AKCA Minutes of February 11, 2005

 

Officers Present:                                Directors Present:                                              Guests:

Chair: Joan Finnegan                           Harlan Glenn (San Diego)                                   Tom Graham

Vice Chair:  Ed Salinas                         Burt Ballou (OC ZNA+)                                      Cindy Graham

Secretary:  Carole Elliott                      Bob Finnegan (Louisville+)                                               

CFO:                                                       Joyce Glenn (Hawaii+)                                       

                                                                Bruno Kudrecki (Koi Kichi & WGC)

                                                                Louie Hernandez (SoCalifZNA)

                                                                               

Board Highlights:

Ø        Slate of officers to be sent out prior to March 1st

Ø       Koi Person of the Year / Koi of the Year / Champion of Champions due by May 1st

 

The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Joan Finnegan @ 7:00 pm.   We have 105 clubs.     

v      MINUTES:

Motion:  To approve the minutes of January 14, 2005.  Motion by Joyce, 2nd by Burt.  Approved.

 

v      JANUARY FINANCIAL STATEMENT/FINANCE COMMITTEE:

Joan went over Doug’s financial report.  Doug ordered 60 St. Erne books @ $35 each.  Needs 50 videos of filter construction. Joan reported that Doug stated that our investment account lost $2,408.64 this past month.  Motion:  To order 50 filter construction videos.  Motion by Joan, 2nd by Burt.  Approved.  Ordered 5 short show tanks and 1 standard show tank for the Judging workshops at the annual AKCA seminars for $2,022.  Burt needs to order the net material for 6 tanks for Bob.  1099 forms have been mailed.  3 vendor and 3 Seminar registrations for the 2005 AKCA Seminar have been received so far.  Discussion about proposal by Karen Pattist.  Tom & Cindy Graham would like to sell AKCA bookstore items at the San Diego koi show.  Discussion followed.  Motion:  Any club may get bookstore products, on consignment, paying for shipping costs both ways, paying for books/products @ dealer costs.  Items returned must be in the same condition as received.  Motion by Burt, 2nd by Larry.  Approved.  USPS will not send a pickup for large boxes from the bookstore without an account set up with a credit card for the $12.50 pick up fee.  However, the postal carrier has been good about taking the smaller boxes.  Motion:  To complete the Bank of America credit card for AKCA.  Motion by Joyce, 2nd by Larry.  Approved.  Doug included the 4 step tax approach approved by the AKCA Board in his report.  With have completed our 2003/2004 tax forms.  Talked to a tax attorney who said the prior year 990-T tax form was incorrect.  He also suggests we are retaining too much money for a non-profit 501©3 corporation and should be using the majority of our reserves for the purpose stated in our by-laws.  One suggestion was to pay $5-10K to create a for-profit subsidiary out of KOI USA to allow AKCA to retain 501c3 status (we still owe the same taxes).  Motion:  To give Doug authority to work out a for-profit subsidiary in order to retain our 501c3 status as well as dealing with past taxes.  Motion by Burt, 2nd by Harlan.  Approved.  Motion:  to approve the January financial report.  Motion by Joyce, 2nd by Burt.  Approved.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

 

v      SCIENTIFIC:  Joyce handed out Spikes report including the KHV Latency Research report.  Rob Hildreth has reportedly done 30 or so serology tests.  Had one false positive so far; positive was retested and was negative.  The Bacterial disease CE course (37 students) has started.  He also got one more fish friendly vet to sign up for the Vet Referral list: Tom McCabe from El Paso, TX.   

 

v      PUBLICATION:    Ed stated that he has two good opportunities to increase KOI USA subscriptions with Tom Graham elaborating.  First, Global distribution company, part of Fancy Publications Corporation, is having a special promotion this March featuring pond related publications.  Tom has secured an invitation to include KOI USA in their display.  They are

 

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v      creating a special full color, six bin standing corrugated display , that will hold four magazines and two books.  The other three mags will be KOI World, Pond USA and Ponds Magazine, so KOI USA could be the fourth magazine in the display.  It will be placed in 403 Petsmarts, right next to the pond they set up in the stores.  Global told Tom that Fancy sells 80% of their annual sales through these promotions.  The display promotion will start on March 25th and be in place for 60 days.  Tom recommends placing 8 copies of KOI USA in each display.  Costs would include the display as well as the magazines.  Motion:  To take part in the special promotion by Global Distribution by providing 8 magazines per store as well as costs for display; display cost $4,000 and an estimated cost of $4,900 for 8 copies per store.  Motion by Harlan, 2nd by Louie.  Approved.   Second, Ed would like to advertise in the three koi/watergarden magazines.  Discussion of each magazine along with costs for varied sizes of ads.  Motion:  To place a 1/3 page ad in Koi World at a cost of $1045.  Motion by Bob, 2nd by Joyce.  Approved.  Motion:  To place a full page ad in Ponds USA at a cost of $3,880.  Motion by Burt, 2nd by Harlan.  Approved.  Motion:  To place a 1/3 page island ad in Watergardening at a cost of $1274.  Motion by Burt, 2nd by Harlan.  Approved.  Motion:  To place a ½ page island ad in Ponds (3x yr) at $2,160 per issue.  Motion by Burt, 2nd by Harlan.  Approved.  Tom stated that he will do ads for free.  Discussion on how to track the source of future subscriptions.  Ed discussed the price of the magazine.  Would like to lower the prices to encourage more subscriptions.  Motion:  To reduce the price of KOI USA to $17 for club members and $20 for non members.  Motion by Burt, 2nd by Louie.  Approved with 1 abstain and 2 opposed.  Motion:  For 2 years subscriptions cost would be $28 for club members and $35 for non members.  Motion by Burt, 2nd by Louie.  Approved with 2 abstaining. 

 

v      MEMBERSHIP:  No report 

 

v      JUDGING:  Bob said that there will be expenses for the upcoming Seminar similar to other years.  They will have a Thursday Judging meeting as well as koi judging. 

 

v      SPEAKER’S GRANT:  No Report

 

v      GUIDES:  No report.

 

v      INSURANCE:  Burt stated that we have had a claim filed by the Tropical Koi Club in Florida. 

 

v      NOMINATING COMMITTEE:  Larry stated that thus far they have been unsuccessful in filling the slate of officers.  He was reminded that this needs to be finalized and sent to clubs prior to March 1st.  He will do a phone poll to get approval on the slate, once determined.

 

v      KOI OF THE YEAR/CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS:  The form is included with these minutes.  Please follow the directions and submit to Debby Young.  (all info on forms)  These must be returned NO LATER than May 1st!

 

v      KOI PERSON OF THE YEAR:  The form is included with these minutes.  Please note that you MUST e-mail all information to Burt Ballou (all info on the form) NO LATER than May 1st!

  . 

SEMINAR REPORTS:

 

v      2005 TULSA SEMINAR:  Ed stated that they are getting in high gear; still need the list of speakers for KOI USA.  He will be going there at the end of March.

 

v     2006 NIAGARA SEMINAR:  No report. 

 

 

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v      2007 Seminar:  Joan stated that Tom Ayers is the Co-Chair of the Seminar.  He will be picking up bids on hotels in the Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe area.

 

REPRESENTATIVE CONTACTS:

 

o         Written report submitted by Doug:  Virginia Joiner, of Lone Star ZNA KC, reports their club had a great holiday party.  Their Trash & Treasure Auction raised $730 for the AKCA KHV Project.  Out of the Woods Koi Farm donated 2 beautiful koi for a club raffle.  Spike Cover came to Houston to give the January lecture with a great power point presentation.  Guests came from Dallas and Austin to hear Spike’s lecture.  The club is planning their annual koi show for April 2/3rd.  It will be part of the Japanese Festival activities to be held at the Japanese Gardens and reflection pool in Hermann Park.  Pam Francis, of Michigan K&PC-SE, reports their club held it’s first planning board meeting at the end of January and have a tentative schedule for the year for 8 events.  They will begin in April with “What’s new for 2005” to include new products and techniques in ponding.  The May meeting will discuss landscaping around your pond and there will be a fish auction and ice cream social in June.  July 16th will be the club public pond tour and they will have a progressive dinner and mini club pond tour in August.  September has a planned field trip to a local nature center and October is the club annual social event.  Dot Wilbanks, of Moto Kara Koi Kai, reports their January meeting was held at Brett Rowley’s koi farm with the wood burning fireplace roaring to create a cozy atmosphere.  Brett showed club members how much the koi in his growing ponds have grown since the club has visited.  Club members then participated in a koi judging contest just like ZMA Judges have with Ron Goforth as teacher.  Brett donated a Dianichi koi to the club raffle.  Ron Goforth gave the club an update on the earthquake damage in Japan and how it affected Dianichi Koi Farm.  While Dianichi lost a lot of koi, they had their famous bloodline and brood stock in ponds up in the mountains.  Dianichi is already in the process of rebuilding facilities.  Shigeru Mano, of Dianichi, will come to visit the club and will bring fish to sell in March.  The January meeting ended with a buffet.  Valley of the Sun KC reports they will hold their annual koi show in Phoenix Feb. 15/16th.  Mary Oxman, of Ventura KC, reports their February meeting will be to plan meeting hosts and programs for the year and to help the meeting host design a 10,000 gallon koi pond for jumbo koi.  Digging for the pond starts this month.  The landscape at this home boasts 25,000 bulb plants.  Doug tried to contact the following clubs with no information:  Mid Atlantic KC; Middle Georgic WGC; Rhode Island & Massachusetts KC: and, Tulsa KS. 

 

o         Written report submitted by Bob:  Charles Phelps, of Greater Louisville, said that everything is OK.  Jan Brown, of No. Florida KC, reported that one of their founding members, Ernie Enriques who was 77 recently passed away.   Mona Coleman, of Northern Nevada PC, said they are having a Seminar in April with Dr. Erik Johnson; call Mona @ (775) 262-3458 for reservations.  Pat Christensen, of Northwest K&GF-ZNA Northwest Chapter, reports everything is OK.  flooded streets.  Lester Berkow, of Tropical Koi, reports their koi show in January was a success; 75 koi entered were all very good quality.  David Vince, of West Tennessee, said the 1st meeting of the year in January was well attended.  Talked about their pond tour coming up next spring.  SoCal Koi Club held its February meeting at the home of Ben Plonski (owner of Laguna Koi Ponds); had a great turnout and informative wet lab.  Working on upcoming Pond tour to be held May 8th.  Bob tried but was unable to reach Sierra KC, Great Ponds & Koi Society and Indiana Koi. 

 

o        Written report submitted by Burt:  John Hathaway, of Pacific Wonderland Koi Club, said that their February 5th meeting was hosted by John Smith & Terrie Kaufman in Washougal, WA.  Their home and setting is an absolute “must see.”  Their indoor koi pond is one of a kind.  John presented the club’s Certificate for Donation to Project KHV, and then gave an overview and update on AKCA Project KHV.  Discussion about KHV disease, and how it compares to other diseases, and it’s course.  Club agreed to the ongoing donation of 50% raffle proceeds to research, and send in every 6 months.  Next month they are going to the Artfull Garden to learn about cement leaf casting, and hypertufa garden sculptures.  Henry Culpepper, of Orlando Area K&PC, said the January club meeting was held at the home of the new club president, Merle Deland.  They discussed some club business and voted to buy 2 more six foot show tanks for use in the Central FL Koi Show and the club’s young koi show this fall.  Joe White visited their club and discussed the

KHV fundraiser.  The club voted to donated $150 and several members made personal donations as well.  They discussed the upcoming Central FL Koi Show which is turning out to be larger than the past Orlando shows.  They had to add another tent because they sold out of the vendor spaces and had several more asking to come.  Henry then gave a slideshow presentation on his visit to Quality Koi back in October for a Koi

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auction and harvest of a nissai pond and of his visit to Ray Abel’s for his November pond pull.  It was about an hour long and the club members seemed to really enjoy it and asked a lot of questions.  Norbun Watson, of

Middle Georgia KS, said they didn’t have a speaker at their last meeting; had a general discussion on members’ ponds.  Joe White, of Florida East Coast, said they had a birthday celebration & gift exchange for the club; Joe set up an underwater TV camera to show the members.  They will have a speaker on artificial rock at their next meeting.  Joe White, of ZNA Southern Koi Assoc., said nothing going on except that Henry Culpepper & Rod Lawton are doing the planning for the Koi Show on March 11-13th; had such great vendor turnout they had to get a second tent for more vendors.  Johnny Foster, of Nature’s Coast K&WGC, said their board meeting was last Saturday; planned years events that will include a young koi show in May, big show in October, and field trips throughout the year.  Laura Adams, of Koi &WGC of No. Texas, said their next meeting will be on bottom drains & skimmers; planning for pond tour of May 21-22.  Getting at least one new member each month; have programs set for rest of year and a lot of new committee chairpersons.  Kenneth Wong, of Dallas Koi Kichi Group, said that Ray Jordan spoke at their last meeting on judging koi; planning for future meetings.  A lot of members are planning to go to Lone Star koi show in April & San Antonio’s koi sale with M. Yoshida @ Water Garden Gems.  Debby Young, of Southern Arizona KC, said they didn’t have a speaker at their last meeting; just created nominating committee; meeting was at Victor & Janet Lee’s home, a beautiful pond & some excellent koi.  Some members are entering koi at the Phoenix show; planning a pond tour in May.  Linda Montgomery, of Cascade K&GFS, said they have a booth @ Portland Yard Garden & Patio Show Feb. 18-20.  PNKCA Seminar host June 3-5th; wet lab on June 3rd with Erik Johnson & Vicki Bernley; had their Xmas banquet in January. Lucia Rose, of San Francisco Bay KC, said they have a new slate of officers; working on bylaws.  Last meeting was at Jeff Dunkel’s & Noreen Rancourt; did a slide show on parasites with an excellent turnout; working on their pond building seminar.  ZNAOC had their last meeting at Dottie Baker’s home; just completed remodeling; topic for discussion was tearing out her existing pond and redesigning a much larger pond plus locating and designing a permanent quarantine pond.  As usual, the luncheon she prepared was first class;  The club discussed having a joint auction again with Nishiki possibly in May; both clubs have decided on not having a koi show this year.  Carol Lee, of Santa Clara Valley Koi, said the club will donate $500 to the KHV Project; have added a new column about AKCA in newsletter.  January meeting had a speaker on faux rocks; in Feb. the speaker will be on Japanese maples; then will be at the San Mateo Home & Garden Show with a booth, then Cherry Blossom Festival in April 23/24; Pond Tour July 16th.   Burt tried but was unable to reach Oklahoma KC.

 

o        Written report submitted by Carole:  Niagara Frontier Koi & Pond club’s newsletter reports that their February meeting will have Larry Nau, from Bergen Water gardens, doing a talk on plants for your water garden.  They had elections in January; new secretary.  Will have a vat tour Feb. 19th;; tropical fish club auction on Feb. 20th.   Kathy Bergh, of Puget Sound KC, reports their new club rep is Philip Ricigliano. 

 

o        Written report submitted by Spike:  Dan Phillips, of North Carolina K&WGS, reports that their January meeting was at Cody’s Chinese Restaurant.  They plan on having advanced educational classes on koi related topics in addition to the regular meetings.  This year’s koi cull sale/fundraiser is tentatively going to be at the 2-day Exotic in Dorton Arena at the NC State Fairgrounds.  They also have plans to visit Lotus Land Koi Farm and possibly Blueridge Fish Hatchery.  In April they will be present at the Atlantic Ave. Garden Center Open House promotion.  They will hold a seminar with four lectures on koi topics.   Marc & Tamara Skaggs, of Northern Midwest ZNA, reports that they don’t have anything to report at this time.  Ray Jordan, of Texas K&GFS, reports that they are working on their 11th annual Fish sale & Spring Pond Seminars, April 10-11; gets bigger every year.  Megumi Yoshida is bringing Mr. K. Matsuba a 2nd generation koi breeder from Japan.  Last year’s guest breeder, Futo Maruyama, bred the Showa that just won Grand Champion at the recent All Japan Show in Tokyo.  Their club made a donation of $2,000 and had individual member donations about $500 to AKCA-Project KHV in 2004.  They expect to exceed these donations amounts in 2005.  They ask that all other clubs promote this worthy project & support KHV research with generous donations. 

 

o        Written report submitted by Larry:  Ron Carter, of Prairieland K&WGS, said there wasn’t a lot of news to give, but they had their executive board meeting on 1/28.  They discussed plans for the upcoming year.  Ron said they are planning a special pond tour of business ponds in July.  In September, they are going to charter a bus and go to the St. Louis Botanical Gardens for the day.  They also changed the date of the Executive Board meetings to the fourth Saturday to help with attendance.  Michael Jackson, of the West Plains WGS, said they had their monthly meeting Tuesday night at the local Extension Center.  They did a pest identification program.  They also discussed the upcoming Home Builders Show and the Seminars that

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o        they will be giving.  Among these Seminars is one on the basics of water gardening.  That seems to be a popular topic at the show.  The Seminar is well attended.  They should already have had elections for new

officers, but because of poor attendance at the meeting in January they have put that off for now.  Darlene Jennings, of Mid-Michigan Pond & WGC, said they had their first meeting of 2005 on Wednesday, February 2nd at the East Flint Lions Clubhouse.  Michael Duranczyk, of Able Koi & Pond, was the speaker and his program was on “Koi Health Care.”  Hosts for the evening were Mac & Nancy MacKenzie.  Kelly Houston, of Inland Koi Society, said they have a date for their Pond Tour; it is May 23rd.  For more information e-mail vpkelly@earthlink.net or the clubs website: inlandkloisociety.org.  Their meeting for February will be at the Edward-Dean Museum, where they maintain the koi pond.  Building a quarantine tank will be the topic.  Larry tried but was unable to reach:  Cherokee Strip WGS; Gulf Coast KS; Madison Area Ponds Society; Ohio KC; and, St. Louis WGS.  

 

o         Written report submitted by Harlan Glenn:  Linda Solis, of San Diego KC, reports that they are busy planning March koi show at Del Mar Fairgrounds; will be the 100th koi show that Norm Meck has done all the water quality testing.  Chuck Poppe, of Potomac ZNA Club, reported that they are planning on April meeting to get season started; nothing really happening because of the weather.

 

o        Written report submitted by Joyce Glenn:  Leroy Taba, of Hawaii GF&CA, reported that they are having a new event for Boy’s Day; will tell us more about that later.  The videos of the Seminar are ready; are about 40 minutes long and on a DVD; price is $39.   Ginny Lee, of Washington K&WGS, reported she had received an email from someone in California who is trying to sell his house; turns out to be Ron Beville’s home.  She will share it with the club.  They liked the new nutrition guide.   Ludo Van Den Bogaert, of Tampa Bay K&WGC, said that there is the ZNA All Florida Show; going to do the raffle booth.  Bob Waag, of Florida West Coast, reported they are getting ready for a bus tour of local ponds.  They went to Ruskin to see some research they had done on fish.  It’s a lab that is a weather station.  It’s now a aquaculture research station.  In March they are going to put on a plant sale.  Talma Sola Botanical Park in Bradenton.  Michael Anderson, of Atlanta KC, said there will be a Koi Health Management course presented by the University of Georgia this weekend (Feb. 11-13).  There will be 19 topics and six presents:  Erik Johnson, DVM; Helen Roberts, DVM; Tom Nemets, DVM; Steve Hernandez-Divers, DVM; Branson Ritchie, DVM; and, Victoria Vaughan, Seminar Coordinator.    Louie Hernandez, of ZNA So Cal, reported that ZNA supported Eastern Nighikigoi for its first annual koi show.  Junitchi Kayano volunteered to translate for Ogatasan and Konichisan.  Andy Moo, from Andrew’s Koi International, was also one of the judges.  The club will be having their last meeting before the March show at Konko Buddhist temple in Gardena.  As in the past there will be refreshments, entertainment and of course, some of the best high quality fish in the country.  Dates are Marth 19th-20th at the Gardena Civic Center. 

 

o        Written report by Bruno Krudecki:  Koi Kichi & WGC’s is getting ready for the annual election of boards; will have results next meeting. 

 

o        Written report submitted by Phil Hunter:   Linda Siler, of the Springfield K&WGC, reports that the February meeting was held at the Mid-America Cancer Center.  The program was detecting and identifying fish parasites.  Dr. Dave Simmons was the speaker.  A teaching microscope was used and pictures of the most common parasites were shown.  A demonstration on how to properly take a skin scraping was also presented.  The program for the March meeting will be how to construct your own greenhouse.  Judith Minor Roberts, of the Mountaineer K&WGS, reports that the club is still on hiatus until March.  The March meeting will be held at the home of Ken & Betty Volkers.  The topic will be opening your pond for the season.  Don Hellard, of the Gainesville Koi, Goldfish & WGS, reports that the club is busy getting ready for their first every koi show to be held on February 19th.  In addition the club is also preparing to actively participate in the Central Florida Koi Show (formerly called the All Florida Koi Show).  Info about the CFKS show can be viewed online at www.cfks.org.  Ralph McGowen, of the Inland Empire WG&KS, reports that the next meeting will be held on March 2nd at the Manito Park Gaiser Conservatory.  The topic will be announced.  Clubs with no report this month were:  Capitol Area K&WGC, Dayton K&GFC, and the Shasta K&WGC.  

 

o        Written report submitted by Kelly:  (See Larry’s report for Inland Koi Society)

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PROXY CALLS FOR MARCH

§         Is there someone in your club who is a professional/amateur photographer who can photograph koi??

§         What is your club going to do for the AKCA-KHV Project funding???

§         Is someone in your club interested in becoming KOI USA features editor??

§         Is your club familiar with KOI USA?

 

 

Upcoming AKCA Annual Calendar Events for March:

 

v      --

 

OLD BUSINESS:   None

 

NEW BUSINESS: 

 

§         Old KOI USA Magazines:  Carole reported that Dave Freeman has old KOI USA magazines he would like to get rid of. 

 

Motion:  To adjourn the meeting 9:05 p.m.  Motion by Joyce, 2nd by Louie.  Approved

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Carole Elliott