Re: MCM - Digest V1 #340

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

At 03:12 AM 7/6/2000 -0700, you wrote:

>OK, it sounds like Dave's latest position is "one page exchanges with one
>page", whether that is an ad or an "announcement".  This means that
>because Karen wrote an announcement of the Chatanooga conference, we are
>now "two behind" in exchanges for PAM, not "one" as we had originally
>surmised, and that we are meant to either pay for more PAM space or "make
>it up" with exchange ads until we are "even".

Sorry it's taken me an extra day to respond, I didn't have the emotional
fortitude to deal with it last night.  I'm writing to you privately,
because I am venting, and I'm not sure how much of this needs to be aired
publicly.  You can decide.  If you want to copy it to the list, go ahead.
If you want to edit for diplomacy sake, that's fine too. 

Now it's my turn to be more than a little peeved.  Dave asked _ME_ to write
up something on the Chattanooga event.  He didn't ask me if AGA would like
to run an ad.  If he had, I would have told him I'd need to talk to the SC
or MC about it, and I personally would have voted against it.  I believe
his request was something like: "Shouldn't we put something about
Chattanooga in PAM?  Would you write something up?"  Since many magazines
run announcements of hobby events, I thought that was what he was doing.
As far as I'm concerned, if he wants to meet the needs of the planted
aquarium hobbyist, he has a responsibility to keep his readers informed of
major developments and events in the hobby.  To NOT inform people of the
Chattanooga event would be extremely shortsighted on his part.  It was HIS
choice to give it a full page. (or what ever he says he gave it... since
it's not out yet, how would we know?)  

As far as whatever he got from James is concerned, I don't think he even
MENTIONED that to any MC or SC members.  I don't remember hearing anything
about it.  Does that mean he can approach ANY AGA member at any time, print
something they write up, then charge us for ad space?!?  He asked me for a
write-up on the NEC event, but I was too busy at the time to put anything
together.  Now I'm glad I didn't, or there'd be another "ad" on our account.  

Considering that I told him that he could pay me at 1/2 _his_ stated rate
for my articles and the many, MANY photos of mine that he is using in the
magazine and on the cover until PAM starts making money, (if it ever does)
I really think he has a nerve then asking AGA to pay (or even exchange
space) for a press release that _he_ asked me to write.  Even the photo in
the AGA ad is mine!  

And as for how many times he's run _anything_ for AGA, I don't know about
anyone else, but I've only received _one_ issue so far, and that contained
_one_ ad.  Seems to me that from that perspective, we're pretty much up to
date.

He calls me almost evey weekend to tell me how things are going on the
magazine, and this time, he's going to get a little talking to.  IF and
WHEN he starts paying me full stroke for my work, we'll DISCUSS whether or
not AGA should be paying for ads.  

If he ticks me (and the other writers/editors who are also heavily involved
with AGA) off too much, he's in tough shape.  He's going to have a really
hard time replacing me as a steady, reliable source of photos for his
magazine, even if he can find other writers to replace me.  There just
aren't that many people who TAKE decent planted tank pictures.

<rant over>

Karen