AGA Contest

Regarding the question of whether or not to waive the fee for AGA members, I have carefully read over Jack's comments and James' and Ken's replies. With a certain reluctance because I would like to offer our members some perks in addition to TAG, I support James' position. His group clearly wants the contest to be an annual event as opposed to one -shot which I think would be very beneficial for the hobby and for the AGA as well. I think his financial concerns are well stated, and given our limited resources and the uncertainties as to what the costs will be, I think it is better to charge everyone a fee rather than to have the AGA make a sizeable up-front expenditure. Are there any other perks we could offer our members? What about taking 10% off book store purchases?

I have some comments and suggestions on "Section 6 - Aquascape Information," pp. 16-17. My rationale behind these suggestions is to maximize their educational value for people who view the contest results.

I can understand why the committee decided to have two separate sections, "Required Information" and "Additional Information (Suggested)." Certainly doing things this way is less work for the entrants, and I would imagine that the thinking was that more people would enter if it didn't involve a lot of work. But I don't think this is necessarily so. I think people would take a lot of pride in their tanks and are more that happy to furnish details about their pride and joy. I suggest one section.

Regarding point 4, "A list of Plant Species," a common name is of less value than a scientific name, especially I would think in an international contest. Think of all the confusion around the common names for the various species of Vallisneria. Instead of "(either common names and/or scientific names, if known)," I would suggest "(scientific and/or common names)." This change in emphasis would I think make it more likely that the entrant would put down the scientific name. As many of you know, the policy of TAG is to use scientific names as much as possible for educational reasons, and I suggest that in the contest we adopt the same policy.

For #5, "A list of Fish Species," I propose a wording change as in #4.

#6. I think the substrate is important information and doesn't really qualify as decorative material. If it were up to me, I would leave the substrate in and leave the other stuff out because from the pictures, the other decorative elements should be self-explanatory.

#7. The type of tank background could also be left out.

#10. (Hand drawn plan of aquascape). This could certainly be optional.

I have the feeling that James is rather sensitive about making changes to his proposal. In my mind the most important change would be to in some way put more emphasis on the importance of including the scientific name.