Re: MCM - Digest V1 #403

["James Purchase" <jpurch@interlog.com>]

Mary, et al.....

It's heartening to know that the showcase/contest list is not the only place
where squabbles break out...... <g>

I've been feeling rather ill for the past few days, and not in much of a
mood to be sitting at the computer, but I did feel up to doing some
preliminary work this afternoon, which you might find useful/interesting.

On the 30th of the month, the complete web site will (hopefully) be unveiled
by Erik. It will contain a new "Intro" page (which I've yet to write) and a
"Contest Prize Winners" page, which I have been working on this afternoon.
(Erik, this is probably news to you, but I hope that we can squeeze it in
somewhere on the web site). I would like this "Contest Prize Winners"
material printed in the first issue of TAG which goes to print following the
end of the month. I've got several versions of this document in progress, in
various formats (HTML table for Erik and MS Word for Mary) and have posted a
preliminary version to http://www.interlog.com/~jpurch/webs/TAG/Winners.htm
.

This should give Mary an idea of what to expect from me - it's a cut and
dried listing of the Contest categories, the winner's names and where they
are from and information on the composition of the prize package they have
won. Right now, on regular paper (8.5"x11") in 8pt Courier New, this listing
runs to almost 3 full pages.

This "announcement" will be old news buy the time TAG gets printed to any
AGA member who is following this on the APD, as the same material will be on
the web, but I'd bet that there are lots of AGA members who don't have web
access or may have just ignored the whole thing so far. The list _is_ kind
of impressive, what with page after page of prizes. I want it in TAG both
"for the record" and to spur more participation in next year's event from
more AGA members. All of those $$$ will usually do the trick.

Due to the fact that I have only had a few days to look at the images
submitted to the event and have either been busy or ill for most of that
time, I have only a vague notion of what types of articles that could come
out of the aquascapes. Most of those initial ideas I have already passed to
Mary as possibilities and from my e-mails from Erik, I think that he and I
are on exactly the same wavelength regarding what is possible.

I want you all to know that I don't think it is necessary (or even
preferable) that I be the author of every article that gets published
concerning this event. Karen is much better at putting word to paper than I
am and I'm sure others as well can write in a more conversational manner
than I seem capable.

I think that it might be useful to hammer out a preliminary list of articles
which people think are possible and then look for appropriate authors for
each. There is a strong possibility that Kaspar Horst will be writing an
article on the event for Aquarium Heute which will appear both in the German
and Italian editions of the magazine and I have asked him if we might obtain
an English translation of his article for possible publication in TAG.
Ideally, I'd like all of the Judges to weigh in with an article on what they
thought of the aquascapes.

I welcome the news that Mary might be able to get something done in
Practical Fishkeeping.

As for Dave and PAM, I'm in full support of having some material from this
event appear there. I agree with Karen that Dave is in this for the love of
the hobby - and if anyone thinks that he is hard to deal with, just ask
Karen and/or Erik how bad I can be when I've got a burr on. My only problem
with material going into PAM is "what"? Dave has a deadline and I have too
much work to do in order to get this event out the door to worry about
another deadline right now. I think I've solved that problem by deferring to
Erik on PAM - Erik will be the one to author at least the first article for
Dave's magazine.

Mary said that she isn't worried about publicity for the Contest. That is I
guess as it should be - it's MY job to be worried about publicity for the
Contest. And in that capacity, I say that any publicity is good publicity.
The more venues we can get this mentioned in, the better, both for future
editions of the event, the AGA and the hobby in general.

Once this is over and before too much time has expired, I would like to
start discussing the earlier suggestion that the Conference and the
Showcase/Contest be brought into closer co-operation next year, to the
mutual benefit of both. It might not be too early to start work on that sort
of thing early in the New Year.

James Purchase
Toronto