defiesexistence

A fellow member and I have been having some pretty advanced discussion about making an aquatic club for us fish crazies in Wisconsin. Madison already has one, but we're looking at one for the entire state, or one each for the northern and southeastern areas.

A few details: We'd have a website with LFS reviews, news, meeting dates, and other information. If there is membership, it'll be about 15$ yearly. We'd send out newsletters by email monthly; it'll have a few articles, a classified, and etc. We'd also do a biyearly plant swap and maybe a few 'field trips' to aquariums, etc. Meetings would be bimonthly, maybe one up north, maybe one in the south.

So, if Wisconsin had an aquarium club, would you join? And if you have any suggestions, feel free to post them.

JakeJ

Hey Defiesexistance!

I'd join in a heartbeat....

(as you know).

bigstick120

I dont think your Governor will allow that.

davemonkey

Just in case you guys would ever want to consider Not-For-Profit or Tax-Exempt status, start checking your state's regulations and registrations for that now before you get started. It helps tremendously to know what you'll need ahead of time. Even if you don't apply for it for several years down the road, at least you'll have the necessary forms, etc... already in place.

JakeJ

Best thing that has happened to WI in I do not know how long.




Anyway, thanks for the help Davemonkey! I will begin to look into that stuff when I can.

Do you guys have any idea how many members is a good number to start out with? 25 state wide?

davemonkey

HAAPS started out with 3 local members and 1 that is 3 hrs away. I'd say any number more than 2 is a good starting points...then let it grow how it wants.

defiesexistence

And this is the fellow member I'm talking about. We all miss you on TPT, by way of an aside, but you know this I just wanted to mention it now, seeing as I missed the 'Sayonara Jake boat'

Dave, thanks for talking to us about legalities! I've been wondering about this, and we most certainly appreciate your guiding us in the proper direction!

Forgot to mention in the first post, we'd like to keep the club politically neutral, even as we form it, absolutely no offense to anyone here. There's enough turmoil going on where we don't need politics in a fish club Jake, we can try from five members on, or even the two we've got, like Dave said. Fish crazies attract more of themselves. I'll be driving soon enough, and I don't mind picking you up if there's a meeting up north. What's another fifteen minutes added to the drive to get you?

rod

I live in Fond du Lac, so if it's not to far away I'd be interested.

defiesexistence

^^^ Awesome! We will be glad to have you

JakeJ

Cool!!!