AKCA Minutes of April 12, 2002

 

Officers Present:                        Directors Present:                        Guests:

Chair: Larry Leverett                        Burt Ballou (OCZNA+ 6 clubs)

Vice Chair: Doug Dahl                        Joyce Glenn (Ikiru Hoseki, etc)                        Tom Graham

Secretary:                        Bob Finnegan (SoCal + 6 clubs)                        Mark Whalen (OCZNA)

CFO: Carl Caddies                        Harlen Glenn (San Diego)                        Lisa Barnett (Nishiki)

                        Joan Finnegan (Greater Louisville)

                        Judy Caddies (Nishiki+)

                        Kelly Houston Inland

 

(Please note that clubs that AKCA Board members represent will NOT be listed individually except in the case of their primary club)

 

WEB‑SITE CONTEST

All Clubs who have a web‑site and would like to be considered can

submit their web‑site address to either:

Burt Ballou @ burtb@flash.net or to Carl Fridenstine @ himelkoi@aol.com

 

Board Highlights:

       Ballots for Koi Person of the Year & Koi of the Year ‑‑‑ Deadline is May I",

       Ballots for Election of Officers

       AKCA Web‑site contest

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. by Larry Leverett. There are 100 member clubs. As Carole Elliott was ill, Joan Finnegan took notes & monitored the recorder.

 

 MINUTES: Motion: To approve the Minutes of March 8,2002. Motion by Joan, 2nd by Harlan. Approved

 

MARCH FINANCIAL STATEMENT: KOI USA transferred AKCA $10,000 to keep AKCA in the black. KOI USA, for the month of January, had a net profit of $1,970.92; for February it had a net loss of $22,378.72. Year to date, KOI USA has a net profit of $1,877.86. The net income for the AKCA 2002 Seminar is $5,721.34. Motion: To approve the Financial report for March. Motion by Carl, 2nd by Harlen. Approved Carl will no longer be CFO after June as he is retiring.

 

COMMITTEE REPOR TS

 

 KOI USA: Joyce reported that Ubiquity (a small distributor on the East coast) sent a check for approximately $68; it has been sent to Carl. Our new reports from Sandy Kesling were excellent. There are a few questions; Tom will get the answers. In further discussion, Tom recalled when his raise went into effect, so did Carlene's. This happened when it was decided Tom would get paid by page inside of issue, according to Joyce. The magazine is now at 140 pages; do we continue getting larger??? Motion: To have Koi USA approval for any further pages over 140 pages. 12 yes, 13 against Quark Express 5.0 for Tom was approved at the KOI USA meeting. The 50150 advertising versus text split is a guideline adopted by KOI USA management and not required by law which would allow advertisement up to 75% which would only impact postage costs based on the percentage of advertisement. Motion: To pay the Koi USA accounts manager $1,000 per month retroactive. Motion by Joyce, 2nd by Harlen Approved Motion: To pay Tom Graham $55 per page for KOI USA. Motion by Harlan, 2nd by Doug. Approved.

 

 SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: Burt handed out the monthly KRA Program report; stated that the post Anatomy & Physiology sections are completed; sent for posting 3/23 & 3/29. Spike felt it was unnecessary, right now, to make a decision on the LCD projector. Two additional students have dropped out; total dropouts to date is 14. Two more students were added. Burt continued with the Pond Design testing. Arrangements were made for and sent out more details on to Portland and Austin lab. Chris continued with filtration testing and has started nutrition testing. Still way under budget.

 

 MEMBERSHIP: Doug reported that he needs a new application from Koichi & Watergarden Club of Lakewood, Calif.

 

 JUDGING: No report.

 

 SPEAKERS GRANT: No report.

 

 GUIDES: Burt & Judy, per a telephone conversation, said that Mountaineer Koi Club of West Virginia did not receive 60 Pond Construction guides. The process was reviewed by Burt. Motion: To send 60 original Pond Construction guides (for those lost 10/3/98). Motion by Burt, 2nd by Harlan Approved

 

 FINANCE COMMITTEE: The Finance committee recommended we hire a professional bookkeeper to do our books in addition to finding a new CFO to replace Carl Caddies who is retiring and was performing both functions. There were concerns raised about changing bookkeepers and CFO at the same time and the possible disruption that large change might create. Lisa Barnett finally agreed to accept the nomination to the slate as our new CFO. After much discussion, a motion was made by Burt Ballou to retain Carl Caddies as bookkeeper for now and consider the outside bookkeeper when the new CFO feels she can provide a seemless transition. Ile motion was passed. The Finance committee also recommended they hold regular meetings to provide direction and oversight to the new CFO and make regular reports to the AKCA Board. This decision was within the perview of the Committee and Chairman Larry Leverett so no vote was required but the AKCA Board applauded the decision for a more active Finance Committee.

 

 NOMINATIONS: Joan presented the 2002‑03 AKCA slate of officers. Motion: To accept the slate of officers as presented by the nomination committee: Chairman: Larry Leverett, Vice Chairman: Doug Dahl, Secretary: Carole Elliott, CFO: Lisa Barnett. Motion by Joan, 2d by Joyce. Approved.

 

SEMINAR REPORTS:

 

 2002 SEMINAR: Sheila Jackson said that everything is going along fine.‑‑ Mark will talk to them             later this week and will get his report to Carole. No real problems at this time; no one has made their hotel reservations as yet; get it done soon!!

 

 2003 SEMINARS: Doug stated that the art is ready for Koi USA by May I 0th (April 15th) Starting to work with vendors; for super Raffle. All vendors are on the "A" list; 1st priority is Koi USA advertisers. The Host club has requested a list of vendors AKCA would want invited to the 2003 Seminar. Carl Caddies stated such a list was already provided to Lucia Rose for the 2002 Seminar in Concord and Carl would give Doug Dahl the e‑mail for Lucia so the list could be sent to Atlanta. Burt Ballou. emphasized the AKCA Seminar Policy & Procedure booklet provides a clear prioritization of exhibitors to prior Seminar exhibitors, then long term KOI USA advertisers, then local vendors or host club supporters, then all other US vendors and last all foreign vendors.

 

 2004/2005 SEMINARS: Burt was going to contact Niagara; Spokane may be interested but they

             will decide later after they hold the PNKCA conference.

 

 

REPRESENTATIVE CONTACTS:

 

 Written report submitted by Burt : Johnny Foster, of Nature's Coast K&WGC had AFKAPS; great show. Field trip to Irish Gardens last Sunday; had 30 members attend. Starting to build some new ponds; fish auction in May. Field trip to a water lily farm in late May. Said nobody has been contacting the Gainesville Club. Henry Culpepper, of Central Florida KC, had AFKAPS show; ran out of room for tanks (could only set up 41 show tanks); had 266 koi. Had the wet lab and it was a great success; taught by Dr. Erik Johnson and Dr, Alan Riggs and assisted by 4 senior veterinary students. Attendees learned and practiced how to use a microscope, how to perform a scraping and gill snip and what to look for under the scope, how to do an injection and those with stronger stomachs performed necropsies. They held their April meeting on Saturday, April 13th pond side at the home of Roxanne Price and Donna Householder. They had Diane Meinke, of Aqua Doc, speak about spring time ailments, their prevention and treatments. They also voted on Koi of the Year. Joe White, of Florida East Coast, said that everything is quiet (except for the AFKAPS show; biggest one so far with 266 koi). Jackie Welch, of OKC Club  said that Infiltration is donating some koi to their club to help them raise some money for their show. Each fish will be numbered; tickets will be drawn out of a hat and the fish matching the ticket number will be the one the ticket holder takes home. All of the proceeds will go to the club. Ray Abell will be there on May 25th for a koi sale. Several of their members attended San Antonio's "Yoshida's" koi sale. Several members are planning to attend the I' Annual Young Koi Show & Water Garden Expo in Dallas, the first weekend in May. This month's meeting, april 12th, they plan to watch the video of the All Japan show, filmed by Tom Lansing. Norbun Watson, of Warner Robins, got a newsletter now and its on the web site; had picnic (big success) and a speaker from Hart's nursery talk on water plants, Club members trade plants. Pond Tour June 1st will be one day/night tour from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. with at least 12 ponds on the tour. Carl Fridcnstine, of Santa Clara Valley Koi, said that they had a great koi show in March at the Cow Palace. Plans for the July 20' pond tour are progressing nicely. The annual club picnic will be on April 13th at Tom Lie's house. They will also hold the club's regular meeting at the picnic as an experiment ‑ mixing business with pleasure. The topics for discussion at the meeting will be koi sales and a talk by Tom Lie. They are setting up 7 tanks for members to bring koi for their auction. They have a new web‑site: www.sekoi.com. Mary Alexander has spent many hours creating this web‑site. The club is very pleased with the site and it should make the officers' job easier by having a central location for information that can be accessed anytime. In doing some research for their club's web‑site, Carl found 29 other koi club web‑sites. Some of the sites are OK and some are very good. He would like to suggest that AKCA have an annual award (dollar amount) for the top three koi club web‑sites. The criteria that a koi site may be judged against could include but not limited to: art work, up to date information, material content, humor, ease of navigation, user friendly, etc. This could stimulate existing sites and possibly motivate other clubs to create their own web site. This annual web‑site award could be presented at the yearly AKCA Seminar beginning this year in Concord. Debby Young, of So. Arizona KC, said that they had a Garden Show display; sold a bunch of pond tour tickets. Pond Tour will be for two days and one night on 4/13‑14. Linda Montgomery, of Cascade K&GFS said that they had a field trip to Blue Water Koi jointly with Pacific Wonderland; ponds are starting to warm up. Sheila Jackson, of San Francisco Bay KC, said that their club is busy working on the upcoming AKCA Seminar. Have their larger storage facility organized. Last meeting was at Steve Walker from Sacramento Koi; he talked on filters and treating for parasites. Peter Enfield, of Pacific Wonderland, said that they had someone from Hughes Water Garden (a west coast water plant supplier) speak at their last meeting. For their next meeting they will be going to Blue Water Koi.

 

Written report submitted by Bob: Richard Thomas, of Indiana KC, said that Bob Brandol talked about his trip to Japan & koi judging at their last meeting. Ken Lau was out to Southern Calif. For a week & visited 6 ponds with the Finnegans. So Cal Koi Club will have their Annual Koi Exhibition at the Orange County Buddhist Temple on April 13‑14. They will have a Pond Tour, in the Los Angeles area, May 19th with 6 ponds ranging from 1,200 gal. to 50,0000 gallons. Their Annual Barbeque will be in June at the Finnegans and the koi auction either in July or August. Jack Dratish, of Tropical KC, said that everything is OK; some members will be coming to the Seminar, in Concord, in June. Gary Williams is the acting President of West Tennessee. Frank th La Pone, of Sierra KC, said that their I st meeting of the year is April 14 ; Pond Tour will be July 14th. Todo Todorsky, of North Florida KC, said that their May meeting will have a presentation on electricity and working for ponds. They will have their Pond Tour May 18‑19. Charles Phelps, of Greater Louisville GF, said that everything is OK; getting ready for their Koi Show in May. Kim Chaney, of Great Pond & Koi of Western MI ' said that everything is OK; several members will be at the AKCA Seminar. Pat Christensen, of Northwest K&GF said that everything is OK. Arthur Brock, of West Garden Club of So. Texas, said that everything is OK; they have 150 family members.

 

 Written report submitted by Doug: Art Lembke, of Mid Atlantic KC, reports their club will have several meetings discussing Koi Health in the near future. Their local chapter Young Koi Show will be in May and June with the regular MAKC Show in September. Tulsa Koi Society reports the topic of their March meeting was catching and transporting fish by Allen Hill. The use of salt in ponds and amount of fresh water to add weekly were also discussed. They are planning their upcoming Swap Meet and their April meeting will discuss Koi Identification and buying koi. Their club now has a web‑site under construction at tulsa‑koi‑society@koitulsa.or . Ron Goforth, of Moto Kara Koi Kai reports they are currently in their ZNA membership drive and their next meeting will be at an art gallery where koi prints are displayed. David Smothers, of North Carolina K&WGS, reports they have achieved a successful surgery of a koi with a broken back following a ct scan and photos are provided on the web‑site ww",.fototime.com/inv/5708D3087740117. The koi named "Ladyfish" has been recovering for a couple of weeks now and seems fine. Virginia Joiner, of Lone Star ZNAKC, reports the club bought 2 koi from Sam Pierson at their last meeting at his koi facility to raffle off at a future meeting. Their April guest speaker will be Jim Wullschleger National Sales Manage for Aqua Mats. Gary Chin, of Camellia KC reports their club sponsored a day trip to San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. They also visited the Koileidoscope Koi Show sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Koi and Watergarden Club. In April, the Camilla club will sponsor a Spring Koi Buying Trip to the San Jose area koi dealers. The topic of their next meeting will be "Treatments coming out of Winter." They are also busy preparing for their 11 pond tour on May 5th Ray Jordan, of Texas K&GFS, reports their club bought 3 new microscopes for their KHA representatives and for club use; schedules a wet lab to be taught by Dr. Ken Johnson from Texas A&M at the clubs annual Spring Fish sale and Seminar. Jajime Sakuma, a koi breeder from Isawa, is accompanying Megumi Yoshida and bringing a special selection of his Gosanke Tosai to Texas April 6‑7. Several of their members took fish to the San Diego Show and enjoyed the experience. One of their members sadly had an automatic water fill device stick in the open position on his pond and lost all of their koi. Their members are looking forward to the AKCA Seminar in June in Concord, Calif Claudia Herdeman, of Austin Ponds Society & Austin KC reports the Pond Society is getting ready for its annual Pond Tour in June and also will have a booth at the annual Zilker Garden Festival in May. They will hold their annual plant swap at their May meeting. The Austin Koi Club visited Out of the Woods Koi Farm in March. They will vote on Koi Person of the Year and Koi of the Year at their April meeting. They will have a field trip to the Dallas Koi Show May 4th They had a demonstration on how to scrape a koi and find parasites in a microscope at a recent meeting. Doug tried to contact the following clubs too late this month and received no reply this month: Koi & WGC of North Texas; Olympic KC; Blue Water Pond Club; Las Pampas K&WGS; Kansas Pond Socie , Idaho WGS Mendocino Coast KC, Klahanie KC ' Northern Midwest ZNA. During the winter there is not as muc going on with koi so Doug will contact the following club within the next 2 months: Ventura KC.

 

 Written report for Larry: Ladean Paden, of Prairieland Pond Society, said that their next meeting

will have D.A. Hoerr as the speaker; his topic will be Carnivorous plants and Bog plants. Members are still anxiously awaiting their AKCA guides. Saturday, April 13th they will be at the Civic Center talking to the public about ponds. Their present will be giving a class on the perfect pond. Advance tickets have been sold to 985 people for all day classes sponsored by Master gardeners. Kathy Barnard, of the Gulf Coast Koi Club, said she, Donna Woods and Norma Propst went to the 5th annual Koi and Pond show. Donna did water quality and Kathy won Best Young with her Utsuri, Best Longfin over 16 inches. Most unique with a size one Ochiba, Best in Variety Tancho and Best in Variety Kinginrin B ginrin Chagoi. A total of 5 first place ribbons, I second place and I third place. Shelly Klinger, of Central Illinois Water Gardeners said their next speaker will be Frieda McArdel, of Passion for Ponds Inc. She will describe the installation, purpose and benefits of a bottom drain. In addition, June George of Scotchwood Nursing Home will discuss the desire for CIWG members to finish installing a water feature at their location. Darlene Jennings, of the Mid‑Michigan Pond & Water Garden Club, has stepped down as president of her club; she has guided the club for its first 3 years. The club in appreciation voted her Koi Person of the Year. Glen Davidson is the new president.

 

 Written report submitted by Kell : Inland Empire WG&KS said they are getting ready for their Annual PNKCA Convention (June 8‑9). Will have a garden expo on May I I at the Spokane Community College. They will have a plant/fish swap/koi lotto on June 15th Koi/goldfish Show August 24‑25.

 

Written report submitted by Carole: Michael Baker, of Central Alabama K&WGS, said that they meet once a month on Sunday's; upcoming meeting will be on using the test kit and testing pond water. Jan Jordan, of Mid‑Columbia K&PC, said that Ron Boedeker will fill the spot vacated by Carmen Stafford in the KHA program. The KHA's thank Carl Caddies and Spike Cover for finding four 1997 AKCA Guides to Koi Nutrition booklets and sending them; very much appreciated. Jan and Ron will finish their pond building & maintenance class for the Kennewick Community school with a field trip open to all club members. April 27h, they will have Blue his, of Spokane, coming down to give a koi health class and wet lab to members. Southwest K&PA recently had a dinner meeting with Dr. Michael Masser, Pond & Fisheries Specialist from Texas A&M. They learned a lot on aquatic environmental issues. Their April meeting will be held in the home of Elizabeth Hill in Horizon City. The guest speaker will be Burt Nichols, president and owner of Water Garden Gems, one of their sponsors. On April 20‑21 they will attend Pond‑omania 2002, a koi health & water quality Seminar/wet lab in Reno, NV with Dr. Erik Johnson. Lillian Wolfe, of Florida K&WGS, said that they selected their Koi of the Year. In February, Bob Brown gave an extremely interesting demonstration of underwater video equipment. He brought a camera and put it in the water and set up a monitor by the pond. They had some great close ups of the more curious koi who evidently wanted their moment in the lime light by being on television. Shari Waters has been appointed as the newsletter editor and Lynn Jackson as the coeditor. On April 28th, they will be meeting at Aqua Gardens; May 26 th at Concrete Gardens. There was no March meeting ... just AFKAP. Their Pond Tour will be October 12‑13 and chaired by Elmore Evans.

 

 Written report submitted by Joyce : Robin Scott, of Atlanta KC, said that their club is having a clubwide fish, plant and equipment auction on April 20'. Their annual summer Ponds Tour will begin the first weekend in June followed by ones in July and august. The 2003 Seminar committees will meet this weekend to discuss their ongoing progress. Carol Jones, of Florida West Coast, said that she would like the KOI ID poster made up into cards held together with a ring; that way everyone can carry it along when they go to select their next "have to have koi." The poster gets put in a frame and hung on the office wall, a little big to be carried around! Len Brown, of Tampa Bav, said their wasn't much to report. They are recovering from the AFKAPS held last month. At their meeting on April 20th, they will be discussing a second annual club sponsored show in September. Dan Morgan, of Washington K&WGS, said that ponds are starting to warm up. Grant Patton, M.D., of Showa KC, said that they plan to vote on Koi of the Year at their April 10 meeting. Their last meeting in March was held at a large catfish/koi farm and was well attended. They saw a number of large jars with koi embryos bubbling inside waiting to hatch. Members purchased a few small koi to take home.

 

PROXY CALLS FOR MAY

 

 What club wants to host the 2004 & 2005 Seminars

 

If your club has a new rep, please get name, address, and phone number of new rep!! Ask if the person listed in KOI USA , as the contact person, is the correct person!!

 

OLD BUSINESS:

 

PKK Books: The per book cost of 500 copies of a New Revised Practical Koi Keeping Volume 3 book with 1/3 new pages of articles was too high to consider it viable. 1000 or 2000 copy prices were better but the Board did not feel we could sell that many of a revised book. A discussion ensued on the reasons AKCA created the PKK books and did they want to continue every 7 years with a new compilation of recent articles in a new PKK5, 6, 7 which would place articles on ponds in 3‑5 different volumes OR did AKCA really want two permanent books with BASIC Koi Ponds, Pumps, Filters & Water forming one book and BASIC Koi Disease, Medication, Koi Care, Photography, etc. forming a second book. Both books would be the same size of about 200 pages. This last concept would end the PKK series and replace them with the 2 new books. A motion was made by Burt Ballou, 2 d by Lisa to adopt the two new book approach and was modified to hold off printing these 2 new books until the appropriate time (when most of the existing 600 copies of PKK I and PKK2 have been sold). These two new Basic books would be updated as required by new concepts or products perhaps with inserts or addendums instead of reprinting. This motion was passed. The Board also authorized printing 2,0000 copies of the new 200 page, all color book Buying & Judging Koi as soon as the last 3 articles are written and ready (in about 6 months). This new book is expected to retail for $25. Burt stated it would be a minimum of 12 months before his book on Koi Classification & Bloodlines will be ready to print. Lisa suggested that future articles be on CD Roms (less expensive).

 

Koi Person of the Year/Koi of the Year: Both are due by May 1. Please print the name of the person (so that we don't misspell the name) to receive the award along with an accurate e‑mail address. Please send e‑mail for Koi Person of the Year to Burt Ballou.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

 

Web‑site Competition: (see page one) Carl Fridenstine suggested that we have a contest among the clubs as to the best web‑site based on being user friendly, graphics; 1', 2nd & 3rd place awards. Thought that Joyce, Debby Young & Brenda could be part of a committee to judge. This committee could come up with additional basic criteria. Motion, by Burt, 2 nd by Lisa to explore and expand upon this idea. Approved

 

Motion to adjourn at 9:35 p.m.. Motion by Burt, 2nd by Joan. Approved

 

Respectfully submitted,

Carole Elliott

Secretary