Size, costs, and fees....[Very opinionated]

["Dave Engle" <DaTrueDave@home.com>]

Wow, go away for a few days and....

I've got some personal opinions about entry fees that I've already stated.
If there are entry fees, I don't know if I'll enter.  Five bucks may not be
much to most of us, but, believe me, it's a lot of money to most of the
people in this world.  I doubt that it will be *as* international of an
event with a five (US?) dollar entry fee.
I really hoped that the AGA would be able to sponsor this contest.  I am
disappointed to hear that the AGA has money, but is saving it for "rough
times".  I'm not completely sure what Karen meant by rough times, but the
AGA (from my *non-member* eyes) seems to be having rough times to me.  I've
never seen a copy of TAG (neither have some members), so maybe that's a
publication that's worth the membership alone, but I haven't heard of any
activities that the AGA sponsors or organizes in the last year. I *really*
don't mean to be slamming the AGA.  I realize that a when a volunteer
organization doesn't keep itself fresh will die when "crusty" volunteers
burn out and quit working.
My point is:  I don't see how the AGA can turn down the opportunity that we
will be presenting to them.  We are offering them a contest that will infuse
life into it's membership(as well as swell the ranks, I'm sure).  All they
have to do is cough up a few hundred bucks.  I don't see how they can go
wrong.  Even if the contest is a hundred times larger than we expect, I
don't see how the costs can increase that much.  Volunteer labor will be
taxed, for sure(hopefully not to the breaking point), but monetary costs
won't increase.

In a nutshell:
I really think we should first submit the proposal without any entry fees
and with the AGA paying for their contest.  If they don't want to contribute
monetarily, what exactly are they willing to contribute?  If they contribute
nothing, why call it an AGA contest?  Why not ask Mr. Amano if he's
interested in sponsoring the ADA International Aquascape Showcase and
Contest?


Dave Engle
Escondido (San Diego), California
These are only my thoughts.  Please do not burst any blood vessels while
reading or responding to this message.  :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ------------------
  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