Canadian Killifish Association {Ontario}

[Melody]

Canadian Killifish Association
:fish:

Quoted from the CKA website (http://www.cka.org/):

"The CKA is a Canadian non-profit organization mandated to the science and preservation of killifish: fishes of the family Cyprinodontidae.

Membership has it's adantages. What advantages does a Canadian killifish club offer? Back bacon and maple syrup. Eh."

[ljtiggs]

Hi all you KILLIE NUTS out there.

We have some sad news for you - Canadian Killifish Assocation has disbanded at this time. We hope to get it running again in the near future when we can getting some people interested in helping to run the assocation. If you are interested in helping to get the assocation up and running again, please contact writer.








Canadian Killifish Association


:fish:

Quoted from the CKA website (http://www.cka.org/):

"The CKA is a Canadian non-profit organization mandated to the science and preservation of killifish: fishes of the family Cyprinodontidae.

Membership has it's adantages. What advantages does a Canadian killifish club offer? Back bacon and maple syrup. Eh."

[Melody]

I think we will say it's resting & not bury it. Let us know when things are up and running again, if you would please, and let me know if I can help with pretty pictures. I don't think my vast knowledge of Killies will be of much use so that's about all I have to offer :laugh: .

Was that your sense of haha that I quoted? Cracked me right up.:rofl:

[GaryofMontreal]

The Canadian Killifish Association was a good try, but it tended to be more of a central Ontario club than a Canada wide one. I hear rumours of a Vancouver club - I don't know how they're structured but they sell eggs.
There's also a now well established Killi-Quebec club. We have members over much of Quebec, and meet a few times per year.
It's the largest French language killie group in North America! (the only one too).
I've (so far) failed in my attempts to get maritimers interested with offers of free fish and start up killie advice - there used to be amazing killie breeders in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but when they passed away, no one took over their interest. Before the US shut their borders to us, there were lots of rare killies shipped out of the east to the south.
I'd like to see regional clubs in Canada come together in an umbrella association with representation across the country, in the way the AKA is structured. BC, the western prairies, the eastern prairies, Ontario, our group, the Atlantic provinces... Some day.
I also like what the British do. They've realized that killie keepers usually have ties to the livebearer hobby, and vice versa. The two groups are related, and the fishkeepers of both tend to overlap. They hold joint meetings, I'm told, as they have a similar mindset and, importantly, numbers of both are low. Their local killie and livebearer clubs tend to pool resources and therefore become viable. I think it's a neat fit.
In an informal "let's see what I remember", I'd say at least 40% of the active Killie Quebec members are livebearer breeders as well. It's just food for thought, but maybe someday it'll come together, at the very least informally.
I wouldn't put energy into creating a new CKA around Toronto again (it's a 6 hour drive), but if each region could consolidate a club, we could start trading fish at least.

[Melody]

That is actually a big problem, albeit not their fault. Ontario clubs stay in Ontario. Even the CAOAC is an Ontario club - there is no cross-Canada representation on the BOD and without that, it's officially an Ontario club. I think the hobby is so vast there, they can pretty much thrive without outside members, but there's nothing Canadian about that. Maybe with a central place like we have here, there will be more cross-country efforts. :yes:

Don't you love it when I talk like you're not in the room Brian? :laugh: I don't mean to sound like I'm referring to 'those Ontarians', honest! :Blush: Shutting up now....

[Pamelajo]

Maybe with a central place like we have here, there will be more cross-country efforts. :yes: Let's hope.

[fishclubgirl]

I am trying to get the Calgary club more involved with CAOAC. I think that if we all work together, we can strengthen all of our organisations. Sad to see a club disband though!!!

[Pamelajo]

Too bad they can't have some kind of online/video meetings so more people can participate.

[Melody]

In the age of VoIP and the many choices in online communication, there is no reason why we can't have cross country representation. The ALA did it long before the Internet, as did many other nationwide clubs. We have it easy now. I think they would enjoy far more success if they involved the country in running the club, rather than just trying to recruit clubs across the country.

[GaryofMontreal]

The ECAS in Atlantic Canada has a great idea - they do topic chats on their site - they'll post a time and topic and if you want to chat on the subject, in you go.
They've even had speakers on chat - you post an article and then field questions. It's really hard and takes fast typing, but it's fun to 'speak' at a club like that. It allows a sharing of resources.
I think the CKA is a perfect learning experience for Canadian clubs. The initiative came from a great bunch of people in the Toronto region. I joined with some friends here. We got the journal. That was that. Everyone but me quit, from the original group, when their year expired, because they couldn't participate. The club held physical meetings around Toronto, and congresses in southern Ontario. Then it seems to have blown up.
The AKA was founded with regional reps - to ensure equal enough representation across the country. Meetings of the directors were by mail at first, then by phone, and now by internet. They've kept it from being centrally located in one metropolis.
It's academic now, but who knows in the future. It might be my background as a guy from Quebec, but I like the idea of a decentralized approach built on strong local foundations. We have enough trouble keeping a club in a place the size of Quebec dynamic and open. Geography is a killer here.

[Melody]

Awesome points as usual. Surely with all of our vast club experience put together, we can make pretty much anything work.

OVAS does chats too, incidentally. I owe them one on snails from last year...lol...hopefully they do better at getting their article out of me this month.

[wanamensis]

Hi Gary,

The CKA you are referring to was not the first CKA their was a CKA in the 70's and 80's that had equal representation in Canada, we had over 275 members in its hayday and plenty of money in the treasury. This one folded unfortunatley not due to its cross country membership or Ontario representation it folded due to only 3-4 people having to keep the club going and for over 10 years having to do the same work with no new blood coming into the scene that were willing to do any work. We had equal representation all over the country, approx 20 % BC - 20% prairies, 20 % Quebec and 30% Ontario and 10% all others. This club was run on the basis and structure of the AKA by monthly letters etc. - This was before the days of the internet and forums etc. I have always fought the structure that CAOAC had in those days that of a Southern Ontario clique, unfortunately the second CKA and its executive, predominately CAOAC members and supporters copied the same structure and setup that was previlent in CAOAC, which in those days had alienated most clubs outside of Ontario. PS I am originally from Montreal and we could never figure out what benefit CAOAC was to any one outside of Ontario. Today they have cleaned up and somewhat fixed this.

With email and forums today, there is no reason why the CKA could not be re-introduced for the 3 rd time, with country wide representation. I had this discussion with Bill Bishop at the last AKA convention.

I am working on getting this going, since come next March 2011, the CFIA will almost virtually be closing the borders for fish imports into Canada, which will make it impossible for the small individual to get fish in legally, even guppies and Discus are on the restriction list. The response I received from Ottawa is that as hobbyist we are @#$%^ out of luck to get it changed. The import permits are scheduled to be around $300 per shipment. Even more need to have a national organization that supports us and can arrange imports of shipments into the country and then distribute the killies to breeders evenly.

Let me know if you are interested in helping out and we will get this going.
PS how is Hans doing haven't heard anything in a little while.

Thanks

John