Higher Thinking

Thank you all for making everything possible. Without faithful membership, there would be no point in having leadership. This club has certainly helped me develop as a reefer and continues to do so. Thanks for all the knowledge that is shared by so many.

Yeah, this thing couldn't drop temps that low. It'd be best for keeping temps on small tropical tanks where they need to be during the summer heat. I'm in Albany, but drive to NE Portland and Beaverton quite often.

Selling a brand new Pacific Coast Imports chiller/heater. They say they're good for <40 gallons, but I wouldn't use it on anything bigger than 20. Nothing fancy, but it's never been opened. I bought two for some shrimp tanks and only used one. $50 bucks. Also have some petrified wood for free if anyone wants it.

You having people over?

I could be enticed to watch it somewhere. If it was local. I'm definitely going for the Pac Man. His life outside the ring is an awesome display of excellent character.

From my understanding, you currently have your pump running externally above the water and you're using a tube to draw water from the tank below, correct? What pump are you using? I think some pumps shouldn't be ran outside of water, but I couldn't confirm that.

Got a 180. Thanks everyone. PNWMAS comes through again to help setup an awesome deal. Also, special thanks to Mr. Prez., Kevin, for letting me come shopping at his house. Got myself a sump and a beast of a skimmer. It only cost me a couple pesos and an afternoon as an indentured servant. Now....if only this house deal would close already!

I have been considering whether to post this for several days. I have been trying to decide if it could be a worthwhile and effective post or not and decided it may be (if nothing else) an encouragement to join in. Throughout the past year, there have been some significant hurdles to overcome. Major issues included the new leadership stepping into positions with little to no previous financial or other business records being available, the site being crashed, and the initial replacement site being inadequate. Additionally, there have been person-to-person issues that have popped up as well. During this year, your leadership team has always done their best to continue improving the club. Obviously we can never appease everyone, but we've always had the intention of bettering the club. Just 6 months ago, the club participation was fledgling at a couple posts per week. Currently, we are back at roughly 30,000 page views/week (pre-crash levels), there are more paid sponsors than before, new membership is continuing to climb, and our club has had some stellar meetings with awesome speakers. With all that being said, there has also been a pretty continuous stream of criticism. Don't get me wrong, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is one thing. But the consistent passive aggressive, unproductive complaining, and overall detrimental attitudes have been an ongoing problem for some members. With all that complaining, one would think there would be people lining up to enter into leadership positions. However, as was anticipated, no one wants to step into these positions and enact whatever changes they think should happen. This is why I appreciate members who (while they may disagree with things) don't complain because they simply appreciate the time involved for those making the decisions. If people really thought their suggestions were worthwhile, I would highly recommend running for a position and then making good on those changes. I just find it so ironic that after a year of complaining, no one wants to actually get involved and do something. I really want to encourage people to not only voice their opinions, but more importantly, join in and turn those opinions into positive action. Either way, I'm grateful for the support that we have received, appreciative of the constructive criticism, and hopeful for the future of the club. As always, I'll catch you at the next meeting! Feel free to self nominate if you'd like. Thank you all.

Welcome to the club!

Hoping for the best. Fresh dips can take a toll on clams. You'll know within a day or so if it survived the process. I had to dip three clams that I purchased from a member that ended up with PM. Only the smallest (about 2") perished.

Good catch, thanks. Moved.

Dang....I was secretly hoping this would end up in your "equipment bone yard" for a couple months. That way, after I recover from the financial losses on getting the upgrade, I could reach out to you for it...

You know the rules...

The clam certainly looks like it's struggling. Does it react at all to light? How about if you mess with it, will it retract it's mantle into the shell?

I wish I could....trying to upgrade tanks though

Yeah it's crazy out there now. There just isn't enough property to fulfill the demand. It's definitely a seller's market. The wife and I will hopefully be closing on the 15th (going USDA, so who knows really?). I remember consistently seeing property going pending in less than two days. We put an offer on this town house on it's second day on market and went pending the next day. Still managed to lock in an offer that ended up being under appraisal which was nice. I can see how housing prices can fluctuate so fast. All it takes is a couple people to buy above average and then those are the comps used to price the next one....up and away they go[emoji2] Really stoked for your sale, congratulations!

"Not here to start a big debate," but then proceed to list about half a dozen things you don't like... It seems that is exactly what you are doing. So in my aim to not "start a big debate," I will address some of your issues. These may or may not be representative of others in leadership, but they are just my opinions. Meeting location has been primarily based on where we can find a reasonably priced venue that meets our needs when it comes to equipment, spacing, time constraints, etc. Additionally, we focus our efforts where people are most responsive. The last meeting we had in Salem (December by the way), do you know how many people came from south? Do you know how many traveled from up north? What is the perk for membership cards? You don't have an aquarium so I can assume your aquatic buying is fairly minimal and not one of our sponsors requires them for any kind of discount. In all actuality, I don't know of any stock discounts being offered to members at this time by any sponsors. I would be more than happy to give the Evite duty to you to make sure that people get their emails. I can send you the flyer after I spend my free time putting it together. It's just that I've never received any message about someone not knowing we were having a meeting. Do you know people who are currently willing to regularly and routinely check in on tanks at local schools? Please let us know. I haven't received any feedback from members willing to do that. The only person who is still willing to do that is Kevin...And he does. As for the edit feature, I recognize the importance and I'm not ultimately digging my heels in on it. I've continued to assess the merits of both arguments, but just haven't been moved to alter my opinion. Robert was actually given moderator authority for his grow out, by the way. I realize this response is full of sarcasm and passive aggressive lines, but my opinion on the issues are there. In the end, I'm just curious who is going to take office and have the exact same agenda as you. People are all different and therefore they have different opinions. You'll never have people in your life that agree with everything you say and think. All we can expect from leaders is that decisions will be made for the best of the group. Personally, I try to avoid undue criticism of my leaders. Especially when there doesn't appear to be many others who are willing to take upon those tasks.

Come on now rookie...

It was the default and recommended setting on the new software that we decided not to change. We gave it serious consideration when everyone discussed this months ago, but decided against it because of the tendency of some individuals to post inflammatory things and then later change it. The editing feature is not offered on several other forums as well.

We'll do nominations next week and start voting in May.

Hahaha! Wives....gotta love em.

Yeah, display....Thanks anyway

Voted. "Do these lips make my face look fat?"

http://www.pnwmas.org/index.php?/topic/33184-Having-trouble-posting-photos?

Let me know if one of you folks just happens to have one of these big guys laying around. Looking for glass only. Thanks!