Northern MN Frag Swap/Speaker Event, April 12th 2014

Mark your calendars for April 12th instead!  I changed it in the initial post so the wrong date doesn't get out but if you already had put in in your calendar for the 8th, please change it.  The room at work booked before I lined up a few vendors so it will now be the 15th.  Hopefully, that's 7 more days for it to warm up and for people to get their tax refunds!!!  

Things are already happening.  It's going to be a great event!

This is shaping up to be a great event.  Here's what we've got going on so far:

Speakers:
Matt Pedersen
Paul Whitby

Vendors:
Ocean's Paradise
Reef Deep
J&M Corals
Dirk Griffin
HighDefCorals
LSMAC
Vossen Aquatics

Make sure you have April 12th free!  You're not going to want to miss this!

WE NEED YOUR HELP:

Friday eve:
*Help with room set up
*Lend a hand to vendors in any way we can (We go out of our way to make them feel at home.)
*Be available to run and grab something if needed
*Supper & cleanup  (I am bringing food for Friday eve.)
*Does anyone have room to put up a vendor or two for the night?  So far, only two have requested it and they are staying with at my house.  I'd like to offer a place to crash to all if there is any way possible.

Saturday:
*Breakfast and cleanup (Sue is covering breakfast.)
*Help with any additional set up
*Raffle ticket sales
*Give door prize ticket to each guest along with any giveaways
*Lunch prep and sales (Susan is bringing the taco seasoned ground beef.  Vendors and speakers eat free.)
*clean up at the end

Some of our food is already covered.  We are donating this amongst us club members so we don't lose proceeds on it but we can still provide that Northern MN warm welcome.  If you can or would contribute, you can just drop me a pm and I can let you know what might help.  A cash donation could go directly to food for our tacos in a bag so that is a simple way to pitch in.

We can also use this opportunity to sell drygoods and we have been offered some frags donated from a club member.  If we get more, we could certainly set up our frag tank and sell corals to raise some moolah too.  Please pm me or post here if you have anything you can donate for us to try to sell.

We have enough offers for frag donations that we will be setting up the club frag tank at our booth at the swap. Keep that in mind in case you have anything fraggable.

Here is a list, that I will keep adding to, of who we are receiving donations from (I have help with this and need to get info from other parties.).  Most will be raffle prizes but we plan to have some door prizes too and possibly even a silent auction. 

Fosters & Smith             $25 gift certificate
Reef Hobbyist Magazine  copies of their magazine
CORAL & AMAZONAS    year subscription
Reef2Rainforest
Vossen Aquatics            pair of ruby red dragonettes
Paul Whitby
Ecolabs                     2 seaclone 100 skimmers
NMRC                           club sweatshirt, club bumper stickers
Reef Deep Aquatics        acan frag, euphyllia, reef t-shirt
Bulk Reef Supply           two part total package with dosers
Majano.com                  majano and mini majano wand
Reed Mariculture

All vendors have agreed to donate something but I may not know what until the event.

THANKS TO ALL OUR SPONSORS!!!



Also, check it out!  The word is getting out!
https://us-mg6.mail.yahoo.com/neo/b/message?sMid=28&fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=25&filterBy=&.rand=1037287028&midIndex=3&mid=2_0_0_1_49193_ACXsw0MAACUfUs8jKAAAAIHYKII&fromId=

Link doesn't work for me, tell me what it is!!!! Wow @ the pair of dragonettes, I was just looking at his pics of them, they are very nice.

I know...they're so darned cute.  They're really little but would great in your nano tanks.  I'm planning on loading up on raffle tix though so you'll have to beat me out for them.  LOL 

Our event is listed in Reef Hobbyist Mag's calendar of upcoming reef events!

And, here we are again.  I hope this link works. 

http://www.reef2rainforest.com/events/2014-04/

Thanks Matt P for this! 

http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/

Better link for the first one too.

I don't want you guys to miss how this list is filling out!!


Fosters & Smith             $25 gift certificate
Reef Hobbyist Magazine  copies of their magazine
CORAL & AMAZONAS    year subscription
Reef2Rainforest
Vossen Aquatics            pair of ruby red dragonettes
Paul Whitby
Ecolabs
Aquacraft
NMRC                           club sweatshirt, club bumper stickers
Reef Deep Aquatics        acan frag, euphyllia, reef t-shirt
Bulk Reef Supply           two part total package with dosers
                                  2 seaclone 100 skimmers
Majanowand.com           majano wand and a mini majano

All vendors have agreed to donate something but I may not know what until the event.

THANKS TO ALL OUR SPONSORS!!!



Also, check it out!  The word is getting out!
https://us-mg6.mail.yahoo.com/neo/b/message?sMid=28&fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=25&filterBy=&.rand=1037287028&midIndex=3&mid=2_0_0_1_49193_ACXsw0MAACUfUs8jKAAAAIHYKII&fromId=[/quote]

I listed this above but I thought you should all see it for yourselves.  (Never mind my dishes in the back ground!)  A super nice donation from BRS for our raffle!  This event is going to be way better than last time.  You are not going to want to miss it!

GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT THE SWAP/SPEAKER EVENT!

Share info on Facebook
Hand out or hang up flyers (I'll get them to you if you want.)
Tell all your friends
Give people rides
Hang out at the LFS and watch for people interested in saltwater
Tell people about the speakers, the raffle prizes....
Whatever it takes

The event is less than two weeks away.  Let's give our vendors a good turnout!  

Nice cammie seems like the swap will be awesome!

Thanks, Andre. We have more going on than back when you came for sure. I hope you can make it.

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!  


Paul Whitby is unable to join us next week due to unforeseen circumstances.  Matt P has done some fast negotiating and was able to get STU WOBBE from Coldwater Marine Aquatics to join us next weekend to share his "cool" side of reefkeeping with us.  

http://www.coldwatermarineaquatics.com/pages/about-us


Some info from their website.

Coldwater aquariums have always had a kind of chicken or the egg dilema. Who comes first? The people who want the animals, or the people who supply the animals?  Our answer was to be both.

My business partner and I are some of those "advanced" marine hobbyists who were already keeping coldwater tanks. We had to go and collect our own livestock for personal use, and one day we started thinking about the above statement.  We figured that with such a niche market, and no suppliers to help it out, the only way to make it work was to have someone be both part of the market looking for these animals and be the ones supplying them.

From there it took over a year of research and meetings with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to make sure we had all of our licenses and permits in order.  We are now able to collect and sell some the most unique and quality livestock from the Northeast Pacific and soon the world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coldwater Marine Aquatics is co-owned and operated by Stuart Wobbe and Josh Groves.
We are located just outside of Portand, Oregon.

About Stu-

" I got into the marine hobby back in high school in the 90's when I was a teachers aid.  My high school biology
teacher would let me frag corals all day and trade them into the LFS's for credit.  I tried doing coldwater tanks
several times back then, but just didn't have the knowledge or resources I do now.  I put it on the back
burner for the last 10 years until I came across a used Marineland Lobster tank for a great price.  That's what
really started it all again for me, and since that day its just been building up to this moment and being able to
spend my days at the Oregon coast doing what I love" - Stu Wobbe

Cammie not sure if this is the right spot to ask but are there other pre sales other than the OP thread on RRVR and clean up crew from J & J rocks and reef? Always nice to get an idea of how much money to bring and what to expect.

Not yet but it sounds like there will be more presales posted here shortly. How much money to bring is easy. Lots! LOL. Especially since I kow what kind of stuff you and Cassie like.

Ya I know what this house likes and it is really hard on the wallet. lol I got a couple corals I could donate to the club for sales to help with cost. Nothing fancy, just a Duncan colony and a galaxia coral, let me know.

We'll have a lot coming over from the LSMAC crew, but I never know exactly what until the night before.

Corals would be appreciated, Lyle.

We should have a competition to see which outlying club brings the most people! LOL

[URL=https://s723.photobucket.com/user/workinmom/media/2014fragswap-1_zpsdc959787.jpg.html][/UR

Excited for this - a "do not miss" type of event in the "northland"!

Let's show Stu and our vendors some good ol' up north hospitality with a good turnout and lots of support.