fintuckyfarms
Thank you for the very kind words, I really appreciate them. I always try and help as much as I can, and that may vary depending on the time I have right then. But at the same time I always try not to sound like my preferences are the only ones.
It sounds like your doing very well at planning things out. It also sounds like it will be a well rounded, and even educational display. Even the small starts with roots they can see will be a great display. People seem to be fascinated to see the roots they normally wouldn't see because their in soil. Also the Idea booklet is a great idea, I cant tell you how many ideas I get from seeing other peoples designs. Simply seeing all the types of systems, and different designs will be very inspirational (and get that hamster turning the wheel in peoples heads). It's too bad I wont be able to get up there to see it, but I hope you'll post pictures and let us know how things went.
I hadn't ever thought about starting a hydroponics club. Well nothing beyond my hydro website which I haven't had time to update, but is planed to be a interactive site for growers to communicate, and without people trying to sell them stuff. But I like the idea of a local club as well. Perhaps even using a library, or local collage meeting room (possibly even for free because it's educational), or at least for a real low cost. That way they can meet other local growers face to face and talk about their grows, as well as make friends with like minded people and share ideas.
Is there anything your not allergic to (LOL)?? As for pot growers, I don't have anything against them, and I don't know what the laws are like in Washington state. But here it's legal to grow it for personal use (a certain amount anyway) if you have a medical card. Each time I go to our local hydro shop, well lets just say I have never met anyone there that is really growing fruit and veggies. That just tells me most of the local interest seems to be in growing pot.
I personally would like to change peoples stereotype thinking that pot is the only crop you can grow hydroponically. When people hear the word "hydroponics" they automatically associate the term with growing drugs. Therefore they never even consider it as an option for growing anything else. That's what I want to change. It is just imbedded into my vocabulary now that when I tell people about my greenhouse plans/operation I always use the term culinary herbs." If I didn't they would automatically think I was talking about growing pot. I didn't even realize I used that therm (it's so automatic), but I was registering for a free class for business retail tax a few days ago, and after I finished my sentience she said "good, I was holding my breath". Until I specified the herbs were culinary herbs, her mindset was automatically assuming pot because I was growing them hydroponically.
How I would do things with regard to the club if it were me would vary depending on your local laws. But for me here regardless, I would want to make sure people knew it was a fruit and veggie growing club only, and simply wont tolerate illegal acts, and will even report any illegal acts. Make it well known in the clubs literature, but not focusing on it in hopes to not feed into peoples already stereotype thinking, and thus possibly scare anyone from trying hydroponics. That alone would probably filter most of them out. If the people in the group are really only interested in growing fruits and veggies, that should weed out (no pun intended) anyone else wanting to test the clubs real intentions. The pot growers wouldn't have anyone to talk about growing pot with. Another way to drive home the fact it's a fruit and veggie growing club, is starting with the club name. Perhaps something like "Hydroponic fruit and veggie growers." Or a sub title/slogan like:
Club name (something like)
"Hydro Growers of Washington"
Sub slogan (something like)
"Growing better produce to feed your family hydroponically'"
or "Growing hydroponically for better fruit and veggies"
Basically just something to drive home that the club is about growing fruit and veggies (food) and not pot. If I had time to deal with it (and depending on your local laws), I may find a friend with a medical card that was interested to run a separate club for "legal" pot growers, but again wont tolerate and will report any illegal acts. Perhaps even put the Sheriffs office emblem next to the statement with a number to report illegal acts to. That alone would probably be enough to scare off anyone doing anything illegal.
As for a website, I wouldn't' even consider doing a hydro club without one. There are just so many ways a dedicated website is better than a Facebook page. Starting with an easy to remember domain name, easy to spell, and descriptive. When people share things in conversation with their friends that will be extremely important. Descriptive for two reasons, first so it makes easy scene and easy to remember, second for search engine rankings. If your familiar with Facebook, that's fine have one of those also, but a dedicated website will be 100 times better in the long run (even if only one or two pages). I know Facebook is huge, but there are lots of people who don't use any social media (I don't myself). Beyond that without writing a book, there are just so many differences between Facebook and your own dedicated website.
I can help you with that, but I will need to talk to you to find out your level of experience. I don't really have a lot of time these days, and I don't think you will either. So it would need to be something you can handle comfortably. But depending on you and your sons comfort level on the computer, I'm sure I can find a reasonable option for you. The cost can range from free, to less than $10 a month. If your not selling products you wont need secure ordering, and even reduces website design difficulty and costs. My "Home Hydro Systems" website costs me $6.99 a month. But there are some you can do free (well after you pay for the domain name that you can get for between $2 and $10 a year). And range in difficulty from click and build, to creating your own website template like I did with my site.
Jeff
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