President’s Message – February 2019

Dear Aquarist,

February is always cold and damp but our speaker warmed us up when he started his presentation titled, “A Pond Grew In Brooklyn.” Joe Graffagnino, former President and Corresponding Secretary, was our guest lecturer. His talk was enlightening and had us stimulated for setting up a pond and stocking it with koi and goldfish. Joe spoke about the trials and tribulations about building and maintaining a pond. The audience was quite interested since they asked lots of questions.

 
For March we are bringing in Richard Ross from California. Richard spoke at our Society years ago and then his topic was, “Cephalopods: In There An Octopus In Your Future?” back in 2011. His topic for next month is “Coral Spawning and Secore.” Let’s welcome Richard back with a great BAS hello!

 
The Brooklyn Aquarium Society just turned 108 years young on Valentine’s Day. We are the oldest and largest general aquarium club in the United States and that is because of you – our members, our Board and Officers and the love we all have for aquatic creatures. So come on down on March 8 for an enjoyable evening with great people. WE always try to have an interesting topic for you and our aquatic auction and sales tables can’t be beat. As always there will be FREE parking and FREE refreshments, doors open at 7:30 pm.

 
New BAS shirts arrived and they were selling like hotcakes! Many of you noticed that the BAS officers and Board members wore the regular BAS shirt with the word TEAM on the back. We did this to identify our members that work and help organize our events. We also have new BAS hats in a light blue color. 

Due to confusion at a previous meeting, we need to reinforce policy issues: BAS will no longer permit reserve prices on aquatic donations in our auction and no individuals, member or guests, are allowed to sell or buy anything from members or guests on New York Aquarium grounds.

I must ask for our members’ help – our Treasurer had to leave due to personal reasons. Please, if you have experience in accounting, we need your help.

Also, we are looking to rent a garage, street level, to hold our BAS equipment and supplies. If you have something reasonable, please let us know.

If you want to see different speakers and learn about different aquatic systems, fish, plants and marine life, please let me know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! Please let us know what you want and why, because it would be helpful to 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.

On a more personal note – any member who wants to attend a Board meeting, which is held at Education Hall of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, September through June, please notify me at (347) 277-4793 by the Tuesday before the meeting.

Steven Matassa
President