Potential Speakers for 2024 - Opinions needed!

[mewickham]

We're trying to finalize our speaker program for 2024 and welcome your input on programs that you would like to attend. Below are some potential speakers. Please look through the list and let us know if any of these would interest you:

1. The following Facebook group has a list of people who are available: "Aquarium Club Speaker Programs: Find - List - Discuss:"
   https://www.facebook.com/groups/765556821139834/
   Here's a download of the speakers, as of 12/18/2022:
   https://nwaas.com/downloads/Facebook_Aquarium_Speakers_Group_speaker_list_12-18-2022.pdf
         
2. The now-defunct Federation of American Aquarium Societies had an extensive speaker database. It is no longer available online, but I printed out a copy in 2022:
   https://nwaas.com/downloads/FAAS_Talks_by_Category_12-18-2022.pdf
         
3. Alliance of American Fish Clubs is supposedly replacing the now-defunct Federation of American Aquarium Societies. They might have an updated version of the old FAAS list: https://aafc.info/
         
4. American Cichlid Association, American Killifish Association, American Livebearer Association, International Betta Congress, and other national organizations probably have speaker lists.
         
5. Northwest Arkansas Aquarium Society (NWAAS)
   These three have provided many talks for the club:
   Michael Gaines
   Denny Rogers (currently offering to give a live foods talk)
   Mike Wickham (list of current offerings below)
   https://nwaas.com/downloads/Mike_Wickham's_Programs_2024.pdf
   Kayden Hutchings is offering a saltwater talk or a fish behavior talk.
   Natosha Duran is offering to talk about her quarantine regime. One idea was to have Mike Wickham give his disease talk, and have Natosha give her talk in the same program.
         
6. Neighboring clubs are a great source of speakers. Here is a list of some people and recent talks that we might want:
   
   Heart of America Aquarium Society (HAAS)
   Dr. Steve spoke on breeding tetras
   Michi Tobler gave, I think, a livebearer talk
   Justin Titus on pond plants
   Jan Olsen spoke on Apistogrammas
   
   Missouri Aquarium Society (MASI)
   Plenty of good speakers, including the most excellent Mike Hellweg
   
   Oklahoma Aquarium Association (OKAA)
   Gerald Griffin has multiple talks (listed in the Facebook group mentioned above)
   Kyle Osterholt used to give talks, but I don't think he does anymore