Frag Fest

Hey Chappy,
Members get raffle tickets free...so in essence, for those who choose to support the club with annual dues, it could be considered similar to door prizes. These events cost the club thousands of dollars to put on. Flying in knowledgeable speakers, putting them up and paying their speaking fees, to paying for the venue, advertising, and materials needed to put on the show typically costs over $4,000 per show. And that doesn't even take into consideration the hundreds of volunteer hours that go into the event. The volunteers are no reimbursed for their time that they donate to the club. The entry fees alone do not cover the expenses for the show. We rely on the proceeds from the raffle and booth sales to make up the difference. While it would be nice to be able to give everything away free, that simply can't be done because of the expenses associated with the shows. If you can find a cost effective way to put on a show where we don't have to charge our attendees an entry fee, I would strongly encourage that you contact the club leadership and present your proposal.
I would encourage you to try your luck with the raffle. I buy a fair number of tickets and I've never walked away with less than 4 to 5 times return on what I spend. Obviously that's not a guarantee that you'll win something, but look at the odds, they are pretty good.
At the last show, I was selling frags for $5 each...and had about 7 or 8 different varieties to choose from . Tell me anywhere that you can get a frag of *anything* online for $5 a frag.
If you don't see the kind of value that you would like to see, whether it be in the content presented, the vendors that are there, or the raffle, become a club member and make it better. Otherwise, all I can say is that we're doing the best we can with what we have.
--AJ

 

I appreciate your willingness to offer ideas and your desire to help. If you really want to help, I would encourage you to become a member and become involved with the event planning committee and you'll get the opportunity to discuss your ideas and put them to use if they are justifiably feasible. Thanks!

--AJ

 

To clarify, members paid $10 at the last fest for entry, but also received $10 worth of raffle tickets. You can view that as either 10 free tickets or free entrance to the event with the purchase of 10 tickets. I do believe the budgeting information is made public to members (if not, I suggest it should be). I think there may be a gross misunderstanding of how much these events cost, how much money they bring in, and what happens to the "profits" by many individuals (I seem to remember a similar thread with similar comments made about MACNA earnings). I think the idea of door prizes is good, however we would have to start charging more for them. Every once in a while we have received some SWAG to give out, usually in the form of aquarium additives. At $10 a ticket it's pretty tough to hand things out unless they are donated to the club to begin with (and again this has happened before). As for the raffle, I think it's pretty much a given that the person that puts the most tickets in on any given item has a higher chance of winning. Don't think of it as "that guy dropped $200" but rather "there are 1000 total tickets (guesstimate) and every dollar of mine gives me 1/1000 chance to win". It stands to reason, I think, that big ticket items are going to have more people gunning for them.

 

dont forget also that not only do paid members get 10 free tickets, but for an additional $10 they can purchase the rest of the sheet. thats another 5 free tickets. Non members do not have this option.

 

I also think the club does a great job putting on these events and have enjoyed the perks of being a member fully! I agree that helpful suggestions are needed to bring new ideas to the club, but that being said, it's the club members that are making all this possible. JOIN!

 

We have a yearly Business meeting that all members are welcome and encouraged too attend. We go over all that and much much more. The BoD of this Non profit org do all their work as volunteers. We spend hours putting together the events, the trustees also spend a lot of time planning and conducting meetings. The amount of time people put in to organizing MACNA was in the 10's of 1000's. We do this because we have a passion for the hobby. membership dues pay for things like keeping this website up. fall fest and spring fest, regional budgets and much much more that every single member benefits from. Probably more so then the people actually making them happen.

 

just for the record we did have some free handouts at the raffle booth. Some water additives, salt creep eliminator, and one other thing that slips my mind at the moment

 

you can barely get a sandwich for $20... I've had a great experience as a member-even after losing my a** in the last two raffles. the speaker at last years saved me twenty times the entry fee with the knowledge he shared with me. i think the speakers should get door prizes/DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif

 

I suck at at the raffle some how.

 

Perhaps we could make a sticky or something regarding "what the membership fee gets me" to be able to direct people to?

 

Bela I think thats a great idea. One of the things I plan on working on with members help is a FAQ. This would defiantly fit that bill

 

I do not think anyone took your constructive post as bad mouthing, at least I didn't.
Feed back on these sort of things are highly encouraged. I don't have an answer to having the clubs financials posted some where on the page, I have mixed feelings about it but I will bring it up with the rest of the board, and it will be discussed. As far as having a door prize as you suggested. I wouldn't be opposed to something like this, but I do think that considering the cost of the raffle tickets along with the size of our raffles, which are not small, we gave away at least 1 tank worth 3 grand at fall fest alone, may be a little overkill. That is to say if the crew that is putting on one of our festivals wanted to do something like this they could.

Keep in mind though our raffle is at the very end of the show and it is a must be present to win raffle.

 

Door prizes are not high end things. They are like Fish food,filters,heaters and that sort of stuff. You can do both it just take a person to call or contact companies in the Hobby to donate door prize items to the club. I didn't do this in the Freshwater clubs, but the officers did all the time. Great I Idea