thoughts on More free advertisement and Clarification to the public on how the expo works? (2 Viewers)

[SuperJay]

I added this to the beginning of my Expo ad:

" To anyone who is new at this: I won't have a booth at the expo. But many hobbyists prearrange to find each other at the expo to buy and trade with each other. This is encouraged and welcome. I didn't understand that was the way it worked when I first started going to these events. I'd like to meet up with you at the expo. If you'd like to buy any of these corals, comment in this post or send me a personal message, so that I know which corals to bring. I could take PayPal, but would prefer cash. I'll probably be there from 11:30 until 1pm."

Do you think my wording needs any adjustment?
Am I the only one who didn't understand trading was encouraged and happening at the expo?
Would it be kosher for me to put an ad on Facebook and or Craigslist directing persons to check out my ad and meet me at the expo?
Or we could have an ad for the benefit of everyone that's trying to sell and trade at the expo

Not sure how to get the attention of the big boys on this post

 

[Varig]

Hey @SuperJay - I guess maybe I'm a bit confused by your request. I think the rules are stated "fairly" clearly in the presale rules link that @ikserk posts at the same time he opens up the presale forum itself:

Pre-sale Rules

It outlines that it's 1:1 between hobbyists, that the deals have to happen at the expo, etc. It's not to say we can't improve the verbiage (and we may be updating some language for next year, but that will be discussed at this year's business meeting). So your feedback is great, especially if it's not clear to newer hobbyists. I think it's unlikely that you are the only one that didn't understand the purpose (so I'm glad you asked for clarification). Again, it's potentially a good time to re-visit the "rules" post to make sure it's clear to everyone.

I don't think there would be any issue with you sharing a link to drive more traffic to the TCMAS forum and by extension the Spring Expo. If you're going to post a link to the presale forum, I would just request that you also share/like/etc. the TCMAS club's Spring Expo listing. The more people it reaches, the better show we can have.

TCMAS Spring Expo - Facebook

I'm not sure what you mean by an ad, but there is currently an active ad posted on the TCMAS page (as mentioned above) to try to drive attendance at the expo for our vendors. Is that what you mean?

Also, I'm not sure who "the big boys" are, but the @BOD will make sure board members get a notification, for future reference.

Hope to see you Saturday!

 

[Reefer Oz]

Thanks @SuperJay for posing some good questions and bringing some perspective to the presales forum. It has been a hot topic this year and an item for further dissection on the intent and purpose. Here are my thoughts (not a statement from The Board):

The Expo by design is to encourage engagement from the broader saltwater community with TCMAS, and hopefully getting some new members to participate. Our organization benefits most from having new and active members. The Expo helps to generate and cultivate that on an annual basis. And though Facebook and other social media platforms are a great tool to spread the word about our organization, I don't believe we want to leverage them as a retail platform. They already operate on those regards for anyone who want to sell stuff or meet up. We operate a forum in lieu of utilizing FB or another platform for our community engagement.

On the forum there is the classified section for members/supporters to facilitate transactions, again circumventing social media platforms. Of course those are not available to all forum users. So to help drive engagement from ALL forum users and participation at the Expo, there is a public pre-sales forum open. The intent of the pre-sales is to provide a platform of commerce on the forum, NOT other 3rd party platforms. The hope is that people utilize the service of our forum, come to the show, become members and add value to TCMAS.