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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