I’d love to see that go away and see stores give CTARS members a preference again but we need to make it worth it for them as well.

I had no idea about the club sponsors either. Perhaps we should post the public relations position too. With all the renewed interest in the club, we might be able to fill it which could very well help bring store sponsorships back on board with discounts like they used to.

 

[Good_vibes_reefing]

Ha, I just noticed I don't even have a ctars badge next to my name. I've been a member of this club since early 2000s but I did take five or six years off. I just noticed I don't even have a ctars badge next to my name. I've been a member of this club since early 2000s but I did take five or six years off.

Actually the badge is given when you request to join the group which will be approved to allow you into the member only locked threads. This is another slate that needs to be wiped clean and restarted every year as I feel this should only be allowed for actual paid members. You pay to join you deserve a preference for supporting the club. Again all things we will be talking about tonight as people don’t understand how it’s used. You can post in this forum and interact all you want without actually being a member or needing approval but we actually get a bunch of requests from people thinking they need to do that to join the general chat. That’s not what thats for, it’s for paid members

 

[Dburr1014]

Yes, and I've been a paid Member for the past 5 years or more. I guess I'm not sure what your saying. I have posted on the ctars website in the past. I guess I thought the badge would be automatic is all. No biggie, I like the idea of a PR.