[Killietalk] RE: Killietalk Digest, Vol 13, Issue 14

["Koran, David HQ02" <David_Koran at HQ02.USACE.ARMY.MIL>]

As the discussion on "clubs" moves along don't feel restricted.  A few years
ago we approved but never really stood up a virtual club of non-affiliate
club AKA members.  The problem is not having a "meet and greet" site to
"hook people up".  When I first joined the AKA my most valuable tools were
the roster and a telephone.  From there all you have to do is dial and reach
out to the AKA member who answers.  Of course, back then long distance
charges usually restricted a lot of that.  Nevertheless, I called one member
in town and had a few dozen conversations with the guy until we finally met
for the first time face-to-face.  He introduced me to others he knew who
were into killies and soon after that I had called a number of AKA'ers in my
area to arrange a joint buy from the F&E list and eventually that lead to
the formation of OINKKA, the Ohio-Indiana and Northern Kentucky Kiilifish
Association (later GCKA once I left town -- at least the guys humored me
while I was there).  As you can tell from the original name, I expected we
would drawn members from a hundred plus miles around Cincinnati (Louisville,
Lexington, Indianapolis, Columbus and Huntington (WV)).  Eight years later
when I found myself working at Penn State I did the same and organized a
Pocono Killifish Group which shifted to the Allentown, PA area and
eventually was the catalyst to the rebirth of Philadelphia Panchax Club(??)
as the Keystone Killy Group.  Bottomline is be optimistic, killie nuts do
drive hundreds of miles to talk about and trade/sell killies.

One of things we tend to ignore is that phone rates have gone down and many
of our members have flat rate phone service (i.e., unlimited long distance
phone service plans).  To call and chat about killies now costs very little
(heck, you might even consider a 3-way call or conference call!!!!)
Nonetheless, these calls are the same as interim calls you might make if you
belonged to an affiliate club anyway.  If you have e-mail service, set up a
group with common interest.  Although it would be nice to have an AKA
service hold your hand through this, you can try it on your own.  If you
read killietalk, post to it and ask for a particular interest and then
exchange e-mails.  You can establish your own e-mail list either by
responding with "reply to all" instead of just reply.  Without knowing how
to establish a mailing list, type addresses to a word processing file or
files and then do a copy and paste to your addressee in your mail program.
You can maintain these lists and just paste as appropriate.  If you want to
get down to details either get wordy like this e-mail or call.

One thing I always carry with me is my roster, a must when I travel.  If I
am in an area (or planning on going there) I contact individuals before hand
(or in some cases when I know them well during the trip) to see if they
might be available for a visit when you are in town.  With my cell phone I
often contact folks during travel when I am in the area just to talk about
killies (doesn't sound like I enjoy the nightlife on TDY, does it?),
sometimes you get an out-of-the-blue invitation to visit also.  I have also
been contacted by folks visiting my area as well.

These "virtual affiliates" don't necessarily have to be restricted by
geographic area even though those folks in Kalifornya seem to be different.
You can set up your virtual club along any line possible; species groups,
peat spawner fans, Dallas Cowboy fans who just happen to have killies, New
York Yankee haters with bivs, ex-cons Republicans who specialize in
Diapterons, keepers of Nothos that have no red on them, blue gularis goes
better with beer, .... you get my drift.  Get partnerships going, exchange
fish by mail--some post offices do work.

How do you get others to include you on this or anything else?
Unfortunately KT wasn't set up as a dating service--it amazing how a former
member of our club always seemed to put the moves on a new female member and
quickly lower her interest in keeping killies.  On the Members Only section
of the AKA Homepage there are classified ads where you can cobble together
an ad under "wanted" or maybe "volunteering" but you have to hope that
others will cruise here for interested parties as well.  One way to get
yourself noticed was brought up by the late (by now very late so very few of
you might remember him) Art Titus of Detroit who got snubbed by people
listing in the F&E Listing.  Old Art found that once he "announced to the
world" that he could produce killies by placing an ad of fish for sale in
the F&E listing he got noticed.  You might not necessarily have to be able
to demonstrate this success yourself but by participating in AKA activities
(a show, write an article, produce fish or eggs or even place a species
wanted ad) you can get yourself noticed.

Dave Koran
killie at killifish_net  

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