South Florida Reef Club?

[Jgoal55]

First off, to the Mod's: If this is in the wrong place please move. Thanks.

Secondly, I also posted this message in the South Florida Reef Club forum but the last post there is over 2yrs old and so I am not sure if it still gets looked at so I wanted to ask the questions here as well.

Below is the message I posted on said forum.

Thanks,
Jorge

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Hey All,

I am a current member of the Atlanta Reef Club. I am moving back to South Florida (miami) and while I know it will be difficult to find, I want to see if there is anything close to what is the Atlanta Reef Club.

The ARC is an amazing club and I would love to have something like that in South Florida where it would seem almost natural given the sheer number of Marine stores in the area. From the looks of it though, the last post here is approaching 3 years old and I am curious to see if maybe there is just a new forum or if it died out.

If the latter is true, I would be glad to take the lead to get this going again. The way I see it, if land-locked Atlanta, GA can have such an amazing reef club with such great, knowledgeable people, then it shouldn't be too difficult to to start something similar in a place where the ocean is never more than a few miles a way.

Hope to hear from some of you and I look forward to meeting you all when I move down.

Thanks,
Jorge

[jeffbrig]

Hi Jorge,

The local club in S. Florida is the Florida Marine Aquarium Society (FMAS), with members primarily in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The club was established in 1955, and we typically have about 300 members annually. I am the current vice president for the club.

We hold a monthly meeting with a guest speaker and an auction afterward. The next meeting is scheduled for Feb 26 at New River Middle School in Ft. Lauderdale. Membership is not required to attend the meetings, although certain events are member-only. For example, we're planning a big frag swap for March 9th where members can buy, sell, and trade livestock and equipment.

Here is a link to our local forum here on RC:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=235

You can also check our website for more information, including a great LFS finder powered by GoogleMaps.
www.fmas1955.org

-Jeff

[Jgoal55]

Hi jeff,

Thanks so much for the info....sounds like a great club and I heard that recently you had Julian Sprung there to speak to you guys! thats great! I am moving down to Miami in April so I look forward to meeting you all.

The only issue I have with the club is the meeting dates but I am sure you may have heard that before and I guess majority rules.....It's just tough to get to Ft. Lauderdale from miami on a Tuesday at 7:15pm. I am probably way to new to make suggestions but I did see on the website that the meetings are always held at New River......I wonder if it would be a bad idea to hold some meetings in Dade county maybe every other or every couple of months.

Other than that though the club sounds great and I look forward to participating in the boards now that you pointed them out to me.

Thanks,
Jorge

[jeffbrig]

The topic of Broward vs. Dade does come up from time to time, and sometimes it is an ugly debate. :D

There are several reasons for holding the meetings where we do. New River is a public magnet school for marine science. We maintain a tank for them, and they provide us with free meeting space, which is a big savings for us.

The location is also pretty convenient for the membership as a whole. It's right off I-595, which makes it easy to reach from I-95, I-75/sawgrass, or the turnpike. We also have to consider that some of our members are in Palm Beach County, so they have an equally long drive from the other direction.

Between the auction and socializing, we're usually there till 10pm, so there's no need to be there at 7:15 sharp. :D

[Jgoal55]

lol....yeah I figured that may have come up a couple of times......makes sense though about some members being further north and of course the free meeting space (thats unbeatable) ....and thats good to know that you guys are there late some nights....Ill definitely try to make a few of the meetings.

Thanks again for the info!