President's Letter Hello Everyone!
Thank you to Nancy Clark for hosting the March meeting! We managed to squeeze quite a few folks in her apartment. Nancy kept the TCA tradition going with serving lots of yummy food! We talked about the Spring Show as well as FOTAS in September.The Spring Show was fantastic!!! We had to purchase additional tanks and build additional stands to accommodate the 170+ show entries. We owe huge “thank yous” to Marvin England for recruiting and organizing all those entries and to Page Ullman for all the labor involved in building the stands and setting up and tearing down the show. Lots of thanks to the guys and gals who worked so hard helping set up and tear down: David Andrews, John Nicholson, D’Wyatt Green, Phil Tucker, Randy Rhoades, Zack Malone, Richard Clary, Christy Duvall, Joanne Nicholson, and our discus speaker, Cary Strong. Also, thanks to Randy Rhoades and Ralph DeBoard for the great photos of the show-winning fish presented at the banquet.
Our speakers did an outstanding job informing and entertaining us. Between the three of them we had a choice of 16 talks (Spencer and Chuck brought 7 talks each and Cary had 2 talks!). They were great sports, too, staying up late talking with everyone and even helping set up and tear down the show! Speaking of great sports, we have to thank Larry Lampert and Keith Pearson for their outstanding efforts once again in hosting the hospitality room!
The auction was pretty phenomenal too. We sold over 600 bags of fish and sold out of raffle tickets completely! Raffle tickets sales were no doubt due to the beautiful 72-gallon Bow Front Combo donated by Oceanic Systems. Thanks to Alan Young for his efforts to solicit donations from various manufacturers. Many thanks to all of our auction workers: Jim and Sue Lancaster, David Andrews, Carvi Shamsid-Deen, Keith Pearson, John Nicholson, and several new members (I apologize for not getting their names!). We also have to thank Diane Stewart, Coleen Ullman, and Kathy England for running the silent auction (and for donating all those wonderful fishy things!).
All in all, the weekend was absolutely wonderful! I had a great time and I think most folks did also. Our shows and workshops keep growing due to the number of people willing to volunteer and work to put all this together. If you are a new member, I encourage you to participate (it is a great way to get to know all these fish folks)!Now it’s on to Gary Cooper’s place in June, ACA in July and the much-anticipated pool party at Mike and Diane Stewart’s place in August. I can’t wait!
- Kathy