JUNE 2009 June Ramblings - Santa Clara Valley Koi and ...

JUNE 2009 June Ramblings

CLUB ORGANIZATION The talk by the Kodamas at our May meeting went very well and we
had outstanding attendance – 36 in the audience, the largest in
President open quite a few years. Their Hawaii operation is most impressive! On the
Vice President Saturday following the meeting, the private pond tour for the Ko-
Secretary open damas organized by Sanjiv Kapoor and the pond social at the Tem-
Treasurer pletons’ were also a great success. We had 28 guests including
open several non-members and a number of members we hadn’t seen in
Board of Directors quite a while. It was wonderful to be able to talk directly with the
Julaine Mullaney Kodamas and we thank them for sharing their incredible experience
Meeting Coordinator (408) 266-1791 with us. See page 3 for more on their visit.
Terry Denevan
email, newsletter Cal Hansen The Pond Tour is now the topic uppermost on our minds. First priori-
Web site master Eduardo Massa ties have been selecting the ponds, having all of the necessary
Audio visual Ken Snarr handout material printed, and distributing press releases to the
Pond Tour, Holiday Larry Templeton newspapers, magazines, etc. Wayne Kuhfahl, Rita and Larry are all
party working on this. Cynthia Sun updated the Pond Tour notification
Dealer Relations Terry Denevan data base. Cal Hansen has been distributing printed material as he
(408) 279-4567 makes his rounds of the San Jose area. Eduardo is poised to label,
Speakers Larry Templeton stamp and mail about 1,000 postcards. Rita Hughes has also been
Librarian (650) 948-7460 focused on recruiting the tour-day site teams. As of this writing,
Club Reporter Larry Templeton she’s still 4 people short. If you haven’t yet volunteered, please
search your calendar and your inner Koi person and see if you can
Larry Templeton free up 4 hours on July 18th. If you haven’t yet done Pond Tour duty,
take my recommendation and try it. It’s amazingly rewarding to
Rita Hughes meet fellow club members and new prospects. I always learn a lot
(408) 227-4388 from the experience.

Cal Hansen In the coming weeks we need to concentrate our energies on plac-
(408) 394-4642 ing publicity material such as flyers and info cards and mailing the
Bill Mundy postcards. We’ll discuss plans for getting this done at the June
open meeting. After we’ve completed the publicity stuff, the last pieces
in the puzzle are preparing and printing the Pond Tour booklet and
Cal Hansen then executing our plans on July 18th.

open We have an exciting speaker lined up for the June meeting. It’s An-
thony Quintero, the owner of Koi Enterprise in Sacramento. Anthony
Membership open is very active in all things Koi and will treat us to information on an
unusual set of topics such as where the Koi industry is heading, sig-
Refreshments Marifran & Bill Mundy nificant R&D that’s underway, what’s being discussed in the on-line
Club equipment (408) 297-3741 Koi forums, and much more. He’s looking forward to your questions.
Koi Health Advisor Ken Snarr
(650) 969-0715 One last plea. Please come to the June meeting ready to sign up
Sanjiv Kapoor for a Pond Tour shift or contact Rita Hughes at rita_hughes_1@hot-
(408) 223-8776 mail.com or 408-227-4388 to volunteer.

AKCA Representative Larry Templeton We need you! We want you!

Art Director open ...................Larry Templeton

Emergency Pond Mike Perret
Services (408) 226-7802
Ken Snarr
Meeting notes Charity Lloyd
(408) 971-2797

Meetings & Events Club Activities Koi Stuff 4 Sale

Monthly Club Meetings – 7:30pm Our Club provides a wide variety We’ve had several requests from
on the third Friday of each month of experiences, some to help people who wanted to advertise
in the American Legion Hall, 1504 people learn about designing, Koi fish, plants and pond equip-
Minnesota Ave, San Jose building and maintaining Koi ment for sale. Beginning with the
May General Meeting and ponds, some to bring in new July newsletter, we will accept
members, and some for just brief ads for this space at no cost.
Friday, June 19, 7:30pm plain social enjoyment. For ex- If you have something you don’t
ample: need any longer that might be
Speaker: Anthony Quintero from useful to others (who doesn’t?)
Koi Enterprise in Sacramento will • Monthly meetings with speak- please email a brief description
talk about a wide range of koi-re- ers, Q&A and refreshments with price and contact info to
lated subjects. [email protected]
• Annual Pond Tour
Pond Q&A as usual Meet Our Members
• Pond Socials in the summer
Refreshments by Marifran & Bill Volunteers
Mundy. We all look foward to their • Holiday party
special intermission goodies. We’re looking for more owners to
• A library of pond-related videos volunteer as subjects for our
Attendance drawing prize monthly Meet Our Members
Dal & Ros Allan’s name was • Representation with the Associ- page. Is your pond or your story
drawn at the May meeting but ated Koi Clubs of America unusual? Do you have a fish col-
Dal turned it down saying, “Let it lection that you’re proud of? Did
ride until it’s really big.” Thanks, • Booths at events such as the you do it yourself? All of these
Dal for a very generous move. Cherry Blossom Festival and things make for a writeup that will
Thus, the June prize will be $155. several Home & Garden Shows. interest your fellow members and
help us to get to know each
Board of Directors Meeting Many of these activities are ef- other. Don’t be bashful! Email
The tour planning committee will fective at bringing in new mem- [email protected] to volunteer.
likely have one more meeting to- bers, which is essential for the
ward the end of June to survey continuing existence of the
progress and look for loose ends. club.

May General Monthly Meeting

This was an exciting and well-attended meeting with
about 35 members and several guests. The Ko-
damas covered their massive operation in Hawaii,
the auction aspect of their business, the century-
long process of breeding and refining Hi Utsuri and
their company’s new venture into top-class Koi food.
The slides from their talk can be seen on the club
web site at

http://www.sckoi.com/Articles%20presentations.html

The Hawaii farm currently occupies about 10 acres
with 40 acres more in reserve, and is about 15 min-
utes from the Honolulu airport so transportation is a
snap. Needless to say, the Kodamas are in very
close contact with many Japanese breeders and
Mamoru Kodama spends a lot of time visiting their
farms and selecting fish.

The drawing came after the Kodama’s talk with
$140 in attendance prize money and 3 large bags of
Kodama Koi food (donated by the Kodamas)at
stake. The name drawn for the attendance prize was
Dal & Rosa Allan, but Dal generously declined the
prize and took a bag of Kodama food instead. Now
the prize will be up to $155 for the June drawing. Koi
food was also won by Ken & Ros Anderson and
Steve Swenson.

Mike Perret wrapped up the sanke/showa grow-out
contest in perfect style - by having Mamoru Ko-
dama be the judge. Larry Templeton was the lucky
winner.

May Board of Directors Meetings

The main topic of both meetings was planning for
the Pond Tour in July. The biggest issue is publicity.
Without it, we won’t get the attendance we need.
As always, we will focus on magazines, newspapers,
local news outlets, garden clubs, pond clubs, koi-re-
lated businesses, etc. Wayne Kuhfahl will head up
the on-line publicity placement effort.

The six ponds have been selected - go to the Club
web site www.sckoi.com for a complete list.

Ken Snarr and Larry Templeton have collected the
pond info including photos, equipment lists and dia-
grams for the tour booklet. Larry is preparing the
maps and the booklet layout. Barbara Snarr will print
the booklets.

We need to line up all ads for the booklet by the
June meeting. Ask every one you know to place a
business-card size ad for $25. What a deal!

Rita Hughes is leading the effort to recruit tour-day
volunteers and is still 4 people short. Please help!

We’re asking all members to participate in placing
flyers and info cards in prominent places such as
stores, shopping malls, etc. Cal Hansen will be lead-
ing this effort. Get your materials from Cal at the
June meeting. Get creative as to where to put them!



Future Speakers

June

Our June speaker will be Anthony Quintero, the
owner and operator of Koi Enterprises in Sacra-
mento. Anthony has been a passionate koi enthusi-
ast since childhood and is the operator of a
thriving pond shop. The Koi Enterprise web site at

http://www.koienterprise.com is very interesting
and we urge you to check it out.

Again, we owe Charity Lloyd a big thank you for
making the arrangements.

July

As always, the July meeting will be devoted to last
minute preparations for the Annual Pond Tour. All
participants including pond owners, ticket takers
and docents are asked to come to this meeting so
that we will all be coordinated.

August and beyond

To Be Determined. If you have an idea, please
email us at [email protected]

2010 AKCA Annual Seminar

The 2010 AKCA seminar will be held at the Mille-
nium Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dates are May 19-23. The event will be hosted by
the Koi Cub of Middle tennessee and the Nashville
Pond Society. Catch some great country music
while you’re there.

Kodama Hi Utsuri - Beautiful!

Meet Our Members..................Rita & John Hughes

Magnificent. The water was six feet
deep and crystal clear. The eighteen
remarkable koi, friendly and ani-
mated, greeted us with open mouths
as they swiftly glided about the 5500
gallon garden pond. I tried to select
a favorite, but failed, as each of John
and Rita’s fish are equally unique
and special.

The vista from the large, shaded,
back porch deck provided a 180 de-
gree view of the water garden. Sev-
enteen years ago it was just a dream.
The pond is central, but my eyes try
to take in the panorama as flowers,
bushes, and trees each complement
the experience as the three of us put
our feet up, sit back on outdoor cush-
ioned seating and enjoy soft drinks.

The deck itself is unique. Each four-
by-four foot section is removable,
providing hidden storage for the
needs of the garden and pond. John
and Rita have lived in their oasis for the past thirty-
two years. In 1994, they joined the Santa Clara Valley
Koi and Water Garden Club two years after initial as-
pects of the pond were completed.

Painstakingly groomed in the early spring, their restful
multi-level retreat now requires only occasional
tweaking as the long warm days of summer unfold.
Rita says, “We get endless hours of relaxation and
shared therapy.”

John taught school for seven years, followed by
seven years of house painting. Since 1991, he has
honed his master wood working skills restoring dam-
aged and neglected carousel animals, a niche with
few equals. Twice John has been our guest speaker
at monthly events, each time sharing the intricacies
and complexities of his trade.

Rita is also self-employed. She and a partner own Skorey & Hughes, a
concern that does income tax returns and financial statements for small
businesses and individuals.

Challenges? Raccoons, blue herons, egrets and even an unlucky
muskrat have paid their share of nightly visits. An inexpensive, six inch
high electric fence, seems to have encouraged each (with the excep-
tion of the muskrat) to search elsewhere for their evening snacks.

It all started with dirt and some dreams. John and Rita’s water garden is
a prime example of imagination coupled with commitment, time and ef-
fort and an artist’s loving eye for detail.

Photos and story by Terry Denevan

Treasurer’s Report Advertising

The club remains in good shape finan- Rates are for 11 issues (one year). All ads appear in both the
cially. As usual, most of our income is newsletter and on our web site!
from the pond tour and memberships.
Both income streams are predominately Business card $35.00 Half page $175.00
in July. The rest of the year, it’s mostly Quarter page $95.00 Full page $325.00
outgo, and that mostly for rent on the
meeting hall and printing and mailing ex- If you place an ad in mid-year, your cost for that year will be
penses for the newsletter. prorated based on the number of months remaining until July
1. To place an ad, please send ad copy (.pdf or .jpg file or
May 9, 2009 through June 9,2009 high quality printed form) to the email or snail mail address
below and we’ll send you a bill.
Opening balance $5,322.10
Membership
Deposits 395.00
Membership dues are $30.00 per year, payable on July 1. If
Outstanding checks 42.00 you join in mid-year, your dues for the that year will be pro-
rated at the rate of $2.50 per month to the next July 1 and
May expenses -2,041.80 $30.00 per year thereafter. To join, send your personal info
(name, address, phone no. and email address) either by
Ending balance 3,633.30 email or snail mail to one of the addresses shown below.

In addition, the Club owns a CD with a Contact Us
value of $12,572.76 as of 2/5/2009. The
CD was renewed on 2/5/09 for a period For details on either ads or membership, please email:
of 1 year at an interest rate of 2%. [email protected] or come to one of our meetings. The lat-
Interested is accrued monthly but only ter is certainly preferred as we’d like to get to know you!
reported every three months, so next
month’s report will show the current To contact us by mail, our address is:
value.
SCVKWG
As always, our appreciation goes to P.O. Box 9006
Julaine Mullaney for all the hard work she San Jose, CA 95157
puts in as Club Treasurer. Her reports are
always accurate and easy to
understand.