| NEWS
2006 FAAS Publication Awards
All entries must be postmarked by January 31, 2007 and sent to
Don Miller:
11472 Armstrong Drive South
Saginaw, MI 48609-9691
Pub Award Form (94K PDF, Save Enabled)
Categories & Guidelines (80K PDF)
May 2006 and Fall 2006 Federation Reports Posted
You can download a PDF of the FR here.
Join FAAS Today!
Click here to download our Aquarium Society Membership Application (51K PDF)
|
Letter from the President
12/18/2006
Rick Borstein, FAAS President
Best Wishes for the holiday season!
Over the last few weeks, it has been my pleasure to speak with many FAAS directors and club delegates on the telephone. Since FAAS is a virtual organization for the most part, I felt the need to connect with everyone, and not just rely on email.
In these conversations, I was able to share some of my thoughts about FAAS and hear what folks wanted to get from our organization.
Firstly, we are suspending all member dues for the 2007 year. We need to prove to you that FAAS is relevant and worthwhile. Secondly, we are actively seeking to get every fish club in North America into our database.
FAAS has been in existence for over 30 years. Any organization should periodically review their programs and operations. That's what we're doing.
We'll keep what is working, discontinue what is broken or has little participation, and look for new opportunities to help aquarium societies.
The FAAS Board of Directors believes our organization should focus on the following three areas:
- A place where best practices can be shared
- A place to find resources and programming
- A place to get new aquarium clubs started
What do we mean by that?
- Best Practices
Articles and other content on how to best run and market your club. E.g.
What is the best way to run an auction? How can the club best use the web? How do you run a a swap meet?
- Resources and Programming
A national list of speakers and digital slideshows with audio to use for your monthly speaker
- Help New Aquarium Clubs
Articles of Incorporation, funding ideas, how to find a meeting location, and other information to help get a new club off the ground
FAAS is primarily an organization that serves the operating members— e.g. Board Members— of aquarium societies. Given our limited resources, we should not duplicate or supplant programs that should already be in place at the local society level.
For this reason, we are considering dropping the following programs:
- Breeders Award Program
- Horticulture Award Program
- Show Sanctioning Program
- Medallion Program
We believe that local societies should run the above programs and provide recognition to their members.
We intend to keep the following programs:
- Publication Award Program
- Legislation Review
FAAS is not an ordinary resource for the aquarium hobbyist. This distinction is important.
FAAS is about running a fish club, not about your fish per se.
There are a great many resources available to hobbyists already. We do not want to duplicate effort or content that already exists on the web or is readily available elsewhere.
So, you can expect us to "stick to our knitting". The FAAS Board of Directors is busy working on content for the website and programming.
Stick with us. It will be worth it!
|
