I am inclined to agree with what Bill Shields said at the May TBAS meeting. Maybe one of the most important things I (we) have done in our aquarium years was to “put on” the AKA Convention 2000. There are very few times in a person’s life when they are able to really give back anything to that which has given us so much pleasure, in my case, for the last 32 years.
I remember sitting at the auction at the 1998 AKA Convention in Syracuse, NY and Charlie Nunziata sat down at the table. Now, here I am 1000+ miles from home and Charlie says he thinks the AKA board might really give us the bid for AKA 2000 if we worked to put together a good bid. I bit and that was all that was on my mind for several months until Charlie brought it up as a motion at one of our SKS meetings. I jumped big time, and some were “kinda maybe”, but no one really said “no” and we were off and running........for the next year and a half all of our lives were consumed with putting on this convention. From the very start the convention really had no chance. Charlie Nunziata had already been involved in 5 prior conventions and the organization he presented was perfect. Charlie proceeded to make a list of some ohhhh....say 20 jobs that needed to be accomplished in order to put on a successful convention. These jobs were split between the members and off we went to put all of the “parts” into the “whole” that was titled “Killies in the Bay...2000”. I could talk about this person and that person but I really want to mention two facets that absolutely stood out in the presentation of this convention. Number one........everyone who had a job to do did it, and not only did it, but took it personal and did their job 110%........I am told that one of the breakdowns of putting on a convention of this magnitude is that people don’t do their job. Number two.......in sitting around and watching the ‘99 and ‘98 conventions in Chicago and Syracuse I noticed that there is a real needed of a bunch of “unsung” workers on the days of the convention that had no real stake in the convention. The TBAS (Tampa Bay Aquarium Society) might just fit that bill. Several of the SKS members were also TBAS members so we asked TBAS if they would mind helping put on the convention.....no money.....just help. Well the response was simply overwhelming. From the time we opened the doors to set up the stands and put in the water at 9:00 Thursday morning until we shut down the hotel at 9:00 Sunday night there were TBAS members doing exactly what was asked of them. They were great and the convention would not have been what it was if Patty Moncrief (president TBAS) and her crew hadn’t put in some serious “overtime” to help see that this thing worked. The SKS and for sure the AKA is indeed eternally grateful to Patty and the TBAS group of truly “unsung” heroes. I really think that at this point TBAS and the Tampa Bay fish people in general have shown the world a little bit of Florida hospitality and organization, and in particular the ability of the TBAS group along with SKS and some of the Coastal Aquarium Society to form a united group and that we have a lot to offer the aquarium world and that in the future, should we decide, any future convention we would choose may well be turned in our direction because of the AKA 2000.....Killies in the Bay “party” that happened in Tampa on Memorial Day weekend 2000.

Isn’t the Tampa aquarium community just great!!!!!!!!