Re: [Killietalk] regional vs national shows.

[Kenneth Combs <ken_combs at sbcglobal.net>]

Scott, et all...all jabs aside...

at 45 I'm a techie "tweener"...young enuff to adapt to the "cell phone/PC" thing, but likewise old enuff to have been with the net/email thing from the start, so I can clearly recall when the parents letters switched from "hand written" to emails...

...and something seemed lost when that switch began...but then again I can remember actually "dialing" a phone...

point being: we can debate "regional vs. national" shows and banter about attendance and stats all we want...
But does the "back pack" generation require the same "3D" audio/sensory experience that face to face meetings and live auctioning fish provide? ! 
....thats a pretty darn valid question I think (and remember, this is the same gen-x that gets "Something" outta "text msg'ng" each other vs. chatting in person)

it's sorta analogous to the Aquabid vs. F&EL vs. providing pr's for show support...
...and I can dig hording those rare notho's & aphy's to support the local & natl' shows (and provide a "draw" if you will)
...but there are "Statistical" signs it's a negative slope...(esp. with regard to gettin the youngin's involved)

I got no answers per se, I can only provide rhetoric and smart aleck questions that hint we are looking for solutions in the wrong places (and thats been my "theme" and apparent "turn off" all along)

so hate, delete or despise the post...I think there is a point buried somewhere in there 

KC






----- Original Message ----
From: Scott Davis <unclescott at prodigy_net>
To: killifish discussion list <killietalk at aka_org>
Sent: Sunday, April 1, 2007 1:47:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Killietalk] regional vs national shows.


Hey Harry!

I was downstate Illinois today at a general club auction in the Peoria area, just saying hi, plugging the CKA show with handouts and also talking up the AKA national. While it seems like half of the general clubs in the US have folded in the last decade, they are still a great source of potential killie people and in the case of that auction, also have a fairly good number of youngish (teens to 30s) people on attendance.

I was tickled that when somebody’s vial of two dozen Aplo. lineatus eggs came up for auction, a guy in his 30s jumped up and as if they were mop spawners. I delightedly assured him that they were and, after he won the bid, suggested on the side that those eggs were unconditionally guaranteed. Get 'em out of the prescription bottle and if something goes wrong just use the email on that bottle for help or a replacement.

A couple of people looked at the CKA flyer and bemoaned the fact that they couldn’t make both shows. I told them that I looked forward to seeing them in Milwaukee.

As you know, since you were a much-appreciated speaker at a spring CKA show a decade or two ago, we have long been in March – April. Originally the CKA show was in the fall, but others moved it to the spring because in the ‘80s they felt that there were more fall Midwestern shows.

I’d forgotten Lee Van Hefte’s observation about the weather.  Interesting that so many of us killie idiots were hacking a half-inch of ice off of our car windows at the Michiana Killie Karnival. By the time the auction was over the main roads were clear. Anything to get out of the cabin!

As far as having fish for the AKA national, while I don’t raise lots of killies and food cultures, if I’m not raising killies for local and regional club consumption, I’m not likely to be raising them for myself or the AKA convention. Just keeping killies for one event and not getting a chance to mix it up with great killie people at local and regional meetings (or just some evening after work) would be the death of the hobby for me.

Karl’s observation on dates for national is interesting. The Memorial Day weekend is handy because of the extra day in there. But for decades it clobbered me and some other teacher because of the end of the high school semester and all that had to be done then. Now that many, but not all high schools and colleges seem to be rotating their school years towards earlier starts and finishes, the weekend may be better for teachers and students and their family members. (So now that I’m retired until a better offer comes along, our son gets married on Memorial Day weekend and there went the Florida AKA national!)

There has been one or a couple of Labor Day AKA conventions and because of so many sifting academic schedules and shifting family vacation schedules, I would recommend not going there. I got to my first NANFA convention (partly because early June was so hard to set aside) in late September last year. Fortunately no one close was getting married, buried or otherwise committed. I though the NANFA festivities were wonderful and bruises and sleep deprivation healed within a week or so. The unusual scheduling, needful to hold it then if it was going to be sponsored in Missouri, according to NANFA regulars, resulted in lower attendance by NANFA standards as a lot of people had other responsibilities they had to keep. Scheduling an event seems to require the Wisdom of Solomon!

I’m nothing official in the CKA these days Harry. (ROF or Resident Old Fart is not elective.) I was asked to post a list of killies, most of which will be brought in from Europe, as someone with a tiny bit of discretionary time on his hands. 

Personally it was a horrible month financially in March. WAKO will get my registration when that pension check is deposited by Monday. Knowing the condition the State of Illinois is in I’ll mail the registration early in the month. ;)

All the best!

So the Little Leaper is to be blamed for this next week's cold wave? :)


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