Re: [Killietalk] improving the AKA

["J. C." <hillbillynursery at yahoo_com>]

 I am so glad that my spark lit this board up. I know
we need a way to speak directly with the BOT. We need
to tell them what we feel needs done for each item
before them. If the bot members would post to the
forum on the AKA site and reply a simple I read this
when someone make a post I would be happy. The problem
is I have posted(a long time back) and got no reply.
Like I said earlier I just want a way to communicate
with the BOT an know I am being heard. The bot has a
place to communicate with the members but it is not
being used. I do find email list easier to use myself
and a member only list for AKA business would be
great. Heck anyone can start a yahoo group and keep it
closed to the public. My wife has such a group that
she made me a member because she was having email
problem. You have to log in to see any post to the
list where my fish listis open and you can read the
post without logging in with your yahoo id. You would
have to have someone with a full list of members as
the owner or mod to approve all AKA members and tell
non members they can not join it. I did some work with
church and know the NFP laws are tricky. Atleast
churches are not looked at to hard.

  About increasing local clubs, There are 10 AKA
members in the whole state of TN which is 700 miles
long. There are 2 members WITHOUT FISH 50 miles away.
I read the guidelines once and knew I could never make
an AKA affilate group in my area. I may have some luck
with a aquarium group which I am thinking of looking
into. I think the rules said atleast 6 AKA members to
start a club. My problem is location. This mountain
area just has so few people let alone people with an
interest in fish then narrow that further to killie
nuts and you have less than 10 in hundred miles and
how many of them will travel 100 miles to a club
meeting if it rotated from home to home. I know I can
not afford the gas to go 50 miles let alone 100. 

 I would not want to limit an area from having shows.
Like upper east coast where the large cities give you
alot of people in a small area. I am happy they have
so many and such good access to killies. Trying to
stop those shows would hurt killies in general and not
help to spread them. I know I will have to travel long
distances to go to a show and I hope to make it some
day. I was hoping that I would make the AKA convention
in FL but the lawyers made another postponement on my
back injury case(3 yrs 5 month since I have worked). I
think the groups putting on the convention need to
think about lowest cost possible toward the attendies
for all of us on very small budgets as alot of the AKA
is retired. My last trip to Pensicola cost me $700 for
6 day 5 nights for a family of 6(4 kids). You learn
how to make every dollar count by going to the grocery
store and making sandwiches and such. We also have
drove a conversion van and spent the night in it one
night as the friday night motel was to high priced at
a rest area. Shortly put Poor people have poor ways
but we still have fun and a part of your world.

 The AKA areas for BOT elections could be redrawn and
maybe they should. The south east excluding FL has
very few members and no affiliate clubs except Cajun
killies which says they want to meet 2 times a year
with no other info on their page and they are in the
central gulf coast area which is where exactly. Not
harping on them but I wish they would put a bit more
info on that page. It says they meet at this guys
house but does not say city or even state where that
is. I think those of us more or less isolated people
need the AKA more than those that have the affiliate
groups. So it maybe a need for us to have a rep on the
BOT that understands we are to far apart to have a
club that will be successful. 

  Keep this up I am sure this discussion will help
bring changes that will satisfy our wants and be
within the legal and needs of the BOT. Please be civil
though. We can agree to disagree and even rebutle a
statement by another without getting upset. We the AKA
need this thread to continue so the BOT knows what we
want and can serve us within reason.

                                      Later, John


 

--- Allan Semeit <azkillie at cox_net> wrote:

> I agree with Wright that the AKA should direct more
> effort towards creating 
> and supporting local affiliate clubs.  There is much
> more that can be done. 
> Unfortunately, even those of us who participate in
> this talk line disagree 
> about what to do.  The BOT is no different.
> 
> Perhaps the first step should be to redefine what
> constitutes an affiliate 
> club.  Is a 50% AKA membership necessary?  For a
> club starting from scratch, 
> or even one that is growing fairly rapidly, that can
> be a difficult hurdle 
> to reach.  For a group of "old-timers", it is no
> problem.
> 
> Should a club strive to produce a show?   Frankly, I
> think they can be 
> "club-killers" and have seen several general clubs
> disintegrate because of 
> the effort required to run a show.  Why not limit
> the AKA-sanctioned shows 
> (for AKA brownie point purposes) to one per region
> (and we may want to draw 
> new regional boundaries!)?
> 
> The above is food for thought...
> 
> Allan from Arizona
> 


John Cox of Cumberland Killifish
 Honey Robber beekeeping and removal services
 
 Please join A Fishy World my new email group all
 about fish at AFishyWorld-subscribe at yahoogroups_com

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