Continue the 'Novice Reefkeepers' lectures?

[Greg Hiller]

For most of this year now (and part of last) we've had a 30 minute talk with a question and answer period at the start of each meeting dedicated to going over some of the more basic topics in reef keeping. We did this because of a perceived interest on the part of some of the members that are new to the hobby. We covered the topics that members seemed the most interested in when we ran this poll:

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=54414&highlight=topics

Topics we covered so far were:

Algae Control
Calcium and Alkalinity
Magnesium
Balanced Calcium and Alkalinity Supplements
Calcium Reactors
Auto top off methodologies
RO/DI - how it works, why it's important
Preparation of saltwater
Phosphate and phosphate removers
Sugar and alcohol dosing

The plan for these talks was to have them at the beginning of the meeting, preferable with a small group at the front of, or off to the side of the main meeting group. That way members not interested could continue to chat amongst themselves. Unfortunately, due to the geometry of the meeting halls it's not alway been easy to give the 'Novice Reefkeepers' lecture in an isolated are.

Anyhow....I'm wondering if we should continue with part of the meeting. Is anyone getting anything out of it? We've kind of run out of what I'd consider 'novice' topics, and so we might start out at the top of the list again.

I've made this poll with only a yes option in that I just want to know if there are enough members still getting something out of the lectures. If you don't like the lectures, or just don't care about them, no need to vote. If I feel like we don't get a large enough poll response in the favorable category we will stop the lectures, or at least wait for a while until we have a lot of novices again as we accumulate new members.

 

[phaedraeos]

I'm still very new, and I've only been to two meetings, but I've highly benefitted from both of the last novice lectures. I vote to keep them up!

 

[saiyette]

I think the Newbie Lectures are a great idea. I learned a few things from the July meeting talk which is the only one I've heard so far. I think they would be a great selling point for the group to get new members to come to the meetings as well. As for adding topics, keep them short and simple. Maybe to expand on the talk idea is a DIY lecture where everyone who goes to the Newbie Lecture will take something home. "Oh! oh! oh! Lookit what I made!"

~Sai

 

[Jeff.:P]

I'll be coming to the meeting probably next month, and as a newbie I would enjoy these to continue.

 

[Joel A]

i like them, but think we should sometimes discuss a tad more complicated things

Coral placement, coral pests and remedies, fragging, etc.

 

[Greg Hiller]

The DIY and fragging stuff has also been covered at meetings over the past year. But these topics have not been part of the lecture series as such.

 

[RayD]

I'm certainly not a novice but I think the newbie lectures are great. I saw a ton of folks listening carefully on Saturday.

It's a great way to help the newer users out and maybe even remind some of us "veterans" of things we tend to neglect or forget about.

 

[BigDora]

Keep the Lectures

I thought the lecture was helpful. I thought I knew what I needed to know about those topics, but I learned something new. It may seem basic, but you don't always know what you don't know.

Claudia

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

30 Minute Info Presentations

I think that the novice talks are a good thing to keep....anyone even accomplished aquarists can still learn from these talks. The talks also get newbies off on the right start and hopefully make it so they stay in the hobby longer.

Not sure if this would work due to time constraints but I'll throw it out there anyway.......

Maybe we could expand the series into an intermediate and perhaps an expert series. Once the last talk of the expert series is done we could go back to the first talk in the Novice category.

The intermediate and expert series could cover the same topics as in the novice but in more depth without covering the simpler topics (to save time). Alternatively, these series could include lessons on keeping less hardier fish, anemones, and corals with perhaps members discussing there successes, failures, and lessons learned with these animals in a more "open" format as opposed to a lecture and listen format. These talks could also include any of the new techniques like zeovit, Balling, captive fish breeding, and perhaps address future new breakthroughs in the hobby along with current advances in equipment, lighting, etc. These "advanced" discussion may help to attract more of the "reef veterans" back to the meetings.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Chuck,

Interesting ideas. We've largely used the invited/guest speakers to present the more advanced stuff. We've had several talks on raising larval fish, some by outside speakers, some by myself, over the past 2 years. Zeovit I could not cover myself, and although we have some members with much more experience on several topics, sometimes they don't feel comfortable speaking in front of a group. Still...I think I will try and twist the arm of some of these people that I know of.

 

[saiyette]

The DIY **snip** has also been covered at meetings over the past year.

Maybe I am misunderstanding... Do you mean you have had meetings or lecture where you actually get to make something to take home? Because that was what I was thinking... Think of a simple DIY project that would be targeted toward new reef keepers, make up a supply list that people would have to bring with them and have a crafts day. I can only speak for myself, but I learn best when I can learn by doing... I understand the 'whys' better.

This might be a little more complicated in terms of planning, you might have to have a limit on how many people can attend and have people RSVP but it wouldn't be that difficult to organize.

~Sai

 

[Greg Hiller]

> Do you mean you have had meetings or lecture where you actually get to make something to take home? <

We've had DIY demo meetings in which a large number of projects and techniques for DIY have been shown and demonstrated (drilling tanks, 'mesh-moding' skimmers, building acrylic sumps, making powerhead brackets, etc.). While outside of the general meetings, I believe a few members have also run some 'come to my place and build a calcium reactor' type meetings.

It's certainly a worthwhile idea to do a project like this at an upcoming meeting (probably in lieu of the novice lecture), this would only be part of a meeting as we would likely have very poor attendence if that was all there was to the meeting.

 

[~Flighty~]

In lieu of a novice lecture, maybe it would be beneficial to have a loosely structured novice question and answer period. The benefit would be no prep time for a presenter and it would be easy to have a few members run it and field the questions in their areas of knowledge. So basically a couple of us could stand up there and start it off asking how peoples tanks are going, if they are having any problems, any fish they are thinking of buying and have questions about etc. Questions the panel couldn't give good answers to could be answered by others in the club or be written down to answer on the forum later. It would let the new people to the club get to know others and learn from other peoples mistakes and questions.

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Panel

I think having a panel and Q+A is an excellent idea to mix things up a little. It would allow more specific areas of interest in reefkeeping to be discussed, which would be ideal for the limited time available.

In lieu of a novice lecture, maybe it would be beneficial to have a loosely structured novice question and answer period. The benefit would be no prep time for a presenter and it would be easy to have a few members run it and field the questions in their areas of knowledge. So basically a couple of us could stand up there and start it off asking how peoples tanks are going, if they are having any problems, any fish they are thinking of buying and have questions about etc. Questions the panel couldn't give good answers to could be answered by others in the club or be written down to answer on the forum later. It would let the new people to the club get to know others and learn from other peoples mistakes and questions.

 

[Liam]

In lieu of a novice lecture, maybe it would be beneficial to have a loosely structured novice question and answer period. The benefit would be no prep time for a presenter and it would be easy to have a few members run it and field the questions in their areas of knowledge. So basically a couple of us could stand up there and start it off asking how peoples tanks are going, if they are having any problems, any fish they are thinking of buying and have questions about etc. Questions the panel couldn't give good answers to could be answered by others in the club or be written down to answer on the forum later. It would let the new people to the club get to know others and learn from other peoples mistakes and questions.

I think the forums are a better place to address question and answers.
There are many ways to achieve good results in this hobby and the forum allows for input from different perspectives rather than just one persons opinion of the best way to do something.
JMHO

 

[Greg Hiller]

>In lieu of a novice lecture, maybe it would be beneficial to have a loosely structured novice question and answer period. <

Sounds like a good idea, I certainly like the low prep time thing as I have spent many hours making up some of these lectures. I also hear where you are coming from Liam, but there are some that are more comfortable asking a question in person than posting on the forum.