Financially it also seems to have been a great success. We had at least 62
paid registrations. T-shirt sales were brisk on Thursday night and Friday
morning (Casper and I have to calculate the totals). And the auction
Saturday night was both fun and rewarding. I want to thank Rob Denkhaus for
allowing me to volunteer him to be the recorder for the auction with Phil
Nixon as auctioneer. We had wide range of items to auction, and the crowd
was frisky even without any available free beer. The total came to $1660 for
the auction. The donated 46 gallon bow front aquarium and stand went for
$290(!), and I was gratified to see that the copy of Scott Mettee et al.'s
book "The Fishes oF Alabama..." went for $55 and the Handbook of Darters
package went for $65 (if I remember correctly...).
Four members of the BOD wound up in Huntsville--myself, Leo, Rob and Martin,
almost a quorum!
I also hope to compile a list of advice and suggestions for the South
Carolina hosts of the next convention, to supplement the excellent list that
Leo and Bob Muller made available to me. If these meetings keep getting
bigger, both the hosts and NANFA should be better organized in how to plan
and execute them. Leo is volunteering (I think?!?) to be our manufacturer's
contact, so that we have one face to deal with donors and don't have to
reinvent the wheel every convention. I was able to roust some good donations
myself, but the efforts of Leo, Bob and Jim Graham were extremely important
to the final outcome with the auction.
And Casper Cox's work with the t-shirts was crucial, too. He, Steven Ellis
and Stott Noble were crucial volunteers for organizing field trips and
keeping the meeting happening.
I have to sit down tonight/tomorrow and complile my final financial summary
to send to Chris and Stephanie.
To borrow the phrase, it takes a whole NANFA to make a convention work...
--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org
</x-flowed>