[AGA-mcm] ACA Spy Report, lessons to learn #126, "purpose of the convention"

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Here's another of what might be close to my last ACA "spy reports".  A 
current topic of debate: representatives from two local clubs are whining 
that they didn't make enough money from the conventions that were held by 
their respective clubs (two of the last ten years).  And the reason both 
cite for the failure is that more people bought fish out of others' rooms 
or the rental tanks in the show room, than at the auction.  Both 
insinuated that their clubs aren't going to put on another ACA convention 
because "financially it's just not worth it".

Incidentally, my Bay Area mole, also a prominent ACA guy, says that often 
the ACA only makes 2-4k per convention, so factor that into this year's 
"disappointment", considering that an ACA will have 4-8 times the 
attendance of our own conventions.

Amongst the talk of taxing room sales, banning rental tanks, etc, Ron 
Coleman eighs in with (IMHO) some points that we might also consider 
relevant to our recent convention experiences:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 01:46:32 -0800
From: Ronald M. Coleman <rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com>
Reply-To: ACA Board and Cadre <aca-cadre@thekrib.com>
To: ACA Board and Cadre <aca-cadre@thekrib.com>
Subject: Re: [Aca-cadre] Room sales, rental tanks

Hi folks,
   I have returned from Costa Rica (tons of rain down there) and have
tried to read the various posts on the issue of room sales and rental
room sales.
My position is this:  the purpose of the convention is not to make
money.   No where in the Bylaws of the ACA does it say that holding a
convention should make a lot of money for the local club (or anyone
else).  It DOES say that one of the explicit AIMS of the ACA is "Section
5. To provide a means for the purchase, sale and exchange of cichlids by
individuals."   I think that the ACA should provide as many possible
ways for this to occur.  Room sales and rental tank sales directly
contribute to meeting the mission of the association and I adamantly
support both.  Personally, I always rent a tank in the rental room which
I use to store the fish that I buy prior to the auction.

   There are good  reasons to buy fish at the auction but there are also
lots of reasons to buy fish out of rooms or out of the rental tanks.
For example, while the price at the auction is uncertain, the price at
these other options is more fixed.  There are advantages to each.  Also,
I am mostly interested in buying fish in large enough quantities to be
useful for my research.  Single fish or even pairs do not interest me,
thus much of the auction is of less interest to me, though I typically
sit through the whole thing and occasionally get something I like.  Room
sales and rental tank sales allow me to look closely at the fish as well
as buy larger quantities.
I got one of the main species I now work on in my lab, Stomatepia
mariae, because I was able to buy 50 of them at once from a room,
something I could not have done in the auction.  Another species we work
alot on, Archocentrus spinossissimus, was purchased from the rental
tanks (from Jeff Rapps) because I could get a good look at the
individuals.

   By the way, I liked the way that the Jordan Donations were done a few
years ago, namely in large lots, rather than in small groups.  We need
to encourage people to sell large groups of fishes (6 to 10+)  as well
as the traditional bag of a pair or 4-6 individuals.  Doing so will help
people not to mix  named geogrraphic varieties because they could only
get one here and one there.

   Bottom line: encourage any (legal) way of getting fish from seller to
buyer.  The profits of the local club come dead last in my list of
considerations.

-- Ron
    acawebmaster@cichlid.org
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