| The past year has been a good one for the society. We started out in April
2003 with Randy Carey as the guest speaker. Randy traveled over from Minnesota
and gave a presentation on Characins. We tried something different in May, when we held a fish health workshop at the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo (BAMZ). Noah’s Ark sponsored a visit from Atlanta by fish veterinarian Vicki Burnley. After a Powerpoint presentation, Vicki dissected a few fish and projected the microscope images onto the screen. In June, we held our annual Charity Auction. As usual, Rusty Wessel visited from Louisville, Kentucky as the guest speaker. I’m sure the presentation on his newly constructed, fully automatic, fish house made us all envious. Rusty generously donated fish for the auction that raised $1,500 for the Paul Loiselle Conservation Fund. Our donation solidified our second spot in the donations chart and we continue to be top of the list for donations by a local club. A group of seven members traveled to Peru for a collecting trip in July and survived to tell the tale (although a few of us suffered some rough moments). The July meeting included a showing of digital photos that were taken on the trip. The August “meeting” was the annual sailboat cruise aboard Captain Leon’s “Second Wind” that provided a wonderful opportunity to relax and enjoy each others company. Our annual tropical fish show was held in September but was almost cancelled due to the havoc that was wreaked by Hurricane Fabian a week earlier. Despite having no electricity at home, a number of members pulled out all the stops to ensure that we had enough show entries to make the event a success. Noah’s Ark provided phenomenal support by donating goods for the silent auction as well as providing the raffle prize and door prize. We held the show at BAMZ for the first time and hope to make it a regular venue for the show. Lee Finley flew in as judge and speaker and awarded Best in Show to my Hericthys bocourti. We suffered a couple of set-backs in our attempts to bring in Karen Randall and Keith Shepherd for the October meeting, so I filled in with a presentation on my 1999 trip to Lake Malawi. We were able to arrange for a short-notice visit by Ken Davis from Atlanta in November. Unfortunately, a number of members were away on vacation, or otherwise unavailable. Ken had brought over a great assortment of fish for auction, including some nice Discus. On seeing the low turnout, he dismally forecast that we wouldn’t get $50 for the entire auction. Ken soon learned what Fry-Angle auctions are like and was astounded by the winning bids. Suffice to say that the auction easily covered the cost of Ken’s trip. Ken gave a nice presentation covering his far east Discus trip. We held our Christmas party in December at Chris and Lisa’s home. Nyon was concerned that we wouldn’t have sufficient food, so he ordered enough to feed the five thousand! It proved to be another pleasant social event. In January, we had an informal meeting at Peter’s home. I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent member turnout, considering there wasn’t a guest speaker or an auction. We also held our annual Home Show in January that provided us with an opportunity to visit the homes of members and see their aquariums. My 75-gallon Amazon tank won the show. We are still tweaking the method of judging the Home Show and I don’t think we’ve found the best solution yet. We will consider having an overseas speaker to judge the Home Show next year. Our last visiting speaker for the year was Mark Soberman in February. Mark gave a presentation on general catfish husbandry and donated a number of fish for auction. Noah’s Ark made this possible by facilitating the shipment of the fish from New York. Again, the bidding was furious and raised a fair sum for the club. So, we were able to bring over six speakers during the year and had a number of other features for our meetings. We are able to fund the airfares for six speakers a year because you, the members, are generous in your bidding and don’t mind paying high prices for auction fish. The auctions are, by far, our most significant source of income. Paying for the air-fares is only part of the equation. Without the generosity of Chris and Lisa Roy who graciously host most of our speakers, we would be faced with expensive hotel bills that would impact on how many speakers we could afford. Thanks to all of you for continuing to make it possible. We have experienced mixed fortunes with our newsletter, Fish Tales, over the past year. Amanda was able to get out the April 2003 issue but then found herself too busy at work to be able to produce further issues. We were without a newsletter until January 2004, when we experimented with a new editorial team of Peter Marsh and Derek Fisher. I played a small consultant role. We have been able to put out monthly issues since and all of them were on time. Peter has also been able to produce the newsletter in full-colour which is tremendous. I don’t know of any local club in North America that has a full-colour monthly publication. Despite his best intentions, Derek has struggled to find the time to fulfill his commitment to the editorial team, leaving Peter to do most of it alone. We are hopeful that we can share the workload and keep the newsletters coming. The society’s web-site made a quantum leap this year. After a number of years languishing on the old server, Peter has redesigned the site and put it on a new server. We also acquired a new URL – www.fryangle.com. The site has improved in leaps and bounds over the previous one, and new features are being added. Between the newsletter and the web-site, Peter’s contribution to the club has been huge. We are very fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated member. I don’t want to let this opportunity pass without mentioning another stalwart of the club. Nyon Steede continues to provide sterling service in his capacity of Treasurer. When everyone else is caught up in the frenzy of the auctions, Nyon is busily recording every purchase. Nyon also manages the Breeders Award Programme and has recently offered to take on the role of Membership Coordinator. Nyon, thanks for everything that you do! During the past year, we picked up a number of new members. We round out the year with 45 members – our highest number ever. It seems that each year we attract new members and lose others after the AGM when they do not renew. This is normal for aquarium clubs but as long as we keep attracting more than we lose, the future is bright. Of course, we have to be vigilant and ensure that we are providing what our members need. That is where the role of the Membership Coordinator comes into play. We are considering the option of incorporating the membership role into the duties of the Vice President. |