Welcome

Welcome to the Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society website and forum. Our club was founded over 50 years ago in 1960. KWAS is a friendly, family oriented, non-profit organization which welcomes hobbyists of all ages who want to learn more about this fascinating hobby. All of us want to learn and share our experiences and expertise with others. Our club is very diverse, with interests ranging from freshwater tropical fish and aquatic plants to marine fish and reef keeping. KWAS is also a charter member of CAOAC and a proud partner with C.A.R.E.S

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PrezEDent Sez

Welcome to yet another month of fish news. The club has a few things on the go and I will share that with you here. For our next meeting (Feb. 7) we welcome back Veronique LaPage as a speaker to share more of her knowledge of seahorses and other Syngnathids. These creatures are a passion for her and there will be a wealth of information to be gleaned. There is also a listing of upcoming programs on the forum web site under the club news and upcoming events section. I have had a request that we have a program based on making your own fish food and so have touched base with someone experienced on the topic. If there is interest in this it is possible to schedule a presentation in the fall. If you would like to see this happen, please touch base with our program chair Victor Dinh or one of the exec.

There are other things happening for club members as well. There has been a set of prizes added to our forum Fish of the Month and Tank of the Month contests. After forum members have voted for the favourite choices and a winner is chosen that person will be awarded a $10 gift certificate for either Tim Horton’s or their choice of a local fish store. The monthly winners will then qualify for a year end prize of $25 gift certificates by competing for the year end shoot out. Please check out these contests on the forum and send in your photos to qualify.

We are also looking at developing a year end prize for our monthly show jar contest so bring in your fish each month to let people see what you have. This month the categories are Rift Lake Cichlids and All Other Varieties (AOV). The Exec and BOD have also discussed holding an event for the club. The idea that has been looked on with interest is to hold a Speaker’s Dinner night. This would involve bringing in a well known hobbyist or speaker on a topic that would interest a wide number of members and hold it in a venue with a sit down dinner. We would like to hear feedback from members on the interest in this and how many people would be willing to attend. Finally, I have brought the question to the Exec and BOD of whether KWAS would have interest and the ability to host the 2013 CAOAC Convention. It seems a long time away but there would be considerable work and preparation to host an event like this properly and so we are looking to the club in the early and purely explorative stages to see if there would be interest and commitment from the club to pursue this idea. The Exec would be interested in hearing your thoughts as we look into this opportunity.

I just have one more thing that I would like to add to this month’s notes. There are a number of ideas that have been presented to all of you club members but they do not end here. The Exec and BOD tend to bring forth many ideas and directions for the club but there are usually only 12-14 members on those boards. We have well over 120 members in our club and each of you carries an equal voice within the club. The Exec would like to hear your ideas and interests – if you bring them to the ears of the Exec, they can be discussed and maybe brought to life for the rest of the club. There is always room for new ideas and directions so please don’t be shy and share them with us. Thank you.

See you at the next meeting.

Ed Koerner
President, KWAS