Jump to content

PNWMAS history?


SuncrestReef

Recommended Posts

Since I'm still relatively new here, I don't know the history of this group.  When was PNWMAS founded, who were the founders, are they still active in the group, and who currently runs the organization?  As a techie, I'm also curious where this forum is hosted, how much storage is needed for the platform, who maintains it, and what are the average monthly hits?  Just curious, that's all.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, depending on what version you're running (e.g. desktop, mobile, Tapatalk) there should be a link at the top of the page that gives you the constitution, by-laws, and all the officers' information.

 

Sent from my SM-G928P using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can only give you info on the club as far back as I know.   The club was around for quite a while before I came around.  Members like Jmanrow and krux have been around longer.  I started to go to the monthly meetings in late 2005.  It was an exciting time.  The club wanted to become a non profit so we could accept donations from large corporations, charge for premium membership, bring in speakers, etc.  so we developed our articles of incorporation in Feb of 2006, voted in our officers and board of directors and started our first charter membership.  I was the secretary during our initial charter membership.  We didn’t have our own website.  We had a sub forum on The Reef Tank forum.  It’s still there and we would use it from time to time when this site would go down.   That hasn’t happened for a while now.  This site is very stable.  I was President for 3 or 4 years and admin as soon as we started our own website and have been ever since (except for a brief period after a very bad crash).  

Unfortunately, this hobby will chew you up and spit you out.  I myself have started over after 2 tank crashes.  Many of our original members have come and gone.  Some come back after some time off.  There was a charter member book that we all signed, but I do not know if it is still around.  

There are a lot of great people here.   Welcome to the PNWMAS.  

  • Like 6
  • Thanks 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Chief said:

I can only give you info on the club as far back as I know.   The club was around for quite a while before I came around.  Members like Jmanrow and krux have been around longer.  I started to go to the monthly meetings in late 2005.  It was an exciting time.  The club wanted to become a non profit so we could accept donations from large corporations, charge for premium membership, bring in speakers, etc.  so we developed our articles of incorporation in Feb of 2006, voted in our officers and board of directors and started our first charter membership.  I was the secretary during our initial charter membership.  We didn’t have our own website.  We had a sub forum on The Reef Tank forum.  It’s still there and we would use it from time to time when this site would go down.   That hasn’t happened for a while now.  This site is very stable.  I was President for 3 or 4 years and admin as soon as we started our own website and have been ever since (except for a brief period after a very bad crash).  

Unfortunately, this hobby will chew you up and spit you out.  I myself have started over after 2 tank crashes.  Many of our original members have come and gone.  Some come back after some time off.  There was a charter member book that we all signed, but I do not know if it is still around.  

There are a lot of great people here.   Welcome to the PNWMAS.  

Great info Jay!  I was around somewhat for that first launch but just as a member then disappeared for 7 years or so after a bad crash (seems to be a pattern).  Missed the drama of “the big site crash” that took us offline for a bit. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Chief said:

I can only give you info on the club as far back as I know.   The club was around for quite a while before I came around.  Members like Jmanrow and krux have been around longer.  I started to go to the monthly meetings in late 2005.  It was an exciting time.  The club wanted to become a non profit so we could accept donations from large corporations, charge for premium membership, bring in speakers, etc.  so we developed our articles of incorporation in Feb of 2006, voted in our officers and board of directors and started our first charter membership.  I was the secretary during our initial charter membership.  We didn’t have our own website.  We had a sub forum on The Reef Tank forum.  It’s still there and we would use it from time to time when this site would go down.   That hasn’t happened for a while now.  This site is very stable.  I was President for 3 or 4 years and admin as soon as we started our own website and have been ever since (except for a brief period after a very bad crash).  

Unfortunately, this hobby will chew you up and spit you out.  I myself have started over after 2 tank crashes.  Many of our original members have come and gone.  Some come back after some time off.  There was a charter member book that we all signed, but I do not know if it is still around.  

There are a lot of great people here.   Welcome to the PNWMAS.  

Thanks for the background info.  I've really enjoyed the forums so far and looking forward to meeting more members at future meetings.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Alice, it all started with Alice...

Our earlier events happened at Woody's old place.  I came on when I moved to Portland in 2001.  Most of the people who were around then are gone now.  We swelled to about 20 active members and outgrew BBQs at Woody's and branched out into other stores... Soutas, The OG waves when it was in LO, Upscales, R-2's old place down in Salem (forget the name of that shop).  Alice became inactive after a move up to Federal Way at this point and we fell to a loosely organized band of rabble rousers, I volunteered to steer things for a while, this was around 2003.

Our first really big meeting was at Steve Weast's place, we flew out Steve Tyree and the area got an infusion of cool corals.  A few of the group may remember me cooking filet skewers... Steve was a great host.  

 

Our first hosted website was set up by a guy named James, we spent some time trying to learn HTML and we got a forum going, but there weren't really any volunteers at that time that had the technical aptitude to push it further than a basic roboboard that we hosted on GoDaddy.  Chief came online as our dedicated admin and kept us all out of trouble.  This may be the same site we started... unsure, Jay may know if it migrated.  As Chief said, we went through the hoops of becoming a 401c (drafting a charter, creating a board of directors, writing a constitution... we took templates from MASNA as guidance) so we could accept donations from vendors and sell raffle tickets to fund tickets to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, speakers, and TFT.  At one point we had membership cards that could get you a discount at local shops if you flashed them... maybe I can dig one up some time.

 

Woody moved to Columbia Blvd, Souta's closed, Joel bought out Shaun in the new Waves location in Tualatin over this period (2003-2006).

 

I sold off my tank in 2005 and stepped down as President in late '05 or early '06, Weast broke down his tank around 2008-2009, Jim (Rainbowcorals) moved and broke down his tank around the same time, and I left the group for 10 years due to work, leaving the club in the capable hands of Chief, Lowman, and Jmanrow.  It took a while for the changeover, some hostility was floating around, but everything worked its way out in the end.  Chief was persistent! 

We had set up a solid foundation for TFT, had an active board, and were growing faster at that point than we could easily manage (tank tours and meetings grew to a size that your average home could no longer hold us).  A few of the older members are still around... Chewie, Chief, R-3, Wannareef and and a couple more are all still active that I see on the forums.  There are a couple more that I see on the users list but don't see post much.  

 

We had on the old forum a history thread posted, but I am sure that has been scrubbed from the web for almost a decade.

 

I still like to enjoy a beer from time to time with Steve and Jim,  think they have both lurked in the back of a meeting at one point in the current era.

 

Hope that helps?  Memory gets fuzzy as time passes.

 

R-1

 

*edit* just found this old post, probably from around '03:

 

Edited by Krux
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No pro here... still learning everyday. 

 

I miss the good old days. IMO, way more fun before it became more organized. Don’t get me wrong, I think the club now is awesome! Just not like back in the day... 

If Ryan makes the food for the next meeting, I’ll be there. Dude made some pretty amazing dishes straight out of culinary school! Asian BBQ sauce FTW!

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's really interesting to hear all that. I was part of the club back around 2006ish and then got back in the hobby around 2016. Those cards were kind of awesome. I remember Soutas and Waves. Steve Weast had an amazing tank back then. I was blown away when one of the meetings was held there. His website is still up at OregonReef.com


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Jeremevans said:

It's really interesting to hear all that. I was part of the club back around 2006ish and then got back in the hobby around 2016. Those cards were kind of awesome. I remember Soutas and Waves. Steve Weast had an amazing tank back then. I was blown away when one of the meetings was held there. His website is still up at OregonReef.com


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like we were on fairly similar timelines but I didn’t make it to many meetings back then. Bought my first saltwater tank from Souta’s shop when it was in his garage at his house off Clinton ten eventually bought Lowma’s 120 when he was downsizing. BTW - I still have one of those original laminated member cards in my wallet... never know when they will come back in style!

Always good to hear some history. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So glad Ryan aka R1 aka krux was able to fill in some of the time before I came on board.  Ryan and James were a big influence on me in the beginning.  They had a vision for the club that was amazing.  I wanted to see it grow.  

I’ve  been in the background for a while now.   I can’t believe I’ve held out for this long.  I came in at the end of undergravel filters.  I’ve seen lights go from metal halide to t5’s to leds.  Skimmers go from air stones to beckets to recirc to cones.  I got in when closed loops were a thing.  

I can’t wait to see where this hobby goes in the future.  How will the club transform. I hope it does not go to Facebook, the way other clubs have gone.  I hope we always have volunteers that want to take up the thankless jobs as officers and bod.  

I know I appreciate each and every one of them.  Past and present. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, this is way more background info than I thought I'd get when I posed the question.  Thanks for all the replies.

I've only been into reefing for 11 months now (I bought my tank last February) and only on PNWMAS for 6 months, but I've already received a lot of good advice and definitely enjoyed the camaraderie of this group.  I'm planning to stick around! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Chief said:

So glad Ryan aka R1 aka krux was able to fill in some of the time before I came on board.  Ryan and James were a big influence on me in the beginning.  They had a vision for the club that was amazing.  I wanted to see it grow.  

I’ve  been in the background for a while now.   I can’t believe I’ve held out for this long.  I came in at the end of undergravel filters.  I’ve seen lights go from metal halide to t5’s to leds.  Skimmers go from air stones to beckets to recirc to cones.  I got in when closed loops were a thing.  

I can’t wait to see where this hobby goes in the future.  How will the club transform. I hope it does not go to Facebook, the way other clubs have gone.  I hope we always have volunteers that want to take up the thankless jobs as officers and bod.  

I know I appreciate each and every one of them.  Past and present. 

I think I had a canister filter and T12s on my first saltwater tank (must have been '91 or so).  Needless to say, fish only!

Closed loop was very intriguing, especially with the "wave" devices,  but never got around to it - had a 60 cube in my basement that was drilled for it which I never set up.  I think there are a couple peeps on here running them today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...