George's thoughts, round two...

["James Purchase" <jpurch@interlog.com>]

Gee, I'm glad that you finally decided to join us George.... <g>

>Is there massive world-wide interest among those not on the secret list
>or is this a contest to be held amongst ourselves with the potential for
>broken arms and dislocated shoulders from patting ourselves on the back?

What "secret list" are you speaking of George?

In APD V3 #1137, in a public message addressed to everyone, I noted the
then-current thread on the "state of aquascaping in North America vs Europe
and Japan." I made the suggestion, in the same message that it might be
possible to run a competition which was Web based (as far as the display of
entries was concerned) and which might be sponsored by the AGA, to guage
that state.

I know the situation regarding volunteer organizations and getting folks to
pitch in and actually shoulder some of the burden, so I publicly stated my
willingness to help in any way that I could.

Exactly 14 minutes after I received the issue of the APD which contained
that message, I received an e-mail from Erik Olson, volunteering to help me
in any way that he could. Erik had also forwarded my message to Karen for
her consideration.

Exactly 40 minutes after that, I received an e-mail from Karen Randall which
indicated to me that, to use her words ..."I think it's an awesome idea! ".
She outlined some guidelines, like remembering to structure it to allow for
the inclusion/acceptance of hard copy images through the mail, to include
those folks who are not Internet aware.

The next issue of the APD, V3 #1138, contained a number of very positive and
encouraging comments from people concerning this idea.

In APD, V3 #1139, I posted a public message which began with the salutation
"Hello Everyone". In it I invited anyone interested in my idea to please
contact me privately, as I was planning on setting up a little informal list
of my own to discuss the issue of planning this event. I was aware of how
much volume this sort of conversation would generate and did not wish to
swamp the APD, and any folks on it who were _not_ interested, with the
mountain of posts which would follow. I went so far as to provide a
hyper-link to my personal e-mail address.

Before #1139 has dropped into my e-mail in-basket, eight people had
contacted me privately asking to be placed on my list and offering to help
in any way possible.

Within a few days, it became clear to Erik that my private forwarding of
messages was not going to be able to handle the volume of mail which was
being generated, so he offered to set up this mailing list, using majordomo
on his facilities to host it.

In the next issue of the APD, V3 #1140, Wright Huntley became the first
person to publicly piss on the idea. From his comments, it was obvious that
Wright felt that as he was a shoo in to win, why should we even bother?
Perhaps I should have just gotten a ribbon and sent it to him and forgotten
about the whole idea there.... of course I could never be certain that the
postman would place the ribbon correctly...

B.T.W., the positive comments from numerous _other_ APD'ers continued to
come through in #1140.

In APD, V3 #1141, you joined Wright in his attempt to "put out the fire".

I announced the formation of this mailing list publicly in APD, V3 # 1144,
and I gave full directions as to how anyone who wished to join in the
discussions could do so. That was on July 11, 1999.

We have participation here from all over the United States, from Canada, and
from Peru. I would love to have more input from other countries, but I
_don't_ ascribe that lack of partication as any indication of a lack of
interest.

This list is _hardly_ a secret. I have made _every_ effort to let the
members of the APD know about it and I have made every effort within my
power to encourage _everyone_ on this list, whether or not they are an AGA
member or not, to feel welcome and to encourage them to provide input and
feedback.

I shall continue to do so.

>From the remaining comments that you make, I am sure that you do not mean
any harm, either to any individual nor to the idea that we are discussing,
and I can understand your cynical attitude - you have done more than your
share to expand and spread the love of aquatic gardening which you and your
wife so obviously enjoy. I told you years ago how inspired I felt after
reading your articles in AFM. And you are quite aware, I am sure, that you
are considered one of the "giants" of the hobby.

You continue to be welcome here and I look forward to hearing your input,
good or bad, as this process continues.

Sincerely,

James Purchase
Toronto


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