RE: SFBAAPS Open House and Two Other Items!

[Karen Randall <krandall@world.std.com>]

At 09:04 PM 1/17/2000 -0800, Jeff Kropp wrote:

>This is a much harder question for me... I see some conflicting interests.
>So long as the magazine remained beneficial to the group I would be in
>favor of inclusion. However the last thing I would want is a disbanding of
>our connections because a magazine failed. In many ways I would rather be a
>regional branch of the AGA but I understand Neil and Dave are not of the
>same mind.

I can't help you with your decision concerning PAM except to say that I am
sincerely hoping that it does succeed.  I can make the AGA portion of your
"wish" incredibly easy.  AGA is _ALWAYS_ happy to help local AGA'ers (and
other aquatic gardeners) spread the word about their activities.  While we
have no formal affiliation requirements at this time, there are several
regional groups of aquatic gardeners that meet at lest semi-regularly.  You
guys are probably one of the two most formalized groups.  

All YOU folks need to do is find a representative who is willing to feed
your announcements and reports of your activities (and I know you are a
very active group) to the appropriate people on a regular basis.  Mary
McCaw (marymccaw@mediaone.net) is the editor.  She needs about a 3 month
lead time before your event for an announcement to get in TAG in time.
Erik Olson (erik@thekrib.com) is our Web master.  Announcements of your
events are welcome on the AGA web site as well.  Tell us about what your
group HAS done, as well as what is coming up.  We love to let other AGA'ers
know what regional groups are doing.

In return, we ASK (but do not require) that you encourage your members to
consider joining the AGA.  What I do here in New England is to bring a
poster I made on folding foam core board to Aquarium Society meetings with
information about the AGA on it.  There is a sample copy of TAG of the
poster, photos of members' tanks and a brief list of member benefits (the
book store, TAG, back issues) and our statement of purpose.  I set the
poster up on a table, and place a bunch of brochure/membership forms in
front of it.  I would say most of our BAS "plant people" are also AGA
members, but we don't require it... we don't even ask.  I think the
benefits of belonging to AGA speak for themselves.  

If this sounds good to you, talk it over among yourselves.  Pick are
representative, and start sending in news.  If you need help with tank
photos, let me know, but I suspect that with all the awesome tanks you
folks have out there, you can come up with a few of your own ;-)  If you'd
like a sample of TAG for a poster, let me know about that too, and I'll
have one sent to you.  As far as brochures are concerned, what I've done in
the past is sent the brochure to the local group as a "Word" file, and had
them print up a supply locally.  Receipts for reasonable expenses for both
the brochures and the poster can be sent to the treasurer, David Lass
(davidlass@villasunscape.com) for reimbursement.

Happy Gardening!

Karen