ASH
11/06/2006, 06:03 PM
I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the club's 2nd annual event held at the Calvert Marine Museum on November 4th. My topic was Low Impact Reef Tanks. My wife Sue and I made the drive Friday and got to enjoy the fall foliage trip we missed in NJ this year but it was still in full force in Maryland. I had met Mike Howell, the club's president at MACNA this past September. When we arrived at the hotel we were met by Mike and a welcome basket in our room. We had dinner at Mike and Susan's home that night and got to spend some time with Steven Pro, the other speaker and a host of next years MACNA in Pittsburgh (and a hard act to follow at the meeting) .
The room was great, actually better than that, with a grand view of the marina. On Saturday we toured the museum, bought a nice frag that was part of the get-together and presented my first power point presentation. The venue was perfect. I did a VorTech Pump show & tell that anyone who missed MACNA, missed. I also demonstrated a 54-watt LED prototype made for IceCap by ARAD in NY. The turnout was much better than their first year's.
Everyone was so nice and genuine I realized how lucky I was to see a part of the country that wasn't that far away, but off the beaten path. Mike and Susan, and their lucky son Andrew who won the IceCap spot pendant system, made us feel like royalty. I'm used to the fact that reefers in general are a cut above the normal crowd but I wasn't prepared for the non-stop attention to detail the club exhibited. If ever there was a poster child to show how even a small group can make a large presence in the hobby, this is my nominee. There's no substitute for the real thing.
Coming home was nice but leaving such welcoming friends was a loss. Any hobbyist within driving range should look into joining a support group / reef club that welcomes all like family. I hope to repeat the trip again but my level of expectations now would be hard to top.
Sincerely,
Andy Howard
IceCap, Inc.
The room was great, actually better than that, with a grand view of the marina. On Saturday we toured the museum, bought a nice frag that was part of the get-together and presented my first power point presentation. The venue was perfect. I did a VorTech Pump show & tell that anyone who missed MACNA, missed. I also demonstrated a 54-watt LED prototype made for IceCap by ARAD in NY. The turnout was much better than their first year's.
Everyone was so nice and genuine I realized how lucky I was to see a part of the country that wasn't that far away, but off the beaten path. Mike and Susan, and their lucky son Andrew who won the IceCap spot pendant system, made us feel like royalty. I'm used to the fact that reefers in general are a cut above the normal crowd but I wasn't prepared for the non-stop attention to detail the club exhibited. If ever there was a poster child to show how even a small group can make a large presence in the hobby, this is my nominee. There's no substitute for the real thing.
Coming home was nice but leaving such welcoming friends was a loss. Any hobbyist within driving range should look into joining a support group / reef club that welcomes all like family. I hope to repeat the trip again but my level of expectations now would be hard to top.
Sincerely,
Andy Howard
IceCap, Inc.