What percentage does your club members show at your club's show?

[Nancy M.]

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell Peters I think what Nancy has pointed out is the biggest problem with shows. There are never enough club members for set up and clean up. I think clubs should just face the facts and budget money for outside labor. I know the Portland show donates money to a local school and ten or fifteen teens show up and do a lot of the work. I was witness to it this year and it seemed to work really well. Maybe more club members would show if they did not have to face the task of set up or clean up. Just a thought.

Russ

I agree with you, but the sad part is that setting up the show and breakdown, can be a really fun part of the whole show. This is the time we all work together as club members. I have helped setup a lot of shows, and you get the chance to talk to so many different people, and learn from them. This is a real chance to learn so many different aspects to the hobby, setting up is not only putting tanks and booths together, but you are there to help the entrants get there fish from there vehicles, boxes or transport tanks, you are able to learn how to handle the fish, and see these beauties up front and center. helping with benching is also a great way to learn varieties and sizes. So many of the newer hobbyist really don't know what they are missing, the camraderie of koi kichi's is at its best at shows.

[Russell Peters]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nancy M. Russ I agree with you, but the sad part is that setting up the show and breakdown, can be a really fun part of the whole show. This is the time we all work together as club members. I have helped setup a lot of shows, and you get the chance to talk to so many different people, and learn from them. This is a real chance to learn so many different aspects to the hobby, setting up is not only putting tanks and booths together, but you are there to help the entrants get there fish from there vehicles, boxes or transport tanks, you are able to learn how to handle the fish, and see these beauties up front and center. helping with benching is also a great way to learn varieties and sizes. So many of the newer hobbyist really don't know what they are missing, the camraderie of koi kichi's is at its best at shows.

Yes, absolutely, but you can still be there and do everything you have listed but the tank set up and cleanup. It seems that dealing with the tanks is what keeps most away.

[Bern]

Up until 4 years ago the % of club members was under 50%.
The show has 40 vats (Vat=show tank in the UK)
Then we introduced the one man-one vat policy and things shifted.
Out of the 40 exhibitors over half have been club members.

rgds

[Bob Winkler]

Over 250 members, about 20-25 help at a typical show on the show "roster" so ~10% helping out at show... about 12-15 mostly rotating club members typically show out of 18 or so competitors last year. Course we try and convert all you heathen nonclub members to righteous club members when you come here to Denver

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell Peters Will you be showing at the Sakura Young Koi Show in April?

We will see. I have to check where my fish are at in condition by April....if not I will focus for Nov...

[Russell Peters]

Quote: Originally Posted by aquitori We will see. I have to check where my fish are at in condition by April....if not I will focus for Nov...

Excellant!

[Vogata]

Well i hope that answer your question for The Norwegian part og the comunity. We are glad to find our sourundings accepting or ranting if the toung get away from the brain in solsal functions.

[Jeff Speck]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bern Then we introduced the one man-one vat policy and things shifted.

Bern, what's the one man-one vat policy?

[koiczar]

Nancy and Russ bring up very good points concerning show logistics. The last show I chaired I swore I would never do another. There were 16 people signed up for tear down. We had 50 tanks and by 9:00pm there were 6 people left to tear down the last 17 tanks. I got my fish home and into QT at 4:00am the next morning. Talk about thoroughly disgusted. But, i sat down and re-read the list of volunteers. Most were folks who had fish in competition and they wanted to get home to get there fish back in their ponds and then get up to go to work the next morning. Couldn't much blame them for deserting the ship.

Somehow, I decided to accept the position of chairman for the upcoming Young Koi Show. One thing I knew we would not do is consider asking anyone who were showing fish to help with the teardown of the show.(if they volunteer, well that's something else). One of our members has volunteered some of his employees to help out and there is an Aquaculture dept. at an area high school who have volunteered to help with the show. I learned yesterday that some of the kids and the teacher are considering getting a tank and showing some fish. How about that? I'm actully looking forward to this show as being a venue I can say I will truly enjoy being a part of.

Mike

[Bern]

The one man - one vat policy was a measure taken to make the show open to more exhibitors. Some years back we pegged the number of vats at 40 and geared all the equipment and manpower to that. Historically we had allowed exhibitors to book as many vats as they wanted but this led to some exhibitors booking 3 and then turning up with koi that could easily have fitted two. It was mooted that some exhibitors were doing this to exclude competitors. Whatever? - the ludicrous situation was that we were turning away potential exhibitors. So we introduced the one man-one vat policy to make things fairer and it's worked. One of the side-effects has been an increase in quality, some of the those 2 or 3 vatters now have to make a concious decision on which fish to bring rather than empty the whole pond.

I see this thread has now moved to the amount of members helping at shows. In this aspect we are lucky and a fair estimate would be 95% in some way, shape or form.

rgds