The new Associate Editor

[Neil Frank <nfrank@mindspring.com>]

I got a call from Bruce Watts last night. As you all know, he has been with
AGA at least since 1990, and prior to the re-org, was the Aquarium Soc.
Liaison. This job did not find its way into the new structure. Bruce is a
strong supporter of AGA and has been calling me off and on for the past
several months asking what he can do to contribute. (He is one of the
unknown percentage of AGA members without internet access) He got the
latest TAG with the chart and wanted to know how he could best fit in. I
first said to call Karen, but after he talked about the importance of TAG
to the AGA and after he praised me for 5 minutes for my efforts, I told him
about my desire to find an Associate editor. He took my offer!
I basically described the job as getting articles in shape for publication
which involves a range of activities including
* scanning and/or typing hard copies -- e.g. articles in club publications
* editing/formatting material for the TAG look -- e.g. adding subtitles,
italicizing Latin names, etc.
* helping to organize and select articles for future issues.

I know Bruce for many years and he is very dependable. He has written
several beginner oriented articles for TAG and is a known plant speaker on
the west coast (recently he talked to SFAS and Sacramento). There are 2
current limitations - he only has a 386 computer and he is not on internet.
He said he will eventually get a new computer with modem etc., which will
be a tremendous help. I decided that this should not be a prerequisite, so
we will give it a try. {anyone have a spare 66MH 486 that is collecting
dust?} So, for the time being, he and I will have to communicate via phone
and snail mail. 

Therefore I request a small budget to cover our expenses for stamps and
phone calls. I can't give a specific $$ amount, but I am frugal and time
limited so I will not be gabbing too long. :-)

If all works out, I can re-energize my efforts as editor. I will focus on
continuing to seek original material; nurturing potential authors; and
establishing and maintaining contact with other editors or authors overseas
(e.g. I am now working on getting plant articles translated from the
Russian magazine AKVARIUM). Bob Day will continue to handle the final
computer layout. Eventually Paul and I need to talk about what we should do
with photos. Now I need to find the stuff to send to Bruce! 

ERIC: To help prepare the TAG INDEX for 1997, is there anything on the AGA
web page that can be cut and pasted into a rough format for Bruce to work
with?

--Neil