Entropy
08/15/2007, 09:21 PM
The meeting at James house (Headless Donkey) started about 3pm with everyone rolling in over about 30 minutes time. For those of us coming from North Austin, both Mopac and I35 where bumper to bumper (SURPRISE!) so we got to sit in traffic. I guess we where not the only ones going somewhere on a Saturday afternoon.
Anyway after the crowd was assembled everyone spent about 30 minutes talking and making some introductions. James house was a nice setting since it has a tank of some kind in just about every room. We did not get to see the 500g super reef hidden in the “dog room”, but I guess everyone has to have their secrets. There were plenty of cold sodas and some yummy snacks to munch on and I have to give it to James and Jennifer for being excellent hosts.
As soon as everyone more or less settled in, James gave a presentation on supplements (mainly calcium and magnesium). John from Kingfish Aquariums also added some useful information on magnesium and I think we all came away with a better idea of the importance of the main elements needed for a healthy reef. The video is in the meeting archive section. I am also pretty sure several people came away with a magnesium complex.
This conversation was actually an excellent lead into the next presentation, which was given by John from Kingfish Aquariums on calcium reactors. Unfortunately for me the presentation was given in Latin, which I failed in high school. Looking around the room, everyone else seemed to understand it though, so either Austinites as a whole are fluent in Latin or I am just a noob! John fielded a bunch of questions and I was glad I was not the one standing up there athough after watching the video (again in the meeting archives) it turns out my ugly mug was in the shot the entire time.
Next Ocean Homes (Fredrick?) showed us the next evolution of the Lumenarc (or the Lumen something or another). It was pretty awesome and I think it will sell very well once it hits the market.
After this we took a short break and I tried to walk off with the reflector. I had it about half way to my car before I was tackled by security. I had no idea that ARC had the budget to bring in security, but note to self for next time.
The next event was the coveted door prize give away (and no that is not the only reason I showed up). We had several nice offerings including a huge test kit of some kind from Austin Aquatic Innovations (again in Latin ) that a lot of people were drooling over, a Koralia 4 powerhead from Deep Blue Aquariums, an awesome little nano tank complete with accessories and several supplement goodies from River City Aquariums, several gift certificates from Aquatek, and some other goodies. I scored the Koralia pump (yes I rigged the drawing). :D
Shortly after the door prize giveaway we moved on to an informal auction to benefit Steve at Horizon Aquatics. The amount and quality of frags was pretty impressive and I think Kat summed it up best when she said, “obviously Austin Reefers (and a few of San Antonio finest too) are made of a higher grade”. It was hilarious to seem some of the bidders significant others cringe at the amount of newly won frags piling up as the event went on. Needless to say there are some very generous (and wealthy?) people in our club. I believe Kat said ARC raised over $1000, which seems incredible to me.
That was pretty much the highlights of the meeting. After the auction things started to wrap up and the people started shuffling out.
I would like to add that I personally had a great time and it was nice to meet a bunch of new people. I didn’t catch anywhere near enough names, and I wish I had recorded the meeting a bit better. It was my first meeting and I was more or less just soaking everything in. If I made any mistakes above (especially with the names) please forgive me and I know for sure I left out at least two people (Captain Bob for one). I would like to do a better job next time and hopefully get a roll sheet or something along with better exposure for our generous local business who donated either time or prizes (or both).
Anyway after the crowd was assembled everyone spent about 30 minutes talking and making some introductions. James house was a nice setting since it has a tank of some kind in just about every room. We did not get to see the 500g super reef hidden in the “dog room”, but I guess everyone has to have their secrets. There were plenty of cold sodas and some yummy snacks to munch on and I have to give it to James and Jennifer for being excellent hosts.
As soon as everyone more or less settled in, James gave a presentation on supplements (mainly calcium and magnesium). John from Kingfish Aquariums also added some useful information on magnesium and I think we all came away with a better idea of the importance of the main elements needed for a healthy reef. The video is in the meeting archive section. I am also pretty sure several people came away with a magnesium complex.
This conversation was actually an excellent lead into the next presentation, which was given by John from Kingfish Aquariums on calcium reactors. Unfortunately for me the presentation was given in Latin, which I failed in high school. Looking around the room, everyone else seemed to understand it though, so either Austinites as a whole are fluent in Latin or I am just a noob! John fielded a bunch of questions and I was glad I was not the one standing up there athough after watching the video (again in the meeting archives) it turns out my ugly mug was in the shot the entire time.
Next Ocean Homes (Fredrick?) showed us the next evolution of the Lumenarc (or the Lumen something or another). It was pretty awesome and I think it will sell very well once it hits the market.
After this we took a short break and I tried to walk off with the reflector. I had it about half way to my car before I was tackled by security. I had no idea that ARC had the budget to bring in security, but note to self for next time.
The next event was the coveted door prize give away (and no that is not the only reason I showed up). We had several nice offerings including a huge test kit of some kind from Austin Aquatic Innovations (again in Latin ) that a lot of people were drooling over, a Koralia 4 powerhead from Deep Blue Aquariums, an awesome little nano tank complete with accessories and several supplement goodies from River City Aquariums, several gift certificates from Aquatek, and some other goodies. I scored the Koralia pump (yes I rigged the drawing). :D
Shortly after the door prize giveaway we moved on to an informal auction to benefit Steve at Horizon Aquatics. The amount and quality of frags was pretty impressive and I think Kat summed it up best when she said, “obviously Austin Reefers (and a few of San Antonio finest too) are made of a higher grade”. It was hilarious to seem some of the bidders significant others cringe at the amount of newly won frags piling up as the event went on. Needless to say there are some very generous (and wealthy?) people in our club. I believe Kat said ARC raised over $1000, which seems incredible to me.
That was pretty much the highlights of the meeting. After the auction things started to wrap up and the people started shuffling out.
I would like to add that I personally had a great time and it was nice to meet a bunch of new people. I didn’t catch anywhere near enough names, and I wish I had recorded the meeting a bit better. It was my first meeting and I was more or less just soaking everything in. If I made any mistakes above (especially with the names) please forgive me and I know for sure I left out at least two people (Captain Bob for one). I would like to do a better job next time and hopefully get a roll sheet or something along with better exposure for our generous local business who donated either time or prizes (or both).