PNKCA
Executive Board Meeting
March
10, 2007
La
Quinta Inn, Tacoma, WA
The
list of attendees is attached to the end of this report.
The
meeting was called to order at 12:40 pm by Chairman Linda Montgomery.
Club Reports
Canada Koi Club – Clark Shea reported that their club is again gaining new members. Plans
are progressing nicely for the June convention in Richmond, BC.
Mid-Columbia – Carmen Safford reported that the big event last year was the Convention
in the Tri-Cities. They will be participating in the local Garden Fair next weekend, and are planning a pond tour on September
9th.
Inland Empire – Robert Fischbach reported that their club brought in about $900 at the
Garden Expo. Their pond tours have not been as well attended recently, which has meant little income compared to earlier
years. They will have their Koi Show in August, and were asked by Peter Ponzio to host a national goldfish convention. One big effort is their donation of time and expertise to maintain
the Manitou Park pond, which included cleaning the pond for the first time in 30 years, and pulling the fish to look for diseases.
North Idaho Koi Keepers – Dan Olson spoke about their new club, which provides a club
closer to home. They now have 13 members. The meetings are monthly interactive workshops led by various members. They hope
to plan field trips to places of interest to koi people, such as Japan, other shows, and the East Coast.
Cascade Koi and Goldfish Club – Michael DeGrandpre reported that the club has 35 members;
they meet on the second Saturday of every month. They will participate this year at the Yard and
Garden Patio Show, and will have a banquet with an associated food drive.
NW Koi and Goldfish Club – Don King reported that their club meets monthly, with several
additional activities: the 27th annual koi show
will be July 28-29 with Leo Marsh as chair, there will be a club auction in May as well their annual participation in “Children’s
Day,” a fish lottery, and a pond tour in September.
Olympic Koi Club – Jerry Hames reported that the club now has 21 member families; Ed Fujimoto
was able to attend once. Their ‘Koi Appreciation Day’ will now become ‘Pond Appreciation Day’ with
talks about locating a pond, electrical considerations, etc. There will be a pond tour in August, and a work party system
to help out other club members.
Dai Ichi- John Ennals reported that their club is gaining new members due to the web. People
are finding them through links on other sites. They now have their own web site.
There
is a lot of growth in ponds in the Victoria area. They are primarily a social club, but have talks on various topics like
orchids, bonsai, and fossils.
Idaho – Bill White reported that the 110F day cut down on attendance for last year’s
pond tour. The year began with a banquet in February. The club will help Gary
Moen of the horticulture department at BSU with dividing and potting lilies; some will be available at the plant sale
in June. They are continuing to maintain the ponds at the Depot. Other events are: May 19th – Wet Lab with
Spike Cover, June 9th – Sale at Zango’s Farm and Garden, July 21-22 – pond tour, Aug.11 –
14th annual koi show. One of the club’s biggest supporters, Kurt Metzger, recently died,
and a commemorative plaque will be placed at the Depot.
Puget Sound – Joe Lewis reported that they are a small club that meets on the 3rd
Saturday of every month for a social gathering. They will have a booth at the Puyallup Spring Fair in April, and the 10th annual Hoshi Koi Show will be August 4-5.
Oregon Koi- Elsie Browning reported that they have a widespread membership of new and active
people. They meet every month for a speaker or a round table discussion. Their show will be the second weekend in June, with
a special class for showa which have grown out from last year. A pond tour is
tentatively planned for July, but conflicts with another Douglas County event. They will set up a pond at Wildlife Safari
to be a teaching tool for school science classes. There have been two KHV events in the club, emphasizing the necessity of
quarantine. At their Christmas banquet they buy two bikes
and helmets for Toys for Tots.
Washington – Anne Potter reported that they have a busy year ahead, with a garden tour
of the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island on May 12, a wet lab at Point Defiance Zoo on May 19th, a members only
pond tour on July 21st and the koi show Sept. 8-9. The “Koi Kollege” will be repeated
this year, as an activity during the judging.
Yakima – not present.
Agenda
1. Linda Montgomery introduced
the Executive Board.
2. Representatives Manual update
–the current roster is provided in the meeting packet.
3. Minutes of the 2006
Convention Rep Meeting: the minutes were M/S/P are corrected.
4. Treasurer’s Report:
The balance sheet as of February 2007 was included in the meeting packet. Raeleen
had payments of grants listed for 3 clubs, and 2 were still outstanding – for Idaho and Washington. It wasn’t
clear if the NW K&G award was for 2005 or 2006. An additional question was asked regarding the approximate gain for a
club hosting a convention – it is usually somewhere between $500 to $2000. M/S/P to accept the report as an unaudited
statement.
5. 2006 Convention:
Raeleen explained the final budget for the convention which was included in the packet, and answered questions from the group:
two of the four speakers did not charge a fee, and the Mag Noy speaker charged $400. The costs could be higher or lower
another year, depending on the selected speakers. Advertising includes the packets for vendors, donations, etc. Paid ads covered
the cost of the booklet. The report was M/S/P.
6. Club Representative
Reports were given during lunch – see above.
7. Bronze Koi Award: Larry C. reported
that there have been no nominations received yet this year, and there is one carry-over nomination from last year. The nomination
form is on the website. Reps were urged to have members send nominations directly to Larry, rather than submitting through
the website, to maintain confidentiality of the nominations. He also explained the process for selecting the winner: nominations
are submitted to the voting group without the nominator names attached. The voting panel is composed of 5 past winners of
the award.
8. ZNA: Larry C. spoke
of the benefits of subscribing to the ZNA magazine. It is available through the NWK&G, and an application is included
in the meeting packet.
9. Ed Fujimoto awards:
nominations are due to the website by March 31st.
10. Koi of the Year photos are due by May 15th.
An 8 x 10” print is preferred.
11. Koi Promotional Grants for 2006 have all
been paid to:
a. Idaho Koi & Watergarden
Society
b. Inland Empire Koi & Water
Garden Society
c. Nanaimo Fish Pond and Watergarden
Association
d. Washington Koi & Water Garden
Society
e. Mid-Columbia Koi and Pond
Club
f. Oregon Koi and Watergarden
Society
Alternates
were Cascade Koi and Goldfish Club and Northwest Koi & Goldfish Club
12.PNKCA Convention 2007: The convention will be hosted by the Canada Koi Club of B.C. Clark Shea reported on the many details:
a. Passports are not needed if one is traveling by car, but you will need a birth certificate. All other modes of travel
will require a passport. Train travel goes to downtown Vancouver, a 20 minutes cab ride to the hotel.
b. The tax rebate form is in the convention packet to have the GST returned, if purchases are over $200 CDN. (Post meeting
note – this rebate has been repealed. GST refunds are no longer available.)
c. There are directions to the hotel on the website, but check with the hotel for a better route.
d. There will be pond tour on Sunday – details are still pending.
e. A pin trading table will be featured – including some South African pins.
f. The location of vendor tables is still being decided.
g. Speakers will cover a variety of topics – Steve Childers is an AKCA judge and Editor of Koi USA, Spike Cover
is an expert on KHV, they will speak in the morning and chair an open-mike discussion in the afternoon, Bob Langford from
the Victoria club will talk on building your own microscreen filter, Alison Bird from the UBC Research Institute will speak
on seismic activity and earthquakes in the PNW.
h. A fine bekko has been donated to the convention for either a special raffle or an auction. The fish will stay in
the US – if a Canadian wins it, it will be their responsibility to arrange for inspection and entry into Canada.
i. Reps were reminded that each club needs to bring two items for the raffle held at the banquet.
13.
Super Raffle tickets are available at today’s meeting to bring them back to clubs – need not be present
to win. This event is outside the convention budget, and solely to benefit the PNKCA. Again, the items will be difficult and
problematic to bring into Canada, and return to the US, so Clark prefers that they remain in the US.
14.
Future conventions: No clubs have volunteered for the next two years – Oregon is interested, but there is no
place to hold it – possible sites have closed recently. There is a possibility of a future convention center being built,
but it is too early to make plans. Linda suggested that the reps take this issue back to their clubs to assess interest in
2008, 2009, or beyond. One thought is that a club could hold the convention is conjunction with a koi show, which could mean
that one organizing committee covers ‘two birds with one stone.’ Another idea was raised by Dan Olson that the
PNKCA hold a regional koi show and convention. Concern was raised about the amount of effort needed to hold two events at
once, and that having speakers and pond tours associated with a convention would take away part of the audience needed for
the koi show portion, and from the auction that is often held on Sunday afternoons.
It was suggested that a committee be formed to investigate the pros and cons of the concept; Dan, Lindsay Gibson and
Larry Christensen volunteered to be on the committee.
15.
Old Business:
a. KHV donations: Gene Anderson has undertaken the considerable task of fundraising for the AKCA. The
goal is to raise $500K. This is a worldwide program with two steering committees, one for hobbyists and vendors, and the other
a scientific committee. The proposals submitted are proprietary, so discussing them is difficult, and it is often hard to
determine what will be done and to what end. Gene gave one example of a successful effort – the University of NC received
$3000 to set up a grant application to the Department of Agriculture and then the money was returned for re-use. Another plan
is to initiate a “Better Health Practices” certification for dealers; this would be done in conjunction with veterinarians.
A poll of 51 vendors and 31 vets all favored the concept. The AKCA would provide funds to train vets to train dealers
on how to handle quarantine and showing fish safely, AKCA will not be directly involved with the training. Many vendors
are in favor of this and are willing to pay for their own way. Another effort is to facilitate getting the Israeli vaccine
into trials in the US – this will involve 9 back-to-back tests on successive generations of fish – a time-consuming
and expensive task. Donation forms are available today from Gene. Another suggestion
is to have a special auction item to raise money solely for KHV – perhaps a Peter Enfield slate. A motion was made by
Robert Fischbach: The PNKCA shall donate $500 to the KHV fundraising project of the AKCA.
S/P. In conjunction with this it was suggested that a set of KHV donation pins be provided; Larry Christensen will
frame them for auction at the PNKCA convention..
b. Website: Webmaster Phyllis Anderson wants articles to post, and feels that the current approval process prior
to posting articles is too difficult for timely posting to occur. A lengthy discussion ensued. Because the webmaster is not
necessarily a koi savvy person, the board wants to continue to review articles to assure valid information is published.
A major concern is that bad information could expose the organization to liability. One possibility is that we post a disclaimer,
but it isn’t clear if that will absolve us of liability. This issue will be continued to the June meeting. The question
of 1. board approval vs webmaster only approval is still open. Posting club officer information is another idea – should this be the whole listing or just
name and e-mail? A map of the region the PNKCA covers with member club locations would be helpful to people who find the site;
the AKCA has such a page. How should the vendor page be handled? Originally there was a $25 charge to be listed. Question
– should this be 1. removed? 2. changed to vendors who support the convention? Linda suggested removing the page. The overall purpose for the website is not well defined; reps were asked to take this
back to their clubs to determine what sort of information they expect to find there.
c. New Tategoi award plaques were distributed – any club that didn’t send a pin to Norm will have
to mount their own.
16.
New Business
a. New club application: The North Idaho Koi Keepers submitted an application for membership on December 11,
2006. Their By-Laws have been submitted and approved by the Board.
b. Six grant applications for 2007 for the $150 award were received which is the limit for the year. All will
be funded:
1. Cascade Koi & Goldfish Club
2. Northwest Koi & Goldfish
Club
3. Olympic Koi Goldfish and Watergarden
Club
4. Puget Sound Koi Club
5. Mid-Columbia Koi Club
6. North Idaho Koi Keepers
c.
The regional koi show poster was distributed to all clubs.
d. A By-Law change for grant applications was proposed. The reason for the change is that it is hard to get write-ups
in to the board for approval. By making the deadline earlier than the March Rep Meeting, alternate clubs will have an opportunity
to submit their write-up and photo before the March Rep Meeting. Without this change, the alternates have little chance of
ever receiving the grants. After some time discussing the wording, the following new wording was proposed and M/S/P. Since there wasn’t long enough notice before the March meeting, the vote will occur at the June
Rep Meeting. The approved wording is presented below, with the changes in red italics:
Section 2 Monetary Grants for Promotion of the Hobby of Koi Keeping
When the treasury permits, annually, the Association may make up to six grants of $150 to six different
member clubs to aid in the promotion of the hobby at events other than koi shows. (Maximum of $600 per year). Clubs in good
standing (membership dues paid up) shall receive funds on a rotating basis. Clubs which do not get a grant in the current
year will be first on the list to receive next year’s available grants, if reapplication is made in a timely manner.
Application for grants in the coming year should be made to the PNKCA Treasurer prior to the Spring Representative Meeting.
A grant application form is attached as Appendix 2. Clubs, which receive a grant, are to provide a brief written report with
photos of the use of the grant money no later than December 31 of the current year unless an extension is granted. If any report has not been completed
or an extension received by that date that club will forfeit the grant. Alternate clubs will be notified and given the
opportunity to provide a report prior to the following
Spring Representatives Meeting and receive the grant. The PNKCA Treasurer will then issue the grant money to the club upon
completion of a report with photos.
e.
T-shirt pricing: It was M/S/P to reduce the price for shirts to $6 for
the T-shirts and $12 for the polos.
f. New officers: Gene Anderson will be the new Chair. He will be looking for a Vice Chair, a Secretary, and a
Treasurer; if anyone is interested they should contact Gene.
The
meeting was adjourned at 4:30.
