Re: [AGA-sc] Forums and questions- Now NEC

[Larry Lampert <l_lampert@yahoo.com>]

Sorry for the delay, I have been out in the wilds of North West Texas on the 
ranch with little email access. 

Yeah, NEC is a great convention and they have supported us for years thanks to 
Karen. In light of our current financial condition, we should certainly 
reciprocate. 

Before we committ to anything I would like to know exactly what our costs will 
be. See if you can find out from Janine. I don't think they will be exorbitant 
but before we commit to spend AGA money I think it is prudent to know exactly 
how much. If it is just US airfare or room nights like you mentioned I don't 
see any problem.

What about Ben Van Dither. He has some talks and he is trying to get out and 
speak more. We could also do Ghazanfar or Jason or even Jay. I am OK with any 
of them. We could put this out on MCM but since a Ben and Jason will be out 
there I am not sure how we can do it without offending anyone. Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

Larry

--- On Sun, 12/7/08, Karen Randall <karenran@verizon.net> wrote:

> From: Karen Randall <karenran@verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [AGA-sc] Forums and questions
> To: "'Aquatic Gardeners Association Board'" <aga-sc@thekrib.com>
> Date: Sunday, December 7, 2008, 1:39 PM
> Ok, I haven't heard from the rest of you folks.  Should
> I make a motion, or
> should we discuss this some, first_  If we're going to
> do it, I'd love your
> input on who we should get as a speaker.  Obviously,
> I'd want a U.S. (or at
> least N.A. speaker) to keep the costs down.  I know that
> sometimes NEC has
> extra free room nights because of the size of the
> convention.  If AGA will
> pay for the transportation, I can ask Janine if NEC can
> find them a corner
> to hang their hat.  Alternately, if there's someone
> within driving distance
> who could do a talk, we could pick up the room cost.
> 
>  
> 
> We had both Erik Do and Luis last year, so I don't want
> to use either of
> them.  Jeff Senske made Janine crazy. (though it wasn't
> his fault that he
> never got there; the snow storm took care of that. he spent
> the weekend in
> the Chicago)  Does anyone know if George Lo can do a talk?
> (I don't think we
> want a demo again. they are too hard to orchestrate)  What
> about Jason
> Baliban?  Ghazanfar for a Crypt talk?  I suppose we could
> ask Jay Luto to do
> something on photographing planted tanks.  Any other
> possibilities?   This
> could be a good opportunity to "test drive" a
> newer speaker that we might
> want to consider for AGA in the future.
> 
>  
> 
> If the BOD agrees that we should do this, we could move the
> discussion of
> who to the MC list for more input.
> 
>  
> 
> Karen
> 
>  
> 
> From: aga-sc-bounces@thekrib.com
> [mailto:aga-sc-bounces@thekrib.com] On
> Behalf Of S. Hieber
> Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 7:51 AM
> To: Aquatic Gardeners Association Board
> Subject: Re: [AGA-sc] Forums and questions
> 
>  
> 
> I should add that, although we don't have final figures
> yet, we did much
> better at the convention than I had estimated days befroe
> the event. With
> several thousand dollars f savings on Amano travel, very
> robust DVD sales,
> and a much higher percetnage of auction sales than
> we've ever had before,
> rather than netting in the neighborhood of $2g, the final
> figure probably
> will be closer to $6g or $7g. Putting some of that to work
> at NEC wouldn't
> be a financial strain.
> 
>  
> 
> sh
> 
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: S. Hieber <shieber@yahoo.com>
> To: Aquatic Gardeners Association Board
> <aga-sc@thekrib.com>
> Sent: Sunday, December 7, 2008 7:40:37 AM
> Subject: Re: [AGA-sc] Forums and questions
> 
> I don't see why not. I have watched aquatic gardening
> become a bigger part
> of the discussions at NEC over the last few years as more
> folks in those old
> traditional fish clubs (some the oldest in America) slowly
> grew aquatic
> gardeners. Even when a blizard made it nearly impossoble
> for so many folks
> to attend, we still had a decent turnout on Friday (the
> peak of the
> blizzard) and a very good turnout on Saturday. I think it
> would be a great
> place to usefully apply more of AGA's resources.
> 
>  
> 
> sh
> 
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: Karen Randall <karenran@verizon.net>
> To: Aquatic Gardeners Association Board
> <aga-sc@thekrib.com>
> Sent: Saturday, December 6, 2008 10:21:39 AM
> Subject: Re: [AGA-sc] Forums and questions
> 
> Scott wrote:
> 
>  
> 
> When we say we , as ome of us sometimes do, AGA should be
> doing more, what
> more? What other demand(s) needs to be filled by the AGA?
> And as Karen
> points out, who will do the more?  Imo, this is the form of
> a real idea,
> such and such specific persons should do such and such
> specific tasks to
> accomplish this or that particular thing.  The very general
> stuff, AGA
> should help clubs (how? who knows?), AGA should change
> it's mission (to what
> end? who knows?), isn't really productive. Show me
> something for which there
> is a demand not being met in the community and someone in
> AGA to do some
> specific tasks to meet that demand by using AGA resources,
> that's something
> real we can deal with. When AGA approaches things that way,
> it usually does
> very well -- the convention, TAG, bookstore and DVDs are
> great examples. 
> 
>  
> 
> I'll tell you somewhere that there is a demand and a
> core group of workers
> who have consistently, over MANY years now (more than the
> convention has
> been in existence) put in a tremendous amount of effort. 
> That is the NEC
> convention.  You could say that "AGA" does a lot
> for the convention already.
> But that really means that Karen, Scott and David do a lot
> for the NEC
> convention, and the only back-up is supplies of TAG and
> brochures.  NEC does
> a LOT for AGA in return.  They give us a large meeting room
> for two hours,
> free of cost.  They give us Vendor room space, free of
> cost, and they
> carefully coordinate with me to make sure that the plant
> speaker they bring
> in (at large cost to them, and free of cost to AGA) is a
> well-known, top
> quality speaker.  This is a tremendous amount of exposure
> for AGA. You may
> be seeing a pattern here.<g>  There are over 20 local
> clubs involved with
> NEC, ranging along the entire northeast seaboard (and a
> little inland, since
> there are Pennsylvania clubs as well<g>)
> 
>  
> 
> NEC has always brought in a plant speaker.  That speaker
> typically speaks
> during the main part conference schedule.  Then, because I
> usually know them
> personally and can work it out, they typically give a
> second talk at the AGA
> meeting.  This year, NEC is having a "planted tank
> theme".  The "big name"
> speaker will be Ole Pedersen.  But he will already be
> giving two talks
> during the main conference schedule, so I hesitate to ask
> him to do a third.
> I have also been asked to do an updated version of my
> Thailand talk for the
> banquet. (I will have been to Thailand again at that point,
> so there will be
> a lot of new material included)  There will be a
> plants-only auction on
> Friday night as well.  I don't think there has ever
> been a conference,
> outside of AGA with so much to offer planted tank
> enthusiasts.  
> 
>  
> 
> The problem is our AGA meeting on Friday afternoon. 
> Usually, I either have
> the "main" plant speaker do something, or I put
> together a talk.  Sometimes
> David or Kim Bryan has done something.  I suppose I COULD
> try to put
> together a second talk for Friday afternoon, but, honestly,
> I'd rather not.
> Could AGA pay for a speaker for that slot?  If so, who
> should we ask?  Ole
> is speaking on: The algal-free planted aquarium - is it
> really possible? and
> CO2 fertilization of planted tanks! Why is it sometimes
> necessary? 
> 
> 
> Karen
> 
>  
> 
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