Random "State of the AGA" message

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Hello AGA Managers...

Some of you have been in the loop lately; some have not; so I'm just doing 
a little report to the entire management committee to update everyone on 
AGA news...

I am very happy to report that in the 3 weeks we've been running our
online PayPal AGA shopping cart, we've taken in nearly $1500 in
memberships, back issues, and videos. Our membership has rebounded by 50
people to around 750, plus several renewals.

I can report this to you, because I am able to check our online member
database 24x7.  So can Cheryl Rogers, our new membership chair, and 
several others.  Cheryl has been promptly updating the database as orders 
come in, even e-mailing the new members to let them know.

Another aspect of this online store is that Diana has been kept
exceedingly busy with fulfilling the explosion of back issue & book sales
-- her stock of old (pre-color) TAGs has now diminished to the point at
which she will probably be out completely in the next month -- yay!  PAM
orders have returned from the dead, which is a good thing, because Dave
Gomberg really wants us to remove the remaining stock from his garage.

The downside of me now having access to the member database is that I can
clearly see we've still got a long road ahead of us.  Not only are we 250
short of our goal of 1000 members, there are actually 200 people whose
membership will lapse after the next TAG (or have technically already
lapsed).  Cheryl is going to frantically contact them to renew (she may
already have).  If there were ever a time to encourage friends or clubs to
join, it's now.

On the advertising front, Kathy has got a billing system figured out & has
collected her first check (from Seachem).  She's also pulled in two new
advertisers (ZooMed and Echosystem Aquarium).  More are on the way after
the holiday break!  Speaking from firsthand observation, she has been
extremely dedicated and has shown a real passion for not wanting to see
TAG die for lack of funds.

Much has been taking place in terms of future convention planning.  
Darlene Walder (who helped a lot last 3 years, especially with the silent
auction) has been interviewing the 3 principals of last year's convention
(Charlene, Valerie and Luis), distilling all the information she could get
into a document... which, amazingly, she just sent my way as I've been
writing to you guys!  Scott Heiber has volunteered to integrate her
document (how the convention "was" held) along with information from the
ACA and CAOAC (how "other" conventions are held) and info from the board
(how "we think" the convention should be held) and produce a nifty BID
INFORMATION DOCUMENT to send to prospective convention hosts.

Speaking of that, we've got a few interested hosts.  Dallas has 
expressed interest, though they have given US a deadline (!) of January 
30th to get back to them.  Cleveland is a little shaky and would really 
like to ATTEND one before they host one.  And Boston may still be hanging 
in there as a possible host.  Dallas and Cleveland, along with a few other 
clubs, are really interested in hosting 2004, so the formal bid process 
will really help here.

I haven't heard any financials from the last convention.  Much of the
reason we are creating bid procedures is because of the lack of checks and
balances planning the last event.  Though it was a succesful convention
for those who attended, it most likely has cost the AGA a great deal of
money.  It will be very important to make sure that this does not happen
again.

That's all from here.  Hope you all had a great holiday, and looking 
forward to 2003!

  - Erik

PS: Scott, you should subscribe to the list.  Send mail to 
majordomo@thekrib.com with "subscribe aga-mcm-digest" in the body... 
thanks

 -- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com