President's Letter
Hello Everyone!The August monthly meeting was held at Daniel and Kassy Steelman’s home in Dallas. Many thanks to the Steelmans for an outstanding spread of food – that is the most food I have seen in a long time!!! They even fried a turkey! We talked about the Fall Workshop and ACA 2005.
The TCA board voted to bid on the 2005 American Cichlid Association convention. While we were in Cincinnati for ACA 2003, we received excellent advice from Ron Georgeone (chairman of the successful 2000 Cleveland convention) and Chuck Rambo (ACA convention liaison). We are working on the bid now; it is due to the ACA Board by September 30th. The hotel selected is the Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown Fort Worth. The downtown location is easily accessible from the airport, and has much to offer in the way of restaurants and shopping within walking distance. Should we get the bid, there will be a lot of things to do. We will be asking every club member to participate and make this a memorable event!
The annual FOTAS convention was September 12 – 14 in Houston. Several TCA members attended. The Houston Aquarium Society had an off-site show with about 50 entries. I would like to see more clubs hold shows, as shows seem to draw more attendees. The liability insurance issue was cited as the problem with hosting a show, and was discussed at the FOTAS board meeting. Congratulations to John Hansen and Kathy and Marvin England--they swept the show!
The next regular monthly meeting is September 27th at John and Amy Gilliam’s in Arlington. Jim Lancaster will present a short lesson on using the auction software. Jim spends the entire auction behind the computer. He really deserves a break so we hope to train some other folks to help out.
Our Fall Workshop is October 17–19, 2003 at the Knights Inn Hotel in Arlington. Speakers include Dave Scheitz (from Colorado) and TCA members John Hansen, Caroline Estes, and Larry Lampert. Topics include how to build a fish room, fish gadgets, cichlids in a 29 gallon aquarium, and plants in a cichlid aquarium. Exhibition tanks will be set up. All are encouraged to bring fish; let Page Ullman at Keller Farms know what you want to bring. Also volunteers are needed to set up and tear down the tanks.
It is hard for me to believe Christmas is only a few months away! We have scheduled the annual TCA Christmas party for December 6th at 8:00 p.m. at Texas Land and Cattle on Copeland Road in Arlington. Harrigan’s, the site for the Christmas Party for the last several years, has closed. Texas Land and Cattle has a very nice facility and it is not far from Harrigan’s.
- Kathy