December 2018 Annual Holiday Meeting Pictures

[badxgillen]

Another Awesome December holiday meeting in the bag! Last year we had our gathering further north into Portland where as this year we took it down to the city of Salem. At Wallery's Pizzeria to be exact. We have held a few meets at this venue in the past so it was familiar surroundings to me. The establishment lets us have the whole back room that has 4 large seating tables and a couple smaller tables for us to do the white elephant gift exchange and to get our raffle on. We certainly needed the extra table room as we had developed a large pool of prizes.

You can also see that underneath we have already started a line of coolers, boxes, and styrofoams to accommodate the corals for the frag swap.

PNWMAS making themselves right at home, despite the automotive decor and draft beer signs the club went straight into reef mode and our salt water conversations permeated the establishment.

At the end of this festive table we have Markvo sitting next to Reefrun and her son. At the head of the table is Jim and Roy and sitting to their right is R-3 Ryan...Included in this pictures FAR left in the stylish Christmas sweater is Youcallmenny.

R-3 and Gumby taking advantage of the meet and greet and having a nice reef discussion. I am always happy to see some of the Washington guys come down south. And Jim, if you still need any coral frags for the Boys and Girls club aquarium hit me up with an address and I will see if I can ship you out a little package. Jim was a major player in having their club host the Annual Frag Festival this year and last, so they have my continued support.

Left here is Kathleen, middle is Garret of The Premium Aquarium, and right we have Lexinverts. All very nice people here, Lexinverts is our Vendors Relations officer here for our club and Garret has been a supporting sponsor for a number of years making contributions when he can. Thanks Guys!

Left in this pic is BicycleBill, middle we have Taylorhardy, and on the right it's optimusprime. Bill, if any frag you get from me doesn't work out for some reason just let me know and I will get another one lined up for you. The cyphastrea I brought was very fresh cut and a little rough,. If you give it a dark spot and not too much flow it will come to and encrust, then color up a lovely bright golden red. Taylor, I hope your new tanks equipment acquisition goes smoothly, and once you have more room keep me in mind and I will cut you a piece of something. Very generous of you to hand out all those Acropora frags to people you have never met, in time the generosity will come back to you for sure. Dodge, you and I should meet up outside a meet sometime and shoot the pooo, I can bring a frag or two and maybe do a trade, or just let me check out the system. I been meaning to make a reefer run up north sometime in the not too distant future.

Garret saying hello to one of the newest coral kids on the block, Dominic and Reefermadness's newborn son. He is SO Tiny!!! Gonna take a while to grow that one out, but so far he is looking like a healthy start.

Gumby sitting down not knowing that FlashyFins is right behind him with a nice pair of rabbit ears. Merry Christmas!!! Cherany is another one of our awesome PNWMAS members who spends a number of unpaid hours working behind the scenes for our club. Thank You Cherany.

Stylaster sharing some of his coral wisdom with Ryan. Roy has been a generous contributing PNWMAS member for years and years and has served as club president on multiple terms. If you ever get a chance to strike up a salt water conversation with him, you should, he is a seasoned salty dog with a wealth of knowledge.

And yet another outstanding member of our club, Albertareef on the right has been a valuable asset to our PNWMAS office and Board Of Directors for a while now, always pitching in on keeping things straight and proper, good man.Here you can see that Flashyfins and Shaun make a stand up team and just knock out the tasks at hand like real pros, they ran the raffle like the veterans they are. 

And speaking of raffles....

DSBlack gets to add quite a bit more flow to his tank at home with his new Hydor circulation pump. It's always nice to have more flow or a back up pump that's for sure.

Lexinverts took away the AquaMedic Doser pump, I love the brand but have not tried a doser, once you get a chance to put it to the test maybe let us know what you think about it.

Talk about excited here! Youcallmenny gets a winning number pulled and hits it big! The Gyre pump should make some "waves" for you man. Put that thing to good use yeah.

Whats cool here is that from what I understand Brian and Grace here needed an RODI unit. Nice Score man!

Taylor got a brand new Vectra DC pump that will put his big boy tank build on the right track. Check that one off the list right!? 

The room had less than desirable lighting so many of my pictures were sub par. I did manage to get a couple that came out of the White Elephant but not many unfortunately. Next time I need to bring a flash, usually the ambient lighting at our events is from high lit reef tanks or outside so these incandescent bulbs really made it difficult on my camera.

White elephant gift exchange?... Or Pink elephants gift exchange? Sorry Dodge, you won't be holding onto that Malibu for long, there are a lot of thirsty folks in the room and you got your number drawn so early. By the way, love the VW shirt, represent.

Badxgillen AKA Bert unwrapped a whole box of fine hazzlenut chocolates...And when I say unwrapped, I mean I unwrapped them then and there. I have a little bit of a sweet tooth. I do like to share though so no one missed out on these treats.

BicycleBill unbagging a load of fishy ocean treats, looks like it could b e movie night soon Bill.

FlashyFins got some porcelain ocean life decor to spruce up her bathroom a little.

After we wrapped up the gift exchange we proceeded to just socialize and eat pizza. I acquired a few new coral frags and met a couple new faces that are on the forum. Combine that with getting to see my old friends and you have a winning combination. Unfortunately, before I knew it, it was time to leave.

After the meeting many of us went home as the weather left much to be desired, but several of us that don't get to Salem very often made a short trip over to The Premium Aquarium.

As usual the store did not disappoint and was full of aquatic treasure.

Did I mention I like candy?... 

There even just so happened to be a buy 3 get one free deal so you know I had to get myself 4 nice corals before I hit the road.

Tanks looked really good guys, keep up the good work yeah.

Anyhow, as I mentioned above, the annual holiday meeting did not disappoint, a room full of cool people, good food, killer prizes, and non stop reef talk made for a very fast and full 2 hours. Just like Christmas day, you take all the time to make sure it is a success, but then it is over before you know it.Well, regardless,  I had a Blast folks!

Thank you all who were able to attend and a BIG thank you to all who helped make it possible, our fine group of officers and BOD. Badxgillen, FlashyFin, Jeremevans, Lexinverts, Albertareef, Lewisfisherman, Youcallmenny, Paratore, Chief, TheClark, and All of our sponsors and All of our members...

You All ROCK, Reef ON!!!

[IntoTheMystic]

Really tried to make it over to the valley to make this one but duty called. Typically, looks like a good time was had by all. Also typically, the event was documented with verve by Bert. Well done as usual, man. 🍻 I'm not able to make many meetings but when I do, I am always impressed by how many cool people make this organization what is it. Cheers to you folks. 🍺 Have a safe, fun, prosperous and very Happy New year, everyone!

[albertareef]

Thank you for the great photo documentation as always Bert!  Love seeing the recaps even when I made it to the event - it's like getting to live all the fun over again!

Was good seeing a lot of familiar faces as well as a few new ones.  Thank you all for coming out to meet on such a busy weekend right before Christmas and also thanks to all of those who put in the work to organize and host as well as a special shout out to Garett at Premium Aquarium for scoring us all the great raffle prizes on short notice.

Now we need to start planning January!!!

[Flashy Fins]

Thanks so much for documenting, Bert! I attempted this time, but remembering to put fresh batteries in the camera flash was apparently not on my radar, so not much to see there.

Great seeing everyone! I try to never miss a pizza party or a white elephant gift exchange, no matter the crowd, but add in saltwater friends, and we’re in for a sweet time! 

[youcallmenny]

We all had a great time!  Thank you everyone for organizing and attending.  It's always nice to have such a local meeting and we really like the Christmas parties in particular.  That Icecap 3k went in to the display opposite my XF-150 and really upgraded my flow game.  Unexpected but very helpful!  It was nice catching up with folks and talking shop.  

A special thanks to our incredible prez for continuing to represent the photo thread.  These are always a great aspect of the meeting and it's nice to be reminded how much fun everyone was having. 

[lewisriverfisherman]

I'm really sad that I missed this event, i guess it was my year to be sick on Christmas.  I'm still coughing my head off but at least the nose running like a faucet has subsided.

Thanks again Bert for documenting this gathering and all you do for our club.  Thanks to all of those peeps that made this event happen, sorry I couldn't be there to help out!

[Jeremevans]

Nice write up. I'm always surprised by how many pictures you manage to sneak in.


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[Emerald525]

Great write up !! Wallerys is a great venue for the  holiday party !! Sirena and I were sorry we missed it but we were at Rockaway Beach with the grandkids at a nice beach house. The white elephant is one of my favorites and I guess I will hang on to the cool gift we got for next year. 

Thanks to all the board and officers I know the time it takes to plan these events. 

I agree with Intothemystic that it’s always a bunch of kind and fun people to talk to. It’s nice to see a few new faces too!!

 

Great job everyone !!

[Bicyclebill]

Awesome job Bert, I always enjoy your recaps! Thanks to all that made this happen. Lots of fun catching up with old and new faces after spending too much time disconnected from it all


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