taping the conference

[MichaelAngelaH@aol.com]

While it sounds like a good idea at first, and certainly a potential 
money-maker, I think in the long run it is a bad idea.  I think that if we 
are trying to get people to get together and talk about plants once a year, 
we shouldn't  at the same time give them the conflicting message that it's 
alright if they don't come, they can just buy a tape and get the same thing.  
This isn't true.  Nothing can replace face to face interaction. We are trying 
to make this conference a "must attend" for anyone interested in aquarium 
plants.  Let's not take away from that.  If they want to come, let's keep 
that interest alive.  There will be no "mystique",  if you will, if we just 
offer to give it away for only $X.00.  And in future years, the success of 
this conference will depend on this "mystique" and word of mouth.  We have to 
make it unique and worth people's money to attend.  Otherwise we could just 
ask several speakers to video tape their program and sell that to our 
members, and forget the conference.  In this time of declining personal 
interaction, let's at least attempt to avoid contributing to this decline.  

>From really hot and humid Missouri (right now you pronounce that "misery"),  

Mike