Happy New Year Fishkeepers!
Tomorrow we kick off 2021 with a presentation by Irene "Girl Talks Fish" Bearly. Irene will be presenting "10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Planted Aquarium." You can check out her YouTube channel at Girl Talks Fish. It's both entertaining and informative.
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82608602228?pwd=cjRBR0pBV1lmMVJ5dmdweEtCaXZxdz09
Meeting ID: 826 0860 2228
Password: 1960
I'm as eager to start meeting in person again as anyone else. At the December Board meeting, Board members discussed criteria to be applied when deciding when to reconvene at Green Acres. We agreed that as soon as all members of the General Public have had a reasonable opportunity to be vaccinated, should they so choose, then we will start meeting indoors in-person again. Hopefully by the end of the first quarter we will have a good idea of when that might be, so we can start booking speakers.
For the first half of 2021 we are planning to conduct regular monthly meetings virtually using Zoom. Instead of our Spring All-Day Auction, we will be having another in-person Do It Your Way Tailgate Event just like last October. We will hold it on SUNDAY, April 18, not on the first weekend of the month, to increase the likelihood of mild weather conducive to keeping our fish and invertebrates safe at an outdoor event.
While it would be lovely to hold our Annual Bowl Show & Indoor Picnic indoors and in-person at Green Acres, it's not probable everyone will be vaccinated by then. Our contingency will be to hold an outdoor picnic (masks and social distancing required) with no bowl show as the weather will likely be too warm for aquatic pets.
We are cautiously optimistic that we may be able to meet in person again by August or September but time will tell, and the Board will wait to make that call. We're bullish we'll be back in full swing by the Fall All-Day Auction which is certain to be HUGE.
You may have notice the new 2021 Program web page. It's still under construction, and the website editor keeps freezing up on me so please excuse the last couple of months which aren't complete yet. It should be done within another day or two. This always happens over Christmas and New Years because all the WIX platform owners are updating their website at the same time.
Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow on Zoom.
Patchin