As my term as Wasatch Marine Aquarium Society President
comes to a close. I wanted to take a
moment to reflect on our 2017.
My goals this year to not only increase attendance and
memberships but to also increase our engagement. My goals were modest but the group blew me
away!
WMAS worked to get feedback from members and help make
improvements.
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We tried something new this year with our FragFest. We partnered with local stores (A Reef Oasis
and Rusty’s Reefs) to have them buy and bring in coral for us that we then
bought from them. We fragged them a week
before the event and let members view them at the stores. This was a win/win/win for our members, our
LFS and our group. At the FragFest we
had members picking out of frag tanks instead of grabbing bags. Feedback was very positive with this change.
We made these improvements because of your feedback, please
share your feedback in what we can do to make this a better community! There is always more we can do to improve.
I felt our POTM really stepped it up, we had some
awesome entries in each month.
Had a blast at the Winter Banquet at SeaQuest.
One of our more popular events is our Holiday Potluck, just
a chance to meet and hang out.
If you weren’t aware, WMAS is a 503 nonprofit entity, the
money we get to pay for our building, door prizes, events, speakers all comes
from fundraising, paid memberships and donations. Any funds we receive go back into club 100%. We
were able to do a lot this year because of you, our members. I really want to thank you for your support
in what was a banner year for us. We
have some great things planned for next year.
This isn't every business who helped WMAS in 2017 but I want to acknowledge the group below for your help and support.
Aquatic Dreams, Coral Life, Driftwood Aquarium Furniture, SeaQuest
Aquarium, Benepets, Rusty’s Reefs, A Reef Oasis, Reef On, Reef Legends, Reef
Kingdom, C&C Candies, D and F’s Salty Heaven, Wasatch Reptile Show, Bulk
Reef Supply, The Fish Tank
I also want to give a big thanks to our all voluntary
Presidency for 2017:
Ayla Wimett, Dennis Wimett, Kenzy Hogan, Eddy Hogan, Faith
Emrazian, Theresa White, David White, Paul Ricketts, Landon Daly, Dion Richins,
Nicole Prettyman, Shaun Sabey and Kevin Youngberg for everything you did this
year and your support of WMAS.
Thank you Jeff Stephenson for being the best Vice I would
have asked for!
Thanks for all our Past Presidency who have helped
support us throughout the year.
Been a wild and crazy 6 years for me in Presidency and last two as
Vice/President. Looking forward to
moving to Past Presidency and helping out there. I am really excited to see what 2018 brings
us and what Jeff and Theresa and our 2018 Presidency has in-store. Thanks again!
Here is to 2017 and 2018 ahead.
Sincerely,
Jon Dinchak