Jacob D
12/21/2005, 10:59 AM
Hey Folks! Can you believe it was about just over year ago that the Northern Valley Reefers was nothing more than an idea that a few friends were talking about - and here we are today at the end of our first year as a club! I'll try to be brief but it's hard to do when writing about such a great experience. I want to thank everyone who has helped us achieve our goals in our first year. We could not have done it without you. This list includes the past and present BOD, all of our sponsors, friends, and fellow reefers in the other other clubs in this area. A few individuals deserve to be recognized specifically:
John (Tubs) of Exotic Reefs - John was our first sponsor, in fact before the club structure was even in place he volunteered to donate a bunch of corlas to kick off our first meeting raffle - which was a free raffle! Even more notably, John may not realize but NVR was his idea, that he instilled in Scott and myself. If it was not for a chance meeting in his garage a couple years ago NVR would probably not exist today.
Smaug and Whodah of CVR - You guys set us up with our first forum and that literally set things in motion, in fact you were a huge factor in deciding the name of this club! For those who remember the forum on CVR was "North Valley Reefers"... not so different from the name we settled on :)
Jim (BookFish) of BAR - Jim's insight on how to get our club established on the books was invaluable and we would have stumbled around for much longer without his help. Maybe more importantly was his advice to build a community and make everyone feel welcome - which is what we have strived to do.
Shawn (SagitariusUCB) of MARS - Shawn offered tons of encouragement and support from a PR standpoint when we were just getting going. Not to mention rallying the troops in MARS to come join us for meetings.
...and last but not least...
Scott (Plankton) - Scott is our VP and my right hand man, I really can't say enough about the effort Scott put forth to get our organization set up with all the legalities in place, not to mention his insight in most of the major decisions we have had to make.
Everyone mentioned above and all those not mentioned by name made this club happen. We have been lucky to have such a great group of people invloved with us. Thanks everyone!
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Now that all the "thank you's" have been said, here is a summary of 2005 and a preview of 2006:
January was the first ever NVR meeting, at Gina's house in Stockton. It was then that we decided there was enough interest in this area to go forward with the club. Over the course of the year we hosted several guest speakers, as well as group projects, workshops, and discussions. There were also some outings thrown in strictly for fun such as the BBQ and trip to the Bay Area fish stores. A lot of new friends were made, and good times shared.
In the mean time the BOD was working to figure out exactly how things should run behind the scenes and get it all organized. I think we'll continue to improve our organization but we did make a ton of progress and that will help us focus on other things in 2006.
Speaking of 2006 here is a preview of what you can expect:
* We'll be switching to bi-monthly meetings (as decided in October). Our first meeting will be in Febuary. We have been looking for a new, larger venue, thus our first meeting will be at Cancun in 'new' downtown Stockton.
* We are attempting to fill all of the meetings with a guest speaker appearance. Efforts will be focused on bringing in a 'big name' in the second half of the year. We are currently working and planning these speaker appearances.
* In the 'off months' we'll be sneaking in events such as a tank tour, bbq, group trips, etc... basically events that are of non-educational value and don't fit into our regular schedule as an educational entity.
* Aside from that we want, and hope, that the club will grow even more. The BOD will be working hard to promote the club in more ways, and we hope the members will too through word of mouth. The bigger we are as a group the more we can accomplish to benefit everyone invloved!
Well I said I would try to be brief, and that didn't work out too well for me. I'm a better educated reefer and had a lot of fun with the club this year - that's really what NVR boils down to. I want wish everyone happy holidays and I look forward to seeing you all next year, and many new faces as well.
Happy Reefing,
Jacob.
John (Tubs) of Exotic Reefs - John was our first sponsor, in fact before the club structure was even in place he volunteered to donate a bunch of corlas to kick off our first meeting raffle - which was a free raffle! Even more notably, John may not realize but NVR was his idea, that he instilled in Scott and myself. If it was not for a chance meeting in his garage a couple years ago NVR would probably not exist today.
Smaug and Whodah of CVR - You guys set us up with our first forum and that literally set things in motion, in fact you were a huge factor in deciding the name of this club! For those who remember the forum on CVR was "North Valley Reefers"... not so different from the name we settled on :)
Jim (BookFish) of BAR - Jim's insight on how to get our club established on the books was invaluable and we would have stumbled around for much longer without his help. Maybe more importantly was his advice to build a community and make everyone feel welcome - which is what we have strived to do.
Shawn (SagitariusUCB) of MARS - Shawn offered tons of encouragement and support from a PR standpoint when we were just getting going. Not to mention rallying the troops in MARS to come join us for meetings.
...and last but not least...
Scott (Plankton) - Scott is our VP and my right hand man, I really can't say enough about the effort Scott put forth to get our organization set up with all the legalities in place, not to mention his insight in most of the major decisions we have had to make.
Everyone mentioned above and all those not mentioned by name made this club happen. We have been lucky to have such a great group of people invloved with us. Thanks everyone!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that all the "thank you's" have been said, here is a summary of 2005 and a preview of 2006:
January was the first ever NVR meeting, at Gina's house in Stockton. It was then that we decided there was enough interest in this area to go forward with the club. Over the course of the year we hosted several guest speakers, as well as group projects, workshops, and discussions. There were also some outings thrown in strictly for fun such as the BBQ and trip to the Bay Area fish stores. A lot of new friends were made, and good times shared.
In the mean time the BOD was working to figure out exactly how things should run behind the scenes and get it all organized. I think we'll continue to improve our organization but we did make a ton of progress and that will help us focus on other things in 2006.
Speaking of 2006 here is a preview of what you can expect:
* We'll be switching to bi-monthly meetings (as decided in October). Our first meeting will be in Febuary. We have been looking for a new, larger venue, thus our first meeting will be at Cancun in 'new' downtown Stockton.
* We are attempting to fill all of the meetings with a guest speaker appearance. Efforts will be focused on bringing in a 'big name' in the second half of the year. We are currently working and planning these speaker appearances.
* In the 'off months' we'll be sneaking in events such as a tank tour, bbq, group trips, etc... basically events that are of non-educational value and don't fit into our regular schedule as an educational entity.
* Aside from that we want, and hope, that the club will grow even more. The BOD will be working hard to promote the club in more ways, and we hope the members will too through word of mouth. The bigger we are as a group the more we can accomplish to benefit everyone invloved!
Well I said I would try to be brief, and that didn't work out too well for me. I'm a better educated reefer and had a lot of fun with the club this year - that's really what NVR boils down to. I want wish everyone happy holidays and I look forward to seeing you all next year, and many new faces as well.
Happy Reefing,
Jacob.