Re: AGA

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Ken Guin wrote:

> I would imagine that the real reason I didn't rejoin was that I was never
> reminded that my subscription was about to run out. Just to be sure that I
> hadn't signed up for three years and forgotten about it, I emailed the AGA
> to ask if I was still a member. After hearing nothing, I contacted Karen R.
> and was able to find out that I was no longer a member. The AGA person who
> responded, told me that he only has membership records going back as far as
> last month???? I am sure this person is a volunteer and I believe he is new
> as well. So, I was not too disturbed by this. Should I have been?

You must have done this right around the time the membership shifted from
Dorothy to Jack (I think it's Jack).  I think they have all that figured
out now.  But...

> One of this list's members commented that she thought she was a member
> because she sent in her membership fees in January. However, she added that
> she had never heard anything back from them. So, she was not really sure if
> she was a member.  I have heard others wondering out loud if the
> organization really existed, or whether it just a phantom organization .
> Does anyone know for sure? Karen, if you are back in town now, could you
> give us some information that might ease some of our fears here? How about
> you Erik? Should I wait until I get my first TAG? Will that explain all of
> this to me?

I'm just the web guy, but here's what I'd suggest:

Wait for the TAG, or e-mail Jack, the membership secretary
(joleary@col-col.com or jdo@world.std.com, I'm not sure which one is
correct).  Better to wait for the TAG first, and *then* email.  The new
TAG was, as of a week or two ago, going to the printers and expected to be
mailed in August. Neil Frank described it as a 72-page "triple issue",
though they may have decided to change this to "quadruple" so the
July/August issue isn't automatically considered late.

> >From all that James has written about the AGA sponsoring the
> Showcase/Contest, I have the feeling that the AGA is alive and well with a
> wonderful reputation in the industry.

It's alive, but I think not completely well.  It does have a wonderful
reputation in the industry.  As I have mentioned here and in other forums,
70% of the AGA is the publication, and we're just not getting submissions.

My problem is that with at least a vocal few, the reaction is to get all
pissy and publicly trash the society rather than try and help repair the
problems.  I know it's much easier to destroy than create, and we also
live in an age where everyone expects everything to be delivered to them
in convenient easy-to-digest form.  We forget that the AGA isn't a
magazine, it's a volunteer club, just like the local aquarium socities. It
not only serves, but is served BY its members.  This is why I have little
sympathy for someone who posts "Hey, I sent my $12.  Where's my TAG?".


Incidentally, if you think things are any better in the cichlid groups,
have you seen the Apistogramma Study Group?  They just disappeared for two
years with no publications at all, not a word!  Now they're back and
trying very hard to catch up by publishing their quarterly journal every
two months (they're still on 1998 volumes!)  Or how about the ACA, who
didn't publish a Buntbarsche Bulletin all year until June?  I don't even
know if FACE is still alive... they were pretty shakey a few years ago (I
remember a full-page ad in our local club bulletin basically saying "We're
screwed.  Help us.").

My take on all this is that this contest is a great fit for the AGA.
It gives some of its members a chance to finally "do something" for the
society (and I know there are a lot of us who've been sitting around
wondering just what we COULD do to help).  The connections the AGA has
with industry bigwigs and magazines will help the contest a LOT.  And the
AGA will get lots of photos some small articles for the publication.

  - Erik
(Please, let this be the last "AGA: Why?" post here... please...)

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

  ------------------
  To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@aquatic-gardeners.org
  with "unsubscribe aga-contest" in the body of the message.
  To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-contest-digest"
  in the same message.
  Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest