Friday, Feb. 20th

Hello All!

      Sorry for the delay with the letter and for not making it to the last meeting. I had the flu really bad, then had to deal with the snowstorm and super cold weather. The koi ponds and the cold weather have also been quite a chore. Hope our members with ponds are doing OK. If you have any questions about your ponds, please call or email me.

      I must thank Nick and Carla and many others for stepping up to the plate to make the meeting come off without a hitch. I think the meeting went better than when I was there! It looked like everyone had a great time in the pictures. Henry from O’Henrys Tank a Lot gave another great presentation with his talk about filtration. Ed received a plaque for Supreme Auctioneer. He not only does the auction for our club but also the fish auctions in most of the clubs in the tri-state area. Carla won Fish Show winner for the whole year! She also won the same night, working on points for next year. She took first and second place with a dwarf cichlid and a placket betta. Maxx took third place with his lyretail molly. What a great award night!

     I am working on the next meeting right now. I’m not sure what it will be about but will send out another mail before the meeting.

LIAS President,
Tom Keegan

Hello All!

        I’m not sure what to say except wow! Our holiday party was very successful. All our members had a great time. I think the new members that came for the first time did not expect such a great group of people getting together talking fish. The raffle, fish show, auction, and food were all amazing. I really can’t say which part of the night was better. It took a lot of planning and work for the party, and I guess I just became too exhausted to do the auction at the end, so Buzz stepped up to be the reliving auctioneer.

        There were probably close to 200 bags in the fish auction and some great entries in the fish show. I myself took third with a Gardneri Killifish. Second was taken by Gene’s Long Fin Red Ancistrus. First was an Oyster Goby which is a brackish fish by Maxx. There were twenty-five aquarium related items in our can raffle, some big and some small. I always enjoy finding items for the raffle, some not yet available in the US.

        This letter will be short and sweet. This meeting crept up on me, and I started writing a letter last week but thought I had time. I was quite busy over the holidays and did not realize our meeting was this Friday. Unfortunately, I got the flu last Wednesday and am not out of the woods yet. I hope to be able to get everything together by Friday the 16th. We will have a Speaker, Fish Show and Auction. Raffle and Refreshments. The meeting will start at 8 but I would really appreciate help to set up at 7:30. 

PS: if you feel like you are under the weather do not come to the meeting. There will be another meeting before you know it.

LIAS President,
Tom Keegan

Hello All,

          In less than two weeks we are having our annual Holiday Party!  It will consist of two six-foot heroes with all the fixings and some great desserts.  But that’s just the food part.  We will have a dollar a bag fish auction where the club only gets one dollar and the rest of the money goes back to you!  Nick, our treasurer, says we need the dollar for a handling fee LOL.  I hope to see lots of fish in the auction.  It will be nice to go home with new fish for the holidays.  There will also be a can raffle so that you can put tickets in what you want to win.  I am working on getting some great items for the raffle.  It’s always a great time and I hope all will come!

          As you know, at our last meeting we held elections.  Nick remained our treasurer.  Tracy is our recording secretary and takes pictures at the meeting which she has done for years.  Brian is not only our computer guy but also our assistant treasurer.  Peter takes care of check-ins and door prize tickets.  Buzz is our fish show chairperson in charge of the fish show winners every meeting.  There will also be a fish show at this meeting.  I was voted in unanimously as president with my vice being Carla!  I was amazed at how fast all the hands went up at once, voting us in as if it was planned.  Thank You!!!

          Our speaker at the last meeting was Henry from O’Henrys tanks a lot.  What an amazing setup he has built, and he sells some of the best plants I have ever seen.  He donated lots of plants to our auction as he also did at the meeting before.  The plants are available on his website, or you can pick them up at his facility.  The winners of the fish show were Harry with third, Maxx with second, and Buzz with first where he also received our little fish plaque.  Our door prize winner was Jay who was eager to win the door prize!

           Looking forward to the Holiday Party.  Plan to arrive early for the event.  Bring fish for the auction and fish show.  I will of course have flake food, shirts and insulated bags with our logo on them.  Nick has also been working on our club fish calendar which will be handed out at the meeting.  It consists of the fish photos that club members submitted.  See you there!!

See you there!!!