“A webpage emphasizing all that is happening with Koi keeping in the Pacific Northwest.”
2009 Bronze Koi Award Winner
Sot Chimanos
Idaho Watergarden and Koi Society
Club Affiliations/Offices Held:
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Sot has been a member of the Idaho Water & Garden Society since 1991 and just finished his second consecutive year as Club President. I n his 18 years of IWGKS continuous membership, he has served as an officer of the Club 8 different times; Treasurer – 1 year, Vice President – 2 years and President – 5 years. His contributions to the Club and the koi hobby are numerous and span from committee chairmanships, to initiating new programs for the Club, to civic and charitable Club events and activities, to executive Club positions and contributing to the growth of IWGKS from a small 25 member club to over 150 members today.
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Koi Activities and Contributions:
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Sot started keeping koi in his first pond in 1986. A rather shallow 30” deep water garden that he dug by shovel, did not work very well for koi, so he build his second 4-foot deep pond two years later in 1988. This one worked much better for maintaining healthy koi. He currently enjoys his 7-foot deep 20,000-gallon koi pond and 4-foot deep 10,000-gallon water garden, together with 5 bottom drains and substantial filtration; both built 8 years ago in 2001.
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His contributions to the Club and koi hobby are many and far reaching. Besides his officer positions held, he has served as the Club’s Newsletter Editor for 2 years and initiated the “Koi Committee” in 1993 as a means of formally introducing the koi hobby to the “water gardening focused” Club membership and to organize Koi Shows. He chaired the first “Koi Exhibition” in 1994, which turned into a formal AKCA-sanctioned Koi Show ever since. Sot has chaired the first 6 Shows, co-chaired the 12th (2005), chaired the 13th (2006), co-chaired the 14th (2007) and chaired the 15th (2008) Koi Show and event; 10 in all out of the 15.
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He has served as the PNKCA and AKCA representative for the Club 4 different years in each capacity and has attended several Board meetings and seminars both in the Northwest PNKCA and the National AKCA Conventions.
In 2005 he chaired a “By-Laws Committee” for IWGKS so that the Club’s by-laws were formulated and adopted properly. The Club has recently adopted these by-laws and is on its way to operating more formally. Following that and in order to get the Club back on the track of growth and help continue its charter to disseminating the hobby of water gardening and koi keeping to the general public, Sot stepped back in as President of the Club for the years 2007 and 2008. As shown by its new growing membership and new Club officers, IWGKS is back on the growing path again.
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Sot has given to the Club and the hobby with an unselfish attitude for over 22 years. He has helped many hobbyist design and build their ponds and has been instrumental in improving the importation of higher quality koi in Idaho by working with several koi vendors in the Western US and helping identify reliable, healthy sources of high quality koi for sale to our local area.