Re: Huh? I don't get it.

["David Lass" <davidlass@villasunscape.com>]

Hi all --
It seems to me that Karen is right on the money. Given that we are as
geographically spread out as we are, it is a wonder that AGA has managed to
do what we have. Perhaps we could make a more concerted effort to formalize
our presence at annual local gatherings like NEC. Is there any way that we
could group our membership list by  region and then see if there is a
regional organization like NEC? If we are going to try and do this in
anything approaching an organized fashion we need to have a core group in
each region to spearhead the effort. Since a number of us are going to be at
NEC perhaps we could discuss it in person there. Just some ideas from me on
a Sunday morning.
David

 Original Message -----
From: Karen Randall <krandall@world.std.com>
To: <aga-mcm@thekrib.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 5:29 PM
Subject: Re: Huh? I don't get it.


> At 09:13 AM 2/12/2000 -0500, Neil wrote:
>
> >I think I understand where he is coming from. This guy is getting the
> >impression that the NEC convention is the same as a national
> >(international) AGA convention and would like to see such an event in
other
> >parts of the world.
>
> Well, if he thought that, he didn't read very carefully.  I specifically
> stated that it was the convention of the North East Council of Aquarium
> Societies.  I even specifically spelled out what that was rather than use
> the acronym, just to avoid any confusion.
>
> >He (and I guess many other folks) do not understand the
> >difference between an "official AGA meeting" and an advertised
> >local/regional aquarium club meeting which offers AGA members a chance to
> >get together.
>
> I'm not sure I do either.  As far as I know, we have never had the former.
> We have always, to my knowledge, piggy backed any of our gatherings on
> another regional group's convention.  AGA simply doesn't have the
man-power
> in any one location to pull off its own event.
>
> >It is good that Karen clarified the situation.
> >
> >To help avoid continued confusion,  I submit that AGA should not
advertise
> >the NEC thing as an "AGA Special Event" (see TAG V12n6). Perhaps better
> >titles would be "An Opportunity for AGAers to Get Together."  Also,
future
> >AGA advertisements of this type might end with a brief statement like
"AGA
> >encourages regional gatherings of AGAers and with sufficient lead time,
we
> >will gladly advertise these events in TAG. Please submit details to TAG
> >editor."
>
> I think if people want to be confused, they will find a point of
confusion.
>  AGA _is_ more than casually involved with the NEC event. But it is
because
> it already is a top notch, well organized convention that specifically
> asked for AGA involvement.  I would love to see this happen with other
good
> conventions around the country.  Rather than down-playing what NEC has
> accomplished, and is offering AGA, I would rather see us do a better job
> publicizing the fact that AGA is WILLING to become involved with and help
> out with regional activities if that's what our members want, if they
> request the help, AND if the LOCAL AGA members are willing to be involved
> in a physical sense.
>
> As I've mentioned when this subject has come up before, I have a problem
> with down-playing the good stuff that is going on in active areas of the
> country just to avoid having other people feel "left out".  Instead, let's
> encourage them to get the same interest and enthusiasm going in their
> areas.  The main reason that there ARE so many AGA members in the New
> England area is that a few of us have done our best to make sure that
> people in this area are made aware of the AGA.  We take posters and flyers
> to all our local club events, and talk up AGA at every opportunity.  It is
> not by accident that there are so many AGA'ers here.
>
> Even if there was no AGA involvement with NEC, we are an area with enough
> interest in aquatic plants that we would _still_  invite Claus to speak.
> We have enough local interest that we were having "planted tank workshops"
> before most local people knew AGA existed.  We would still probably have
> "plant people" getting together at NEC without AGA.
>
> I can't help but feel that we (NEC) are being asked to down-play what we
> have accomplished for fear of some other group, that HASN'T developed that
> kind of enthusiasm feeling left out.  I love AGA, and I love having two of
> my favorite organizations work together on a project.  But NEC will
> continue to put on top notch conventions that attract top people from
> around the country with or without AGA.  I guess the big question is
> whether or not AGA wants to receive some of the credit, or whether it will
> all go to NEC.
>
> I would be happy to vote that support be given to AGA'ers in another
region
> who want to put on an AGA event in conjunction with a convention.  But I
> personally am _not_ willing to go into another region and do the work for
> them.  The North East is not the only area that has put together a large,
> vital group of "plant people".  Look at the groups in San Francisco,
> Seattle, Vancouver, Minnesota and now Wisconsin.  It doesn't take that
many
> people to get the ball rolling in an area.
>
> Karen
>   ------------------
>   To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@thekrib.com
>   with "unsubscribe aga-mcm" in the body of the message.
>   To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-mcm-digest"
>   in the same message.
>   Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-mcm
>   When asked, log in as username is "aga-mcm", and password "incorporate".
>
>

  ------------------
  To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@thekrib.com
  with "unsubscribe aga-mcm" in the body of the message.
  To subscribe to the digest version, add "subscribe aga-mcm-digest"
  in the same message.
  Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-mcm
  When asked, log in as username is "aga-mcm", and password "incorporate".