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MACNA 2015!!!


Gil&Fin

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Thanks Holly, for sharing MACNA with us all! :thumbs:

Hey... did you get a chance to speak with Kevin Erickson about 2018? How did you do on the raffle?

I did get a chance to talk to Kevin. Maybe you and I can touch base at the September meeting to discuss it. On the raffles, they were super fun. I ended up winning prizes worth about how much I put in, so that was fine with me. The biggest wins for me were the automatic feeder from Neptune and the hundred dollar gift certificate to Jason Fox. I also won some smaller presents that I will be bringing to the September meeting to share.
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One more thing about the possibility of holding a MACNA conference here in Portland. Before I went to the conference, I thought it was a great idea. If everyone votes to do it, I am on board and will be the first one in line to volunteer to help out. I do think that it is important, even at this early stage, to have a sense of what we would be getting into, however. By the most recent count, there were 3500 attendees to the conference. Here is a picture of the Saturday night banquet, which of course only some of the registrants attended.

 

756272815db5c9a10d01f29c8b84a047.jpg

 

And another thing we need to think about is money. I'm not sure about this, but as I understand it the club needs to front quite a bit of money for the hotel, etcetera. I was told that the Washington DC Marine Aquarium Society had to front over $28,000. We would of course want to check on this, but I don't believe that MASNA pays the expenses up front. And the club was responsible for putting on a huge raffle in order to get their money back.

 

We also need to be realistic about how many of us there are, and how much time we could commit to the conference. I believe there were over a hundred volunteers for this program. Toward the end of the program, many of the club leadership had opportunities to address attendees in lectures, at the banquet, and at the final raffle. Several of them actually got teary because they were so emotional about completing this massive undertaking. There were a lot of them thanking their spouses profusely for there patience over the 3 years it took to prepare.

 

Before I sound like too much of a wet blanket, we could contact MASNA to see if the above information is accurate. I just don't want to get too excited about something if it's just not feasible. I apologize for not having more concrete information, but Kevin Erickson, the President of MASNA, was so busy I only got a moment with him. We really need to verify the information above before we move forward, or not.

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  This would be in 2018. We would not have to do this alone. Puget Sound Marine Aquarium Society and Mid-Columbia Saltwater Aquarium Club are not that far away, and have some experience with Marine Conferences. I have been to 3 conferences, and Steve Tyree's Coral Farmers Market, that we assisted with in Portland a few years ago. We are members of MASNA (Marine Aquarium Societies of North America)  http://masna.org/, so we will also have their assistance.

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One more thing about the possibility of holding a MACNA conference here in Portland. Before I went to the conference, I thought it was a great idea. If everyone votes to do it, I am on board and will be the first one in line to volunteer to help out. I do think that it is important, even at this early stage, to have a sense of what we would be getting into, however. By the most recent count, there were 3500 attendees to the conference. Here is a picture of the Saturday night banquet, which of course only some of the registrants attended.

 

756272815db5c9a10d01f29c8b84a047.jpg

 

And another thing we need to think about is money. I'm not sure about this, but as I understand it the club needs to front quite a bit of money for the hotel, etcetera. I was told that the Washington DC Marine Aquarium Society had to front over $28,000. We would of course want to check on this, but I don't believe that MASNA pays the expenses up front. And the club was responsible for putting on a huge raffle in order to get their money back.

 

We also need to be realistic about how many of us there are, and how much time we could commit to the conference. I believe there were over a hundred volunteers for this program. Toward the end of the program, many of the club leadership had opportunities to address attendees in lectures, at the banquet, and at the final raffle. Several of them actually got teary because they were so emotional about completing this massive undertaking. There were a lot of them thanking their spouses profusely for there patience over the 3 years it took to prepare.

 

Before I sound like too much of a wet blanket, we could contact MASNA to see if the above information is accurate. I just don't want to get too excited about something if it's just not feasible. I apologize for not having more concrete information, but Kevin Erickson, the President of MASNA, was so busy I only got a moment with him. We really need to verify the information above before we move forward, or not.

 

  I agree Holly, we need to be realistic. I have spoken briefly with the President of MASNA, Kevin Erickson, and will continue to correspond with him. We were already contacted once previously about hosting a MACNA Conference, but from what I understand, we were not ready at the time. We are moving forward in a positive way, so let's do our best to keep this in our vision for PNWMAS in the near future! :fingerscrossed::agree:

  I noticed there were a few more people attending than we usually have at our meetings, but no big deal ;)

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So what did the Neptune guy say about integration with Mindstream in the future? Maybe?

Did the Mindstream guys say why their tank parameters were a little wacky in that shot? Alk of 2.1? And no Mg?

 

Thanks for all of your reporting! :D

Shoot, Andy!  For some reason your PM didn't come through on my phone so I didn't answer until I got on my PC.  Anyway, here is basically the same information I responded back to you with:

 

I spoke with Mindstream about whether they would be integrating with APEX and he said they were not contemplating it at the moment but maybe down the line.  When I spoke with Terence at Neptune, he was ... well ... I'll try to keep it to the facts.  He said that Neptune had not been contacted by Mindstream.  He noted that Mindstream might be of limited use because it didn't measure phosphates or nitrates.  I don't think they're off to a great start, but I suspect that if Mindstream is successful there will be a lot more discussion.

 

I wish I had asked about the parameters.  I was so excited they let me take a picture of the dashboard that I didn't actually look at the numbers!  Sorry.

 

On a separate note, I was a little surprised that Mindstream had such a small booth and at the back of the exhibit hall.  It probably doesn't mean anything, but I guess I was expecting a bigger presence and more buzz.   Anyway, I'm still excited about the idea and I think they are working hard to come out with a reliable product.  My fingers are crossed for them.

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