Upcoming MARSH elections - call for volunteers (1 Viewer)

[tektite]

The annual elections for the MARSH Board of Directors are coming up soon, after our Reef Currents event for continuity as the current officers and BOD have been working on Reef Currents for many months now. Submissions will remain open until February 28th. Voting will be open during the following week for all paid MARSH members to select the candidates they would like to hold each position.

Just a couple of quick things:

• No there is no pay (someone always asks)
• We are a not-for-profit so yes mileage is deductible per federal guidelines.
• Please only volunteer if you have the time to spare.
• If you serve on the board of a not-for-profit you do have the responsibilities that go with protecting the trust of the club.
  [*]Please review the By-Laws of the club and feel free to post question here or PM any member of the current Board.
• All candidates wishing to server on the Board of Directors must submit a biography so members can know who you are.

Positions open for volunteers:

Officer Positions

• President
• Vice President
• Secretary

Director

• Three Openings

Position Qualifications:

• Officers
  • Must have 18 months of paid membership or currently serving on the Board of Directors.
  • Officer Positions are for a one year term.

• Directors
  • Must have 9 months of paid membership.
  • Directors serve for two years.

Please post in this thread if you would like to run. Include a short biography, why you would like to run for the position, and what you would bring to MARSH as a member of the Officers or Board of Directors.


Current candidates for the elections:
President: Mark Lira (Mark L.)
Vice president: Steve Baring (steveb)
Secretary: Allison Ormand (LSUFireGal)

Directors:
Sharath Ravula (OceansX)
John DeVeaux (jdeveaux)
Cat Dybala (tektite)


Again - Please only volunteer if you have time! Far too often members volunteer for the BOD, only to sit back without participating and the few other Officers and BOD are left with having to put in more work and more time to keep everything moving. All the current Officers and BOD have jobs and/or families, the time we put in to MARSH is after work and family time. The more active Officers and BOD, the easier it is for everyone to help keep MARSH up and running, both behind the scenes and planning/executing events. It isn't much time on the lower end, maybe 10-20 hrs a month for BOD (Though you don't want to know how many hours a couple of the BOD and officers executing Reef Currents are putting in right now ). If you think you can spare that time (mostly on evenings and weekends) and want to help the club out in a big way, please step up and volunteer! The more active volunteers the better, the more we'll be able to do as a club.


Current Officers and BOD:
Ending Officer terms - Cat Dybala (tektite), Steve Baring (steveb), Mark Lira (Mark L.), John DeVeaux (jdeveaux)
Ending BOD terms - Jason Tyler (ostentum), Keith Raymond (slayer311), Lee Pardue (rlpardue)
Continuing BOD terms - Jeff Dean (inigomontoya), Candace Arnold (cacarnold3), Jackie Raymond (slayer311sgirl)

 

[steveb]

STEVEB - would like to run for VP again

BIO

Hi my name is Steve Baring and I am entering my name to run for the MARSH vice president position again (crazy huh? ). I have really enjoyed this role and realize that I would still like to do more. This is a great community and I have enjoyed serving you.

For those that don’t know me I love everything marine related, from the tech gadgets, to breeding, even playing with rotifers… You name it I want to try it lol... On a more serious note I still feel that the world’s reefs are currently at a precipice. We have to encourage education and captive propagation. To that end I believe we must step up as a community and participate in those activities and to support organizations like Coral Restoration Foundation. As a board member I saw the importance of captive breeding and asked John to get us hooked into MBI site. I still encourage the breeders in the community take advantage of it!

The majority of my marine aquarium experience is from the mid to late 80’s and early 90’s where I pretty much spent every extra dime I had on salt water tanks and fish. I left the hobby for a while to raise a couple of wonderful kids and stepped back in to it a couple of years ago. My how things changed! I currently have a frag tank that is bulging with chalice corals and a few others... My current projects STILL include trying to finish a 400 gallon build that will be a mixed reef system. Along with that I am also building a “fish” room where I plan to work on trying to propagate several different types of fish (Bangaii Cardinals and ??) and eventually several different SPS/LPS corals.

As a member of the board and as vice president I have worked to make sure MARSH meets the needs of the community. I pushed tirelessly for our Reef Currents event (finally happening!) and adding the Members only group buy forum after several members expressed frustration with the old setup. I continue to want to strengthen the relationship MARSH has with its sponsors and to expand our list of sponsors and our paid members.

 

[OceansX]

OceansX would like to run for a Director.


Last year, I thought about running, but because work takes me away haphazardly, I thought I could just
volunteer as needed and when I was available. However, this same schedule does offer me a lot of time
that I can apply to helping the club.

In the past few months, I have been working as volunteer helping to put to together the Houston reef conference,
Reef Currents with many of the officers. It has only been a hinderance to the other officers (I think) and myself that
I am not officially a BOD. I would like to volunteer for the next 2 years in an official capacity and be able to better
contribute to all aspects of the club.


I am an Oceanographer (NOT a marine biologist) who works primarily for the Oil and Gas industry. I started
reef-keeping over 25+ years ago with the same Oceanic 75 gallon that I am now running. The undergravel filter
plates, and then the wet/dry have long disappeared, replaced with a mixture of DIY and off the shelf products.
My experience leads me to think that an important aspect of success and longevity in our hobby is education
which I hope to better foster as a BOD member.


In the next two years with the other officer's and volunteers from our membership, I would like to encourage
the club and its members to have more events both social and technical.

 

[jdeveaux]

John DeVeaux - Yes I will keep doing what I do

I've been with the club since the days before it was officially a club when I bought a tank from James Wiseman back in 1999 and started my obsession with Reef Keeping. I was strictly a student of reef keeping back then and volunteered here and there for various MARSH activities but I didn't really engage until 2007 when I took my first seat on the board to manage the sponsorship for MARSH. Since then I've done just about everything there is to be done with running the club including keeping it afloat during the economic down-turn. Now I'm very excited to be here helping MARSH host its first Reef Keeping event (Reef Currents) since MACNA was here in 2006. Wow 10 years now... I had not really put that much thought to how long it has been.

I'm ecstatic to be working with so many wonderful people that have stepped up to take the weight off my shoulders and allow me to focus more of my attention on house keeping for MARSH, but more importantly allowed me to get back into enjoying the hobby and my own tanks again.

Cat D, Steve B, Ray P, Jason J, Mike H, Mark L, Candace A, Sharath ... Thank you for putting your time and energy into the club.

 

[Mark L.]

Mark L. - I would like to run for President.

Hi, my name is Mark Lira and I would like to run for MARSH President. I have been an avid aquarist for close to 25 years.
I started out in the hobby keeping fresh water tanks like many of us. As time went on I switched over to a FOWLER setup. It wasn't until late in 2011 that I decided to try my hand at a full blown reef.
While doing some research on the internet I stumbled upon MARSH. I became a member in October of 2010 with the intent of browsing a little and grabbing some info here and there. Little did I realize what a great community you guys had going here.

After being a member for 2 years I wanted to step up my involvement with the club. I decided to run for the BoD last year. Throughout the year we worked hard to bring membership drives, sponsor anniversary days, as well as tank tours, and other fun events. I would like to continue to help the club grow this year with more members, events, and sponsors. One event in particular is Reef Currents. The BoD as a whole have been
spending countless hours working hard to bring this event to Houston. I would love to continue working on this project and also get the club ready to host the next Reef Currents in 2015.

I hope you all enjoyed having me on the board of directors this past year as much as I have enjoyed being on it. I look forward to filling the position of President to the best of my abilities in 2014.

 

[Mark L.]

OK everyone. After much thought and deliberation I have decided to edit my post above. I have decided to run for the position of President.

 

[sergio nuncio]

Can I vote YES , now ??

 

[tektite]

I fully support Mark for president this year, he will be a great one

 

[CooP]

Well I haven't met Cat YET but I am sure she is a great pres. So far I love what I have seen from this organization and the involvement of the BOD. I met Mark a couple months ago, as he went out of his way to meet me for shirts as well as chatting and giving me helpful info. I support your move you submit my vote.

Now ow my only question is....Cat you are still going to be part of the BOD right?! If you are contemplating jumping ship, I say stay on board and I will also support and vote for whichever vacancy you so choose to give a whirl!

Here's to a new year and fun to come!!! huagh

 

[Diesel]

Another community worker for President?
Why not.......................Vote will be supportive.

 

[Mark L.]

LOL Uh thanks Ben.........I think.......

 

[inigomontoya]

Glad to hear it Mark, Cat has done a great job and everyone has faith that you will do the same! Cat is planning on staying on in a director position and we are happy to not lose her as a resource for the group.

 

[tektite]

I will now officially enter the running for the Board of Directors.

I have enjoyed being President this past year. We had a great year, many events, many new MARSH sponsors offering our supporting members discounts. It's all lead up to our large Reef Currents conference on Feb 22nd, a culmination of over a year of work by the Officers and BOD of MARSH and MARSH member OceansX. I am very proud of what we have all been able to accomplish. This year I am handing the reigns off to Mark L., who will make an awesome President. I still want to help keep MARSH moving in the positive direction it has for the past few years, and would like to be re-elected onto the Board of Directors to help do so.

I am looking forward to continuing our momentum this year!

For those who don't know me, I've been into reefkeeping for 6 years now. Relative newcomer but I dove in headfirst to become as knowledgeable as I could on everything reef related. I currently have a 150G mixed LPS/SPS reef, 90G dedicated macroalgae tank (one of my specialties), and a 40G tube anemone and zoa/paly tank. I also have a separate system, soon to become 2 systems, of a variety of interconnected tanks of various sizes. These I am using to deliberately culture Acropora eating flatworms, in order to scientifically study their life cycle and experiment with methods of eradication. Needless to say, I have an extremely supportive husband Along with my tanks I also culture food for my corals and fish - rotifers, copepods, and live red macroalgae for my tangs.

I enjoy DIY projects of many kinds. Woodworking, plumbing, acrylic work, any little project that helps make reefkeeping a little easier. I like showing others how to do some projects, and this past year hosted two DIY acrylic workshops at my house. Many frag racks, probe holders, and lookdown boxes were created by the MARSHians attending Being so hands-on myself, I would like to continue this year with that kind of workshop, to both give people real experience and allow those who may not have all the tools themselves to still be able to create what they need for their tanks.

 

[LSUFireGal]

Hi all! Since no one else has thrown their hat in the ring for the secretary position I will. My name is Allison Ormand and I have been a member for only one year, but I just renewed my membership and really enjoy being a part of MARSH. I have attended several MARSH functions and met so many of our great members, some of you may know me only as Kyle's Mom, a title I proudly accept. I am an industrial firefighter at the Port of Houston, along with my firefighting duties I am also responsible for submitting reports to OSHA and the EPA so keeping detailed records and being organized are an important part of my job. I have also been trying in vain to get more activity on the MARSH facebook page and I think that holding a position on the board will help me do that. I have really enjoyed this hobby and since starting out with a 60 gallon reef I have upgraded to the 220 gallon that won last month's Tank of the Month. I really value MARSH and it's members and I want to see the club grow and remain successful. I would love the opportunity to give back to the club that has given me so much. I appreciate your consideration.

Allison

 

[mike13oy]

Reading all posts make me want to become a BOD again.

 

[mwilliams62]

Do it, do it, do it...

Reading all posts make me want to become a BOD again.

 

[Surcouf]

My name is Sean Surcouf. I signed up and paid annual membership fee to become MARSH member at the forum last month.

user name Surcouf

Have not been able to access member only forums

Thx in advance for pointing me in the correct direction

Thx
Sean


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[steveb]

My name is Sean Surcouf. I signed up and paid annual membership fee to become MARSH member at the forum last month.

user name Surcouf

Have not been able to access member only forums

Thx in advance for pointing me in the correct direction

Thx
Sean


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

message forwarded to treasurer for review.

 

[Mark L.]

My name is Sean Surcouf. I signed up and paid annual membership fee to become MARSH member at the forum last month.

user name Surcouf

Have not been able to access member only forums

Thx in advance for pointing me in the correct direction

Thx
Sean


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sean I'm sending you a pm....

edit: Nevermind. Steve beat me to it.