What's going on at the OFFS?

[Manfred]

When's the next normal meeting at the Ottawa Fly Fishers' Society?

I think it's the first Tuesday of each month, but with that being New Year's day and all, I'm wondering what's up.

I have not been to a meeting yet this year. I actually managed to be flyfishing on the dates for the first two or three, and then got too busy.

Also, I'm all messed up about the new OFFS website. My bookmark takes me to the old one. When I googled it, I could only get to the old one, too, at least with the amount of time I spent at it.

Where's the new one and does it have info on upcoming meetings?

I have been reading peoples' flyfishing posts here fairly regularly, but have not found much to say myself lately. One or two trips to the Pulaski version of the Salmon River did not merit a report. More recent desires to go steelheading have been foiled.

Thanks in advance to anyone with information about the OFFS, and Happy New Year to all here.

Manfred

[beachburger]

Hi Manfred. There is no OFFS meeting on Tue Jan 1. Instead of a Jan meeting, there will be a "garage sale" on Tue Jan 15 at the Champlain Fieldhouse.

The next "normal" meeting should be the first Tue of Feb.

Doug

[Salar]

Doug,

Can the general public attend the "garage sale"? or do we have to be members?

Cheers,

Paul

[beachburger]

Hi Paul. Not sure if the "garage sale" is open to the public but I will find out and let you know.

Doug

[Manfred]

As I recall, Salar is a member of a flyfishing club somewhere up-river. Maybe someone more influential than myself should arrange to let them come down-river and participate in our garage sale.

[beachburger]

I was informed that the intent of the "swap and sell" is for the "sell" part to be for members only but visitors were welcome to come "buy"......

In case anyone is interested, the Jan fly tying session will be on Tue Jan 22.

Doug

[Salar]

Thanks Doug for the info. I'll see if I can make it.

What time does it start?

Paul

[beachburger]

The regular meetings go from 7:00 - 9:00 so I am guessing that the Swap and Sell will be the same hours. Post meeting B.S.'ing has been known to carry on until 10:00.....

Hope you can make it.

Doug

[Todd B.]

The OFS website address is now http://www.ottawaflyfishers.com.

Personally I'm not happy with the way that it's being maintained, and will try to assume the webmaster role in order to bring it up to the standard that it should be.

Todd

[Manfred]

Thanks to Todd for posting the address for the new website.

I hope that what I write now need not be taken as criticism of any kind but, if it must be taken as such, that it is taken as constructive criticism. This is from the viewpoint of someone who feels his volunteer time is limited, but who appreciates the volunteer work of others.

I recall having seen the new OFFS website in the past. However, when I tried to find it to seek information on what I figured might be the next meeting a month or so ago, I could not find it. The various emails sent by the club help a member. The other standard way of finding the information, though, seemed to be a Google search.

Just now, I tried the following Google searches: "Ottawa Flyfishers Society"; "Ottawa Fly Fishers Society"; "Ottawa Fly Fishers' Society"; and "Ottawa Flyfisher's Society". Most of them seemed to retrieve the old site fairly well. None of them retrieved the new site within the first five or six hits. I understand that few people check beyond that many.

I was pleased to read that Todd might look into website issues. It seems to me that "newbies" or current members with bad memories might very well look to the web to find information about OFFS events coming up in the next few weeks, and might well resort to a Google search to find the website. To my mind, the website would work best if the handful of Google searches that people would probably enter "hit" the new website, and the new website told people what events were coming up in the near future.

Thus endeth my homily. I remain grateful to those who keep the OFFS running and to those who undertake any future work in that regard.

I would really rather post on my latest adventure on a stream, but it seems that the water is a bit too hard right now. If this email is not evidence enough of withdrawal symptoms, I have also been spending a lot of time surfing the web for information on flyfishing in North Carolina, Virginia, and places even further beyond my budget and available time. I have also caught myself daydreaming about flyfishing while cross-country skiing.

Hope the rest of you are also hanging in there.

[Salar]

Manfred,

If you need information on fly fishing for trout in Georgia, just let me know. I did a trip there last January. There's good water down there and potential for some trophy trout.

Salar.

[Todd B.]

Manfred,

Not knowing how Google, Yahoo, etc scan the web in order to set up there search indexes, I do not have an answer as to why the current OFS website does not come up on the searches.

Unfortunately the whole situation arose because of a failure to transfer the ownership of the domain name over to the society. Without pointing fingers at anyone, this was not done. As a result a domain name squatter took our domain name (within their right since our registration expired.) The Society was then left with the option of paying what amounts to an "extortion" fee to get the domain name back or to simply register for a new one, which the society did.

One solution might be to add a "Sticky" threat that lists all of the available fly fishing clubs.

Cheers,
Todd