New Show in Minnesota!

[The BoidSmith]

Let's re-think about it.

Dan

 

[Cat_72]

I'm still game to help out if I can.....hoping to be working less and have more free time in the upcoming year. Or at least work normal, human hours, lol.

So if there's anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'd love to have another MN show.

 

[The BoidSmith]

Cathy,

I was counting on you! We were talking with Mark on the phone yesterday and we are going to start making some inquiries. We need to think of a list of potential "sponsors".

Regards,

Dan

 

[Miss Tuniwha]

well I really hope something can be worked out.. *sigh*

 

[Cat_72]

Cathy,

I was counting on you! We were talking with Mark on the phone yesterday and we are going to start making some inquiries. We need to think of a list of potential "sponsors".

Regards,

Dan

Well, I have little experience with organizing anything on this scale, but hopefully my enthusiasm will make up for lack of knowledge, lol. Point me in a direction and I'm off and running.

 

[Mark Schmidtke]

I forgot to add, although there were a few people that were definately interested in vending, there were many that said they would be interestd but that didn't seem to committed.

I would have been interested, very interested as a matter of fact, but I never heard a single word about it. I only happened across this posting by accident.

Where were you advertising and who were you talking to about it?

Mark

 

[The BoidSmith]

Mark,

It was just a talk among ourselves; those here in Fauna and located in the Midwest. We are just re-starting the conversation that we dropped a while ago. Do you have any ideas or leads where to start?

Thanks,

Dan

 

[Mark Schmidtke]

Well, I'm not sure I'd want to run something like this myself, it seems like it would be a pretty big job. But I'd like to help if there was something I could do. I'm a fairly active member of the Minnesota Herp Society and know quite a few people there. I've also been a member of the board of directors in past years and sat in on some discussions on holding a herp show. A new board will be taking over this coming January and there is no way to know how they would handle such a request, but in the past it's been the herp societies policy to remain neutral about herp shows. There are society members who are pet store owners who would not want to see a show come to town because they see it as unfair competition. On the other hand there are society member who are breeders who would love to see a show so close to home as it would greatly cut down their travel expenses. So, in the interest of fairness, the society has in the past and would most likely in the future, not be interested in running a show and may not even want to 'officially' endorse one. The single exception to that has always been the Midwest Herp Symposium where the Sunday sale is a small but traditional part of an entire weekend event with the main focus of the Symposium is the all day lecture series on Saturday. However, like I said, you can never tell how a new board will react so it never hurts to ask for help. Also, what ever their decision, they'd be more then happy to at least let the membership know about the event and would gladly accept advertising for it (the rates are not too bad) And thats not insignificant since there are somewhere around 300-400 active members who would be more likely then the general public to be attendees. One good place to ask opinions would be the MN herp Socs listserv on yahoo.

Personally I would LOVE to see something like this happen, but I think it would be hard to organize unless you've got the right people to do it.

Mark

 

[The BoidSmith]

There are society members who are pet store owners who would not want to see a show come to town because they see it as unfair competition.

Not to be disrespectful to them, but they are thinking scarcity and that tends to multiply. Think abundance and it also multiplies. By promoting reptiles in a given region they will only increase potential future clientele. I agree with you though it's not easy but at least it is worth giving it a try. From what you say it would be worth to wait until we have the new board in place and then making some contacts. Even if some are not entirely convinced about the concept I don't think it's a good move to organize such an event and not have at least the partial support of the MN Herpetological Society. Could you let us know about names and contacts once it's official?

Thanks and Merry Christmas

Dan

 

[Mark Schmidtke]

Not to be disrespectful to them, but they are thinking scarcity and that tends to multiply. Think abundance and it also multiplies. By promoting reptiles in a given region they will only increase potential future clientèle.

Dan, I agree with you, but I'm not the one you have to convince. I have discussed this with some people before and they are not in favor of it for the reasons I've already stated. However, while they likely would not support it, I doubt that the pet store owners would actively work against it.

I agree with you though it's not easy but at least it is worth giving it a try. From what you say it would be worth to wait until we have the new board in place and then making some contacts. Even if some are not entirely convinced about the concept I don't think it's a good move to organize such an event and not have at least the partial support of the MN Herpetological Society. Could you let us know about names and contacts once it's official?

It's already official, The elections were last November. They'll be taking office starting in January. Since the December meeting is already over I guess they already are in charge. Here is a web page that shows the current board members with their E-mail addresses. http://www.bellmuseum.org/herpetology/CurrentBoard.html

Also, here is where you can sign up for the listserv if you want to ask any questions of the general membership. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mnherpsoc/ Bill Moss is the owner/moderator of the list so if you have any questions of what is permissible to post you can ask him. His yahoo ID is mngatorguy2

If there is anyone you want me to contact, let me know. You can reach me by E-mail at [email protected]

Mark

 

[kare]

There are 2 pet store owners I know of that specialize in reptiles in the Twin Cities. Twin Cities Reptile and Leapin Lizards. I don't see Bruce or Jill having problems with a show. Bruce has vended at Des Moines and Chicago NARBC and Jill has shown up as a buyer at Chicago. If that was such a problem(competition), wouldn't shows like Kansas City, Omaha and Des Moines have problems? They put on some nice shows annually.

I'm available to help out. My only condition is that a show would NOT be held during the STATE FAIR run! There wouldn't be any traffic! It's all at the fair or the Renaissance Festival (at which the Mn Herp Society displays and chats about responsible reptile ownership).

Mark (Otter) has my phone number. I'm more than willing to check out sites, get quotes, etc.

 

[The BoidSmith]

There are 2 pet store owners I know of that specialize in reptiles in the Twin Cities. Twin Cities Reptile and Leapin Lizards. I don't see Bruce or Jill having problems with a show. Bruce has vended at Des Moines and Chicago NARBC and Jill has shown up as a buyer at Chicago. If that was such a problem(competition), wouldn't shows like Kansas City, Omaha and Des Moines have problems? They put on some nice shows annually.

I'm available to help out. My only condition is that a show would NOT be held during the STATE FAIR run! There wouldn't be any traffic! It's all at the fair or the Renaissance Festival (at which the Mn Herp Society displays and chats about responsible reptile ownership).

Mark (Otter) has my phone number. I'm more than willing to check out sites, get quotes, etc.

Karen,

Thanks for your willingness to give a hand; it's greatly appreciated. With Mark W. we have even discussed the possibility of financing the costs for the show from our own pockets. Last time we started with the discussion in this same thread we got stuck because of different ideas with "potential dates". Although not a minor thing, let's try to avoid going down that route until we polish up some other important details first (money and location).

Merry Christmas!

 

[Mark Schmidtke]

There are 2 pet store owners I know of that specialize in reptiles in the Twin Cities. Twin Cities Reptile and Leapin Lizards. I don't see Bruce or Jill having problems with a show.

Have you actually spoken to them about it?

I'm available to help out. My only condition is that a show would NOT be held during the STATE FAIR run! There wouldn't be any traffic! It's all at the fair or the Renaissance Festival

I agree with the state fair, but the Renaissance festival runs from the middle of August to the end of September, a span of about 7 weekends. Thats a lot of prime time to say NO to. I really don't think there would be a problem running a show while the Ren Fest was going on.

 

[Otter_23]

Dan was going to talk with Bruce about a show. I have talked to Larry several times (he did the show in Mankato) and I don't see him having a problem with a show. I don't know who runs the other store in the cities. We had found a place in St. Cloud that is relatively cheap for the day to rent with nice size conference rooms but the cost was more than we could absorb last year. Why St. Cloud? More centrally located in Minnesota and it isn't to far for people from North Dakota, South Dakota and Northern Minnesota or Michigan, plus in the fall we have tons of traffic running from the cities to the lakes up north. I do think with good advertising it could work in both the cities and St. Cloud, but I think it is going to take a few shows to get the word out and the numbers up. My biggest goal for having shows is to introduce it to more uneducated people (what I mean is people who aren't very aware of reptiles and the possibilities there are). I think with more exposure we could have a larger customer base like they do in Wisconsin, Ohio etc... With no real reptile specialty stores north of the cities it would create more exposure this way and this part of Minnesota has really been growing the last few years.

Which brings me to a few other points. It would be nice to have a Minnesota herp chapter up this way, it is a long drive to attend meetings in the cities for some of us. Also I am going to be working with people at the Little Falls zoo to put in a small reptile center to begin with. If you have any interest in either of these ventures you can shoot me an email. [email protected]

 

[The BoidSmith]

I did e-mail Bruce a couple of days ago but with the Holidays and everything I don't expect to hear from him this week. I'll call him to the store after the 1st. I like the idea of St. Cloud, particularly when there have been some inquiries done already and it doesn't seem impossible.

Merry Christmas.

 

[Mark Schmidtke]

I think St Cloud is a very good idea. There are a number of herp soc members that live up that way and it's really not that far to go for a show. You also may wish to talk to Dr Janell Osborne, she runs the St Cloud Animal Hospital and has a lot of experience working with Herps. I used to take my animals to her before she moved to St Cloud. She would probably be more plugged into the herping community in that area.

As far as being a chapter of the MN herp society, wouldn't it just be easier to start your own herp society? If you want to get some advice from some of the original founding members on how to go about doing something like that I could look up some E-mail addresses for you if you like. Or I also already published that link to the web page for the current officers that has all of their E-mail addresses on it as well if you want to ask about becoming a chapter.

Mark

 

[The BoidSmith]

As far as being a chapter of the MN herp society, wouldn't it just be easier to start your own herp society?

How does that work?

Thanks

 

[kare]

"Have you actually spoken to them about it? "

Not specifics(as there were none to speak of; dates, venues, etc.). But I have chatted to them about it in the past. Don't give the pet store owners the onus of being uncooperative. An annual show can boost their recognition, too.

Mark W., I'm all for St. Cloud. I think we can get many people interested in pet reptiles there. Of course, many will have to go to the pet stores for their supplies....cages, uth, lights, crickets, mealworms, rats, mice, etc. and boost the peripheral sales (where the stores actually make money) throughout the year.

As to the dates of the show; my point was there is too much going on during the State Fair time. RenFest included. Not that we shouldn't have it at all during the RenFest time line. Sorry if that was confusing, I should have reread it to be sure I got my thoughts across accurately.

 

[Mark Schmidtke]

How does that work?

I don't know, I've never tried it. But many of the original founding members of the MN herp society are still active members, they may be able to give some pointers.

 

[The BoidSmith]

Mark,

Any suggestion as of who should I get in touch with?

Thanks