2010 ACA

[sskruzr]

Here's the link. Milwaukee July 22-25.

http://www.aca2010.com/

[etheonut]

I am going this year.

Kevin

[dennysfishroom]

My dues are due this month, but we're planning on attending at this time. We may try to see some of our old haunts while we're there, too. We once lived in Madison for about 3 years. Denny

[tjudy]

Awesome! You beat me to the punch. Yes, the registration store is open for ACA 2010. Please stop in for one-stop shopping for everything from ACA memberships to sponsorships. If you are attending as a vendor all the information you need is on the site as well. www.aca2010.com

Would you like a reduced-rate subscription to TFH magazine? TFH is offering a $9.99 digital subscription (reg. $13.95) to all ACA 2010 registrants. When you register for the convention you will receive a link to go to and a code to use to get your discounted rate.

See you all in Milwaukee!

[dennysfishroom]

Well, I booked my rooms for the 2010 ACA this weekend. I wasn't exactly sure which night to book, but decided on Thurs-Fri-Sat. We're going to go there as part of our vacation, so I'm not sure what else we'll be doing. We'll probably try to do our other sight-seeing before the meeting just in case I'd buy any fish at the auction. I'm figuring I can always cancel the reservation for Thursday night if we get too busy on the way up there. I'll have to remember to make our convention reservations sometime this spring or early summer. Denny

[tjudy]

Options for a youth registration and the ACA junior membership have been added for teens between 14 - 18 who want to attend the convention on their own. Children under 14 are welcome with their parent/guardian without a registration.

[Herpchat]

Well if all goes to plan it will be a lot closer next year as we are planning on putting it on.

[tjudy]

Do you have an angelfish to enter into the show? ACA 2010 is happy to announce that The Angelfish Society will be holding their first sanctioned show in conjunction with the ACA show this summer. You can enter your angel in both and have a chance at winning more awards. For more information take a look at http://www.aca2010.com/show/the-angelfish-society-sanctioned-show.

[tjudy]

Here are some links to two down-loadable documents that can help promote the convention. The single-page flier can be used as a quick handout at a club event or as an advertisement printed in a club journal. The pamphlet is a trifold pamphlet that includes paper registration forms and information. Feel free to use them at your club events or to distribute them to people who may want them... with our sincere thanks for doing so!

single-page flyer: http://www.aca2010.com/pdf/club_print_ad.pdf

tri-fold pamphlet: http://www.aca2010.com/pdf/pamphlet.pdf

[tjudy]

The speaker schedule is now published. See the following link:

http://www.aca2010.com/pdf/SChedule_April_27.pdf

The due dates for show entries and rental tank reservations is fast approaching. If you are planning to show or sell fish the time to register is now.

The hotel is filling up fast, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. We do have an overflow hotel available if you register late and miss out on getting into the show hotel. I will have a confirmation number for the overflow hotel once the need for it kicks in.

For all your registrations, convention purchases and information needs, please go to www.aca2010.com.

[etheonut]

Once again life (making ends meet) gets in the way. I will be working the whole month of July this year .

Kevin

[tjudy]

Two ACA 2010 announcements today:

Registration for show entries and rental tanks has been extended to July 1. For more information about showing fish or renting tanks, see the following links:

Fish Show: http://www.aca2010.com/show

Rental Tanks: http://www.aca2010.com/rental-room-tanks

A Saturday-only vendor table option has been added. If you would like to come to the convention for one day to sell items in the vendor room, go to:

http://www.aca2010.com/vendor

[tjudy]

Here is a link to the new writable PDF show entry form. Thank you Rick Borstein for creating this very useful form. Show entries are due July 1, 2010. Entries are purchased with convention registration at www.aca2010.com, and this entry form is mailed separately. You can also send it with your registration if you are mailing it all in with a check. Do not forget that for every five entries you can enter a sixth fish at no extra charge.

http://www.aca2010.com/wp-content/images/ACA2010_Show_Entry_Form_RE.pdf


See you in Milwaukee!!!

[tjudy]

It is time to sign up for the Aquarium Beautiful competition. If you are coming to the convention and would like to represent your local aquarium club in a fun contest for a trophy and bragging rights.... Read on!

This contest will team an aquarium club with a commercial fish farmer to set up, decorate and stock a display aquarium using the labor of the team, and aquarium display donated by United Pet Group and the fish from a commercial fish farmer.

Entry Fee: $50 (paid by the aquarium club) & livestock for the display (donated to the convention by the fish farmer)

General Rules:

* Each team will be provided an aquarium set up.
* Convention sponsors will provide a large pile of aquarium substrates, decorations and backgrounds.
* The event starts on Thursday evening, when all of the teams gather at their aquariums and are given the signal to start setting up their display.
* The contest winners will be chosen by attendee voting using raffle tickets. All of the tanks with decorations (not livestock) will be raffled. 'Voters' are casting a vote when they enter a ticket into the raffle for a specific display. There is no limit to the number of tickets a person can use towards a display.

Awards:

* The aquarium with the most votes (raffles tickets) wins. Both the aquarium club and the fish farm will receive a trophy.

How to Enter:

* Any aquarium club that wants to participate needs to send an email to chairman@aca2010.com expressing a desire to enter.
* When we have a sufficient number of entries (clubs and farms to pair together), we will call for the payment of the entry fee.
* The teams will be drawn randomly. The teams will be notified who they are teamed with so a plan of action can be made.

Have Fun with This Contest!!!

* Promote your team! Talk it up! We will announce on this website who the teams are. Talk a little trash!
* Make t-shirts for your team.
* Sit together at the banquet.

[pinkrblu]

The Aquarium Beautiful competition sounds like a blast. I sure wish I could go!

[tjudy]

Thanks to the generosity of Perfecto, Tetra and Marineland we are waiving the fee for clubs to enter the Club/Farm Aquarium Beautiful competition. Entries are limited to 10, and we already have two. The next eight clubs to email me are in. Here is what I need:

* the name of your club
* the name and email of the person coming to the convention who will be contact person for the team

Send the email to chairman@aca2010.com Here is a link to the contest description: http://www.aca2010.com/show/clubfarm-team-aquarium-beautiful-competition

The Olympia Resort and Spa still has rooms available for Friday and Saturday night... but they are filling up fast! Make your reservations before all the room are sold out and you have to go to the overflow hotel across the street. http://www.aca2010.com/hotel

The tours for Thursday and Friday are filling up as well. When the seats on the bus are all gone no more tickets will be sold.
http://www.aca2010.com/tours

Do not forget that the last day to submit show entries and reserve rental tanks is July 1. That date is RAPIDLY approaching.

Six weeks until the ACA 2010 convention!!!

See you in Milwaukee!

[tjudy]

We have set up ground transportation with Go Airport Connection. The more people you ride with in the shuttle the less expensive the ride becomes. Use this forum to coordinate with other people coming into the airport, and everyone saves money. Even if you do not team up with someone, if you just happen to share the ride your fee is decreased automatically.

Click here to book your ground transportation

http://goairportconnection.hudsonltd.net/res?USERIDENTRY=acassoc&LOGON=GO

[tjudy]

Rooms are almost sold out for Friday and Saturday. If you call for a reservation and are told the rooms are sold out, ask to be put on the waiting list. We fully expect rooms to open up. There are people who reserved rooms months ago and are not going to be able to attend.

The July 1 due date for show entries, rental tank reservations and tee-shirt orders is only a few days away. Do not miss out! You can still register for the convention, tours and meals, and you can reserve used equipment right up until the show.

We have added a new speaker to the Thursday evening lineup: Laif DeMason will kick off the convention with his talk on What's new East Africa.

We still have opening for the Club Aquarium Beautiful contest. We just need a couple people from NWAAS who will be there Thursday to represent your club and put together a display tank.

See you ALL in Milwaukee!

[dennysfishroom]

As far as I know, I'm the only one going from NWAAS, but we won't get there until Friday afternoon. I did register today. I reserved my room several month ago. Denny

[Jackielee]

Denny are you taking orders and bringing fish back with you from the auction and room vendors?



Jack

[dennysfishroom]

I didn't from Atlanta 2 years ago, but who knows. I wouldn't want to try with big fish, but might consider some smaller fish. What are you looking for? Better yet, why don't you talk Laura into going, and meet us there? I know Gail would like that. Denny

[Jackielee]

Wish I could but my niece is getting married THAT weekend of all weekends. Family is a pain some times but a blessing others.

I would not want big fish just babies from big fish!


Jack

[tjudy]

20 days to go!

Pre-registration, ACA memberships and banquet, brat dinner and tour tickets are still available for purchase on the www.aca2010.com website until the week before the convention. Shirt, show entry and rental tank sales have been stopped. All vendor options (except rental tanks) are still available.

The Greater Chicago Cichlid Association has set up a section in their Classifieds for ACA 2010. You do not need to refister to see fish that sellers can bring for delivery at the convention, but you do need to register to post an ad for fish that you can bring for sale. Here are the links:

http://www.gcca.net/classifieds
http://www.gcca.net/classifieds_faq.html

Sellers are also posting fish for convention delivery on the ACA Trading Post forum: http://www.cichlid.org/forums/index.php?

See you in Milwaukee!

[tjudy]

The Olympia Resort is sold out for Saturday night, so if you are still planning on coming and staying at the convention hotel you should:

1) Go ahead and register for the other nights you want to be at the convention and get your name on the waiting list for Saturday night. Rooms will open up!

2) Make a reservation for the night at the overflow hotel:

Hilton Garden Inn Oconomowoc
1443 Pabst Farm Circle, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, USA 53066
Tel: 1-262-200-2222

When you call tell the clerk the date you want the room and that it is for the 'American Cichlid Association Convention'. The overflow hotel's rate for Saturday night is a little more than the Olympia's convention rate... but it is the only other hotel close by the convention. Reservations for the overflow must be made by July 10 to get the rate. So register for the room, and if you get a room from the waiting list at the Olympia cancel the room at the Hilton.

It is a GOOD thing the hotel is sold out! Lot's of people are coming to the show!

[dennysfishroom]

What do Wayne Leibel, Paul Louiselle, Anton Lamboj, Oliver Lucanus, Vin Kutty, Dean Hougen, and Lee Newman have in common other than an over-riding passion for cichlids? Denny

[dennysfishroom]

I took quite a few fish pictures last week at ACA, but haven't been able to go through and see if any turned out. I'll try to put something together if anyone is interested. Denny

[mewickham]

I'd love to see them, and tell us about the convention. Maybe you should do it as a slide show at the upcoming meeting?

[dennysfishroom]

I just posted a bunch of pictures of the fish I saw at the ACA Convention in Milwaukee this past weekend. It was really surprising to me how many people were willing to bring really big fish (and lots of them) to the show. I did include pictures of several of these monsters, but also put in pictures of one angel in particular, as well as many dwarfs. It seemed like there were more of the smaller fish than previously, and an angelfish show was run in conjunction with the ACA show. I wasn't able to get pictures of the rooms because of the low light levels, but I figured everyone would be more interested in the fish anyway. They did have a lot of well known speakers, but the topics did tend to be heavily weighted towards scientific topics as opposed to general interest presentations. I would encourage everyone to consider going to future conventions (next year in DC/Maryland), or at least consider becoming a member of ACA. Denny

[dennysfishroom]

I probably should have mentioned the pictures are in the Gallery. Denny

[mewickham]

Nice shots! There are some beautiful fish there.