Aquaponics Tour Brainstorming

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

Please give your ideas about ways we can tour systems and do some face-to-face communication. Here are a few ideas that have already been shared (what do you think?):

1. Just postpone the tour and do it later.
   
   
2. Divide Phoenix into quarters and do periodic tours, rotating regions.
   (This decreases mileage & time commitments.)
   
   
3. Hold open houses periodically.
   (This keeps time commitments short & it happens on the host's timeline.)
   
   
4. "Work party" gatherings where we help get a system built or rebuilt.
   (This gives the inexperienced worker bees experience and provides opportunities to welcome newbies into aquaponics. It also benefits the established by sharing ideas and skills).
   
   

What do you think of these ideas, and what other ideas might you have?

[Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr.]

Greetings. Thanks to you and David for taking this on. The city of Phoenix alone is 512 or so square miles, 10% larger than the city of Los Angeles. Phoenix metro is twice to 3 times that I do believe. So IMHO, dividing the city into rotating regions that do periodic self guided tours is an excellent idea that solves the timing (wait till later) challenge as well. It also allows individuals to do open houses as they wish. A good organization to contact that does this well is the Phoenix Pond Society. There is also a lot of overlap and they have recently developed an interest in aquaponics.

[Stephanie Bader]

I think 2 and 3 sound the best. I think three sounds the best. I think people get a bit self concious about having things look good enough by a certain date. I know that was the main concern when i was debating signing up for the tour with my better half.

And i think the Garden Pool in Mesa does work parties occassionaly. I don't know how well that works out, I've never gone to one.

 

[Kent Biswanger]

I like the idea of work parties and open houses. I would be willing to have an open house with an optional work party for anyone who wants to participate and would encourage people to carpool since I almost live at the CA boarder. (Just kidding, we are in Goodyear but its close) My system is not super large but its far enough along that people could learn from it and I could always use some constructive criticism.

We could do a pot luck of some kind so nobody leaves hungry .

The work party part might be the thing that gets me organized enough to put the finishing touches on my systems.

[Larry]

MY biggest thing was it was my annaversry weekend or i would be more than happy to open mine up to you all. I like the pot luck ideal food always bring people together :) Heck if you would like to see what i have done Just ask I will show you. I am kind prowd of my work. I am at I17 and thunderbird road area.

In reply to Stephanie Bader even if it is under construction That is the best time to get outside information maybe you can avoid a pitfall. I know mine is up and running as is Sheri's but we all are working on them as we go. I know mine is no where close to being my finished product that might take me the rest of the year, I know sheri is re-working some stuff would be nice to talk to her and find out why? Maybe it is something i can do in mine now before having to re-build later?  All of these are works in progress just like a regular garden. We all have different skill sets and different trains of thought we can use. This is resaon  we need to talk to each other to help all of us reach our goals. There is no ONE solution it has to be done this way type thing with these things.

[Chris George]

I agree with all of you...I particularly like the open house idea (potluck or no potluck), would give us all a chance to meet in person and ask about all of the ins and outs of a particular system.  @Kent - I'd especially like to see your system, think about a date (I haven't driven to Cali for eons...haha).  I know I'd be most interested in seeing working systems first (for ideas) and then some 'under construction' systems (for some think tank info).  I'm always up for a work day...too.

[James Jasper]

i think that dividing the area is a good idea if the participating group gets too large, but it may be too early to start for now. 

Work parties are a good idea, but take  a lot of organizing - i would be a willing participant, but it needs a willing leader.

Perhaps someone with an operating system or problem system could schedule an 'open house' time to review/critique/explain/etc. their setup at a given time or schedule.

[David Schwinghamer]

I think any of these ideas would work, Im just happy things are being done so a tour may happen? I now have a strong desire to have people see my new operation at my new location!