Tasks to Do (tentative and long)

["James Purchase" <jppurchase@rogers.com>]

Hi Folks,

I've looked over the archives from last year and started to block out in my
mind the various things I feel we have to do to get started this year.

For those of you unfamiliar with the way I like to "work", I tend to "think
out loud" a lot - I'll be posting ideas and suggestions here on this list on
a regular basis. I do this for a number of reasons - I want to float ideas,
both good and bad, in order to get feedback from you. If you don't like an
idea, lets discuss it and find a consensus which might be better. Having
stuff archived will also help in future years - I notice that the archives
from last year are mighty thin on discussion and input. That's not a
criticism, but its just not the way I operate - I like transparency and I
also like to challenge people to think and offer their take on things rather
than having important matters discussed behind closed doors or decided by
just one person.

As Anthony pointed out, the key to the aquarium press seems to be getting
the information to them early enough to meet their long lead times. This
means that our "promotional material" has to be a top priority. But before
this material can be prepared, there are a few things we need to think
about -

We need to settle dates quickly - I'm perfectly cool with the Contest being
timed to coincide with the AGA Convention (I only hope that this time
around, I'm able to be there in person). Our "closing date" would have to be
at least 30 days prior to that (perhaps 45 days, to give us some leeway with
the judging). Erik mentioned announcing the event "officially" at the NEC
Convention (April 12-14, 2002). I'm agreeable with this and we could then
make the "web announcement" of the event (i.e. on the APD and other boards)
on the following Monday, April 15, 2002.

** Official Announcement of Contest - @ NEC Convention - April 12-14, 2002
** Official "Web" Announcement - @ Internet - April 15, 2002
** Closing Date for entries - PICK ONE: September 15, 2002 OR September 30,
2002. I tend to favour the 15th, which would give the judges over a month to
review the entries.
** Announcement of Winners @ AGA Convention - and display of all entries on
the website - Nov. 8-10, 2002 (I'm assuming that the actual announcement
would be made sometime on Saturday, November 9, 2002?????).

We should probably make any desired/necessary changes to the "rules" before
we spend any time on "promo material". This can ensure that our "promo
material" is accurate. I don't anticipate any major changes (I haven't
looked at the "rules" yet), but maybe there are some minor tweaks we need to
make based on last year's experience. I notice in the archives that Erik has
posted several "notes to self for future reference" - this sort of thing is
VERY helpful to me.

Hopefully, Dave VanderWall can work his magic again in promo area (PDF's)
[B.T.W., I now have the full Adobe Acrobat 5 program, as well as access to
all of the other Adobe software - PageMaker, Illustrator and Photoshop].

I've pulled the following list of print magazines from the ADA poster. Does
anyone know of any other print magazines (from anywhere in the world)??? I
may post a query regarding this on the APD.

Aqua Life (Japan),
Fish Magazine(Japan),
Aqua Wave (Japan),
Aqua Journal (Japan),
Tropical Fish Hobbyist (U.S.),
Aquarium Fish Magazine (U.S.),
hydra (Italy),
Aquarium Live (Germany),
Het Aquarium (Netherlands),
Aqua Plai s i r (France) ,
Nas ze AKWARIUM (Poland) ,
ACTPENG (Russia) [spelling is wrong, needs Cyrillic characters],
AQUA PETS MAGAZINE (Taiwan),
FISH MAGAZINE (Taiwan)

We will need postal mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, and the name of the
Editor for each magazine. I'm hoping that I can get Edward Venn (he's on the
APD, and is a fellow from Toronto who lives and works in Japan) to track
down this info on the Asian based mags.

One thing that might help persuade print mags to take notice of us, is if we
let them know that we would be interested in placing copies of any "press"
we get on our website with a link back to the appropriate magazine - sort of
the same idea as the Prize Donors links. To that end, I've already suggested
that we get in touch with Aquarium Heute regarding posting the German
language article they printed last year. There was also a nice spread in
PAM. Erik, might it not be an idea to have a section of the website for
"Press Received" (or some other name, I'm not picky), where we archive and
display the material which various print publications have published
regarding the Contest? Maybe Dave G. will give us permission to post the
material which originally appeared in PAM.

Enough for now...... Input, comments, suggestions???

B.T.W. Erik, the "re-do" of the AGA website is beautifully done!

James Purchase
Toronto


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