Fish club speaker topics - let's brainstorm

[GaryE]

I'm involved in setting up a local aquarium club, one of those groups where you actually meet and talk to other aquarists. It's small, with a core of 15 and about 20 people buzzing around, but it has been going well.
One of our goals is to get local members to present on topics. We are 7 hours from the nearest Canadian club, so there's no help incoming. I'm an experienced club speaker, but no one wants to hear the same guy every second month (there is also an experienced aquarium store owner on board). People hate presenting. I get that. The idea was terrifying before life steered me into a public speaking direction.
I thought it might be easier if we put up some topcs to see if anyone wanted to take them on. We've already had a virtual tour of a fishroom, and a talk on breeding 'plecos'. Can anyone help out some local aquarists living on the eastern edge of North America with ideas of what we can suggest as easy interesting topics for new aquarists and new speakers to take on?
Next month I'm doing easy egg layer breeding ideas, and after that, we have an issue...

 

[Magnum Man]

Maybe make use of the www. And pick interesting topics discussed on blogs, and other media, as the basis for discussion for your group… it’s way easier to critique, challenge or agree, and further discuss, ideas someone already provided the basis of, way less scary than proposing our own ideas, cold turkey ( sorry for the Thanksgiving Day pun ), at least doing that every other meeting, may get the juices flowing, and get members more comfortable speaking, and may result in more original dialogue, and my provide facts on the subject, or facts to dispute…

 

[Back in the fold]

Do you do a bowl show where each person brings a fish to show off ? The most interest in whatever fish would make a good topic . Another good topic is the community aquarium and how to pick compatible species . Way back in the olden days I gave a speech on Angelfish at my little Aquarium Society . The older members picked somebody plenty ahead of time and asked them to do a talk . I was nervous when my turn came but I did it . Once I got going it was fun .

 

[GaryE]

We don't do bowl shows. Too many fish get dangerously chilled in our climate - most clubs up here discontinued them 30 years ago. It's too bad, because I saw some cool fish for the first time in those.

 

[Colin_T]

Are you looking for ideas on what to talk about or what, I don't quite understand what you are after?

If you're after ideas, start with filtration, water changes & gravel cleaning, disease prevention, basic disease identification (maybe do a talk on one disease each month), plants, lighting, fertiliser. Each month do a species of fish or if you have time to kill, do a genus of fish. Do tank sizes for fish, how to set up an aquarium. Collecting wild fish. Culturing live food, making frozen food.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My club's last meeting featured Mark Denaro, who manages one of the big importers, giveing a talk with illustratins of his trip to visit the plant farms in Asia. He also imports a lot of the plants directly from the farms.

I knew Mark from years back and had not seen him in some time. It was a pretty good talk.

We get speakers from all areas of the hobby. My club ( the Danbury Area Aquarium Society (DAAS)), has a diversity of members in terms of what they keep. We have breeders, we have plant pros, we have people who concentrate on a diversity of areas and our speakers are quite diverse.

De[ending on how far from the USA border you are, your club may be able to get some speakers to come to your club from the states. My club is a member of The Northeast Council of Aquarium Societies https://northeastcouncil.org/

Historically, the NEC has accepted membership from aquarium societies in the northeast area of the US; due to a recent change to our constitution, any club within the US and abroad can become a member of the NEC.

The following clubs are members of the NEC:

If you belong to any of these clubs, then you are a member of the NEC!
Aquarium Club of Lancaster County (ACLC)
Aquarium Club of Maryland (ACM)
Boston Aquarium Society (BAS)
Brooklyn Aquarium Society (BASNY)
Bucks County Aquarium Society (BCAS)
Capital Cichlid Association (CCA)
Central New York Aquarium Society (CNYAS)
Cichlid Club of York (CCY)
Danbury Area Aquarium Society (DAAS)
Diamond State Aquarium Society (DSAS)
Greater City Aquarium Society (GCAS)
Jersey Shore Aquarium Society (JSAS)
Koi Organisation International (KOI)
Long Island Killifish Association (LIKA)
Metropolitan Area Killifish Assocation (MAKA)
Nassau County Aquarium Society (NCAS)
New England Cichlid Association (NECA)
New England Fancy Guppy Association (NEFGA)
North Jersey Aquarium Society (NJAS) *CHARTER CLUB*
Norwalk Aquarium Society (NAS) *CHARTER CLUB*
Otter Valley Aquarium Society (OVAS)
Pioneer Valley Aquarium Society (PVAS) *CHARTER CLUB*
South Coast Tropical Fish Society (SCTFS)
South Jersey Guppy Group (SGJGG)
Southern New England Killifish Association (SNEKA)
Tropical Fish Club of Burlington (TFCB)
Tropical Fish Society of Rhode Island (TFSRI)
Upstate New York Killifish Association (UNYKA)
Worcester Aquarium Society (WAS) *CHARTER CLUB*

 

[MaloK]

It depends on the time allowed at each meeting. Knowing this could help develop a formula to have a lapse on diverse basic topics like Colin mentioned, then add diverse topics of the day, Free time with a lunch to make members get knowing each other, etc, this can go far.

In a young club that has a low numbers of members, the best way to get them to present on topics is to start by making them talk about their own setups.

Call it The MTS support group moment, get a member or two or three... to talk about their setups, take note of their strength and specialty and then corner them to invite them to have a periodic section at each meeting.

Sadly today, you have to whip people a little to get them going, loll. Present things has a challenge...

My best line is "Don't get in an aquarium club if you're afraid to get wet."

 

[GaryE]

I'm looking to make a list of easy topics someone who isn't a natural speaker could cover. Colin had some beauties there.

As for the NEC - I've presented at the convention, a looooong time ago. We're 3 hours north of Bangor Me, so a ways from the US clubs. I spoke at Burlington Vt a few weeks back, and that was a 9 hour drive. So as kind as people are, I don't see much hope other than generating our own topics.