I talked with Rick last night on the phone and have a few things to share: -- Rick has spoken with the GWAPA AGA2K4 committe and is planning to prepare and send us a response to the Board's inquiry within a week and to keep us posted more often. -- They have contacted Amano and are trying to determine his desired flying arrangements -- what airport, etc. -- Jan is probably doing a workshop as well as a presentation. -- They apparently haven't discussed Tomoko with Amano yet. I urged him to do so right away. -- Rick is going to call Ray re TFP's offer for plants-in-exchange-for-Amano and explain that the logistics are too difficult. -- It looks like Florida Aquatic Nurseries is going to come through wtih plants again. -- They *have* spoken with Dorothy more than once about her being a speaker. -- Re promotion, I urged a strong and repeated presence on a variety of web lists/forums. Larry has good insight on this stuff and I don't really know diddly doo, so I urged Rick to contact Larry re how to approach promos. I expect Rick to call Larry soon. Thanks for the help, Larry; it'll keep your mind from focusing too much on ACA-Dallas-2005 ;-) . -- GWAPA has an auction system (using a PC) that they use for their club auctions but it will be interesting to hear about it and how it might scale to AGA auctions especially the silent auction. It think it's a create-record-at-time-of-bid system with payment made when the bidder leaves well, technically *just before* the bidder leaves ;-) ) -- There are 75 roomnights so far, not counting the speaker comps. Goal on roomnights is 150+ but it doesn't look bad at this point. the tougher nut to crack will be the banqs. ******************************* On a slightly related but diff matter: Imo, we should be actively seeking bids for AGA2K5 right about *now*. Possibly, we could even announce the host by Nov and AG2K4 although that would really be pushing it. But the more lead time there is for hotel canvassing and negotiations and speaker selection, the better. Also, one last point, I think we'll get better proposals in a competitive environment (I think my saying that means I have to turn in my IWW pin ;-) If you don't know what that means, then you're either too young or you never listened to folk music). regards all, sh ===== It's the contest that started international competition in aquascaping planted aquaria! AGA's 2004 Aquascaping Contest is open for entrees: http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2004.cgi Novices and experts alike show their skills. Past winners have been novices and experts, too. You can view all the entrees at The 5th AGA Annual Convention. Details/Registration at www.aquatic-gardeners.org & www.gwapa.org _______________________________________________ AGA-sc mailing list AGA-sc@thekrib.com http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/aga-sc