Gang,
It has come to my
attention via a NADA board member, that there will be a commercial
class for Discus in Sacramento
that will carry a cash award. As you all know, when this was announced
in Chicago,
several of you approached me and voiced your opinion that this was a
bad idea for the ACA. I contacted Carol Roberts (then chair of NADA)
as well as Rich Bireley from SAS last July and was assured by both that
there would not be a cash award in Sacramento. I have copied you all on
those correspondences. This is not ACA policy (as some have already
pointed out to me) but it was based on good faith negotiation on behalf
of ACA and SAS.
Well, it looks like there
has been a change in direction and I would like you to all be
brought-up to speed. This is not about ACA giving approval as that is
not within our powers, but is simply a means to communicate what is
happening and decide on the best course of action to support SAS in
their efforts. I talked to Rich yesterday and he is telling me that
they are hearing negative statements about SAS and the convention
coming from the ACA. That needs to stop and stop now as whether we
agree with the cash award or not it, is a done deal as SAS has the
final say in this. Here is a copy of an email I got from Rich:
I've been getting some
feedback that there are negative rumblings from prominent members of
the ACA about the convention and it doesn't sound like they are all
associated with concerns about the way we're handling the discus.
I think it would be helpful to know what the concerns are and doubly
helpful for the ACA to make loud supportive noises. I'm sure you
remember that a group in Chicago
started the Cichlid Extravaganza in 1995 in protest of not getting
awarded the convention that year. The Extravaganza has turned out to be
a nice event but I consider the origins to be a bit on the dark side.
The only other convention on the west coast was something like 20 years
prior to '95 and all the talk I've ever heard was that it was a bust.
Additionally, the SAS bid for the convention this year against no real
competition. That means if we hadn't bid, the ACA would have had no
convention or be in a position of putting on their own convention. We
may also be the smallest club to put on a convention. If we're not the
smallest, we are certainly close.
All of these factors have forced us to think outside the box in an
attempt to boost attendance as well as to be successful. This has
resulted in an increase of our workload and the known concerns from the
BOT.
Would it be possible for the ACA cadre to finalize their discussions
about how angry they are with us and come together to help us make this
convention successful? Can the cadre begin talking positively about the
convention and spin things in a positive light? I think that would be
exceptionally helpful at this point.
Rich makes an excellent
case as this is as much our convention as it is SAS’s so we need to
work together, not at odds.
I also asked for an
update on how the cash award came to being and here is another email
from Rich with some details in it
To reiterate, when we
spoke last year, the idea of a cash award originating from NADA was
dead. I couldn't imagine how it would even come up again, especially
once Carol Roberts resigned and NADA disintegrated. I was speaking in
good faith.
It would seem that Rod or Ron would be the best ones to notify you of
this change since I haven't seen the final iteration. However, you can
feel free to use this email as your official notification if none other
is forthcoming.
Dick Au approached us with the idea of generating more entries into the
show, more interest internationally by offering a cash award, creating
a new division, Division D with, I believe, 5 classes, and charging a
bit more for sponsorships for the division. The original discus class
in Division A (I think) still exists and no changes have been made
there. There is a higher entry fee for this division because all tanks
in the division will be 20's with tops and a light. I need to have Rod
give you the complete details, but I think these are the critical ones.
As both Ron and I said previously, this all came about pretty much
fully-formed in just about one week. The time frame for it was so tight
that once we thought it was a good idea, we implemented it in the
registration, and a few short days later we heard from you. We had not
been planning this for months or even weeks!
We had been in contact with Dick Au all along and were constantly
brainstorming to come up with a way to make this a big discus show.
NADA was gone as far as we knew. They'd left me with egg on my face
last summer in Chicago
so we were not counting on them to do anything or follow through on
anything, regardless of what they might say. This was pretty much not a
problem anyway since, for all intents and purposes, they were
nonexistent during this time. As I've said all along, I'm not a discus
guy. I have no plans to become a discus guy. This isn't about me, Rod
or Ron. We were faced with the registration deadline (to get the
registration on line up and running), and all the little details that
we needed to have to do so. It was stressful, to say the least. My wife
did the shopping cart to create the registration on line web site. We
felt that Chicago's
solution, RegOnLine was prohibitively expensive for us. It was
expensive last year and the costs had increased dramatically since. So,
we had to nail down all the prices for t-shirts, the final cost for the
banquet, reverify the trip costs, and figure out if we were doing
anything differently with discus than had been done before. Dick
emailed us with his idea for the new division. We talked with Chuck
Rambo. Chuck and Dick agreed to work together on sponsorships so that
we didn't take anything away from the ACA/SAS to support the discus. In
our minds and as suggested by Dick, at the very least, the discus show
must be revenue neutral and must not detract from the usual sponsors
who normally support the ACA conventions.
As you're aware, the convention comes to the west coast about once in a
blue moon (it's been 12 years this time and more than that prior).
There has been an ongoing complaint that people in the midwest and back
east won't support our conventions (I really don't understand why that
is) and that revenues from west coast conventions are not as good as
those from other conventions. This has hung over our heads and left us
searching for ideas to increase registrations and the visibility of the
ACA convention.
We believe that the changes to the show will bring show entries and
more people registering for the convention. This translates directly
into dollars for the ACA. We also believe that if people come in
because of the discus, they will see what the ACA has to offer and why
'real' fish are so interesting. As Ron said so well in his email, California is a
very diverse state with a large and vital Asian community. We're hoping
to tap into that community, get their participation in the convention,
and generate dollars from that participation.
This could be used as an experiment by the ACA. If it works and the ACA
makes good money from it, the ACA may consider trying to continue this
If it doesn't work well or the ACA feels strongly that this is the
wrong direction, the ACA can formally write the conditions of the show
into the convention bid negotiations.
I realize that some clubs may feel it's not difficult to take on the
challenge of an ACA convention, however, to a club like the SAS, this
is a big and stressful deal. There is great concern about doing poorly
either financially or organizationally. There is a significant risk to
the SAS if we don't do well. While we certainly appreciate every offer
of help and wish we could take you and others up on it, we actually
don't know what to ask for help on. Exactly how could you or Rusty
help? After July, I'll bet we realize there are many ways either or
both of you could have assisted us but we honestly don't know what
those ways are right now. So we work away, brainstorm on ways to
increase participation, and hope that our hard work will pay off for
both the ACA and the SAS.
If you have any questions I could answer or you would like me to
expound upon any topic, please let me know.
As a former convention
chair, my advice is that we need to be supportive of SAS and if we have
concerns, they should be brought-up so they can be discussed and
hopefully resolved. Keep in mind, the way that our convention
guidelines are written, the host club has the final say no matter what
we all may or may not want to do. I am confident that SAS has the best
interests of the ACA in mind, so let’s keep that thought, also. And if
you are one of the prominent members talking trash, please stop it.
Phil
Philip C. Benes
Director of Technology
and New Product Development
Nease Corporation
4480 Lake Forest Dr.
Suite 312
Blue Ash, OH 45242
513-587-2804 phone
513-587-2828 fax
513-300-5598 cell
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