RE: [GSAS-board] Fwd: "2006 Year of the Aquarist" shirt and eventconcept

I think the idea is hype. Like today is free the ferret day, or April is Juniper Bush month. How about Year of Higher Gas Prices?

Susan

-----Original Message-----
From: gsas-board-bounces@thekrib.com [mailto:gsas-board-bounces@thekrib.com] On Behalf Of Bob and Judy Holmes
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 7:54 AM
To: gsas-board@thekrib.com
Subject: [GSAS-board] Fwd: "2006 Year of the Aquarist" shirt and eventconcept

Something to chew on. Might breathe some life into our t-shirt project.

Bob

Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 09:51:17 -0400
From: Joe D <joedi1@earthlink.net>
Subject: "2006 Year of the Aquarist" shirt and event concept
To: jbholmes@nwlink.com

Good morning,

I am sending this message with a blind distribution list at this time until I establish who is interested in the content of this message.

I am Joe Di Bartolomeo, 35 year in the hobby, 23 year member of the North Jersey Aquarium Society. I have held the positions of Web Master, Member-at-large, Membership, Vice President, President and currently Public Relations Director.

My club has tossed around for year the idea of finding a high quality "club" shirt, as opposed to the usual "iron-on" t-shirts most clubs provide. I want to briefly describe a concept I am working on and will pitch to my club at this month's BOD meeting regarding not only producing a high quality collector shirt, but also building a national awareness campaign to establish 2006 as the "Year of the Aquarist".

I have already ran this idea past David E. Boruchowitz, editor for TFH and he not only thought it was one of the great ideas in the last ten years, and felt we could get large vendor support for this effort.

Without going into much detail at this point, my thought was to create a national "art" contest for any hobbyist to design a standard piece of artwork with the theme "Year of the Aquarist" for the back of the shirt. This artwork would be judged by a panel of non-club affiliated people, perhaps TFH, a few vendors and maybe some well know speakers. Once the winner is announced,this becomes the standard "back of shirt" artwork and every club who wants to participate can put their club logo on the front breast pocket. The pricing can be discussed amongst the clubs that want to participate as North Jersey is not looking to profit on shirt sales, but rather offer a "historical collectors item" across the nation, but customized for your individual clubs.

I think we could launch a very successful national awareness campaign across the country with the involvement of all the clubs, hobbyists, pet shops and vendors that would benefit everyone.

TFH will promote our contest and agenda all year .The North Jersey Aquarium Society is thinking of hosting the "Year of the Aquarist 2006" event, but at this point has not made any commitments to my project.

At this early juncture, I would like to know if any clubs are interested in participating, what some of the questions from other clubs are and if anyone can expand upon this idea of mine. Once I establish who is interested, I will develop a means of communicating plans, progress, participation and feedback.

Email would be the best communication so that I can keep everyone's responses documented.

Thank you for your attention and I look forward to your feedback.

Joe Di Bartolomeo
201 909 3730