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Why you should join?

Monthly Meetings featuring expert speakers (10 per year)
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Priority registration for Swap Meets (5 per year)
Ability to buy fish at our Rare Fish Auction (2 per year)
Participation in Bag Exchanges (during Covid)
Members-only events such as Holiday Party, Picnic, hobby tours and more
Our award-winning website which includes hundreds of articles, a cichlid classifieds allow you to find local fish for sale and special members-only sections
Show your support for the top cichlid club in the USA

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June Meeting: TBD

06-12-2022 06:00 p -09:00 p

Hilton Chicago Northbrook

July Meeting: Dr. Anton Lamboj

07-10-2022 06:00 p -09:00 p

Hilton Chicago Northbrook

Rare Fish Auction (Members-only)

08-14-2022 06:00 p -09:30 p

Hilton Chicago Northbrook

Vendor registration for September Swap 8/30 @7pm

09-18-2022 09:30 p -01:00 p

Hilton Chicago Northbrook

Tropical Fish Swap Meet 9-18-2022

09-18-2022 10:00 p -01:00 p

Hilton Chicago Northbrook

$5.00

Tropical Fish Swap Meet 10-30-2022

10-30-2022 10:00 p -02:00 p

Hilton Chicago Northbrook

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The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

14 years 3 months ago #4138 by Kegger22

Replied by Kegger22 on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

If you are looking for a seller, the best thing to do is give him your REAL NAME not a screen handle.

could you see someone looking for me and ending up at some college frat house at a Kegger party ;D

Kegger22
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14 years 3 months ago #4135 by sawboy2

Replied by sawboy2 on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

I will also add that I am quite aggravated by the lack of butler service and personal fish bag carriers as well ! >

sawboy2
Visitor

14 years 3 months ago #4126 by

Replied by on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

Where is the sense of adventure? Are we so coddled that if it isn't spoon fed to us, we are irked? Part of the fun, to me, is walking through and seeing what gems i will discover.

You can do the whole swap in an hour or less. Usually in that time I see 4 - 5 guys i havent seen in a year. A little chit chat happens. Find out whats new. It is SOCIAL.

If you are looking for a seller, the best thing to do is give him your REAL NAME not a screen handle. I cant tell you how many times I get emails the day before a swap from 4VER7coolio or some other handle. How the heck are you supposed to remember or know everyones made up names.

Also, like it was mentioned before - give the seller a cell phone number. If he wants to unload the fish - he'll make sure you find him.

Visitor

14 years 3 months ago #4091 by forumadmin

Replied by forumadmin on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

Hi everyone,

I can certainly understand that sellers often want to find buyers at the swap. With the use of our Classifieds, lots of fish get pre-sold.

Table Signs
GCCA supplies an 8.5" table sign for each vendor. Vendors could easily put that in a plastic sign holder or pin it to a wall. Some tables are not against a wall so there is not a good way for those vendors to hang the signs. Some vendors do bring their own signs.

Room Maps
We currently have vendor maps available at the registration desk, I usually print 6-8 so that all of the volunteers have one.

Anybody looking for a vendor can ask us and we will point them to the vendor. Of the 550 people that typically attend a swap, maybe 15-20 ask for as specific vendor.

I have considered printing more maps, but have decided not to for the following reasons:

+ Multiple people often vend from a single set of tables. For example, Barbara Botts buys four tables and has six other sellers with her. I don't know who she brings with her.
+ I often don't have the map done until late on the day before. I already have to print about 200 pieces of paper.
+ I don't think enough people have a specific vendor in mind before attending.
+ The maps is not laid out in alphabetical order. It takes some time to read it and orient yourself to the room and I would say that most people would need some help to figure it out. Our volunteers, however, usually help escort vendors and get to know them, so we may know off the top of our heads where they are.

Use Your Mobile Phone
A good option is to give buyers your cell phone number. Fortunately, reception both upstairs and down is pretty good.

Conclusion
Our next Swap Chair may be able to come up with a better system, so I will leave it up to Dave Wilkins if he would like to come up with something.

After having run six swaps and volunteered on at least as many others, I do not consider this to be a high priority.

Rick Borstein
GCCA Swap Chair, Your Forum Admin

the seller map thing is something that i think we can do. the only problem with the map idea is making a guess at the number of maps needed. i think we had almost 700 poeple come through the last swap not counting vendors. plus this would need to be something done saturday night incase of last minute cancelations.

besdies being an added cost, and the extra work to get maps made before the swap at a kinkos, it would also be a lot of wasted paper that is spossibly littered around the seller room which could lead to the GCCA being charged additional monies for room cleaning fees.

i think that instead of having the maps at the swap, maybe posting one online the friday before the swap in a PDF format so those who would like a map could print one for themself. we already have the program for the swap and can easily turn the map into a PDF file and posting it to the GCCA Swap page would only take a matter of minutes.

lets wait for rick to comment on this issue since he is both the webmaster and the swap chairman, plus other positions i may have forgotten.

Your friendly, neighborhood Forum Admin

forumadmin
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14 years 3 months ago #4084 by dragonkeeper

Replied by dragonkeeper on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

Original topic started off fine when it began. Lately in my opinion it has gotten a little out of hand. If you have some constructive criticism... great. We will convey these items to the swap chairman.

I personally believe this thread ran its course a while ago, and has restarted because of the up comming swap.

DragonKeeper
~Retired President~

dragonkeeper
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~Retired President~

14 years 3 months ago #4083 by whetfish

Replied by whetfish on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

can we go on to the next complaint about the club?

Agreed..... Lets move on please

Sorry if it came off as a complaint. I was just chatting out constructive ways to help people out a swaps.

Not checked for facts.

whetfish
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Tanganyikans

14 years 3 months ago #4082 by dragonkeeper

Replied by dragonkeeper on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

can we go on to the next complaint about the club?

Agreed..... Lets move on please

DragonKeeper
~Retired President~

dragonkeeper
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~Retired President~

14 years 3 months ago #4081 by Kegger22

Replied by Kegger22 on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

if the seller wants to be found this can easily be done

1 5 gallon bucket
some sand or gravel
1 8' 1x2 board
1 piece of posterboard

take sand and fill bucket, take posterboard and put name on it, attach posterboard with name to 1x2 8 foot long stick, cram stick into bucket of sand(posterboard on top) and place bucket at the table, that way the seller has his/her name 8' in the air, if someone can't find them they are blind and shouldn't be looking for fish anyway

problem solved

can we go on to the next complaint about the club?

Kegger22
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GCCA Board of Directors

14 years 3 months ago #4080 by aquaticclarity

Replied by aquaticclarity on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

Why not assign every table a number. Tell the vendor which table number(s) they are getting so they can tell their customers. Then just have a poster map at the entry to room that has the lay out of the tables and the numbers on it. You could even possibly use the poster for several swaps if you are in the same room and have the same table set up.

Too many fish? Never. Not enough tanks? Always!

My fish list...

www.gcca.net/gccaforum/index.php/topic,274.0.html

www.aquaticclarity.com

aquaticclarity
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14 years 3 months ago #4076 by rm-slover

Replied by rm-slover on topic Re: The swaps are a madhouse, we need to change this IMHO

printing a map on poster sized paper will be costly and still needs to be done saturday afternoon / evening. while PDF on the website would be the easiest, how would we, the gcca get that information to the public and not create an issue at the event for not having maps on site.

www.aca2010.com/wp-content/images/simple_aca2010_banner.jpg" alt="ACA 2010 Web Site" height="60" width="468" />

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