Minnesota Aquarium Society meets 11 times a year virtually featuring a ZOOM speaker. We conduct 5 virtual auctions for our members. The one ending yesterday had 379 items posted, of which 352 were sold. I put in some discus juveniles and the bidding went crazy.
Items included product donations by multiple manufacturers.
Lots for The MAS Spring Auction.jpg
After meeting in person from 1931 through 2019, MAS moved to a virtual format. The result has been a huge increase in our membership. In 2019, we had ~120 members. We now have > 300 members, most of whom are younger and less experienced with fish. An interesting development is that the younger, less experienced membership made us more relevant to independent fish stores. (Advanced aquarists usually buy supplies used, in bulk and fish via the Internet.) Every store in the Twin Cities region now offer MAS members discounts in return for inclusion in our
website.
With members driving in 1 - 2 hours for the auction distribution, we are adding activities to make the drive more productive. Yesterday we had a panel discussion on building fishrooms, followed by a tour of a member fish room. We do a Schools Program where we donate aquariums to schools and assign a local member to maintain them. We have a Fish Surrender program at every auction for unwanted fishies. We also help aquarists who are liquidating their fish rooms. At yesterday's auction, we added a Free Table. Leave what you don't want, take what you want and the rest goes in the dumpster. All these activities are free.
We're planning to introduce more in-person activities beginning in the Fall. We organized a swap meet in the Spring and are planning another one in the Fall. We'll also have an in-person auction in the Fall, which will be a huge event. We also do an annual Plant Extravaganza where we bring in plants at wholesale prices for the membership in the Fall. The plan is to reinstitute our annual Fish Expo in the Spring of 2025. The last Fish Expo we held in 2020 attracted 2,000 visitors over an 8-hour period.