Valeria September 7, 2015 Share September 7, 2015 I want to thank all the executive board for the months of work everyone spent building MACNA 2015. A special thanks for allowing me to be part of the team which helped my professional growth. The time we've spent together has strengthened the relationships between each other. This event has shown be another side of all of you, and thankful for that opportunity. Thank you to all the volunteers that took precious time away from their families, made it to the middle of DC, and worked their ass off to make this event possible. Everyone was flexible and willing to help, roll their sleeves and help where and when they were asked to help and for that a big thank you!!!! Without all these hands the event would not have been successful. I can't not express my gratitude enough. One more thanks to my family for taking care of my zoo during my year of involvement and my brother for volunteering during the event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime September 7, 2015 Share September 7, 2015 Thanks to YOU as well! We are super thankful for Dylan! Please tell him I said thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w September 8, 2015 Share September 8, 2015 Valeria, every time I looked around I saw you or your brother. Both of you did a great job. I saw firsthand how much work the WAMAS executives put in and how exhausted they were from going non-stop for the 4 days. They are an amazing group of hobbyists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco September 8, 2015 Share September 8, 2015 I will probably start another thread to thank all the volunteers (so probably will Tom and Craig) , they all deserve individual threads for what they did! Just need to get caught up in my real job today. Thank you Carla. How often we had the turn to you and say, "What does that mean?" or "Is that normal?" or even "Can we do that?. Typically the response was "I have that taken care of". Your organization helped us all and kept us focused. Unfortunately working together I think you learned from me - I will work to give you the shirt off my back, but I just don't know where I put the darn thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami September 8, 2015 Share September 8, 2015 Let me echo Doug's sentiments as I'm still working on reconciling the event. Carla, you were incredible. You helped develop the detail in our order of events that we relied on heavily. Without you, we probably would not have received the many, many compliments of this being "the best run MACNA ever." (That comment coming from an exhibitor that's participated in every MACNA since the mid-90's. So much personal time went into this show and, yes, core team members would bump heads from time to time. But, as with families, we did so confident that our relationships were strong enough to survive disagreement. We should be proud of what we accomplished this last week - from the moment the ball started rolling on Monday, when we started bringing our stuff in, to the last moment yesterday when we took our gear out (a total of eight days) - we gave it everything we had and met every exhibitor and attendee need to set new standards across much of MACNA. As the statistics are complied, I'll provide an updates to the community. I really hope that much of our community took advantage of this opportunity to attend MACNA - the largest show of it's kind in the world (that's what a guy who flew in from Saudi Arabia to attend told me) - while it was in your backyard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTricia September 9, 2015 Share September 9, 2015 MACNA was wonderful. Tom, I thought your speech and dedication to your family was touching. Copps....I hope your daughter isn't scared for life by the threat of balloon baby violence. Everyone did a wonderful job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami September 9, 2015 Share September 9, 2015 MACNA was wonderful. Tom, I thought your speech and dedication to your family was touching. Copps....I hope your daughter isn't scared for life by the threat of balloon baby violence. Everyone did a wonderful job! Thank you, Tricia. Several people on our team gave many, many hours over several years to this effort. The sacrifice that our families made in supporting our volunteer efforts deserved recognition. I know first hand how much time was taken away from my family and it was very hard for me to both write and to speak of it. But, in the broader sense, I was not only speaking to my family, but to others' families who also gave up so much of their loved one's time and, therefore, supported each and every MACNA attendee's enjoyment of the conference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copps September 10, 2015 Share September 10, 2015 MACNA was wonderful. Tom, I thought your speech and dedication to your family was touching. Copps....I hope your daughter isn't scared for life by the threat of balloon baby violence. Everyone did a wonderful job! Yes Tom, I too wiped away tears when you were up there! It really is incredible the amount of planning that goes into these. And Tricia you are correct... my daughter will never pop another balloon again! I will say that when Tom, Craig, Doug and I sat down three years ago to discuss this I could not have imagined the success that everyone pulled off. I've spoken at four MACNAs and been to many more through the years... in my own opinion this was the best, and in the opinion of so many other people. I cannot tell you the number of times people stopped me and told me how great this MACNA was. I will also say that I've travelled around the country and spoken to many reef clubs in almost 25 different states for years now. We have the best run club in the business! The core group behind us is incredible, and the efforts we got from all of our volunteers was equally incredible. People who only go to our club meetings may take it for granted, but I have plenty of perspective and WAMAS really is amazing. MACNA has grown to become a HUGE conference technically run by amateurs... but from the looks of it and the efforts put in by our volunteers you couldn't tell. Seriously... think of all of the planning that goes into a wedding that goes for a few hours... then make that a multiple day conference with THOUSANDS of people from around the world. Unfortunately I only got to the event floor for literally 20 minutes as I was running around the whole conference and introducing every speaker on the hour! Next year in San Diego will be relaxing! THANK YOU ALL! I also found out that we are probably the largest club in the country, with over 800 paid members. Simply put... WAMAS rocks! As we all exhale, including myself, my speaker planning duties for next month will be rather light... as I'll be giving the presentation... no travel arrangements or airport runs, or anything else that goes on with bringing in speakers. I've been getting a lot of requests from people about my talk, so I'll give it at next month's meeting and go into even more detail on my system. One of my favorite sayings in the hobby is "the only relaxing reef tanks are other people's"... and that saying can be modified to fit in with Macna... "the only relaxing MACNAs are other club's"! Great job WAMAS! We'll start meeting next week to plan MACNA 2025... Copps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM September 10, 2015 Share September 10, 2015 We'll start meeting next week to plan MACNA 2025... Copps Tom is coming for you for suggesting that. I predict he'll make darn sure he's not president in 10 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstContact September 10, 2015 Share September 10, 2015 My wife and I have never attended a MACNA before. It was awesome. Thanks WAMAS and everyone involved who volunteered! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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