The Society's History
Written By Craig Morfitt
This month we are celebrating the ten year anniversary of the society so I thought it would be fitting to review the history of the society to date.
How many of the current members are aware that the society started life as the Bermuda Fry-Angle Fish Keepers and Breeders Club? Well, it's true. The club was formed at the inaugural meeting at my home on Tuesday, 14th March, 1989. The persons present at that meeting were myself, James Tavares, John Fryer, Sean Field, Linda Perry, Stuart Mason and Terry Maxwell. With the exception of Terry Maxwell, they were all members in that first year, together with Gail Correia, Dervin Wright, Bill Jack, Dai James and Norvell Wright. Ten years later I am the only one of the original members to be still active in the society. When the club was first formed we had no constitution or by-laws and it was simply decided by the founding members that I would be the President and James Tavares would be the Vice-President. In order to build up finances for the club, we agreed to pay an annual membership of $75. It was these initial membership fees that allowed the society to get off the ground. Meetings were held twice a month, on Monday evenings.
Within our first year, on 10th March, 1990, we put on our first fish show. The event was staged at the Freeemason's Hall on Reid Street, Hamilton. It was not a competitive show, rather a demonstration of aquaria. The show consisted of 18 decorated aquariums of various sizes, including 4 saltwater displays. There were also a number of 2-5 gallon tanks and betta-bowls on display. Admission was free and James Tavares (Tropical Fish World) handed out free goldfish to the visiting children. We held a colouring competition prior to the show that attracted 385 entries from various schools. The winners of each age category won goldfish bowls and all of the entries were displayed on the walls during the show.
During that first year, all meetings were held at the homes of members. However, on the14th of March, 1990, we were invited to use Shorelands at the Bermuda Aquarium as a meeting place. This continued to be our meeting place until last year when the building was renovated.
In the second year, 1990 - 1991, one of the new members was Eddie Neverson. Eddie is still a member today, making him the second-longest-serving member. In July of 1990 we joined the Federation of American Aquarium Societies and have remained a member since. On the 29th August, 1990, it was decided to shorten our name somewhat and we became the Bermuda Fry-Angle Aquarium Society. We attempted to create a junior section of the society in September that year. We held 5 weekly meetings on Saturday mornings but the response was insufficient to merit further meetings and the idea was shelved.
In year 3, 1991 - 1992, Gerry and Liz Price joined the society. Whilst they are not currently members, having allowed the memberships to lapse last year, they have both been very active members over the years, filling the posts of Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer between them.
On May, 1991, we held out first fish show. Unlike the first show, this was a competitive show with judges and speakers. It could be said that we went overboard that year, as we tried to emulate much larger shows at our first real attempt. The show ran for two days and was held in the Medical Hall building on Reid Street, Hamilton, for which we had to pay rent. We rented out booth space to the local pet-stores and ran our first silent-auction of products donated by overseas manufacturers. The auction made $745 that year but it didn't come close to covering all of our expenses. We were so new at this that we didn't even know what pipe-valves were. We had our air-blower connected to PVC piping, in which we had drilled holes and inserted small pieces of rigid plastic tubing to connect to the air-line. The only way that we could control the air-flow was to tie knots in the air-line going to each tank. We brought in four, yes four, speakers from overseas. Ginny Eckstein made her first appearance and judged the freshwater entries together with Jeff Cardwell. John O' Malley judged the saltwater entries. We had a speakers night at the Mariners Club and had intended to have all four speakers that night. Dr. Ken Reeves spoke on Discus and Fish Health, John O' Malley spoke on Marine Fish and Jeff Cardwell gave a presentation about one of his collecting trips. There was not enough time for Ginny to speak, so she gave her presentation, "Keep It Simple, Stupid", the following night at Shorelands. This was the first of three consecutive shows judged by Ginny and she became a firm favourite and a friend to many of us. She was certainly instrumental in helping us to get things right over the coming years and she therefore played an important role in the development of the society.
During 1991 we finally got around to drafting a constitution and by-laws. The documents were ratified by the membership and took effect on the 1st April, 1992, at the start of year 4. At the first Annual General Meeting, I was officially elected as President and Eddie Neverson became the Vice President. Mel Bennet was the first elected Secretary and Liz Price the first Treasurer.
September, 1992, saw the introduction of our newsletter, Fish Tales. We had tossed about the idea of a newsletter for some time but none of the members who had access to computers wished to take on the task. At that time I did not have a computer but I did acquire a Brother word-processor. The first issues therefore had the appearance of being simple type-written sheets.
On 10'th October, 1992, we held our 3rd fish show. It was the first time that we held the show in conjunction with the SPCA Fair at the Botanical Gardens. Ginny was the freshwater judge and Mr. Ed Bronikowski was the marine judge. This year also marked the first time that we held a show banquet in the main display hall of the Bermuda Aquarium.
In March, 1993, the meeting day was changed to Thursdays. The membership fee was also reduced from $75 per year to $40 per year. In May of that year, Tropical Fish World commenced its sponsorship of Fish Tales. In July, we staged a saltwater workshop at the Bermuda Aquarium. The workshop featured John O' Malley as the visiting speaker. This workshop reflected the growing number of members with an interest in marine aquariums. The lecture/workshop outlined the various types of specialised equipment for use on marine aquariums. Also, in the summer of 1993, the society took on responsibility for decorating and maintaining a tank in the Invertebrate House at the Bermuda Aquarium. A number of the members helped out with the collecting and the regular maintenance. Unfortunately, as time passed, fewer members were turning out to carry out the regular maintenance and we had to give up the project. In October, 1993, we held out 4th fish show. This marked Ginny Ecstein's third successive , and last , visit as a judge and speaker.
In January, 1994, we began our Breeders Award Programme. Jeremy Lodge agreed to run the programme and has been doing so ever since. Also in 1994, Fish Tales saw a series of changes. In March, I purchased a computer and was now using it to produce the newsletter whilst a junior member, Adam Archibald, began to produce nice graphic front covers on his computer. The newsletter had, by now, taken on a more local identity, with more locally written articles being printed. A number of the articles were submitted to the Federation of American Aquarium Societies` annual Publication Awards. Within another three months, the newsletter's appearance changed again. The newsletter began to be printed with two columns of text per page and we started to see graphics being introduced. By the 24th issue, published in September, 1994, I was producing the newsletter and the front cover on my computer.
In August of 1994 we had the pleasure of hosting Mr. Joe Ferdenzi, President of the Greater City Aquarium Society, as a visiting speaker. Joe was visiting the Island on vacation with his family and kindly offered to give a talk on killiefish.. Another first-time visitor that year was Rusty Wessel. Rusty was the judge and speaker for the 1994 fish show. Both Joe and Rusty have made a number of visits since, and have become good friends of the society. I also consider them both to be good personal friends.
Rusty returned to judge the 1995 fish show. There had been some questions earlier in the year as to whether or not the show should take place, as little preparation work had been done in the months leading up to the show. Only two entry forms had been received by the day prior to set-up day but the entries came rushing in on the day. All of the rental tanks were filled and the show was a success.
In 1996, the society decided to reduce the number of meetings to once per month. At the AGM that year, the membership fee was reduced from $40 to $20 per year. The membership decided that the society had built up a reserve of funds and was, by then, well established. It was hoped that the lower membership fees would encourage more persons to join.
The Home Show got its start in 1996. The freshwater show was in May and the saltwater in August. The Home Show has been an annual event since, although nobody seems willing or able to challenge Eddie Neverson in the saltwater division.
For the first time, in 1996 we created a show committee to deal with planning the annual fish show. The show would be the first one held in my absence, as I would be away on business. The committee concept worked well and we have maintained in for subsequent years. The 1996 judge and speaker was David Herlong who gave a presentation on African cichlids.
In 1997 the membership decided to boost the number of visiting speakers. Overseas speakers had pretty much been restricted to attending to judge the annual show. The cost of flights and accommodation had prevented more frequent speakers. However, Chris Roy offered free accommodation and some of the members decided to sponsor a percentage of the air-fare. The first speaker to visit under these arrangements was Joe Ferdenzi. Joe gave a talk at Chris' pool-side on Cup-Match weekend in August. A barbeque was organised and our families attended for an enjoyable evening. Joe' s visit did not cost the society anything. Furthermore, Joe brought in some fish that were auctioned and the society made around $400 from the event.
The 1997 fish show was judged by Lee Finley. Lee was chosen due to his expertise with catfish and he provided a change from the cichlid experts who had judged the previous three shows. Lee proved to be an excellent judge and speaker, as well as an all-around nice guy.
We saw more speakers in 1998. The first was Rusty Wessel, who visited in January. Rusty gave an interesting presentation on fish farms. He also brought in a quantity of fish for auction and we auctioned off some dry-goods. The event was a great success and raised $318 for the society and $865 for the American Cichlid Association' s Guy Jordan Fund.
In April the Discus fanciers had their wishes granted when David Lass visited us to give a talk. David showed a video and some slides of his home set-up and of discus breeders in Singapore and Hong Kong. David' s visit was sponsored by a group of Discus fanciers within the society, coordinated by Nyon Steede. A couple of months after his visit, David kindly sent over some fish that were auctioned at one of the monthly meetings. The auction raised a healthy sum for the society.
The third, and final, visiting speaker of 1998 was Dr. Wayne Leibel. Wayne was the judge and speaker for the 1998 fish show. Wayne proved to be a very friendly guy who happily shared his knowledge with the members. The Society is very fortunate to be able to attract such notable aquarists on a regular basis.
That brings us to the present, 1999, as we prepare to celebrate our 10th anniversary. I am very pleased that we have been able to arrange for Ginny Eckstein and Rusty Wessel to attend and speak at the anniversary celebration. They have both helped us tremendously in our development and we owe much to them both. The society is now very well established and is going from strength to strength. I can only hope that the next ten years are as enjoyable as the first ten have been.
