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

[Larry Lampert <l_lampert@yahoo.com>]

I totally agree with Ron's sentiments. The purpose of
hosting an ACA is NOT first and foremost to make
money.
As Ron stated that is probably the last on the list.

Denver last year made $10,000 for the ACA and $10,000
or so for the host club. That sure seems like a hell
of a lot of revenue for a non-profit org to make at
least in my opinion.

By the way I still have not seen our revenue and
profit figures from this year.

Regards,
Larry
--- Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com> wrote:

> 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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