The Greater Iowa Reef Society started the same way many other clubs have with a group of reef lovers coming together to share their passion. As our little group got larger, Reef Central was kind enough to offer us a forum of our own to help find other Iowans & grow our club even more. As our club grew, we developed our own website to help draw more people with features like a private BOD forum to conduct club business, a chat room to have Sunday night chats, a video library with presentations from past speakers ,and a photo module to have monthly photo contests. Today we have grown to over 1000 registered members on our website.

Since Iowa's population is spread out, we have four separate meeting areas within the state. These areas meet monthly, and we get together as a large club 3-4 times a year for larger events. Local events include tank tours, fragging demos, disease control classes, cook outs, DIY demos, and many others. As a club we bring in speakers and vendors from all over the nation for our Spring & Fall Reef Fests. These events draw a huge crowd and offer seasoned veterans and people just starting in the hobby a chance to come together to interact in this hobby we all love.

GIRS and its members are committed to growing our hobby and helping new hobbyist start out right. We encourage you to join your local club & be an active participant. Remember to use all the resources available to you. MASNA offers clubs up to $300 to help bring in a speaker, and also offers a scholarship to students interested in pursuing studies in the marine sciences field. There are numerous forums that focus on everything from Cephalopod to NPS corals. Please feel free to stop at our website & say hi!