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2016 Board and Officers


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#21 Matt DeLaVega

Matt DeLaVega
  • Forum Staff
  • Ohio

Posted 10 January 2016 - 01:10 AM

Long time member, former board member, Martin, apparently you read me. Have you any suggestions? Thoughts?


The member formerly known as Skipjack


#22 Irate Mormon

Irate Mormon
  • NANFA Member
  • Crooked Creek, Mississippi

Posted 10 January 2016 - 01:24 AM

My thoughts are that many of the new names in the FB group have no clue that we are an actual piddly-arsed, dues-paying, fish club.  I have seen a few posts reasserting that fact, but I think all of us can do a better job.  I don't really care if it's FB or the forum - I just think there's a lot of untapped interest out there.  There are in fact MANY FB groups devoted to natives.  Some of these people have gripes about NANFA - most others have no idea.  It would be good to infiltrate these allternate groups and show them the truth and the light.  Unfortunately I managed to get myself unfriended from one of them - go figure!  Never say I didn't take one for the team!  All I said was that the guy's fish was gonna die, and he got all upset and called me jealous.  Sheesh.


-The member currently known as Irate Mormon


#23 mattknepley

mattknepley
  • NANFA Member
  • Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 10 January 2016 - 07:45 AM

Agree, the forum is tired and fb is often toxic.

I also think Brian has a good idea regarding reviving the forum. Before I joined NANFA I lurked for a couple years. This would be 2006-2008(ish). The forum had personality AND content. ( Irate had the first gif I ever saw for his avatar then,btw. Props.) Lots of commaraderie- banter and what not -but also trip reports and all kinds of specific questions. When I finally joined, many of the names were different, but the experience was largely the same; lots of personality, lots of quality content, lots of lengthy discussions. Not so much now. I would argue that to a degree we may be a tad lazy any more. I used to love being on the forum, but since I started being NANFA-involved in other ways my forum presence is about zero. That's my bad. I shall join Brian in striving to do better. As for "everything has already been asked and answered"; true, but only to a degree. New technology and lumpers/splitters should keep us in material for a while. Trip reports don't get old, and for better or worse, many of the particulars to the same exact spots with the same exact people can yield much different experiences and insights at different times. If there is just one aspect of the forum we revitalize, I think the trip report section is it. Agree that the noob questions can get old, but we were all noobs once. And these noobs are our future. I think we need to be careful not to develop an attitude akin to one that tired/struggling-to-be-patient parents sometimes display. We'll cut our own throats. Hopefully if us older members (which I barely qualify for) provide more engaging content we can more enjoy interacting with our future. Otherwise we may not have one.

Facebook? Ew, boy... I loathe that place,now. Was very active for a few years however. Then it came to be that the majority of posts were either snarky in someway, or a political/religious/social diatribe. Politics, religion, and social issues are central to being human, and I enjoy them to a degree. I certainly have let a few of my own thoughts in those regards show here in NANFA. I'm even fine with people making a theme of their beliefs when they post, if it's positive. But fb became a soapbox for people I genuinely like to spout off accusingly, non-stop, on the few differences we had. It ceased to endear, it divided. So I walked away about two years ago. Rarely go back. But we did pick up some calendar sales there, and when I looked at our page in Dec I could see Derek and Josh B working to engage people on it. (Others, too, I am sure. D and JtotheB were the two I saw) It had some neat pics as well. I don't think I'd oppose cutting it, though. Google alone will get people to the forum and NANFA. We don't need fb for that. And the forum allows us opportunity for more in-depth dialog. (Can you see posts as long as mine on fb?) The forum's content is richer and more centralized,too. I'm not advocating to get rid of fb if NANFA as a whole wants it, but I think the forum possesses more value.
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."

#24 Irate Mormon

Irate Mormon
  • NANFA Member
  • Crooked Creek, Mississippi

Posted 11 January 2016 - 02:25 AM

Matt, sadly, my "floppy accident" GIF was made illegal by the forum moderators!  As were all GIFS from that point onwards :-(


-The member currently known as Irate Mormon


#25 mattknepley

mattknepley
  • NANFA Member
  • Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 11 January 2016 - 06:17 AM

Matt, sadly, my "floppy accident" GIF was made illegal by the forum moderators!  As were all GIFS from that point onwards :-(



Actually, I liked the gif but can see why it didn't fly for long. And why they still don't. But that's water under the bridge at this point, no need to bring it back up...


Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."

#26 Josh Blaylock

Josh Blaylock
  • Board of Directors
  • Central Kentucky

Posted 11 January 2016 - 08:25 AM

While we are discussing this, I want to point out (for the 50th time) that there are 2 NANFA related FB pages.

 

1.  The official page ran by myself and Derek.  This is where we post OUT to FB, announcements, articles, etc...  

 

2.  The NANFA FB 'group'. This was not started officially by NANFA.  I believe Bruce started it.  This is where just anybody can post about native fish.

 

Here's the issue.  The official page is great and needs to stay.  If you remove or change the name of the group, you loose any chance those people may come to the actual NANFA website.  Also, if you remove it, people will just find another page to post in.  While I do think FB may be pulling some of the forum traffic away, if you remove it you'll lose any chance to bring in some of those people.  Like Matt said, double-edge sword.


Josh Blaylock - Central KY
NANFA on Facebook

KYCREEKS - KRWW - KWA



I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.

- Abraham Lincoln, 1861


#27 smbass

smbass
  • Board of Directors

Posted 11 January 2016 - 09:47 AM

I'm not a face book person at all for a lot of the reasons Matt K pointed out I have a page but have not looked at it in years. My wife tells me occasionally what is on there... I think it is Ok to have both of them as long as Josh, Derek, or others are actively working on educating and directing people here or to the NANFA homepage. If that stops, the group page should go away or if Josh and Derek just get tired of dealing with two of them it should go away. I personally have no idea what the difference is between the official page and the group and am just glad someone on the board does and understands it. Because of this I think it should be the decision of those working on them the most as to whether they both continue to exist or not.


Brian J. Zimmerman

Gambier, Ohio - Kokosing River Drainage


#28 AussiePeter

AussiePeter
  • NANFA Member

Posted 11 January 2016 - 06:29 PM

All I said was that the guy's fish was gonna die, and he got all upset and called me jealous.  Sheesh.

 

Fancy that!  Whenever I see someone asking a question about their sick fish I always have to stop myself from using your standard response "they'll all probably die anyway, so don't worry"!  Not the exact quote, but it makes the point.

 

Cheers

Peter



#29 Isaac Szabo

Isaac Szabo
  • NANFA Member
  • Marble Falls, AR

Posted 12 January 2016 - 06:23 PM

One thing I have personally noticed is it seems the forum has dropped of in use and quality of post some what over the past year or two. I think this is just a gradual decline and not a huge change. I think this may be somewhat due to us more experienced members, including myself, doing less initial posting and more just replying and answering others. So my goal for this year is to try to add more of my own new posts of interesting topics for the membership. 

 

I also think Brian has a good idea regarding reviving the forum. Before I joined NANFA I lurked for a couple years. This would be 2006-2008(ish). The forum had personality AND content. ( Irate had the first gif I ever saw for his avatar then,btw. Props.) Lots of commaraderie- banter and what not -but also trip reports and all kinds of specific questions. When I finally joined, many of the names were different, but the experience was largely the same; lots of personality, lots of quality content, lots of lengthy discussions. Not so much now. I would argue that to a degree we may be a tad lazy any more. I used to love being on the forum, but since I started being NANFA-involved in other ways my forum presence is about zero. That's my bad. I shall join Brian in striving to do better. As for "everything has already been asked and answered"; true, but only to a degree. New technology and lumpers/splitters should keep us in material for a while. Trip reports don't get old, and for better or worse, many of the particulars to the same exact spots with the same exact people can yield much different experiences and insights at different times. If there is just one aspect of the forum we revitalize, I think the trip report section is it. Agree that the noob questions can get old, but we were all noobs once. And these noobs are our future. I think we need to be careful not to develop an attitude akin to one that tired/struggling-to-be-patient parents sometimes display. We'll cut our own throats. Hopefully if us older members (which I barely qualify for) provide more engaging content we can more enjoy interacting with our future. Otherwise we may not have one.

 

I like your attitudes, Brian and Matt. I think that for individuals who want to see a positive change in the organization, the most effective approach is to just start making those changes themselves. So, for those who would like to see the forum return to more activity and quality content, I would encourage you to make an effort yourself to be more active and to contribute the type of content you want to see. It's also important to show appreciation for quality content that is shared by others, even if it's simply saying that you like it. If people who share content don't receive a certain level of feedback or acknowledgement, they will conclude that there is no point in even sharing it. We can't expect that someone else will do these things for us. NANFA is nothing more than us.



#30 Isaac Szabo

Isaac Szabo
  • NANFA Member
  • Marble Falls, AR

Posted 12 January 2016 - 06:25 PM

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the two NANFA presences on Facebook. I think that people who aren't very familiar with Facebook might not realize that there is a significant difference between a Facebook "Page" and a Facebook "Group" and that they serve quite different purposes. I would compare the NANFA Facebook Page to the NANFA website. It's a place where people can find out information about the NANFA organization and see official announcements. However, it doesn't allow people to interact or share their own content. On the other hand, I would compare the NANFA Facebook Group to the NANFA forum. It provides people who share an interest in native fish a place to interact and share their own content. So, saying that there should only be an official NANFA Facebook page and no NANFA Facebook group is equivalent to saying that there should only be a NANFA website and no forum. In reality, both the Facebook page and group have distinct and important functions. I do think that some confusion could be avoided if the names or descriptions for the page and group were altered to make the distinction more apparent.

 

Now, I personally like the forum more than Facebook, and I know there are other NANFA members who feel the same way I do. However, there are probably just as many members who prefer Facebook and are very active there, and I think they deserve to have a NANFA presence in their preferred format. I agree with Brian's sentiment that it would be unfair for NANFA members who dislike Facebook to decide that NANFA members who use Facebook can't have a NANFA group there. What's the harm in allowing NANFA to serve (and reach) both types of people? And on a larger level, there may very well come a time that the forum is no longer viable (it seems to be the trend). The world is never static, and in order to persist, NANFA has to be able to adapt to changing times.



#31 Dustin

Dustin
  • Forum Staff

Posted 13 January 2016 - 12:13 PM

As tends to be the case, Isaac said, in a much more eloquent manner, exactly what I was thinking.  While I understand the frustration with Facebook, it is vastly better traveled than the forum.  If we are to truly reach out to the public, we have to go where they are.


Dustin Smith
At the convergence of the Broad, Saluda and Congaree
Lexington, SC


#32 FishGuyJosh

FishGuyJosh
  • Regional Rep

Posted 27 January 2016 - 12:02 AM

I am just now getting back from holiday trips and a 2 week vacation. So I'm just now getting to really read this thread. There's so much good content I want to hit on. So please forgive all the quotes...again, reading it all for the first time.

 

 

 
 

 

I like your attitudes, Brian and Matt. I think that for individuals who want to see a positive change in the organization, the most effective approach is to just start making those changes themselves. So, for those who would like to see the forum return to more activity and quality content, I would encourage you to make an effort yourself to be more active and to contribute the type of content you want to see. It's also important to show appreciation for quality content that is shared by others, even if it's simply saying that you like it. If people who share content don't receive a certain level of feedback or acknowledgement, they will conclude that there is no point in even sharing it. We can't expect that someone else will do these things for us. NANFA is nothing more than us.

 

I completely agree with the direction Brian, Matt, and Isaac want the forum to go. It definitely takes all of us making an individual effort to better the content. I haven't been in NANFA nearly as long as some of the other people discussing this thread, but I definitely want to be part of the solution and part of the group that made me want to join in the first place.

 

Nailed it on the appreciation thing Isaac. I know I for one really appreciate feedback and activity on my posts. Isaac and some of the other forum cornerstones can always be counted on to boost my confidence with hearty "thanks for the post!"

 

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the two NANFA presences on Facebook. I think that people who aren't very familiar with Facebook might not realize that there is a significant difference between a Facebook "Page" and a Facebook "Group" and that they serve quite different purposes. I would compare the NANFA Facebook Page to the NANFA website. It's a place where people can find out information about the NANFA organization and see official announcements. However, it doesn't allow people to interact or share their own content. On the other hand, I would compare the NANFA Facebook Group to the NANFA forum. It provides people who share an interest in native fish a place to interact and share their own content. So, saying that there should only be an official NANFA Facebook page and no NANFA Facebook group is equivalent to saying that there should only be a NANFA website and no forum. In reality, both the Facebook page and group have distinct and important functions. I do think that some confusion could be avoided if the names or descriptions for the page and group were altered to make the distinction more apparent.

 

Now, I personally like the forum more than Facebook, and I know there are other NANFA members who feel the same way I do. However, there are probably just as many members who prefer Facebook and are very active there, and I think they deserve to have a NANFA presence in their preferred format. I agree with Brian's sentiment that it would be unfair for NANFA members who dislike Facebook to decide that NANFA members who use Facebook can't have a NANFA group there. What's the harm in allowing NANFA to serve (and reach) both types of people? And on a larger level, there may very well come a time that the forum is no longer viable (it seems to be the trend). The world is never static, and in order to persist, NANFA has to be able to adapt to changing times.

You hit the description of the FB page vs group right on the head. People who like the NANFA page aren't always seeing everything posted on there. So I would highly recommend duplicating any NANFA announcements. Though I have more passion for the forum, I use FB as my work/fish themed persona. I feel like the group page could be a good way to engage people who aren't quite active enough to be on the forum regulalrly but still want to share and interact regularly. 

 

I have been listening to a podcast called Fish Nerds recently. I have gotten very acive with them, and part of that is because of their group page. Since everyone can add to the page, there is a lot of information passed around, and the show hosts actively use content from there. I have definitely pushed as much NANFA info there as possible. I've been mentioned on the show a few times now, and almost every time NANFA is mentioned  in the same breath. My supervisor James and I are actually doing correspondent pieces for them now. So I will definitely be shining even more light on NANFA now.

 

I think the FB group page could be a great locaion for people to pass on articles and news, post videos and photos, etc. However, I think all the same annoucements that go on the FB page should be there as well. I also think we need to utilize them more to push forum and membership stuff. Grant, convention, voting, and membership drive annoucements  could all be put there. I also think it would be beneficial to have someone manage the FB group like we do for the FB page. I've had some experience doing it, and I could network with some other fish groups. So I'd be more than happy to volunteer with that if you guys would like. Heck it would certainly give me plenty of content to use to increase my presence on the forum.

 

I think the final number was 37 voters, but that's just off the top of my head. If you really want to know I can go back and check. If we made 40, we didn't come anywhere near 50. We had a handful of voters who either voted for only one or two candidates.

I'm not sure what to make of the "low" turn out. I don't know what our total membership is, but ~40 does sound low. However, there probably aren't 40 of us actively involved in NANFA. (Sure, we have many members who are actively involved in fish for careers, but not active in NANFA per se.)We have many supporters, and members, who like what we do. And they support us by donating, and/or joining and renewing. But not necessarily by be active beyond that point. That's how I view my involvement with carnivorous plants- I belong to the ICPS, and donate an extra buck or two occasionally, but that's it. Native fishes I work for,CPs are strictly for fun. I'd bet we have a lot of members who like what we do, like to read the AC, and feel good about supporting us, but have no interest beyond that. That's not necessarily bad. It means we're reaching busy people with our work and creating awareness. That makes a difference. A "non-active" who pays dues could put that money somewhere else. We created/increased value for fishes for them and parlay what they are willing to give us, cash, into fish-benefiting works. NANFAns not voting does not automatically mean NANFA isn't working. We aren't the gov't. Would the ICPS wish I'd be more active? Yes. Are they grateful to have my dues and my name on the rolls to help make their work possible. Absolutely.

But I do agree that we should grow, carefully. We do need more involvement to make this happen and to keep things healthy. I am proud of this group, and awfully grateful to those who make it work. I wouldn't stress over the number of ballots cast, but would look at it as an invitation to reevaluate who we are, what we want to be, and how we want to get there.

Well said Matt and a great starting point for doing exactly what we all seem to want...more engaging forum activity. I have definitely found my forum use fall off since becoming more involved in NANFA in other ways. I have also been guilty of reading and looking for interesting content rather than creating my own. I will certainly make and effort to try hard.

 

I'm very much looking forward to serving. Thank you NANFA for giving me the opportunity!

Congrats to all the board members. I was very happy to see Kanus get elected. I was definitely hopeful your passion for NANFA would be put to good use on the board.


FishGuyJosh

#33 NateTessler13

NateTessler13
  • NANFA Member
  • Nortwestern Ohio (Bowling Green)

Posted 29 January 2016 - 01:32 PM

I feel the NANFA facebook page should routinely highlight "featured threads" from the Forum to direct traffic to the forum.  Featured threads could be ones that are generating a lot of views and/or responses on the forum.  In order to capitalize on this, we'll need to make sure we continue to provide high quality content on the forum.


Nate Tessler
Environmental Scientist

Link to my NANFA Gallery

#34 Josh Blaylock

Josh Blaylock
  • Board of Directors
  • Central Kentucky

Posted 29 January 2016 - 02:00 PM

Thanks for the tip Nate.  Myself and Derek manage the Official page, we'll try to do a better job at that.


Josh Blaylock - Central KY
NANFA on Facebook

KYCREEKS - KRWW - KWA



I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.

- Abraham Lincoln, 1861


#35 Irate Mormon

Irate Mormon
  • NANFA Member
  • Crooked Creek, Mississippi

Posted 29 January 2016 - 02:40 PM

I think that's an excellent idea


-The member currently known as Irate Mormon


#36 FishGuyJosh

FishGuyJosh
  • Regional Rep

Posted 29 January 2016 - 11:27 PM

I definitely like the featured forum thread idea. We should also routinely post a link to our membership page.

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FishGuyJosh



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