Call to order 8:09 PM
1) President’s Report (Charles Scannell)
Article was submitted to Fancy Publications on MASNA AND MACNA. Working on another ARTICLE for AFM. Sent out Bid invitations for MACNA XVI. No official bids sent in yet although there is one club I know of working on submitting one.
2)Vice President/Director of Fundraising/Scholarships (Tom Walsh)
No new donations for the auction since last month, I believe you all have an up to date list of what we have. Next will be to decide when auction begins and how we publicize it.
3)Secretary (Jennifer Myerscough –absent)
Moved by Chuck, seconded by Nancy to accept February minutes as published. Carried.
4) Treasurer/Webmaster (Nancy Swart)
February 2003 Treasurer's Report
$0.00 Income
$1077.49 Expenses
$2428.86 Balance as of 2/28/03
That balance reflects a $300 advance to Sandy and $700 to JB for USCRTF.
Webmaster’s Report
The website is current.
5) Director of Public Relations/Membership (Lee Morey,)
Reefcentral.org formally joined as a MASNA corporate sponsor. Two requests from clubs for info that I need to send out, and several clubs are asking me about sharing content for clubs’ newsletters.
6) Newsletter Editor (Sandy Shoup)
Spring 2003 newsletter mailed today. I am having trouble getting .pdf to Nancy for website.
Deadline for next newsletter is MAY 15TH!!!
7)MAC/USCRTF (John Brandt)
MAC:
The PI was awesome. It was really an incredible experience to watch the net collectors in action. Great to know that at least one part of the PI is drug-free. I visited 3 exporters as well, very large operations, well run and with enormous numbers of fish. MAC fish are segregated. The full report is forthcoming.
There will be articles in a number of publications, a very nice Danish science magazine will have an article this summer. I took about 360 photos, most of them are excellent, and Mike King got nearly everything on video. The graduation ceremony for the new MAC -Certified collectors was a really nice and emotional event. The collectors take this MAC Certification very seriously! They were very impressed that a MAC BOD member and MASNA BOD member had come all the way from Chicago to be with them at the graduation. All their wives and kids were there. It was very exciting, I got choked up in my address. These men are heroes.
From Mike King: Well, I sent some netting over with John to get to Ferdinand Cruz for distribution. I did it as a thank you for the collectors I met with. Seemed better than sending flowers.
John Brandt: Netting was given out to the new grads as well, and each of them also got a new set of goggles.
Mike King: Ferdinand is actually in the US right now, and he is going to take back the other 200 feet of netting.
USCRTF:
They won't be writing any legislation for the trade in any foreseeable future. That was the big thing for the trade, there are quite a number of environmental issues that were covered. Great improvements happening on many fronts with respect to coastal pollution, cruise ship regulations on dumping, cable company restrictions (those that lay cable across reefs), and a big project in South Florida to restore much of the flow through the Everglades. Many are looking for improvements in the Florida Bay and the Keys because of it. Bunches of other stuff, that you'll see in my report, but no bombshells in the aquarium industry. They were happy about the CITES listing for seahorses. Finally got to meet Gail Norton.
There is no new business.
There is no old business.
Motion to adjourn by Chuck at 9:40 PM, seconded by Sandy.
Carried.
