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Post by Richard on Jan 27, 2013 13:47:42 GMT -8
As you may know the first ever Coral Farmers Market in San Fernando Valley will be taking place from February 9-10. This is BIG!! CFM has long been regarded as one of the top conventions/swaps in the country for attaining rare corals. Vendors come from out of state to show off their best corals and hobbyists come from all over. And this is the first time it has ever been right here in the San Fernando Valley!!
Since SFVR will have a booth at this event, it would be a good idea to take advantage of this opportunity by showing off our club. This will serve two purposes: getting more attention on the club and raising funds. Getting more attention for the club means more sponsors and better donations. Raising funds means better events and more benefits for club members.
If you are still reading this I salute you! You care about our club!
So I am starting this thread to help us plan out what we will do with our booth at CFM. I have some ideas and I am sure many of you have good ideas on ways that we can raise funds and get attention. Please feel free to share your ideas! I will also be asking for volunteers to help out at the booth. This means talking to people about the club and helping out with frags sales or other duties (you will be trained so don't worry if this seems like a lot to you).
I understand that many of you are busy but I know that many of you will be going to CFM and it would help the club out so much if you could spend some time at the booth. Also you will look super official and awesome and people will think you are pro reefers or whatnot.
Ok so please feel free to post your ideas here and let me know if you could volunteer to sit at the booth and if so what day and what times!
Thank you SFVR members!
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Post by nikecivic on Jan 27, 2013 14:55:13 GMT -8
I would like to help out but if I do go I will be at the MASVC booth. The booth will need a niche that other booths don't have or is to promote the club.
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Post by chefzilla on Jan 27, 2013 15:49:43 GMT -8
Thank you for helping Richard. I am looking into getting a 4x2 or 6x2 banner for OUR club. I need to set up a meeting for next weekend to discuss the game plan on the cfm. I will call you later today. Or call me so we can discuss it Richard. I will post later and have it emailed to everyone regarding the meeting
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Post by Richard on Jan 27, 2013 17:12:31 GMT -8
One idea that I have is to have a game at the booth where people can win prizes like frags or small gift certificates to one of the the other vendors. I am not sure if anyone remembers the swap we had at Aquarium Works but it might be fun to have something like frag pong or reef quiz. Also we can think of other game ideas.
The point of the game would be to get people to be interactive with our booth. If the game is fun and novel and the prizes are good then people will be attracted to it and hopefully a crowd will form as people line up to play. It will also be a good chance for us to talk to people while they wait about the club and about joining.
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Post by Richard on Jan 28, 2013 20:14:10 GMT -8
Listen up everyone!!!
We have decided to allow members to sell their frags at our booth for a 25% on sales fee. This means that 25% of what you actually sell will go to the club. We are planning to acquire some cool tools for the club so everybody wins!
Some rules regarding this new policy are as follows:
1. Limit of 10 corals per person (donations are not included in this limit and some exceptions may be made depending on circumstance).
2. Must post on the CFM selling thread or contact me to be put on the list for people selling from our frag tank.
3. Must provide list of corals you are bringing and the prices.
4. The club will not take responsibility for missing corals or any mixups so you should stay by the booth or check in often to make sure everything is in order. (I will of course do my best to make sure corals are sold at the appropriate prices.)
5. Additional rules may be posted in the future.
Please feel free to post question about this offer!
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Post by Richard on Jan 29, 2013 16:37:07 GMT -8
Also anyone who volunteers to stay at our booth will be entered into a drawing for prizes!
Prizes will be determined but so far one of the prizes is a gift certificate to Fantastic Frags! Which is awesome because you can mosey on over to their booth and pick up a nice coral for yourself!
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Post by Richard on Feb 2, 2013 13:26:55 GMT -8
Another Announcement!
We will be having a membership drive at CFM! Anyone who pays to be an official member of SFVR at CFM will get a free SFVR T-Shirt!
We will also be adding new tools for the club including a bandsaw! And we will be offering more benefits for paid members including fragging service for new members and water testing!!
It pays to be an official member.
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Post by chefzilla on Feb 2, 2013 16:48:37 GMT -8
:-)
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Post by jadette on Feb 3, 2013 22:33:57 GMT -8
I guess I should throw my 2cents in. I completely agree with Richard when he said that if we don't have a nice frag tank set up for the booth, it's better not to have one at all. I'm really big on presentation. I also think prices should be put up. At FRAG, it looked like things were just thrown in the frag tank randomly. Also, the light we had over the corals were too yellow. It made my blue cali tort that I donated look like poop. I donated several frags. Not sure if anyone even bothered to purchase them. Tank should be set up with $5/$10/$15/$20/"please ask" sections. Easier for the person manning the booth to keep track of prices. I also agree that we should have a selection of "nice" brand name corals b/c donated corals usually aren't things like red dragons and utter chaos polyps. Some pretty little things to bring in a crowd. As far as puzzle games go - what about having our own raffle going of corals? Perhaps every hour or two hours. Everyone gets a ticket for every $5 or $10 purchased at the booth. We can have a mini whiteboard just announcing the winning ticket # that they can just claim at their leisure. We can post that info up at the RC forum to get people interested. I posted a little game right before FRAG on RC and it actually got a lot of responses! I will donate frags for the raffle. Nice ones. Brand name ones that we can advertise. But this will only work if we have folks willing to man the booth that are knowledgeable enough about the corals they are selling. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with my boys all day so I can't man the booth, but I can provide the corals.  |
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Post by Richard on Feb 4, 2013 15:54:27 GMT -8
Hi Shirley, I really appreciate the support!
I am helping Brent plan out the booth for CFM. We have been working hard to get things ready so it should be really nice. I am addressing the issue with the lighting. I think the problem might be the bulbs used in the t5 fixture. I will be working on it so the corals should look snazzy in our tank.
Thank you for the suggestion of showing prices. I will find dividers and bring some labels. I will also be bringing some dendrophyllia arbusculas to the booth and Brent has some things lined up as well. So I think the tank should look fairly captivating this time.
I really enjoyed your game on RC! Very fun! I will look into doing a frag raffle but I am not sure what donated frags we have right now. I'll talk to Brent about it. I was also thinking of having people sign up for our forum to be entered into a raffle. This will at least make the forum look bigger if not get more active members.
I should be at the booth for both days and I think Brent will be as well. Unfortunately no one else has volunteered. Oh well, I guess Brent and I will be in the raffle for volunteers haha. It should be fine though.
Thank you for all the input and donations!
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Post by Richard on Feb 4, 2013 15:57:37 GMT -8
Thinking about your guessing game some more I thought of a neat guessing game for CFM. Maybe we can have people put in guesses for how many new people will sign up on our forum on that day. That way they might try to tip the scales by signing up. Haha.
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jabel
Full Member
Posts: 160
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Post by jabel on Feb 4, 2013 16:01:35 GMT -8
Hey Richard, Fantastic Frags should have some labels you can have. I have a ton of them I bring to evey show. If possible you should think about putting an LED fixture with a controller over the tank. That way you can adjust the lighting to the look you want. Every event and location at the event can be different so being able to adjust is always nice.
Jeff
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Post by Richard on Feb 4, 2013 16:54:05 GMT -8
Hi Jeff, thanks for the suggestion and the labels. Brent has a DIY dimmable led fixture but I am not comfortable using it as it doesn't look very finished. Some of the leds blew out and there is no housing so the wires are exposed and the driverers are just resting on top of the heatsink. Also some of the lenses have fallen off. All in all I would say it would detract more than it would add. If we had more money I would say I could build an led fixture for our frag tank but I dunno. I really do like the idea of using dimmable leds for the frag tank but I am not sure it will be doable for CFM.
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Post by Richard on Feb 4, 2013 20:56:09 GMT -8
So we are definitely going to have "frag pong" at our booth. So basically the classic ping pong ball goldfish game but with frags and prizes. But I need to feedback from everyone about the game. I am thinking I would like to make it so that you have to sign up on the forum to have 3 throws. And if you are already signed up then you get 3 throws for free.
My question is, do you think people will actually sign up for those 3 throws? They would be able to win shirts, gift certificates, supplements and frags. Or do you think people will just pass on it? I will be bringing my laptop so they can sign up right there.
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Post by Richard on Feb 4, 2013 21:53:44 GMT -8
MAGIC!!! Everyone!
Chris from Reefkoi has offered to lend us an EVO 150w Dimmable LED fixture for CFM!!! Chris saves the day! Thank you so much for the help! Everyone be sure to thank him when you see him at the Reefkoi Booth!!
Our corals will now look as shnazzy as corally possible!
And Paul from Fantastic Frags has donated a ton of gift certificates to the club to give away as prizes for our reef games! Our booth at CFM is gonna be hoppin!
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