Re: [GSAS-board] November fill ins

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008, Paul Wallace wrote:

> Erik:
>
> As a board we are meeting to figure out a program for November.  Would 
> you consider showing the Eric Do video for the Nov 11th meeting (I have 
> a copy too)?

The whole "national scene" in the hobby is pretty small -- a lot of folks 
know each other, and they talk to each other.  When a club treats its 
speakers well, the speakers talk to other speakers they know and the word 
spreads.

Conversely, when a club makes some less than stellar choices with 
speakers, word will also get around and clubs will get "blacklisted".

I am worried that what is happening with Eric Do right now is one of those 
things that could come back and bite us later.  Maybe he's a flake in 
responding to the e-mail, maybe there's something else going on.  But 
after sending an invite to him asking to fill in in November (something 
that's usually a faux pas for a flown-in speaker), it would seem poor form 
to opt to have a tape substitute *of that same talk* instead.  What 
happens if he does actually respond later and offer a date in the spring? 
"Sorry, no thanks, we watched the tape instead."

If you guys want, I can e-mail him and mention you were trying to contact 
him with speaking dates, etc, just to get the live talk thing moving.  I 
would keep it low-key. And if it turns out he's too busy or there are no 
dates left in the year, then it should be cool.  (What are the dates left 
in the season open for talks anyway?)


>  Also I would like to gauge your interest in presenting 
> something to do with AGA contest.

Yep.  As I offered before, I would be happy to present something to do 
with the Aquascaping contest.  Is anyone familiar with the "secret cinema" 
shows at SIFF every year, where the audience is sworn to silence and they 
show a movie that isn't released yet?  I could do something along those 
lines.  (Hint: I have to prepare a particular powerpoint show for the 
convention 3 days later, so this would be no extra work for me.)  This 
could be billed as "secret presentation" in the newsletter.  This would 
last perhaps 30 minutes.

A couple of short shows that might be a decent complement to a secret 
presentation:

"Dutch aquascaping" by Wim Van Drongelen is an old-school lesson in design 
that has interesting implications in the aquarium.  About 30 minutes.

"In search of the flowerhorn cichlid" - a humourous banquet talk by Wayne 
Leibel a few years ago, parodying all those "collecting trip" talks and 
skewering Heiko Bleher at the same time.

   - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
_______________________________________________
GSAS-board mailing list
GSAS-board@thekrib.com
http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-board