Will does a great job for MMA with limited resources and the meetings are important. The very small meetings need to be careful, because if you get a rare or high stature speaker you don't want a small 5-person turnout to embarrass the speaker. I would love to come to every meeting, but I can't. I have another 1st Thursday fishing club meeting in Montague just down the street from my house. I have several meetings each month all related to resource management and I have to save my long trip gas for the DNR fishery meetings. I look for MMA to someday be larger where regional chapters will allow greater access to meetings.
Trying to finish my Masters has me tied up of course on Thursday nights for the next 3 semesters, the news letters keep us that cant make it connected to the pulse of the organization.
Hemi can you simulcast it off trippers wireless so we that dont make it can still watch you guys eat pizza and drink beer?
I haven't been to a meeting yet, but always want to. I made a decision to attend them during Feb, March this year. They seem like the perfect solution for cabin fever. The drive isn't an issue 1.5 hours each way.
As for the newsletter, I think it is well done and I do read it. I deal with a newsletter issue at my job and haven't found a great solution to increase the percentage of people who read it. At the moment, we have an online version of our newsletter and haven't noticed a decrease or increase in people reading it. The one idea we are kicking around is emailing the newsletter in a PDF file to our readers. The idea being, if there is a link in the email that people can click on then they'll be more likely to read it and of course the email would serve as a reminder as well.
I would love to see local meetings, and would be able to attend. I do not want to brake up the club, but would like a little hometown flair added to the mix. I know I walk past guys everyday in and around GR that are MMA & Muskies Inc guys but I do not have a clue who they are. Maybe local meetings & state events is the answer??? It would also help hook up some more joint trips if guys knew who they could setup trips with. I can not tell you how many times I would have loved to put the boat in the water, but did not want to go alone. Yes I have my own rig, I am not looking to bum a ride. I am just one of those strange dudes that like to share time on the water with a friend. [smilie=2c.gif]
"Chasin50" said:
10 hours at the office = Drained, then manage 2 crazy girls = go to bed at 9…
"swanezy" said:
right now, i work at 5 am, so unless the meeting is close, i doubt ill be able to make any of the meetings.
"muskie-nick" said:
too far for me also…
"Scott Williams" said:
A big part of it is also distance, or more specifically gas needed to cover that distance.
Scott
"edalz" said:
It is just a real long drive for me.
So it sounds like a lot of reasons would be distance, or work, which is understandable. But have any of you guys tried contacting others in your area to carpool? It could be as simple as just posting a "looking for ride to meeting". $15 in gas divided by 4 guys isn't "poo". If Tom and I stepped it up a little and got some other big name lure/merchandise guys in to talk a little, would that change anyone's mind? So far, anytime a rep has been at a meeting, they give huge discounts, and even do a free raffle for a couple things. Plus, it is nice to stay in contact (or make new contacts) for when it comes time to "wheel and deal" for the banquet.
One thing that always seems to get a lot of interest is when we have a speaker break down a specific lake. Usually this is done prior to an outing(which is almost every month this year) but I find it very informative to listen to someone who knows a lake. Maybe more of that would be nice especiall since we are fishing a couple new lakes for outings this year. I do like the idea of bringing manufacturers to meetings.
"I'm a loner, Dottie. I could try to explain but you wouldn't understand." -PWH
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How about creating a chat room and we'll have periodic cyber-meetings for the lazy-loner-type members like me?
Regardless of how the meetings go down, people will likely participate more if they feel they've helped plan the program. So, maybe do a survey of members for topics, dates, times, etc. (A quality management trick to increase participation and improve outcomes in organizations.) I used to use a lot of survey tools in various jobs thru the years and would cheerfully help put a simple process in place for the local MMA47 if leadership thought it would be helpful.
I agree that Will and other leadership work very hard for the MMA membership.
"Esoxonthefly" said:
One thing that always seems to get a lot of interest is when we have a speaker break down a specific lake. Usually this is done prior to an outing(which is almost every month this year) but I find it very informative to listen to someone who knows a lake. Maybe more of that would be nice especiall since we are fishing a couple new lakes for outings this year. I do like the idea of bringing manufacturers to meetings.
We will definately try to continue doing this as we have in the past. It's a great idea.
"Ranger" said:
So, maybe do a survey of members for topics, dates, times, etc. (A quality management trick to increase participation and improve outcomes in organizations.) I used to use a lot of survey tools in various jobs thru the years and would cheerfully help put a simple process in place for the local MMA47 if leadership thought it would be helpful.
Please touch base with Tom (HemiChemi) and Jim about this. We only touch a very small portion of the members here on the forum so any survey would need to be in the newsletter maybe with an option to complete online or by mail.
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