[Killietalk] RE: The AKA Convention Fish Show

["Koran, David HQ02" <David_Koran at hq02.usace.army.mil>]

Houston (Tampa, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Chicago, etc.) we have a problem, a
big problem.  The problem is basically greed and avarice, nothing else.  You
pikers haven't a clue what shows are for anymore.  In the past 4 years I have
attended 4 AKA Conventions, 3 DKG Conventions, 1 AKFB Convention, 2 West
Coast Weekends, 1 Northeast Weekend and 2 Killlie Revues and here are my
observations.  In the shows were fish are exhibited and given up for auction
without anything (repeat anything) going to the exhibitor European shows are
well supported and the oldest killifish organization, the AKA, sees
continually diminishing numbers.  In the last two years despite the killer
heat wave of 2003 (few homes in northern Europe have air conditioning) and
losses of breeding stock was high, instead of a decrease in the number of
entries in the shows (2004 AKFB & 2004 DKG), the numbers remained the same or
actually increased.  There were 421 entries in the AKFB show and 650+ in the
DKG show.  The membership of the DKG is about the same as that of the AKA but
the membership in the AKFB is less than 100 members.  Obviously support for
the AKFB comes from other European associations but part of that is
reciprocation from AKFB members participating in the shows of those
organizations.  This year the 2005 DKG show had over 560 entries.  The
numbers for the 2002 and 2003 shows were in the 400-500+ range as well.
Contrast those numbers with that which we experienced in the last two AKA
shows, less than 300 in both cases!

What is even more troubling is to look at the balance sheet.  Not all fish
are entered for "competition" in the AKA's show.  There are long time members
who see contributing one or several pairs to the show as giving something
back to the AKA realizing the fish they give up most probably are not going
to win any awards.  Then there is the other portion which is contested.  I
would also think that these numbers might be down if it were not for KEY
competition but that is a tough number to evaluate.  I believe when we finish
the final accounting I think we should have a "take" for the auction of
slightly less than $10,000.  However, if we break this down I fear that the
"show fish" income will be less than half of this total.  Now consider that
the price tag for judging and awarding prizes for those show fish was about
$4000 (it could have been this bad except the club sponsors of the Convention
still covered the cost of 2nd and 3rd places).  That disturbing number says
that the AKA made virtually nothing on its annual show and only a couple of
thousand on the N&RSC fish.

The picture doesn't get much rosier if you look at the participation in
"regional events/mini-conventions".  Most of these shows have participation
of about 100 or so entries outside of "acquired fish", i.e., fish brought in
by the speaker or a special shipment or purchase by the host club.  Add to
this that there is sometimes grousing that the fish put up for auction are
not returning enough of the "split" to the seller even though there is
usually a large crowd for the auctions so higher prices are generated.  In
some cases where the foolish club allows box sales the day before their
auction, sellers try to "gouge" attendees with their stock at inflated prices
and not return anything to the club hosting the event.

So I guess my question is whether or not this is still a hobby or a business,
especially to those non-exhibitors out there with those fish for Aqua-Bid.
Thankfully I met with many of the hobbyists we still have left in Rockville
last weekend, a lot of "old-timers" who are getting fewer and fewer.  I hope
this disturbing trend gets reversed because unless you cultivate a younger,
more altruistic and sharing member, you "money-grubbing" complainers will be
left with trying to sell your "money killies" to the Pets-Mart's and PetCo's
of the world and see if they will give you more than a buck a fish!

PO'd in DC,

Dave Koran

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