I'm pleased to announce your 2012 Regional Trustees!  Please take a moment and thank those that served in 2011 and congratulate those starting to or continuing to serve as trustees in 2012.

Waterloo / Cedar Falls
Jeremy Meyer (Waverz)
Casey Schares (ruggerkc)

Cedar Rapids / Iowa City
Andy Long (Andy the Reef Guy)
Bob Boone (bobsfish)

Des Moines
Stew Moore (stew)
Nick Ball (Nik)

Quad Cities
Joe Eckman (greenonion)
Bill Kennedy (einsteins)

We've scheduled the annual GIRS Business Meeting for Saturday, February 4th at the Coralville Country Inns and Suites.  It's just off of I-80, near Coralridge Mall.  Time is yet to be determined.

Like last year, we have some great raffle prizes for this event.  It will be worth attending even if the raffle is the only motivation for going.  Pizza and beverages will also be provided.

This years meeting will be packed and may go longer than those in the past due to the amount of material to cover.  Modifications to the club Constitution and By-Laws will be discussed and voted on.  Standard things like Member of the Year award, review of the club finances, overview of MACNA, and a recap of the year will also be done.  We'll also have a brand new group of officers to introduce, new trustees to introduce and more.

Mark the date on your calendars and we'll see you there!

Please take a moment to congratulate your new officers!  The nomination process was uncontested for all offices.

President - Mike Thompson (mthomp)
Vice President - Matt Nelsen (ninjazx777)
Treasurer - Joe Stuetelberg (flyingmorray)
Secretary - Jeanette Becker (beckerj3)

Please take a moment to congratulate each of them and thank them for being willing to volunteer their time to serve the club.

MACNA 2011 is approaching quickly.   Are you ready?   Have you purchased your passes yet?  Hotel rooms booked?   If you are involved in the marine aquarium hobby, this is NOT an event you want to miss.

With only 2 months until the doors open, we are officially on the home stretch to MACNA 2011!  

We will be holding weekly planning meetings in the GIRS chat room between now and the event.  Please see the sticky post in the MACNA 2011 Club member forum for more details.   We would like to encourage our club members to get involved and help show why GIRS is up there with the best clubs in the country!

I want to take a moment and mention a recent change in the Regional Trustees for the Des Moines area.  First, I would like to thank Austin Reynolds for his many years of service as a Regional Trustee for the Des Moines area.  You were one of the Trustees involved in turning the Des Moines area around, from having little local involvement, to being one of the most active regional areas in the club.  Your contributions to local meetings and work on Spring and Fall Fests has really been appreciated.  Thank you Austin!

Next, I would like to welcome Matt Nelson (ninjazx777) as the new Regional Trustee for the Des Moines area.  Matt has been an active member of the club for many years.  He has a wealth of knowledge in the hobby and a passion for the club.  His willingness to step up to a challenge and help others has always been something I've admired about Matt.  I look forward to Matt's contributions to his local area activities, and the club as a whole.  Welcome Matt!

Please take a moment and thank Austin for his many years of service to the club and welcome Matt as our newest Trustee.

Congratulations to Jason Brunken and Joel Tesdall for being awarded the Member of the Year awards.  Since we did not have the business meeting last year, we awarded for both 2009 and 2010.  Jason won for 2009 for his hard work on both the website and Fall Fest 2009.  Joel won for 2010 for his contributions to development and documentation of club procedures and for his work on Spring Fest 2010.  Please take a moment and congratulate these guys!

On January 29th, 2011, we'll be having a business meeting in Coralville, IA.  This is the annual club meeting where we will be discussing the activities of 2010, goals for 2011, how the club is doing financially, getting an update on MACNA, among other interesting topics.  There will also be a great raffle in which all members in attendance will be recieving free tickets!  We hope to see you there.  Details about the meeting are as follows: 

Just a reminder to GIRS members that we have a Pet Store directory on the site.  It's located in the Resources menu.  This directory lists almost 30 pet stores from all across the state of Iowa that sell supplies or livestock pertaining to marine aquaria.  Included in the listing is a link to their website and a link to a map where they are located if that information was available.  We also have all of the Lincoln/Omaha stores listed in there as well for our members on the west side of the state.  If you know of a pet store that's not listed, has moved, or has closed, please let me know and I can update the directory to be as current as possible.  Click the 'Read More...' link below to visit the Pet Store Directory

Christmas Party

They are located in Waukee right off Hickman Road (Highway 6) in the middle of a long strip mall on the south side of the road.

We will be providing pizza and drinks.  Anything else you want will be extra.  Also anyone who is interested in doing a Secret Santa Frag Swap please bring a frag and please mark them as either easy or advanced so no one goes home with a frag they can not take care of.
 
Also Joe will be taking requests for songs as he will be singing Karaoke!