[Killietalk] JAKA and the SKS

["Mike Jacobs" <mjacobs2 at tampabay_rr.com>]

JAKA and the SKS . . . .

Ok folks, I just read this month's JAKA and I have to say something here. 
In the JAKA there is an article about the SKS affiliate club in St. 
Pete/Tampa.  Charlie Nunziata is pulling the wool over all of your eyes! 
Now the following are my opinions but I think that most everyone in SKS will 
agree with my notion before I finish.

Basically what Charlie said is NOW true!  We have split up all of the 
necessary functions of the club among the different guys.  That was as of 
maybe June or July of this year.  Up until then . . . for the last 6-7 years 
Charlie did everything . . . and I mean everything!  The only official 
helper was Hugh Moore who has been the unofficial-official treasurer for the 
entire time I have been in the club.  I think I only missed 2-3 of the first 
meetings in the beginning of the formation of the club.  With one notable 
exception, Charlie organized everything from box exchanges to collecting 
trips to asking where the next meeting was going to be to getting the vans 
for the trips to Jacksonville to Normadin's house (4 1/2 hours) and to Ft. 
Lauderdale to Earle Fischer's house (3 1/2 hrs.) to getting Henri's 
DeBruyn's fish from the airports to buying and making sure the import 
license was current.  Charlie put the newsletter together and mailed it and 
footed the bill as well . . . and wrote 80% of the bulletin . . . and he 
keep the results of the bowl shows each meeting.  Folks we were just tagging 
on the shirt-tails of Charlie Nunziata and it was fun and exciting and 
wonderful.  Please don't misunderstand, there are some mighty great folks in 
the SKS that donated their house and time and expertise and tanks and 
anything they could to make this club work and quite frankly I sat back 
often and wondered why and how this GREAT bunch of guys could exist without 
ever having had the first election . . . dues . . .or  cover-charges . . . 
and we went all over the state of Florida and we never had one argument or 
disagreement ever that I can remember in the 6-7-8 years the club has 
existed and this in LARGE part due to the unofficial leadership of Charlie.

Then came the AKA Convention 2000 . . . none of us had ever put on a real 
CONVENTION before except Charlie  . . . we had all been to them but there is 
NOTHING like putting one on. . . there were two notable things that then 
sprung forth to make that convention in Tampa, Fl 2000 happen:

1) Charlie had the whole convention organized down to the second and he 
delegated the responsibilities and rode heard in a fashion that only a 
"father" could.  He was calm, interested, wanted to help with the problem, 
never made you feel crazy because your job wasn't going too good and 
suggested 24 different ways to help each person be successful . . . it was 
as marvelous a job of supervision as I have seen in my 59 years . . .

and

2)  All of the marvelous people in the club did every job they were given to 
110% of expectations.  No one failed in their job and it all worked.  No one 
panicked and everyone came to all of the meetings that Charlie had for more 
than a year in advance of the convention.  I will tell you that when that 
convention was over I was so very proud of SKS and proud for Charlie!

Were we the best ever then in 2000. . . that's not the point.  Were there 
mistakes made then in 2000 . . . that's not the point either.  Charlie let 
everyone in SKS participate and run their own particular part of the 
Convention and he never discouraged any idea but rather the contrary let the 
people investigate this way and that way until it naturally resolved itself. 
All ideas were addressed to it's fullest and they died or lived because 
Charlie let the individual and SKS work it all through with help and 
encouragement from him and the other members of SKS.  Everyone in the SKS 
was in a panic trying to figure if we had it all covered and Charlie was 
everywhere not pushing but encouraging and leading.  This was an example of 
a true leader in full swing because he really enjoys killifish and he is a 
genuine, genuine person and a leader.  When the Convention was all through 
it was like we were a tighter group of people after than before . . . his 
command and lack of panic was really a piece of work!

And then properly so Ange (who is also the mother to all of us) put her foot 
down . . . his wonderful wife stepped in and said that she wanted her 
husband back and after 6-7 years Charlie had to let the club go to what you 
read in this month's JAKA.

Finally however I just want to say to the entire AKA that Charlie Nunziata 
was 90% responsible for the organization of the SKS affiliate group and all 
of the genuinely great times we had as a group for the 6-7 years.  This 
takes NOTHING away from all of the people who opened their homes to meetings 
and put on presentations and were simply great killifish people and people. 
. . I think SKS members will all agree that we were glad to take the reins 
from Charlie and allow him and Ange some extra moments together . . . but 
there was a collective gasp when it was proposed that the change of hands 
should be made.

I don't want this to sound too melodramatic and it is for sure long a long 
enough e-mail here but Charlie ducked the tribute that he deserves when the 
SKS is talked about . . . and this is as great a club as I have ever 
belonged to.

Mike

                   Mike Jacobs
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