President’s Message – June 2015

Dear Aquarist,

June is one of the more enjoyable months of the year and it was made more so by our guest speaker Lou Ekus. Lou brought his family with him and a warm, fun family they are. Lou is a great guy and a very knowledgeable speaker on Reef Chemistry, which was his subject for the evening. Lou is the manager for Tropic Marin in the United States. His talk was very entertaining and made the complicated chemicals and their interaction very basic. We had a crowded meeting thanks to Lou. Our auction and raffles contained many interesting items and products from our sponsors, donators and members. As always, everyone went home happy.

June is election time for BAS. After the smoke cleared, we found many new faces in various Board and Officer positions. The new people and their positions will be listed in the Bulletin. This was my last year as your President. I had a wonderful time for the past 8 years and I thank you, the members, officers and Board members for making it so. I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I am not traveling off into the sunset, but will still help out and attend meetings; however, my personal life has caused my priorities to shift.

We will be taking the months of July and August off and will return in September with a new group of speakers and other fun things that we shall do together as BAS members. Our September speaker will be Rick Borstein, who is the FAAS [Federation of American Aquarium Societies] President and an officer in the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association.
As always, the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open at 7:30 PM, and there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments.

Please visit our website where you can read the Bulletin and enjoy a full color Aquatica. The interactive forums and sponsor sections are truly remarkable. Provided you have given us your email address, you will be getting notifications of club events via email.

We are asking again for your help and support. If you want to see different speakers or try different things, please let us know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! Please tell us what you want and why. It would be helpful for everyone.

It is important that you visit and patronize our sponsors. It goes full circle: by helping them, they are also helping you as hobbyists and everyone is helping the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, so help us, help you!

For more info, please call our BAS Hotline at (718) 837-4455, or visit our modern website at WWW.BROOKLYNAQUARIUMSOCIETY.ORG.

In addition: Any member who desires to attend a Board meeting, held at Education Hall of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, September through June, please notify Steve Matassa at (347) 277-4793 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.
Joe Graffagnino
President (outgoing)