What is the deal with ORCA

[rcpalmer1]

I would love to find a Reef Club in the area to find others that enjoy reefing as much as I do. I seen where Orca was having a meeting and membership Drive last Saturday at Top Shelf Aquatics. It still shows the meeting for the night on their form. I drove over and the people at topshelf said that the meeting had been postponed. There are not many Post in their forum later than 2018. I had went ahead and posted how I had drove 2 hours round trip to come to their meeting and there wasn't one that that's not really good for membership since I was wanting to become a member. I just logged back on to their site to see if the meeting was happening tonight like the people at topshelf said. They have not updated the Forum with the new date for the meeting but I did notice that my post has been deleted. So is orca a real thing. I just don't understand there is almost no activity yet they say they're trying to get more members. Then when somebody is trying to become a member they are not contacted but their messages are deleted so somebody is there looking at them that has administrative rights.

 

[jsker]

I would love to find a Reef Club in the area to find others that enjoy reefing as much as I do. I seen where Orca was having a meeting and membership Drive last Saturday at Top Shelf Aquatics. It still shows the meeting for the night on their form. I drove over and the people at topshelf said that the meeting had been postponed. There are not many Post in their forum later than 2018. I had went ahead and posted how I had drove 2 hours round trip to come to their meeting and there wasn't one that that's not really good for membership since I was wanting to become a member. I just logged back on to their site to see if the meeting was happening tonight like the people at topshelf said. They have not updated the Forum with the new date for the meeting but I did notice that my post has been deleted. So is orca a real thing. I just don't understand there is almost no activity yet they say they're trying to get more members. Then when somebody is trying to become a member they are not contacted but their messages are deleted so somebody is there looking at them that has administrative rights.

I would suggest reaching out to them via facebooks. I tried to go to the ORCA site, I am seeing a text page, then an error when clicking on the text links.

 

[rcpalmer1]

I just checked their FB. The last post was Jan 24. Not sure how they communicate but all of their members knew the meeting was canceled last week. It doesn't take long to make a post if something changes. I just find it strange that they say they are having a membership drive but don't post information so people can go.

 

[Radman73]

It's a fairly small club at this point. I understand your frustration, and was put off at first by the lack of communication when I first moved down. But, they are a great group of people. I do wish we'd get a more consistent platform for communication.

 

[rcpalmer1]

It's a fairly small club at this point. I understand your frustration, and was put off at first by the lack of communication when I first moved down. But, they are a great group of people. I do wish we'd get a more consistent platform for communication.

So how does one find out what is going on? I would love to find some reefers to meet up with.

 

[Radman73]

So how does one find out what is going on? I would love to find some reefers to meet up with.

I'd check the FB page the most. Prob the best place to post questions as well.

 

[ccampo]

I would love to find a Reef Club in the area to find others that enjoy reefing as much as I do. I seen where Orca was having a meeting and membership Drive last Saturday at Top Shelf Aquatics. It still shows the meeting for the night on their form. I drove over and the people at topshelf said that the meeting had been postponed. There are not many Post in their forum later than 2018. I had went ahead and posted how I had drove 2 hours round trip to come to their meeting and there wasn't one that that's not really good for membership since I was wanting to become a member. I just logged back on to their site to see if the meeting was happening tonight like the people at topshelf said. They have not updated the Forum with the new date for the meeting but I did notice that my post has been deleted. So is orca a real thing. I just don't understand there is almost no activity yet they say they're trying to get more members. Then when somebody is trying to become a member they are not contacted but their messages are deleted so somebody is there looking at them that has administrative rights.

You can blame it to the new BOD, they have not been very active this year not sure why.
I'm just the messenger, web admin, and just like you I also showed up to TSA that same day to find out there was no meeting.

This month, April, there's supposed to be a good meeting visiting an aquaculture facility, I think, I do not know any details but as soon as I confirm something I'll post it here and in the forums.

We used to be a very active club, but we only have just a few members now so that makes it more difficult.

 

[rcpalmer1]

I seen where the TSA meeting was a membership drive. ORCA has their own forum and section on this forum. It would seem easy to when and where the meetings are going to be.

I am just trying to to find some people I can share my enjoyment of the hobby with.

 

[James Kanouff]

I seen where the TSA meeting was a membership drive. ORCA has their own forum and section on this forum. It would seem easy to when and where the meetings are going to be.

I am just trying to find some people I can share my enjoyment of the hobby with.

Pm me ill make it a point to TXT you my info, and add your info to our mailer system for the meeting info. We battle several issues. Spamming the face book site by bulk advertisers pushing off anything relative to the club in hours, a name change to the club a few years ago to get National non profit status for the club, and a much smaller group of volunteers 5-8 who run the day to day stuff. We DESPERATELY need new folks to be active and help keep things going. We try n have an expert speaker every year, a holliday party, we plant sea oats as a group each year in the spring at the beach, A monthly meeting is a goal that is not always happening, and of course having fun. We definetly want to have you to our next event. I will be at MACNA 2019 every day and even several days before helping volunteers get stuff done and I invite you to come be part of that as well. It will be good fun. There is a basic sign up form on the MACNA official page at the very bottom.
Everyone jokes about "marching around the table" filling gifts bags as if its horrible job. But honestly its fun! The same folks come back year after year, and we have good talks, share pizza, and get to be part of something as a group. There are lots of other projects as well. I can also invite you to my reef to see my insanity. There is a lot to look at here. Even a few frags to swap maybe.... Thanks for reaching out.

 

[PapaDragon]

This club was so active a couple of years ago. Now it’s just confusion all the way around. If you need members you can’t cancel a membership meeting at the last minute without posting it on all your information outlets. I know running a club isn’t easy, but if you don’t invest in recruiting new blood you are inviting a slow death. I have posted several times on your website with the intention of becoming a due paying member, but I was scared off by the lack of activity.

 

[James Kanouff]

This club was so active a couple of years ago. Now it’s just confusion all the way around. If you need members you can’t cancel a membership meeting at the last minute without posting it on all your information outlets. I know running a club isn’t easy, but if you don’t invest in recruiting new blood you are inviting a slow death. I have posted several times on your website with the intention of becoming a due paying member, but I was scared off by the lack of activity.

There is pretty much no one left to keep the club going. People stopped helping and getting involved and the BOD is the only ones anymore. Putting together meetings and events that no one shows up to is alot of work. There are no less that 6 pages that folks communicate on now to our club and posting everything on all of those and getting the four active members to get together at each others homes is pretty much the same as when we see each other at a restaurant n hang out. The outlook is not fantastic right now unless we can find someone who wants to put the time n effort into it for no pay. We voted last month to close one of the web pages and stop paying for the web host site from the old ORCA club. We will move forward with our now 3 yr old register National non profit 501c3 name ORE and continue organizing monthly meetings on our Facebook page and no where else was the decisions to be voted on this next meeting I think. Meetings will be as often as we can find someone to host and organize them. I'll have to look up our next meeting info. Its elections I believe where the same four people will again be board members and no one new will elect or run for positions as its been four years now. The frag events are the same four people trading corals or giving them away after hours of work. The forums are spammed with people selling stuff irrelevant to the hobby that we remove constantly and burry the important posts in hours. The local stores have hosted so many meetings we feel like we work at them. I haven't seen a new hobbyist members tank in 6 years. Its tuff but we try n support the hobby still and several of us were at MACNA last week. I my self was the LEAD volunteer coordinator of 40 volunteers. David helped organize the local to do list Tucker posted photos of our tanks for MACNA to use on there site. Lloyd doesn't even have tanks anymore but SARA still acts as treasurer which is huge help to get taxes filed every year. Is it clear yet what the problem is? NO one else cares to join or support the club were running anymore. Total paid members is 5 or 6 this year to my knowledge. We planted sea oats in feb, saw TSA's farm. Hosted a speaker about aquaponics at davids school, had a meting at my home again, plan to have a holliday party as usual, its the same small group of us doing it. I wish new folks would get involved but I'm not gonna chase them down to get them to come anymore or randomly ask what other folks wanna do on weekends that don't suite the 5 members we do have. The current members decide what we will do each month if anything, and we post the info on FB and anyone else who wants to come can find it and its free to come and listen to anyone. I'm not sure why but clubs are just drying up nowadays. I still Love it and keep trying but only so hard. It was good to see you at MACNA! Please make any suggestions keeping in mind who will do said work for free.

 

[PapaDragon]

There is pretty much no one left to keep the club going. People stopped helping and getting involved and the BOD is the only ones anymore. Putting together meetings and events that no one shows up to is alot of work. There are no less that 6 pages that folks communicate on now to our club and posting everything on all of those and getting the four active members to get together at each others homes is pretty much the same as when we see each other at a restaurant n hang out. The outlook is not fantastic right now unless we can find someone who wants to put the time n effort into it for no pay. We voted last month to close one of the web pages and stop paying for the web host site from the old ORCA club. We will move forward with our now 3 yr old register National non profit 501c3 name ORE and continue organizing monthly meetings on our Facebook page and no where else was the decisions to be voted on this next meeting I think. Meetings will be as often as we can find someone to host and organize them. I'll have to look up our next meeting info. Its elections I believe where the same four people will again be board members and no one new will elect or run for positions as its been four years now. The frag events are the same four people trading corals or giving them away after hours of work. The forums are spammed with people selling stuff irrelevant to the hobby that we remove constantly and burry the important posts in hours. The local stores have hosted so many meetings we feel like we work at them. I haven't seen a new hobbyist members tank in 6 years. Its tuff but we try n support the hobby still and several of us were at MACNA last week. I my self was the LEAD volunteer coordinator of 40 volunteers. David helped organize the local to do list Tucker posted photos of our tanks for MACNA to use on there site. Lloyd doesn't even have tanks anymore but SARA still acts as treasurer which is huge help to get taxes filed every year. Is it clear yet what the problem is? NO one else cares to join or support the club were running anymore. Total paid members is 5 or 6 this year to my knowledge. We planted sea oats in feb, saw TSA's farm. Hosted a speaker about aquaponics at davids school, had a meting at my home again, plan to have a holliday party as usual, its the same small group of us doing it. I wish new folks would get involved but I'm not gonna chase them down to get them to come anymore or randomly ask what other folks wanna do on weekends that don't suite the 5 members we do have. The current members decide what we will do each month if anything, and we post the info on FB and anyone else who wants to come can find it and its free to come and listen to anyone. I'm not sure why but clubs are just drying up nowadays. I still Love it and keep trying but only so hard. It was good to see you at MACNA! Please make any suggestions keeping in mind who will do said work for free.

I completely understand. In the age of digital information always being available it’s difficult to motivate people to show up for meetings on their weekends. My post was not intended to belittle the effort that you and others have dedicated to the hobby locally. It was supposed to be a reflection of how I believe the club is perceived from the outside. From this thread alone you have two maybe three potential new members. I honestly didn’t even realize the club had shrunk so much. What does the club need that I can help with? I actually credit this club with getting me into the hobby.

 

[bubbaque]

I’ve always had an interest in the club but I always thought it was basically closed down. I would see other clubs in different areas and wish it was ours.

I’m also willing to help try and revitalize the club.

 

[James Kanouff]

The next scheduled meeting is September 28th at a members house with 3 reef tanks. Our annual elections results will happen briefly and the plan is a DIY TALK about recharging GFO by yours truly. I can post the address and more info tomorrow. I'm confirming everything is a go as we planed first quarter with the member this evening. The meeting is open to anyone for free. If there is enough folks we can do a Raffle 1$ per ticket. To go to the holliday party at the end of the year you must be a paid member and there is a small charge for the food I believe or we will do a pot luck I can't remember what this years plan is exactly. There is a meeting in october, details will be posted once I confirm it. There is no meeting in november and the holliday party is early december in place of a november / december meeting and all the holidays in there that folks have dedicated to. Thats how it is every year. January is held with the feburary meeting in early feburary the last 4 years. Thats when the permits for sea oats planting are given out ands the city offers the baby plants for us to plant. It is our sea oats planting 5th year anniversary and BBQ after. March is not scheduled yet. The official place for information is our club FACE BOOK PAGE. All the other random places may or may not get the most current information. Meaning R2R, instagram, ORCA's old page, Reef central or any other place folks post about the club. If you sign up to be a member we try to send out a BLAST EMAIL to your email you give us the weekend before with details. Which very often gets blocked or goes to spam folder so we don't do it as much anymore. Ill add more info here and kindly invite anyone who is interested to come be part of the club and maybe get things going again. We need new interested members desperately. Thank you everyone.

 

[James Kanouff]

I also want to post that Cesar O. also helped tremendously at MACNA!!! I didnt give him credit in the other post above by accident. He stayed till the very end and helped me clean up and also helped all day the day before. He is the Web admin for us and has always kept the club web site going for FREE, which has been a huge help for atlas 10 years now. HE him self has three children busy with soccer and school and still tries to find time for the club. We thank everyone who helps with the club and we want to keep it going. We want a clear singular place for the information and thats been hard to accomplish with our small group of volunteers running the club. Were working on a new logo, new business cards and our 501C3 bylaws are completed and functional. That took years to get sorted out and applied with the government and taxes situated n so forth. There has been alot of work that burned some folks out. Replacements with fresh energy are desperately needed to keep it going.

 

[bubbaque]

I look forward to more info tomorrow.

 

[TinaJoe]

What is the facebook page name ? We are new, have one tank up and re-finishing a used 280 gal. We are on east side of orlando but would love to meet up with others if we can.

 

[James Kanouff]

Additional info about the clubs web sites is-Our last board meeting 2 months ago was mostly to get the club into Face book age and alter our online situation to better suit the new generations/ new NAME and 501c3 status meaning we would consolidate the Various forms n pages and information to one Face book site and then set that page up so that our proper registered name and club information are shared in a way that the
BOD can manage. Now new folks can join or follow us. Thats in the process and were adding features still and can be seen at
-Our O.R.E. FB web site is

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com

-Our now locked read only "formally ORCA" FB web site is https://www.facebook.com/groups/109749092936/

-Our minimally active ORCA/ +ORE web site and all the archived elections n so forth from way back is still at https://o-r-c-a.org and contains information we hesitate to abandon at this time. This oldest site is mostly inactive and competes with R2R and Reef central as well for club info and it is too complicated to use them all we find. It is linked to all the other sites and its centrally navigable which is the main value of it at this time and adds to the confusion but is just not used much anymore like FB is hence the issues.

 

[James Kanouff]

I have not heard back from our club member hosting this months meeting to confirm its a go so ill wait another day to post the address till I'm sure. The back up location is usually my home or another BOD members home. Either way there will be a meeting in the central orlando area Saturday September 28 at 6 pm. Free to attend. Details will be posted here and on our FB page ASAP. Thanks for being patient.

 

[James Kanouff]

The Orlando Reef Educators next meeting is confirmed.
Saturday September 28 at 6 pm. There will be light snacks and drinks. Andrea Meena's home has a great 10 + yr old 260 with RBTa's n clowns galore as well as three smaller reef tanks in the adjoining room that are several years old now and growing great. There will be a talk about regenerating GFO and talk about our clubs future. Guests are welcome. There will also be a Raffle with various products from MACNA 2019. See you there.

3405 Bellington DR. Orlando Florida 32835