Let’s Go Forward Together

by Gerald Jennings 

Gerald is the founder of Calypso Publications, the ichthyological publishing house and database compilers. He is an ichthyological taxonomist and world renowned authority on Mediterranean fishes, and has written over 70 books on fish taxonomy and identification, and he co-authored the Calypso Ichthyological Database and photolibrary system with Terry Hall in 1995. The database is now in use worldwide.

Gerald is a Director of the Calypso Group www.calypso.org.uk, and webmaster of The International Federation, IFOCAS www.ifocas.org  and a leader of the  Aquarists Reunited, Project at www.IFOCAS.org.uk/AquaristsReunited 

I first attended an FBAS  (Federation of British Aquatic Societies) Council meeting in 1966.The UK had a Labour Government and there was a spirit of optimism and co-operation in the air . Interestingly enough,  Bob Essen and Jack Stillwell were up and coming stars of the Federation then and their dedication and devotion to the organized hobby can still clearly be seen today.

Over the intervening years many problems have come and gone, and those that were considered serious a few years ago have,  like many things, faded into their real historic perspective.

It is a pure twist of fate that puts me in a position to jot down these few notes for posterity. Despite my avid enthusiasm to begin with, I more or less left the organised side of our hobby in 1970 to pursue a career in a closely related but more scientifically oriented field and I have spent the intervening decades both as an ichthyological taxonomist and latterly establishing a specialist ichthyological publishing house and database and photolibrary compiling.  Needless to say one makes good friends in our hobby, and as such not all contacts were lost. I occasionally met colleagues who were still within the Federation and some information was sometimes available.

Even in the very early days there were problems, but none that at all compromised the basic ideals of the Federation's founders, some of who I was privileged to know personally. I think that they would still recognise today's Federation as the linear descendent of their brainchild.

There will always be disputes; there always have been. The problem which arose from the formation of the Association of Aquarists was not new - the Federation had dealt with such problems before, and doubtless will have to do so again. The 'before' mentioned above was in fact way back in 1967-1968 and came about from the formation of the International Marine Study Society who, rather inevitably it appears in retrospect, had open and publicly discussed disagreements with the Federation over judging systems - a familiar story?. ( As a historical post script, the IMSS closed in 1970.)

By necessity the Federation is a political beast as are most governing bodies as they would otherwise have problems fulfilling the governing  role required. Undemocratic ? of course, always has been and always will - but this is not a bad thing.  All 'democratic' organizations are only such when viewed from the outside and most people know full well that inside it is a matter of who you know rather than a straight vote count when you wish to process legislation.

Both Jack and Bob voted in Council to remove me in 1967 due to my forthright public support for the IMSS cause. A hearing ? No,  a pre-ordained decision. Yes - the process was wrong - but in hindsight the decision was perfectly correct, The Federation prevailed and still does today. Dissent and open discussion and disagreement is very healthy and sometimes even engenders progress. The only problems arise when dissent is suppressed or stifled or  when  the dissenting party feels that they have not had a fair hearing. This causes antipathy and hostility which can take all parties into unwanted disputes.

Well, that's enough of a digression, back to the main point of this screed.

Since 1995 I have had considerably more time to devote to pastimes once again, and despite a continued technical workload which has thankfully been radically eased by the advent of new technology and the PC, my thoughts, as they do sometimes, went wandering back to my only enduring interest and indoor hobby, fishkeeping.  I was lucky enough to collaborate with Neville Carrington and David Ford on a publication covering the early days of marine fishkeeping. Jack Stillwell contributed our Foreword. This started the  almost inevitable ball rolling.

Living as I do in Central London, I decided that I may have a few hours now in the schedule to devote to my old hobby. An orphaned goldfish from a friend  produced the need for a tank. "But Sharkie (as his name is) looks lonely"  was the next step. You can almost guess the rest. To give him/her a companion required a small quarantine tank, and then it was a shame to leave it empty all the time........ Delving into the back of the garden shed produced equipment and a couple of tanks that had seen better days but still functioned. More orphans arrived as the word seemed to spread.  We stopped at four tanks indoors and five tanks and two pools in the greenhouse for now.

"What about joining the local club? "  was the next logical progression that sprang to mind, and this I thought would be really easy. Using my acquired PC skills I went online and searched,..   and searched,..  and searched. Shock Horror!.

The nearest clubs seemed to be Ilford or Hounslow, neither of which is very local on a cold dark winter's evening. Where had all the others gone?   I used to belong to several local clubs - all seemed to have  disappeared.  Maybe they just do not use the web?   This thought was dismissed as ridiculous at the time as the internet is an absolutely ideal medium for charitable clubs and organisations to spread their news and presence worldwide for free.Still, after some enquiries in the local aquatic stores it seemed that if I wanted a club in Central London I may have to do it myself, and having set up and assisted in the setting-up of many clubs in the past I buckled down to the job of sorting something out. My articles on club formation in the sixties were hopelessly out of date for this generation of fishkeepers. This was obvious from very early on.

Back to the web. Publicity. As our company has several websites I was very familiar with what to look for and where to seek the publicity the new club needed.

Instant gratification. Within hours we had enquiries. Within days we had committed members. Within weeks we had a serious membership and some illustrious colleagues were also cajoled into joining up as well.  Not wishing to be restricted to an area by our name we decided to call it The Calypso Fish and Aquaria Club.(The Central). We had 41 members in the first three months. Not bad eh!.

What did we have going for us that lots of other clubs seemingly didn't? -when we did enquire of some of the other existing clubs most didn't even have the courtesy to reply to us - those that did had one thing in common - an active website.

At one of our first meetings it was clearly obvious what had happened. The vast majority of our members are rather young compared to myself and my colleagues. Most are under 30, many are under 20. All are keen fishkeepers who were using the web to look for a fish cum social club to join. We established a few basic rules, and we decided almost entirely on my recommendation, to join the Federation , as this was the CORRECT way to proceed. Most of the membership also wanted to join the IFOCAS group, a sort of International Federation online but nothing to do with fish shows or judging or competitions. In the end we joined both.

Then came the deja-vu.
We needed to send a delegate to the FBAS General Assembly - and opinion was almost universal that I should go, as at least " you might know someone there"

As it happens I did know some two there. Jack Stillwell  and Wally Ryder - both blasts from the past and still looking good. I also found out after the meeting that Bob Essen was still a force-majeur in the Federation but like myself he has family health problems and couldn't attend.

The point I found absolutely staggering was simply that there were a large number of clubs represented at the meeting - none of whom we knew existed when we were searching for a fish club. Most of them it appears do not have websites or any online presence yet most could patently benefit from a membership boost.

The worst shock was yet to come
 The Federation had not even got its own website. Yes it had a small web presence provided as a page on the old,  and now in itself inoperative, British Aquatic Resource Centre (BARC) site but this had not been updated for over a year and even gave potential members an incorrect address for the Federation’s main event of the year.

I have very recently read several articles to the effect that the 'organised hobby' is dying. But where is the proof?
Our club is thriving. Two clubs we communicate with on a regular basis also say that membership and enthusiasm is increasing; though support for competitive exhibiting and 'shows' appears to be collapsing.
- What have these three clubs done or are doing that allows them to thrive while other well-established clubs are reporting average attendances in single figures?
- Why have the number of clubs joining the Federation fallen year on year for almost a decade while their online counterpart is collecting members across the globe at a rate of about two per day?

It is indeed a "generation" thing. The young always do things differently and in general it makes little difference to the overall pattern of life - but not now. The young are active and online. They WANT to join fish clubs, but not to be bound by traditions - a bit like us when we were young really.

So come on you fishkeepers. The clubs INSIDE the FBAS should be showing the way - AND putting an FBAS logo on their amazing new web presence (http://www.fbas.freeserve.co.uk )- lets go for it and capture this new and very enthusiastic generation of fishkeepers - with more spending power than we could ever dream of.