Cedar Rapids Trustee Position

Everyone:
Assuming that Jason G. handles things the same as Billy did last year, we will be having elections next month for the groups regional trustees.   Steph has been our trustee for the last year and she has done a fantasitc job, but she has indicated that she plans to take a break and focus on some other things.
If we want to have another great year in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City region, someone is going to need to step up to the plate and be willing to take over as our trustee.   Based on the lack of interest that has been shown in the other leadership positions in the group (President, VP, etc) I am very concerned that we will be able to find someone willing to spend a little bit of time to help guide the group.
If there is no trustee for the area, there is no meetings, no tank tours, no pizza parties or anything else because someone has to take the lead on planning those activities.
So...   I would encourage each and every one of you to reflect for a minute on what you get from the club, what you thing the club could/should be and what you could do to help it get there.     If you feel that you have something to offer, I would encourage you to throw your name in the hat for regional trustee. 
I'll get off my soapbox now, but I would like to thank Steph for the work she has done this year.   Between planning our local events and helping organize Fall Fest, she has done a terrific job.
-JB

 

Fawn,

It sounds like you're going to have a busy 2009 as it is, so I'm thinking we should maybe find someone with a little less on their plate!

Is nobody else willing to give it a shot?

It's going to be a boring year around here if we don't have a local trustee.

-JB

 

Thanks for considering joining the board of directors for the club. Without effective leadership (especially in the individual areas) the club would not be able to serve it's members very well.

What does a trustee do? That's a very good question and to be real honest, it's not defined very well yet. As 2009 VP, I'm going to try and work with Jason G. (our 2009 president) to better define the roles and expectations for each of the BOD positions. The goal is to make it so that the stuff that needs to get done gets done, but at the same time it's not so much work that it takes all of the enjoyment out of the club.

Here's what my personal impression (aka non-official) of the roles of an area trustee.

1) Lead the organization of at least 3 area club events per year. This includes meetings, tank tours, pizza parties and cook outs.
2) Be a liaison to local fish stores. For us this includes Pet's Playhouse, Bobo's, Sea of Marvel, PetLand and to some degree PetCo/PetSmart
3) Promote the club & club events when possible. For example, post on craiglist, provide materials to LFS's, and whatever other clever ideas you can think of.3
4) Work with other members of the BOD to make decisions that effect the club. This includes periodic scheduled BOD chats and discussions in the BOD forum.
5) Help foster both new members and foster leadership from existing members.

The club by-laws state that members of the BOD can not be paid. However, Jason and I have been discussing ways that we could possibly help motivate and reward trustees for outstanding efforts during the year.

Once FallFest is behind us, I hope to work with Jason to get this info better defined before we make the "official" call for trustee nomination.

-JB

 

Wow, that's great Caleb. It's nice to see that we have a few great canidates for the 2009 CR/IC trustee position. I hope the other areas are so lucky!

-JB