Origami February 10, 2022 Share February 10, 2022 >> ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE << Saturday, 19 March 2022 Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Speaker will start at 2:15 PM) Where: Virtual - Zoom + Facebook Live (to the WAMAS Group page) It's time to announce and to schedule our annual meeting as required by WAMAS bylaws. Once again, with COVID still affecting our daily lives, we will hold the meeting virtually. Making the most of it, however, we've worked to bring speakers to you that we otherwise might not have been able to bring to you had we been meeting in person. Read on for a special treat. But first, a few meeting details. Like previous virtual meetings, this meeting will be streamed to Facebook Live with reserved participation on our Zoom platform. We will post details on how to participate in this thread, so please check back as we update the thread with details. Since our last few virtual meetings have gone smoothly, we'll continue to increase the number of slots available to WAMAS Members and reservations will be given out on a first-come-first-served basis. (Please wait to make your request until AFTER registration has been announced.) This meeting will be free to WAMAS members and members of the WAMAS Facebook group. To view the meeting on the Facebook Livestream, you MUST be have an account on Facebook and must be a member of the WAMAS group. If you're not on Facebook or would prefer to participate on the Zoom call, request a slot and, if there's room, we'll provide call details prior to the meeting. Only WAMAS members are eligible to vote in WAMAS elections and to participate in the raffle give-away (details below). Because we are unable to gather physically, we will establish and publicize election rules and the process to be used this year. ==> WAMAS ELECTIONS <== This meeting is also our annual meeting. The offices of President, Treasurer and Membership Director will be filled at this meeting (two year terms). Click here for voting instructions. Agenda (tentative): 2:00 PM Announcements 2:10 PM Election Results 2:15 PM Speaker 3:30 PM Discussion / Q&A 4:00 PM Raffle/Doorprize Speaker: Dr. Richard Pyle, World-renown Ichthyologist and Pioneer Topic: Exploring the Coral-Reef Twilight Zone: Where we've been. Where we are. And where we're headed. Rich will talk about how this all started and what's been found over the years. He'll update us on what he and others are doing now (e.g., XCoRE), and provide a glimpse into what is being planned. Special emphasis will be given to fishes of interest to the marine aquarist. Speaker Biography: Dr. Richard Pyle is a scuba diver and ichthyologist working on Hawaii. Pyle discovered the principle of "Pyle stops" when decompressing from many deep dives in search of new species of fish, and has identified hundreds of new species, including the Peppermint Angelfish and Dr. Suess Soapfish. He is the author of over 130 publications. He was born and raised in Hawaii, where his passion for "all things fish" began at a very early age. He set up his first aquarium when he was five years old, and started scuba diving when he was thirteen. By the time he was nineteen, he wound up living in Palau where his passion for discovering new fishes lured him into deep water, resulting in a crippling case of decompression sickness while diving with world-renown ichthyologist John "Jack" Randall. Earning his PhD under Jack's tutelage, Richard's passion for undersea exploration never waned. Determined to continue exploring of the coral reef "Twilight Zone" (200-500 feet deep) in a safe and responsible way, he was among the pioneers of modern Technical Diving in the late 1980's. In 1994 he began as a test-diver for the prototype Cis-Lunar MK-4 closed-circuit rebreather, and has traveled the Pacific in search of new species of fishes on deep coral reefs - which he and his colleagues are discovering at a rate of eleven new species per hour of bottom time. Richard has authored over a hundred scientific, technical, and popular articles and has been featured in dozens of documentary films (including the IMAX film, Coral-Reef Adventure). He was a founding member and is currently on the Board of Directors for the Association for Marine Exploration - a non-profit organization dedicated to conducting innovative scientific exploration using advanced diving equipment and techniques. In 2004, he was selected by Esquire magazine for the "Best and Brightest" issue, and was also recipient of the "Genius Award" from General Electric to help support his research. Raffle Prize(s) to be announced $100 gift certificate for Reef Nutrition products from Reed Mariculture (plus an additional $30 to cover shipping costs)! $50 gift certificate for Reef Nutrition products from Reed Mariculture (plus an additional $30 to cover shipping costs)! (2 chances!) $25 gift certificate for Premium Aquatics (5 chances to win!) Raffle Process and Rules No purchase is necessary. The raffle is open to WAMAS members only. (You must be a member at the time of the drawing.) The WAMAS President is ineligible. The drawing will be held during the WAMAS meeting The winner must be "present" at the meeting (either through Zoom or Facebook) to claim the prize. If not present, we'll draw for the next winner. Members that sign up have an equal chance at winning. A week or so before the meeting, we'll start a sign-up thread in the forum. We'll post a link in this thread. Members participate in the raffle by posting once and once only to this thread. Duplicate sign ups will be deleted. If this rule is abused, a member may be removed as a partricipant. This thread will be closed the night before the drawing. No warning will be given to the thread closure. The WAMAS President will use an online random number generator to generate a number from 2 to the max post# in the thread and will announce the winning number. The drawn number identifies the winner by their post number (i.e., sequence number in the thread). If the winner is present, we'll mail or transfer the award to them. If not, we'll draw again until we have a winner. Thank You, WAMAS Sponsors Special thanks to these sponsors. WAMAS has deliberately avoided collecting sponsorship fees from them during these tumultuous times, but they need your support now more than ever. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them. You can find their website address by visiting their forum or the sponsor page on the WAMAS website. WAMAS Platinum Sponsors - Air, Water and Ice - Aquarium Depot - Avast Marine - Blue Ribbon Koi - Capital Aquarium - Chemipure - Dr. Mac's Pacific East Aquaculture - Fish n Reef - LRS Reef Frenzy - Piscine Energetics - Premium Aquatics - Puddle Aquatics - Reed Mariculture (Reef Nutrition) - Reef Escape - Reef to Rainforest Media (Coral Magazine) - SaltwaterAquarium.com - Supreme Reefs WAMAS Banner-Only Sponsors - Cobalt Aquatics - Coralvue - Jellyfish Art - Live Aquaria - MASNA - Two Little Fishies Special Thanks Special thanks to Eureka Strategic Consulting of Columbia, MD, who (through a very generous donation) are (again) sponsoring our virtual meetings in 2022. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami February 10, 2022 Author Share February 10, 2022 It's hard to really capture just how exciting an opportunity it is to have Richard speak to the club. My hat's off to John Coppolino (Copps) who brought him to us. It's easy to Google Dr. Pyle and see just how much he's done over the years. You'll find his TED talk on YouTube, his articles and books everywhere, and much, much more. I found this partiicular webpage really enteraining. Take a peek and enjoy it if you have a little time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami February 22, 2022 Author Share February 22, 2022 Rich's topic for this meeting is: Exploring the Coral-Reef Twilight Zone: Where we've been. Where we are. And where we're headed. Rich will talk about how this all started and what's been found over the years. He'll update us on what he and others are doing now (e.g., XCoRE), and provide a glimpse into what is being planned. Special emphasis will be given to fishes of interest to the marine aquarist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 3, 2022 Author Share March 3, 2022 Adding five $25 gift certificates to the raffle prizes. Donated by Premium Aquatics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 3, 2022 Author Share March 3, 2022 A virtual raffle sign up thread has been posted here. Members: Sign up once (only) if you wish to participate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 3, 2022 Author Share March 3, 2022 How to Attend: Zoom or Facebook Livestream? This meeting will be available to a limited number of WAMAS members through our Zoom account; non-members (or members of their own choosing) can participate through the Facebook livestream. To participate through the Facebook livestream, you need to have a Facebook account and be a member of the WAMAS Facebook group. If you're not already a member of this group, you may want to request membership now because we may not be able to approve your request if things get too busy during the meeting. If you're a WAMAS member and are interested in attending the meeting on Zoom, please send me a PM with the subject "Zoom Request". Note also that I will not respond to requests until I have a full accounting of the situation which will probably be until just a few days before the meeting. If you don't hear from me right away, rest assured, though, that your request has not fallen into a black hole. Questions for the speaker are taken from both Facebook and Zoom attendees, so neither way of attending will offer an advantage in that sense. (Although questions from the Facebook audience are relayed to the speaker by the meeting moderator while those taken from Zoom can be more direct.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 13, 2022 Author Share March 13, 2022 Just a reminder, if you are attending the meeting and haven't yet signed up for the raffle, you need to do so before noon next Saturday. Sign up on this thread (once and only once please). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 18, 2022 Author Share March 18, 2022 Bumping this as a community service to remind people of tomorrow's meeting (WAMAS' annual meeting as required by our bylaws) featuring guest speaker, Rich Pyle. The meeting will be held virtually on Zoom and will also be live-streamed on Facebook to the WAMAS group there. If you are attending the meeting and haven't yet signed up for the raffle, you need to do so before noon next Saturday. Sign up on this thread (once and only once please). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 19, 2022 Author Share March 19, 2022 Last minute addition to the raffle courtesy of our wonderful sponsor, Reed Mariculture (maker of Reef Nutrition products)! Nancy over at Reed has generously provided... One gift card valued at $100 (plus an additional $30 that can be used to cover shipping costs) AND Two more gift cards valued at $50 (plus an additional $30 each that can be used to cover shipping). These are great products that, once you've tried them, you're bound to love. Our most sincere thanks to Nancy and Reed Mariculture for their generous support! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 19, 2022 Author Share March 19, 2022 Raffle sign up is closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 19, 2022 Author Share March 19, 2022 We're just about an hour away from the meeting. Come join us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 19, 2022 Author Share March 19, 2022 Great meeting! Rich is an exciting speaker - he's done so much. Here are the raffle results if anybody's wondering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 19, 2022 Author Share March 19, 2022 Also, during the meeting today, mention was made of Rich Pyle's rough introduction to the hazards of deep diving and his long road to recovery from the bends. This story is documented in an old article, Confessions of a Mortal Diver, still available on the web here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 19, 2022 Author Share March 19, 2022 Incumbents have been sentenced re-elected to another two year term. President: Tom Land, Origami Treasurer: Scott Friedman, Scott711 Membership Director: Nikki Bridges, ReefdUp Congratulations and thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary March 22, 2022 Share March 22, 2022 On 3/19/2022 at 4:33 PM, Origami said: Incumbents have been sentenced re-elected to another two year term. President: Tom Land, Origami Treasurer: Scott Friedman, Scott711 Membership Director: Nikki Bridges, ReefdUp Congratulations and thank you! Congratulations Tom, Scott, and Nikki, and thank you so much for your willingness to continue to serve! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts