Re: [AGA-mcm] [Fwd: Re: TAG 21-1 Materials Due December 1st]

I think it's a fine idea. Couple of things to be careful about -- Who does the picking? And how? It needs to be clear what the criteria are for judging and that the judge(s) is(are) the sole and final arbiter(s).

Who is collecting the stories?

----- Original Message ----
From: Cheryl Rogers <cheryl@dustyuniverse.com>
To: AGA Advisory Committee <aga-mcm@thekrib.com>
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 4:02:48 PM
Subject: [AGA-mcm] [Fwd: Re: TAG 21-1 Materials Due December 1st]

Sorry, folks, but I've been sitting on this for a while during the
holidaze and we need to discuss it. It's too late for this TAG, but
could be an ongoing thing if we decide to do it.

Greg Watson is basically offering to sponsor the AGA to give a
Volunteerism award to someone who has done the most for the planted tank
hobby.

To begin, he wants to print a solicitation box in TAG asking people for
volunteerism stories, just to gauge response.

What do you think,

Cheryl

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: TAG 21-1 Materials Due December 1st
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:58:55 -0600
From: GW <gregwatson@gregwatson.com>
To: Cheryl Rogers <cheryl@dustyuniverse.com>
References: <47430DA7.2060202@dustyuniverse.com>
<00cf01c82b96$249a9b60$6810a8c0@GWatson2> <4744749C.40101@dustyuniverse.com>

>I like it!! but I think it should be specific to the PLANT hobby. Fish
>people have their own awards. :-)

To me that was a given ... at least thematically ... I probably just used
aquarium related organization because many of us are in areas where
there is
not an aquatic plant specific related club ...

For example, I am a member of EIAA, our new "vice-president" of our club is
a HAP coordinator, and like me, she thinks that fish are merely accessories
to her planted aquariums ...

But I would love be able to talk about volunteers that are the HAP
coordinators of clubs, authors of aquatic plant articles in aquarium clubs,
volunteers that are actively promoting aquatic plants, aquatic plant care,
and aquascaping within the "aquatic plant hobby" regardless of the
organization they are active within.

Let me use our EIAA club vice-president as an example. Until Joy
Twentymann-Crock joined our club, I was the lone plant guy ... a little on
her history - she was a single mom in a small town about 50 miles away from
me, and I donated aquarium ferts to her to help her out. My perception is
that her life was a mess, divorice, entering the workforce, struggling
finances, self-esteem doubts, and a challenging teenage daughter to raise
... a year or so later, she has stable employment, her family life with her
daughter was stabilizing ... and her social outlet became our club ...

While I had always aggressively donated plants to our club auctions
(proceeds to EIAA) - that was only a "passive" involvement - absolutely
nothing like the storm that Joy was about to bring ... she started talking
enthusiastically about plants at each monthly meeting and doing more
one-on-one education at each meeting and club auction ... she has writen
over 20 articles for one of my websites on how to probagate different plant
species ... and now she is the vice-president and after two years will
probably be the club president ...

Today, our small little club of about 30 families probably has about a
dozen
people who have planted aquariums ... from one lone wolf like myself to a
significant number of people for our little club, I think that is pretty
incredible - and it is only because of Joy ...

I would like to see nominations submitted that are something like that ...

For an article - I would want the focus of the article to be on
volunteerism
and the impact on the hobby with a few stories that we can highlight that
place the emphasis on the volunteerism effort and effect with modest
recognition of the volunteers we cite as examples of different aspects of
volunteerism ...

I would like to see a solicitation announcement box in the next issue of
TAG
... soliciation for stories about volunteers who have made an impact on the
planted aquarium hobby (does that phrase it better) ...If we get a
significant response ... I think it could become an award given at the
convention and I would be happy to sponsor it ...

If the AGA thought that the feedback we get from the solicitation
announcement and an article was positive ... and if they then wanted to
have
an AGA Volunteerism Award, I would be happy to sponsor it and I think I
could design a nomination form based on that feedback that we could use.
It
wouldn't be too hard for me to screen the nominations and send the top five
nominations to a panel of two other judges and we could vote on a recipient
to win the Volunteerism Award.

But ... I would rather write an article first ... see if there is ANY
response ... see if there is ANY support ... all too often, there are ideas
that sound great, but if no one responds, I really don't think an
"Volunterism Award" is a good idea if there are going to be zero
nominations
<grin> ... zero responses to a solicitation <grin>! And you know as
well as
I do, that all too often, the only feedback and response we can get is the
negative kind ...

So ... an article (in my opinion) is a good proof of concept ... if we get
any feedback, it is probably a good idea ...

Zero feedback, well, that is another topic <grin> ...

Ponder it ... let me know what I can do ...

Thanks,
Greg

>
> Meanwhile, you get a sneak peek at a form I just created for the
> convention.
>
> http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/convention08.html
>
> Cheryl
>
>
>
> GW wrote:
>> Cheryl ...
>>
>> I'd like to write an article on Volunteerism ...
>>
>> Can you include a "Paragraph Box" in the next issue of TAG inviting
>> nominations of "volunteers" that give to the hobby?
>>
>> Something like this:
>>
>> --- --- --- --- --- ---
>> Do you know a Volunteer that Make the Hobby Work?
>>
>> Most of our clubs and organizations are run by volunteers, do you know a
>> volunteer who has done something special for your club or aquarium
>> related organization? In an upcoming article, we will be featuring
>> wonderful volunteers that give of their time to make our hobby events and
>> activities work. Send your nominations for recognition of great
>> volunteerism to volunteers@gregwatson.com. Please include the telephone
>> number, address, and email address of both you and the person you are
>> nominating.
>> --- --- --- --- --- ---
>>
>> If we get a great response (I usually judge that in the context of even
>> getting a response <Grin>) ... perhaps I can sponsor a "Volunteerism
>> Award" for the next AGA conference in 2008?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Greg
>>
>> P.S. It might also encourage people to volunteer for AGA needs? It
>> might also indirectly bring recognition and thought about all of the hard
>> work that our AGA officers and volunteers give?
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cheryl Rogers"
>> <cheryl@dustyuniverse.com>
>> To: <editor@aquatic-gardeners.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:39 AM
>> Subject: TAG 21-1 Materials Due December 1st
>>
>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> If you're writing an article for "The Aquatic Gardener" or
>>> submitting photos or drawings sometime soon, please note that the
>>> materials deadline for TAG 21-1 is December 1st. I can stretch the
>>> deadline if I know for sure an article is coming. I really appreciate
>>> all your contributions.
>>>
>>> Photographers/artists, I'm happy to take submissions anytime. It's nice
>>> to have a library to pull from if I need to illustrate an article!
>>>
>>> If you have article ideas, but don't want to write the article
>>> yourself, e-mail me your ideas and I'll see if I can get it done.
>>> Likewise, if you need an article translated to English, we'll try to
>>> find you a volunteer translator.
>>>
>>> TAG's 2008 Publication schedule:
>>>
>>> Issue Quarter Materials Due Printed Mailed
>>> TAG 21-1 Jan-Mar 2008 Dec 1, 2007 Jan 14 Jan 21
>>> TAG 21-2 Apr-Jun 2008 Mar 1 Apr 14 Apr 21
>>> TAG 21-3 Jul-Sep 2008 Jun 1 Jul 16 Jul 23
>>> TAG 21-4 Oct-Dec 2008 Sep 1 Oct 13 Oct 20
>>>
>>> AGA requests First Publication Rights. This means that AFTER your
>>> article has been printed in TAG, it's okay to publish it online or
>>> submit it to another magazine or newsletter, but please give us the
>>> chance to publish it first.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Cheryl Rogers
>>> TAG Senior Editor
>>> www.aquatic-gardeners.org
>>>
>>>
>>> You are receiving this e-mail because you have submitted articles or
>>> photos in the past, or because you checked the little volunteer box in
>>> the reply-form of the Aquatic Gardeners Association web site. If you're
>>> no longer interested, hey, that's cool. Just e-mail me.
>>
>>

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