|
Dear Aquarist,
President's Message
President's Message
Our Society closed its 99th year with a fun-filled and
educational event. The “Meet The Experts” session brought out
Brooklyn’s finest. We had the great plant man himself -- Izzy
Zwerin -- talking and giving advice on both high tech and low
tech plant management. Bernard Deren and Steve Matassa joined
in. For all things marine, from fish to plants to corals, these
guys had the answers. Vinny Babino held the audience with all
items pertaining to freshwater fish species. We also had former
President Al DiSpigna sharing his wisdom on all topics, since Al
is well versed in both freshwater and marine aquariums. It was
very enlightening and members went away a lot smarter than when
they arrived. The auction had over 140 items – from marine fish,
invertebrates and plants to all livestock, freshwater and
several aquariums and stands. The bargains could not be beat.
June was our last event for the year. We wish all of you a very
healthy and safe summer. Join us again in September when we kick
off our 100th year in the hobby with Jeff Bollbach on September
10, 2010 and Jeff’s topic will be “A Year In The Fish Room.”
June’s elections brought in fresh people to work on our Board of
Directors. I have always mentioned that new people and new ideas
keep us moving ahead. I would like to welcome Daniel Visconti as
our new Sgt. At Arms, Mike Roman, Bill Amely, and Gene Kogan as
Board members.
We will be going into our 100th year as the Brooklyn Aquarium
Society! No other general aquarium society can claim that honor.
We are the oldest and largest aquarium society in the United
States – thanks to you, our members! We will be changing our web
site over the summer and members will need to “log into” the
members section. The new and improved web site will have the
normal web page for basic information about our Society and our
sister societies, but there will be a members only section that
will open into our BAS forum. The forum has been active for
several months now, includes a Q & A section, Wants or Sales and
several other groupings. The new web site for members will
include Aquaticas in color, and our BAS Bulletins, articles by
our members, along with fish, corals and plants photos and
videos of members' aquariums. We will also have separate
sections for retail and web-based sponsors and donators.
We must be doing something right to have a group of hobbyists
and fish lovers maintain an existence for a full century. Our
Society is constantly changing and evolving and so must BAS. We
have come a long way in the past 99 years; it will be
interesting to see and experience the next hundred years of
changes in the hobby.
We will be planning a year of festivities that will culminate in
a huge birthday party on July 8, 2011 at our beloved New York
Aquarium – more news on that in the near future.
It is important that you visit and patronize our sponsor
establishments. It goes full circle, by helping them, they are
also helping you as hobbyists and everyone is helping Brooklyn
Aquarium Society! One of the ways BAS is seeking to help our
retail stores is to have a traveling SIG (Special Interest
Group). BAS will organize field trips to retail stores that
advertise with us, starting in July. Our retail supporters are
all over the area. Some are in Long Island, Manhattan, New
Jersey and the remainder are in Brooklyn. Anyone interested in
attending these field visits, please notify me ASAP so we can
organize a schedule. Also in September BAS will have a calendar
on our web site, featuring our retail supporters. We need to
honor and support those stores and businesses that support us,
and that means ALL of us!
For more info, please call our new and improved BAS Hotline at
(718) 837-4455, or visit our NEW website at
WWW.BROOKLYNAQUARIUMSOCIETY.ORG
On a more personal note - This is your club and we are looking
for interested and helpful members to participate! Any member
who desires to attend a Board meeting (they are held at the
Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of
the month), please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday
previous to the meeting.
Joe Graffagnino
President
|
