President’s Messages

Happy New Year!

The 2023 H&DAS Executive would like to thank everyone who attended our December Christmas Event. Thank you Noel N for hosting our game. Congratulations to the winners.

Our Neighbour to Neighbour Food Drive was a great success, raising 110 lbs of groceries and $1894.50 in donations! Thank you for all the donations at the raffle table. This event just keeps on getting bigger and better!

Frank Aguirre will be our 1st presenter of 2024. His presentation is on “Priapellas” or commonly known as Olmecan Blue Eyes. Did you know that Frank is the President of CAOAC- the Canadian Association of Aquarium Clubs?

Our Spring Show and Auction is on Saturday, March 23rd at the Waterdown Legion. Start getting your beautiful “Show” fish ready to win some cash. We are looking for volunteers to help us out. Please remember that many hands make light work.

Mike M picked up the New H&DAS T-shirts this week. If you haven’t yet paid for your shirt, you can pay at the meeting ($20).

Please remember to bring your fish for the Jar Show. Rainbow/Dwarf Cichlids/AOV.

Hope to see you Thursday!

Carla

Hi everyone!
Thank you Peter for your “Killie” program last month. It was really informative. Haydn Pounder will be presenting a program on “Guppies” at the meeting on Thurs Nov 9. Haydn is a very experienced Guppy expert, a IKGH Judge and will be the Head Judge at the World Guppy Show that’s being held here in Canada.

Our Fall Auction was a success with many hobbyists attending from the area and beyond. Thank you to those that come out and helped to support. It takes many volunteers to help run these events. We could sure use a few more hands so please consider helping us out. Also a big thank you to Big Al’s for their kind Donation and all the vendors that supported the auction.

Our December 14 meeting is about Giving Back to our community. We chose to help Neighbour to Neighbour years ago, as there are many families that need help during the holiday season. We ask that everyone please bring a few non-perishable food items or make a cash donation. We will also have a raffle table with items (items kindly donated by the membership). These items do not need to be fish related. All money raised will be matched by the club to help support our friends at N2N. Noel will be back with a Fish related Game. We will share Pizza and Wings during our break. Please sign up if you will be attending.

Remember to bring your Jar Show entries – Shrimps/Barbs/any other variety.

Carla

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’re all having a great summer. It looks like we’ve all been cutting a lot of green grass with the rain we’ve had. The cooler mornings and evenings are telling us that Fall is very close. And here we go again, kids back to school and H&DAS starting back with its 23/24 season.

Our guest Speaker on Thursday September 14th will be Peter DeSouza giving us a full presentation on his travels in Cameroon. There will also be a Jar Show with Tetras and Corydoras as the Show Classes. Prizes are 1st – $30, 2nd – $20 and 3rd – $10 gift cards.

Pet Expo is September 16 and 17th at the Toronto International Center. I have some weekend passes available to anyone wanting to come out and volunteer for a few hours either day. I will need to know if you’d like a pass by September 1st. There will be many speakers including Chris Biggs, Joey Mullen, Jeff Cardwell, Jennifer Williams, Therese Neal and more. There is an Aquascape Contest, 4th Canadian Biotope Contest, Presidents Tank Challenge. Many aquatic vendors and CAOAC Tropical Fish Show, TransCanada Guppy Show and Auction, Betta Breeders Canada Show and Auction. If you’d like tickets go to the CAOAC website for discounted pricing.

The H&DAS Fall Auction will be on Saturday October 14th at the Waterdown Legion. We will also have an area for Vendors. The cost per table is $35. Please contact me if you’re interested.

Carla

Hi Everyone,

Looks like we might have Spring!

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and those of us with ponds and outdoor fish style accessories are excited to get them up and going. I’m one of those people.

I’d like to send out a big thank you to our guest speaker last month Oscar Virgilio for his program on Brackish Aquaria. Our very own Jessica Bullock will be presenting this month. “From the literature to the lab; adventures in cichlid research. An aquarist’s perspective of how fish are studied and used in science.” I’m sure Jessica will have us all asking lots of questions. I can’t wait!

We are going to be presenting our program this month on Zoom for anyone that can’t make it to our meeting. If you would like the information to attend on Zoom please send your request to info@hdas.ca

Save the date:

Canadian Pet Expo – Saturday September 16 and Sunday September 17 at the International Center

It’s 4 expos under 1 roof: Canadian Pet Expo, Canadian Reptile Breeders Expo, Canadian Aquatic Expo, and Plant Expo.

Saturday October 14, 2023 – Hamilton & District Aquarium Society Fall Auction

We hope to see you at the meeting on Thursday, the meeting starts at 7:30 sharp.

Carla

Hi Everyone!

How’s everyone doing after our amazing H&DAS auction and show. Wow! What a great turnout. It was great to see so many friends come out to support our club. Special thanks to everyone that came out to help and all our supporters for donations. We just can’t do this without you all. All dates for upcoming auctions are posted at CAOAC.ca/events

Another thank you Frank Aguirre for his presentation last month on Stingrays. I hope everyone enjoyed this program. Our presenter for Apr 13 is Oscar Virgilio. Oscar will be giving a talk on Brackish Aquaria.
Save the Date – CAOAC Full Convention at Pet Expo – Sat Sept 16 and Sun Sept 17.
Lots of information will be available very soon.
Hope to see you at the meeting this week. Please remember the meeting starts at 7:30.

Carla
H&DAS President
Auction Chairperson
CAOAC Rep

Happy February Everyone,

Well,I thought last month’s message was my last one as your President but I am still here for one more!
That’s right, one more!

I want to thank Larry Johnson for his first part of his talk on his recent trip Malawi. Larry will be continuing his talk this month on Thursday February 9th at 7:30pm.

In all my life being in Various Organization executive Committees I’ve been on , I have seen an election this close! We have a tie for President and 2nd Vice President.

I want to congratulate Tamera Peattie being elected 1st Vice. Tamera brings a lot of experience in the hobby and will be a key person on the executive.

So we have a re-election to see if this Tie will be broken.

We have the following Candidates tied up in there position running for and a vote will take place again at our next meeting on February 9th .

For President
Carla MacDonald
Quinn Purser

2nd Vice
Bobby
James Holland

During our past Executive Meeting we discussed and voted on this election.

In Order to Vote, You MUST be a paid member as of January 12th 20223.
There will be NO electronic Votes. You must be in person to Vote.
No proxy votes will be taken.
To all members who are eligible to Vote, They must confirm with our secretary that they are an up to date paid member..During this time you will get a ballot to vote.

Good Luck to all Candidates

Spring Show and Auction

Mark the date on your calender, March 25th 2023. Doors open at 8am. Follow this link to learn more!

Spring Show & Auction 

Just remember Volunteers are always needed. Please let us know!

Sponsors

Rainforest Pets and Reptiles
Big Als Hamilton
Tropical Fishroom
Finest Pets
Make sure you go visit and support them. Our Sponsors allow you to get a HDAS discount on your purchases with proof of a valid membership card.

Just a reminder the our Library is closing down and we have some books left over with a charitable donation you can own one. All money raised from the book sales will go to Neighbor-to-Neighbor .

For the Last Time I just want to thank everyone who supporting me while I was President. It means a lot to me. Please keep on Supporting this amazing club .Make it bigger and stronger.

Kindly Regards
Mike Majer
Future Past President

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope everyone had an amazing Holiday Season.

I just wanted to thank everyone who came out to our Christmas Party and helped us raise $1472 for Neighbor to Neighbor!

To Noel Nathaniel, a special thank you for organizing another fun game on Kahoot! It was nice to hear everyone laughing and enjoying themselves.

This month we have our own Larry Johnson speaking to us on Adventures in Malawi. Larry  was there recently and went diving for cichlids with his guests. Larry does take amazing underwater pictures that we will for sure see. The meeting is on Thursday January 12th at 7:30pm at the Church of Resurrection 435 Mohawk Rd W. In the basement in the hall room.

I just want to thank again our wonderful sponsors:

The Tropical Fishroom

Big Als Hamilton

Finest Pets

Planted Aquaria

Rainforest Pets and Reptiles.

Just make sure all members show your up-to-date membership cards to get your discounts.

This is my final Presidents Message. I’d like to thank everyone who has supported  me and H&DAS. To my fellow executives, thank you! I might not be president but I will still be around to help out when needed.

ELECTIONS

Hamilton and District Aquarium Society will be holding an Election For President, 1st Vice-President and 2nd Vice-President at the January Meeting.

The Nominees are..

For President:

Carla MacDonald

Quinn Purser

1st Vice:

Jessica Bullock

Tamera Peattie

2nd Vice:

Bobby

David Walpac

James Holland

Voters must be up-to-date paid members to be eligible to vote.

Everyone will receive an email in a few days with a list of all the Candidates and little information about them. If you can’t make it to the meeting to vote, you can vote by email. Voting ballots will be available at the meeting, too.

The Election will be monitored by the Steering Committee:

1st-Peter DeSouza

2nd-Margaret Dent

3rd-Mike Majer

I’d like to wish all the candidates good luck!

For the last time

President Mike Majer

Signing Off

I hope everyone is well and getting ready for this Holiday Season.

I want to thank Brian Glazier for great presentation on Swordtails last month. And showing us how to  enter a fish towards Breeders Awards Program.

This month is our Holiday Party!

An email has been sent out to all paid members to get a confirmation if your coming and how many people. If you haven’t received an email, please email us at info@hdas.ca .

We have games very generously arranged by Noel, he always brings something fun for us.
Our raffle table will have amazing items, bring something to donate; items do not need to be aquarium-related. All money raised on our raffle table will go towards to Neighbour-to-Neighbour. H&DAS will match the money raised during the party and add to the donation.

Our Books are still for sale. Again, all Money raised on book will go towards N2N.

As you know our 1st VP Steve Fyfe has stepped down from his position. I also want to announce that our 2nd VP Rob Chatelain has stepped down from his position. I would like to thank them both for their dedication towards the club.

I would like to announce that I Mike Majer will not be running for President next term. As you all know that I am battling some health issues, in the upcoming new year I will be having procedures done that will need time to heal. Don’t worry. I will not be like the US past presidents and go into hiding. I will still be around in a way or form and be the pain as normal.

I would like to thank my executive and board members for all their hard work and dedication towards the club.

To all you Club members.
On behalf of Steve, Rob and Myself. Thank you for support of H&DAS. The club wouldn’t be around without your dedication towards the hobby.

Now saying this, We will be having an election in January. All nominations will close at this month’s meeting. If you would like to nominate someone or yourself please email me or at info@hdas.ca..

There will be more posted on the Elections soon.

Don’t forget to visit our sponsors this holiday season:
The Tropical Fishroom
Big Al’s Hamilton
Planted Aquaria
Finest Pets
Rainforest Pets and Reptiles
Please follow the guidelines on getting your club discount. You must have a valid membership to get your discount and please follow each of our sponsor’s rules.

Again I just want to thank everyone.

Mike Majer
President
president@hdas.ca