Membership???

[petepup]

Hello everyone, I am new to Severn River, I kept my boat on Forked Creek for the first time this past year and will be there again this coming year. I am interested in joining your fishing club and wanted to know who to talk to or where to meet up.

I did see the recent meeting that you had for January, but i only noticed it today. Is there plans for a February meeting?

Thanks

Pete

[attml]

Hi Pete,

Welcome to the Severn River Rod & Keg Club board! I am the outgoing Club VP (my 3 year term ended January 1st). Our new Club Officers are President -John, "J.A. Veil and Vice President - Kim "rodsgirl". We are a non -profit "just for fun" fishing club comprised of a lot of really great folks from various backgrounds with a wealth of fishing experience on the Severn River and on the Chesapeake Bay. We meet mainly at a local bar/restaurant (meeting time and places are posted here on the board in advance of the meeting) on the first Wednesday of every month. During the summer if the weather cooperates we sometimes will have an on the water meeting/raft-up. Throughout the year we have low money fishing tournaments ($10 entry fee) that are more about bragging rights than anything else. If you are lucky enough to win you get enough money to help recoup lost tackle and some gas money. You can see last year's tournament schedule posted as a sticky at the top of this SRRKC forum -the new schedule should be posted soon. We do a "Fisherman of the Month" competition every month where club members post a picture of something they have caught for that month. We then vote for the winner at the next month's meeting. Winners of Fisherman of the Month are automatically entered into one of the 12 slots for SRRKC Fisherman of the Year. At our January meeting we hand out trophies for the Fisherman of the Month winners and vote for Fisherman of the Year. We don't have a yearly dues like a lot of other organizations. All you need to do to become a lifetime member is show up at a meeting and buy a round for the members that are present (Hint: we don't want to soak anyone so we recommend you show up at about 6:50pm for a 7PM meeting. If you show up and there are only 2-3 people there when you are ready to buy your round that is all that you have to buy for and you are lifetime member :-) Hopefully that helps and we hope to see you next month!

Mark

[J.A. Veil]

We don't have a yearly dues like a lot of other organizations. All you need to do to become a lifetime member is show up at a meeting and buy a round for the members that are present (Hint: we don't want to soak anyone so we recommend you show up at about 6:50pm for a 7PM meeting. If you show up and there are only 2-3 people there when you are ready to buy your round that is all that you have to buy for and you are lifetime member :-) Hopefully that helps and we hope to see you next month!

Mark

Mark -

Thanks for sharing the information. Kim and I are having some discussions about how we can maintain the quirky nature of the "membership fee ritual" without soaking the new member too badly. Your advice to show up early is a great way to avoid buying drinks for 15 thirsty guys. One of our thoughts is to put a financial cap on the membership round of drinks (for example, the new guy must buy a round for everyone present up to a ceiling of $25 [or some other value]). What do you think about that? And how high should the cap be set?

[27 sailfish]

If a new member arrives early - buying 2-5 drinks is not bad.

If they get there later or there are 15-20 SRRKCers - perhaps see if bar will sell 1-2 pitchers of beer and bring a lot of small cups.

[rem1224]

I seem to remember an alternate method (many years ago) to become a lifelong member was to enter one of the tournaments and pay the entry fee. That would limit the cost to $10. Does that sound familiar, John, or am I thinking of somewhere else?

[J.A. Veil]

I seem to remember an alternate method (many years ago) to become a lifelong member was to enter one of the tournaments and pay the entry fee. That would limit the cost to $10. Does that sound familiar, John, or am I thinking of somewhere else?

I don't recall ever hearing that before. But I don't enter all the tournaments, and may have missed it.

As an informal organization without rigid bylaws, we can easily change our policies as time goes along, hopefully to become more relevant and flexible.

I joined many years ago on a Friday evening when Larry Freed (possibly before he became SRRKC president) was filling in as drummer in a band that played at the Rams Head Roadhouse. Larry offered to buy a beer for any SRRKC member who came to listen. Since I live very close to the Roadhouse, I went and met Larry and the legendary founder of the SRRKC, TonyB (long since departed to parts unknown). My memory is fuzzy now, but it is possible that Kevin Farrell (Megabyte) was there that evening too. Before the evening was over, we all bought multiple rounds of beer, and I earned my membership (and a headache the next morning). I don't think I have seen Tony since that night.

[attml]

John,

I am very flexible and agree with whatever you guys think is best! I think that the prospect of buying a round (and the unknown element of how much it will actually cost) may be a little unsettling for some prespective members especially in the current unkind economy. I think anything we can do to boost membership is a good thing. Maybe we could make it optional - A one time $25 donation to the club or buying a round?

In any case, for Pete, I also wanted to mention that we have a club spreadsheet that tracks members who have paid their membership fee. Once you pay your dues, you are on the list as a lifetime member - there aren't any other fees down the road. Also, if you haven't taken a look at the "stickys" at the top of the SRRKC forum there is a thread called "SRRKC Member Photo Page." Here you can see some of the folks from the club. I hope to be doing some updating of that thread and adding some of the newer members soon.

Mark

[goose70]

This thread takes me down memory lane (as opposed to the January meeting, which seems to now take the club dowm mammary lane ). As one of the founding SRRKC members (I think I was the first VP, although I did not run or volunteer for that honor), I can shed a little history on the "membership" requirenment. The rumors are true that enterring a tourney did indeed make you an SRRKC "member," in that you were then considered part of the family and invited to get-togethers if we knew how to reach you. Tony and I (and, I think, a now deceased member named Sean) thought about other ways to create membership and to otherwise form the framework of this new club.

After a small amount of informal research, I cautioned against formal membership requirements, and the others agreed. I managed to scare others about the potential legal implications of forming a formal club, particularly with respect to our tournaments.

Let me be clear that this was my own, layman, non-legal advice as a club member -- we never went so far as to get a formal legal opinion. My armchair view, based in part on some cautionary tales that others who formed clubs shared with me, was that we who call ourselves the SRRKC faced less risk of legal exposure (ranging from regulatory to liability), and would probably have a better shot at not having this club get so burdensome that it fizzles out, if we simply maintain the position that we are an informal social club of folks who meet on a regular basis to b.s. about fishing, and occasionally pool our money to either donate it to a non-political cause or wager on who can catch the largest fish within a given set of parameters (our "tournaments).

I realize that this approach my be overly cautious, but since neither I nor anyone else in the club knew what lay ahead on this new ground that we were treading, we decided that we were better off safe than sorry.

I still do not object to informal membership requirments, but I would remain leary of going farther than that. If someone wants to join us for our tournament, or show up to buy a few bears, I don't see why we can't consider them to be a member as long as we make clear how informal this is. And of course, anyone who wants to opt out of membership simply need not come to our meetings or fish the tourneys. Pretty simple.

Whatever course we choose, I am absolutely astounded and happy as can be that the club has not only persisted, but has grown and matured into what it is today. I hope that Tony is aware of what he started; this truly was his baby. And Larry Freed then took the reigns just when the club appeared to be foundering, not only saving it but building it into the ultra-welcoming group that it has become.

I also hope that some long-lost souls who still fish around here (Cutter, I'm calling you out!), or who may visit on business (Rusty, it's only a 4.5-hour flight from San Fran!) at least lurk here every so often to see what a great group of guys and gals this has become. Now, as a barely active member, I still never regret occassionally popping in to West End if I can make even a part of a meeting, or getting creamed in the SRRKC tourneys.

I don't know if we have any other "orginal members" still among us (Kevin?), but if so, hopefully they will chime in to add to/correct my historical account.

[Hookin-Up]

Oh, I think we sould have some blood ritual like you used to see in the old cowboys movies ( cutting hands and tying them together) or human sacrifice........or maybe just buying a few beers is OK too ;)

[goose70]

Thanks for the reminder...that's exactly how it went down to decide the first SRRKC president. We tied hands together with 80# Ande, then each person was given a live flounder...they'd smack each other with their flounder until one cried uncle. We then celebrated with a flounder meal. Brutal, but effective.