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

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, Cheryl Rogers wrote:
> > What we ran into was that there were a FEW sellers who used the ACA 
> > discount on their rooms, but didn't register for the convention.  They did 
> > not come to hear the talks, but ONLY to sell fish from their rooms. 
>
> Don't we have a rule that they must be registered for the convention in order 
> to sell? Are we enforcing that? How?

You can't enforce what people sell out of their rooms.  And that's the 
problem cited by the ACA -- a certain portion of the convention-goers are 
just people there to sell fish.  As Mike mentioned, some of them don't 
register for the convention nor do they use the convention room rate, 
depriving the clubs of their room credit (and with the ACA, that room 
credit counts towards a LOT of comp'd rooms, i.e. revenue).  The problem 
is, I think, more of an ethical one for the ACA.  People at the AGA 
conventions (and maybe plant hobbyists as a whole) still seem overall 
interested in "supporting the AGA".  Certainly that was the case with 
DFWAPC in 2003 both in attendees and the organizers.  And if you look even 
in 2004, there didn't seem to be a lot of talk (other than Tom) of 
scamming off others or going to a Motel-6 to avoid the hotel rooms.  It 
seems like a larger proportion of the ACA/cichlid crowd seem to be more 
like "what's in it for MEEEEEEEE!"  Which is why I brought up the topic to 
begin with... "why are we selling DVD's?  To make money?  That's cool, it 
gives us more cushion to keep the AGA going, but the main reason is to get 
the information out to our members."

  - Erik

--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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