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Betty Mueller Award Nominations
Your club or any NEC Member can nominate up to three persons annually. Each nomination should be accompanied by a paragraph explaining why you feel this person is qualified. You cannot nominate anyone who has previously received this award. The decision will be made by a committee of people who have received the award and are still active in the NEC. This annual presentation gives special recognition to an individual who has demonstrated overwhelming dedication and support to the aquarium hobby and the NEC. Please send nomination to
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. A list of previous winners is located . Deadline for nominations is January 31, 2013.
Please join us at the Saturday night banquet dinner to congratulate this year's Betty Mueller awardee as we welcome this individual into the ranks of past awardees!
Logo Contest Winner
Congratulations to Amanda Wenger! Her first logo submission is the winner of this years logo contest!
Convention Postcard
Our convention postcards are ready for distribution. This year's photo was taken by Guy Van Rossum of a trio of his stunning rainbow species Melanotaenia trifasciata 'gunshot creek' that placed in the Norwalk Aquarium Society's 2011 show and won the division at last year's convention photo competition.
Postcards will be available to all NEC clubs at our upcoming NEC General meeting that is being held at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell CT on Sunday, February 24th. Please make sure that your club is represented at this meeting so that your members can receive postcards for local distribution to promote this year's convention!
To see Guy's photo, please go to the and download the first flyer.
Registration
The registration cart is now open! The Special registraion package is available until March 4, 2013. Online registration will be open until March 22, 2013. After this time, attendees will be able to register as a walk-in at the convention registration table. Click to access the online registration cart.
Free Convention Registrations
This year, eleven clubs will receive one free registration to the convention. Each club was represented at three or more of the four annual general NEC meetings and will benefit from their attendance. Congratulations to ACLC, BGC, CAPE, CBC, DAAS, JSAS, NELA, PVAS, PVWG&K, SNEKA, TFCB, and UNYKA! Registration forms will be e-mailed to the NEC delegate. Clubs may auction or raffle the registration at a club meeting, or otherwise choose a member to benefit from this registration. The recipient will need to fill in the form and return by e-mail.
Please send the filled-in registration forms by February 28th!
There are a few clubs who haven’t returned their free registrations. Please encourage your member who received the registration to mail it in or send it by e-mail. Don’t lose out on this benefit!
Club Tables
One benefit of NEC membership is a club table during the convention where clubs may distribute club flyers and membership forms. While the tables are attended, clubs may sell club logo items such as t-shirts. Club members will be able to sell fish, plants, inverts, and other hobby related items for a few hours on Saturday. Clubs have the discretion to determine number of lots, and a club split of sales (if any) for these sales. There is a nominal fee for clubs whose members sell fish and other items at their club tables. Each member club who was represented at three or more of the four annual general NEC meetings (see list above, in Free Convention Registrations) will have this fee waived.
Speakers and Workshops
This year, we welcome back Lee Finley and Charles Clapsaddle and welcome first-time speakers Andre Carletto, Mark Denaro, Todd Gardner, Rachel O’Leary, and Greg Steeves. Our workshop speakers this year are first-time speakers Rich Pierce and Amanda Wenger. For more information on our speakers, please visit them at the .
If you haven't attended an NEC Convention, or attended on in the past few years, you will be in for a treat! Ted Judy was a speaker at our 36th Annual Convention in 2011, and made a video of the weekend. Thank you very much, Ted for permitting us to link to your !
Speaking of videos, Mark Denaro made two videos of the Long Island Aquarium when he visited it. Todd Gardner, one of our current convention speakers, works at the aquarium. Mark wrote an article about his visit in the February 2013 issue of Tropical Fish Hobbysit magazine. You can watch both videos - one of a 20,000 gallon reef tank, and the other of an 80,000 gallon snorkel tanks - and read Mark's aticles by clicking . Thank you, Mark, for the link to your videos!
The speakers are putting the finishing touches on their presentations. You can review the bios of our speakers at http://convention.northeastcouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=184&Itemid=161
Our first speakers open the convention at 12 noon on Friday. You can see the schedule at http://convention.northeastcouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=199&Itemid=160
The Friday kickoff will take place at 5:00pm this year, followed by Lee Finley's presentation, the Friday buffet dinner from 7:00-9:00pm. The Friday dry goods auction will take place following dinnerin the Grand Ballroom.
Conservation
Two very deserving organizations have been chosen as recipients of the James J. White Memorial Fund this year. They are LINI, the Indonesian Marine Ornamental Symposium, and Conservation Aquariums in the Classroom, a training program for local teachers through the Teacher Resource Center at the New England Aquarium. For more information, please go to the Conservation Page. For donations of fish for the silent auction, please send an e-mail to Rit Forcier, the fund liaison, at
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.
We have received a warm thank you from Claudia Dickinson, the CARES Preservation Program Coordinator. CARES was one of the recipients of our conservation fund last year. To read Claudia's e-mail, please click on the Conservation Page link above.
Make sure to visit the James J. White Memorial Conservation Fund silent auction. Rumor has it that there will be some very interesting fish at this auction, including some saltwater species! The proceeds from our silent auction will be donated to LINI and Conservation Aquariums in the Classroom.
We have a gold level anonymous donation to be put towards LINI. Thank you very much, donor, for your very generous support of our conservation efforts!
On of the tables at the silent auction will be dedicated to support CARES. Mr. Ken McKeighen will be donating an original watercolor to support CARES. There will be a selection of CARES registered species bred by NEC club members who are also CARES clubs in our silent auction.
Photo Contest
The rules and a downloadable PDF file for registering your photos are available at the .
Articles Competition
Winning articles in our annual Articles Competition will be on display in the Vendor Room following the Saturday breakfast where the winners will be announced.
Silent Action and Chinese Raffle
We have some wonderful donations for our Silent auction as well as the Chinese Raffle! Do you need a UV Filter? What about a complete tank set up? Like to read? We have books, including books written by our speakers that will be personally signed for the winner. Do you like art? We have framed photographs taken by club members, and three pieces of artwork by Mr. Ken McKeighen. The Chinese Raffle includes a framed display of the last three convention postcards as well as a framed display of the last 10 year’s convention buttons. More items are sure to be on offer – what will they be??
Stop by the Silent auction and the Chinese Raffle and bid on these items. You’ll be glad you did!
Friday night dry goods auction and Sunday auction
This year, we will be having a dry goods auction on Friday night beginning at 9:00pm in the Grand Ballroom immediately following the buffet dinner. Our Sunday auction will begin at 11am, with viewing beginning at 9:30am. The registration table opens at 7:30am. Please bring your auction lots as early as possible to ensure that they will be out on the tables when viewing begins.
For rules and vendor forms for both auctions, please go to http://convention.northeastcouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=203&Itemid=172
Vendor Room
If you or someone you know would like to be a vendor, please send an e-mail to Vendor and Exhibitor Room Chair Nancy Villars/Hallgring at
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. Nancy is also accepting product donations and convention sponsorships.
Hotel Information
The Convention will be held for our fourth year at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell, CT. Reservation information can be found at the .
The hotel is expecting to be fully booked for the weekend of our convention. Please make your room reservations early!
Tropical Fish Show
New this year! The NEC will be holding its first judged fish show in many years. Fish Show rules and a registration form are now available for download on the .
The Best of Show, Reserve of Show, and all seven classes are sponsored! Preregistration of entries is encouraged, and we will be accepting walk-ins as long as space is available. Stop by the show in the Jersey Room this year to see all the entered species and vote for your favorite fish.
Second Annual Planted Tank Exhibition
In conjunction with the tropical fish show, we are hosting our second planted tank exhibition. How lovely to see lush green-filled display tanks at the convention. The planted tank exhibition is also open to all convention attendees. If you have a favorite planted tank, enter into this exhibition. Last year, the entries were stunning! Vote for your favorite planted tank.
Hospitality Room
 The hospitality room will be hosted this year by Wet Spot Tropical Fish of Portland, Oregon. Many thanks to Steve Lundblad for so graciously sponsoring the hospitality room! To visit The Wet Spot website, click .
Under the Sea Radio Program
The Convention and most of our speakers will be highlighted in upcoming radio interviews! The first interview will be on Monday January 28th at 10pm .
Click discussing
The Hill Country Cichlid Club, promoting his book, and The 38th Annual NEC
Convention on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 10 PM EST.
Click on Sunday,
February 24, 2013 at 10 PM EST.
Click
on Wednesday, February 27,
2013 at 10 PM EST.
As you can see, there's a lot going on at the convention, and excitement is building! Please come and enjoy the weekend, and offer to volunteer – it's a great way to meet people. stop by the registration table and ask where you can help out, or send an e-mail to the Leslie Dick, the Convention Chairperson, at
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.
See you at the convention!
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