| Lee, I've never met you, and hope that I'll be able to travel and visit more shows and have a chance to meet everyone in person. I've got no hard feelings about the comments you made, because there's obviously something bothering you deeply.
The phrasing of the website was designed to encourage our members and those in the area, many of whom like me had never even attended a show, more less shown fish before. The grand champion awards going largely to the few members you has been involved in the show circuit and higher end collecting a long time is hardly a grand conspiracy. Especially not given the amount of time and energy that our experienced members volunteered to help those without the knowledge of how to safely show their fish feel that there was a reason for them to attend and bring their collection (it took a lot of encouragement to have people bring their fish, and those competing with the grand, large entries were very gracious in participating in only the largest size categories, and leaving lots of openings for others to have a successful show in the smaller categories to have their smaller, less developed collections rewarded).
Even knowing I didn't have any fish at home and that my first show entry would be a grow out contest fish I picked up Sunday night, I was able to bring home an award, and it's sitting next to my Q-tank, as a reminder that by learning from what I saw and the people I met, I have a chance to develop my fish to the level of the few high-end animals I got to see in person for the first time that weekend. From your posts, I think that is the kind of outcome of a koi show you would applaud.
So yes, there was a tremendous effort to encourage participation among newcomers to showing, even if not quite as much priority was put on drawing in more experienced hobbyists. And for me, at least, that certainly is a gesture toward the kind of atmosphere you seem to desire - but limited resources mean that choices need to be made. And I'm perfectly comfortable knowing that I could contribute to bringing new "family members", as you call them, into this space.
No one who had inquired about exhibiting would have been turned away, but when a club that was only a few months old began to discuss having a show, there was a great deal of uncertainty about how much we would be able to accomplish. Club membership was not required to exhibit. The club offered support to anyone who needed to learn about bagging and transporting, more experienced members personally drove out with oxygen and supplies to help get other fish to the show, and generally made a great effort to make this show about people interested in koikeeping, not just about which people had the finest fish. If that intention isn't clear in the materials, then surely that is something for the club to be aware of.
For as limited a treasury as the club had at such an early point in its existence, and the tremendous investment in infrastructure from the ground up, please be a little patient about the lack of funds devoted to national advertising. And please do not act so indignant you missed the announcement - the show was announced eight months in advance on three well-trafficked internet forums including this one, with updates given periodically, and a banner ad running on KS. Harping on how you failed to read that thread just seems a little silly to me.
As far as promoting koi keeping, and bringing people with those shared interests together, there hasn't been much of a network in this region. There aren't very many local faces who understood the logistics of a show, especially when it comes to knowing how things run behind the scenes. This is a good start. And yes, it is just a start, we've all learned for the first time how to do this, and now we can improve on that.
And give those of us who weren't already part of your nationwide koi-loving family some credit - we're not just blindly following orders from a few individuals who tricked us so they could rack up a new wall of trophies. |