I have some more comments!  26 years as Shell Festival Chairman and I am NOT
burned out!  Why?  I have a fantastic committee of 15 people who do their
jobs and constantly come up with new ideas.  They make the job fun.   We can
hardly wait to have our planning meetings.   We also start planning a year
in advance and spread the job out over a year.

YOU HAVE TO WORK to keep a club going.  Our members "love" our club so they
help promote it.  As Peggy said....keep a good variety of good programs to
meet everyone's needs from arts/crafts to fresh water to fossils to marine,
etc.

OUR club members just enjoy being together!  We care about each other!  I
think field trips (where you really get to know the members) sleep with
them....eat with them, etc.  makes your members closer.  Unfortunately, we
don't have the number of field trips we used to.  When we joined the
Astronaut Trail Shell Club in 1976, they had a field trip every month and an
I.D. Session every month....that's three meetings a month!  Wow!

All snorkelers and divers are being taught now NOT to touch anything that is
living.  We get a lot of bad comments at our Shell Festival when the
attenders read data labels that say "Live collected".    The new generation
thinks that is "terrible"!   We've been tempted to leave out "Live
Collected" on our labels just for the show!

The hardest position is Program Chairman for sure.  It isn't easy to find
programs.   We invested in a monitor, DVD and VCR which has helped.   We
haven't gotten the $$$$$ together for Power Point Presentations yet ... but
we are working on it.   We require our scholarship winners (2-3 a year) to
do programs for us and they usually bring their own equipment.  Sometimes we
have members repeat a program that was done several years ago....we don't
mind seeing it again and the newer members see it for the first time!
Workshop type programs go over well.....We have VERY few computer literate
members....so that limits who can do the newsletter and a lot of the stuff
for the Shell Festival.  I spend the week before the Festival at my computer
making up name tags, exhibitor packets, dealer's packets, exhibit placards,
judges sheets, signs, etc.

OKAY  I'll get off my soap box!!!

Shellingly, Bobbi





Jim and Bobbi Cordy
Merritt Island, Florida
Space Coast Shell Festival Jan. 21-22 2006
 in Melbourne
ATSC Sponsors "It's Better In the Bahamas Shelling Trips"

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