Adam, having recently moved to Duluth, I've been presented with the opportunity of possibly restarting an inactive club.  What suggestions / thoughts / ideas / warnings might you have for such an endeavor?

Thanks!

Matt

Matt-
Welcome! I can't imagine this process being much of a problem for you. Of all the people who can do it, you can.

I'm not familiar with the Duluth club but seeing where they are to begin with is a big first step. I'm going to search and see what I can find for you.

Until then ask yourself these questions
1) is there a club currently meeting
2) is there a local club with a website
3) how active is the hobby in that area

I'll be back later...
Adam

Matt, 
The Club Directory lists 2 clubs in Minnesota. Twin Cities Marine Aquarium Society and Greater Minnesota Reef Society (Duluth). GMRS is on Reef Central. 

There's actually at least two more Marine societies, including the one I'm talking about Steve :)

Adam:

1. No
2. No website that I know of
3. Not terribly - the club consisted of maybe 25 members, and at any meeting I've been told 15-18 would turn out. So I suspect it's a close knit group of locals. And I'm definitely the outsider :)

At this point, it's all just in the thinking stages...it's obviously not 'my club', and when we moved to Duluth, before I found out about this club, I had been under the assumption that I might have to start one up (if I could). Finding that there's an inactive club, and knowing that the founder is willing to support me if I want to try to jump start things...just thinking about how to go about this, and if there's any merit to leaving a defunct club defunct and restarting fresh, vs. trying to get things going. I wonder if this is one of those cases where a "club" with it's traditional bylaws, board members, and beaurocracy might be part of the reason things are defunct, and if perhaps the notion of "Benevolent Dictator" might better server the group (if there's even a group to serve?)

Lots to talk about and certainly not something I want to rush. Perhaps I should get the founder/president of the club in on the discussion here too?

Matt-
If there were not a defunct club in that area... but simply no club... my advise would have been to go with an LLC or something like that, but NOT to form a non profit club. I think that would have been the best move in this case with you. I think you could have run into problems making it a club (aka mofib).
Larger clubs often need the board security and protection... and can put up with the downsides of beaurocracy.
Okay, so I think you are best starting your own "business" as a club. But I would name it something like "Duluth Marine Aquarium Club"
I wouldn't necessarily take over the old club and face the issues of by-laws at this time. I would try to incorporate their membership, their name, their contacts, their members, and all that. But officially it would be a new group.

Step1- get a website domain
Step2- see what it would take to email the members of the old club

Adam

Adam, a very interesting take on things. I'm not sure about the legal structure of the existing inactive club. And I certainly am one to understand and appreciate the potential necessity of the "benevolent dictator"...we see that working very well with a variety of internet-based clubs of course, including the fast growing uberfrags.net...Of course, one of the main things I'd want for a Duluth club would be to expose people to speakers and new ideas...definitely more the social face-to-face meeting...there's already tons of internet websites. Hmm.

But, on the flipside, being the "outsider", is there any benefit to trying to work within the pre-existing framework of a club to try to resurrect it? Afterall, might some of the former club members be less open to a newcomer to their community starting up a new venture that directly competes with / tries to "steal" members from the existing entity (even though it's not active)? What pitfalls could there be when it comes to these types of loyalties?

And perhaps let me throw another tangent in the mix - what about the notion of club as a true for profit business. Putting aside the altruism and such, is there a case to be made for simply saying "I'm going to start a for-profit organization that will bring speakers and events to our local market for your consumption as members?" Has anyone approached the concept of a "club" in this manner before? Afterall, one of the recurring themes in most organizations is the concept of one or two people doing the extreme vast majority of the work...as "consumers" of that work, is there something that says "if this is a for-profit thing, I don't want to support it"?

Your comments certainly sparked some interesting thoughts Adam :)

Matt

So of course my very long reply didn't post... let's try again....

Yes you can revive the club. But you run the risk of red tape. Can you effectively still hold an election? Do they have bylaws? Is there a quorem or majority needed to get things rolling? Do you have much to gain by reviving (as opposed to starting a new)?
Some people will be turned off by the outsider, and some won't like the idea of new and for profit. Heck some conferences really battle that as speakers don't want to attend a privately owned show. But then again, some do just fine. And let's face it... this is you we're talking about.

You can avoid all that by starting again on your own. I'd recommend either for profit, or even better going with a non-profit without a board. Make yourself the head and run with it. I wouldn't advise that to everyone but in your case it seems like the way to go. I've only met you once (that I can remember) and that was enough for me to like you. You've certainly proven your abilities to start organizations and I say go for it.

Adam

Ha - Adam, all good points. Let me ask this - is there anything in that advice that you would change if we weren't talking about "me" specifically?

Yes. You'd need a group of people. It is frustrating and unfortunate but often times a club president gets sidelined or busy. The club starts, but then falls apart when they lose their president. I'm not worried about you doing that.
With others, I'd be more inclined to say "get three or four of you together first, make your goals, establish your purpose, then make a club"

Adam

Well...looks like the ball may start rolling on this...I put out the word this week. I'll keep you all in the loop to see how it goes. So far, the battle plan is to:

a) Amass Email List
b) Have some discussions on email or even set up a temporary forum for online discussions
c) Depending on how those discussions go, plan an informal face-to-face and really think about what "we" want and what the best "way" to get it will be.

And then we'll see where it goes from there. Worst case scenario, this exercise will give me a great avenue to meet more of my local fellow reefers...those I've met so far have all been top notch individuals ;)

Souds great! Hope it all works out well.

Keep us posted.

Adam

So far...not much response...which explains why there may not been an active club up here. We'll see..it hasn't been that long yet ;)

Well how about that - first club meeting scheculed for 1-31-2010, 2-4 PM. Basically a brainstorming meeting / planning meeting. I'm furnishing a door prize raffle item. We're pot-luckin' it too. So far still not much interest...i.e. technically I've had no official RSVPs, but I know we have at least a half dozen folks planning to be there including myself. Wish us luck!

So, how did it go?

Adam

Adam, first meeting went well. Second meeting is coming up this Friday. We're going to fly by the seat of our pants a bit...there was no real interest in having any formal organization or legal entity of any kind. That precludes certain things I suppose....they more or less want a "pay as you go" setup, so that's what we'll do for now. Means we probably wont' have speakers or large events of any type, and we'll probably be more of a social group than anything else, but it's really hard to say. Stay tuned, I may have more to add next week!

Matt

Meeting went well, club unanimously voted in a new name (and I had a feeling which one it would be, so the website was ALREADY ONLINE by the time the meeting happened last night)

LSMAC - Lake Superior Marine Aquarium Club - www.lsmac.org ;)

I like the name, it's catchy. Does it sound like 'I'll Smack' when you say it too?

I think a lot of the members think of it with a French accent, like "Le Smack!" ;) I figure part of that comes from being only 3 hours from Canada ;)