President's LetterHello Everyone!
WOW!!! We did it! The FOTAS 2002 50th Anniversary Convention was a huge success!!! Attendees traveled from as far away as California, Oregon, Minnesota, Georgia, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. We had more attendees and more show entries than ever before! Many, many thanks to all those who volunteered to make this convention so great! We could not have had such a great show if not for Marvin England, Page & Coleen Ullman & family, Diane & Mike Stewart, David Andrews, Phil Tucker, Keith Pearson, Randy Rhoades, Rob Steiner, Glenn Evans, Gary Cooper, Larry Lampert, Alan Young, and Danny Young. I want to say, “Thank you soooooo much!” to Jim & Sue Lancaster for their hard work behind the counter all day Sunday! And thanks to Robert Montgomery & Michelle Steelman. We could not have had such a great auction without our skilled auctioneers: Kathy England, Caroline Estes, Ken Davis, and Larry Lampert. And thanks to our runners: David Andrews, Daniel Steelman, Diane Stewart, Keith Pearson, and all the young members! Thanks to John Gilliam for all the trips he made to the airport transporting our speakers. Again, thanks to the Hazelwood family, who painted all of the show tanks – they looked fantastic! And also thanks to Kim Young for organizing the fish wives’ club outings. The whole organization pulled together to make this a wonderful memorable event, one I will not forget, and I hope others will not!!!
This convention proved to me that we are a much stronger organization now, than we were several years ago. We have more members stepping forward to take on more responsibilities and tasks. We have new board members and new officers and new members willing to do more. Coleen Ullman is a prime example of one willing to take on more. She undertook the task of putting together the FOTAS program single-handedly! Not only did she produce an outstanding, A+ program, the advertising she solicited paid for the expense of printing as well as generated additional revenue for the convention! Great job, Coleen!!!
It’s difficult to think beyond FOTAS, so much time and energy went into the whole process, for so many members. But there IS more! With so many more folks involved we will surely have more quality programs, shows, and workshops. And possibly more community involvement-recruiting young people into the hobby.
The next monthly meeting is at Keith & Stephanie Pearson’s in Dallas on May 18th. The June meeting is a pool party at Diane & Mike Stewart’s in DeSoto on June 15th. The Annual American Cichlid Association Convention is in Atlanta July 25 – 28, 2002. There a many TCA members registered to attend. If you have never experienced an ACA convention, you would be amazed! It is three to four times larger than the FOTAS convention was. I encourage everyone to consider attending; just ask anyone who has attended a past convention!
See y’all at Keith & Stephanie’s!
- Kathy