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Happy Holidays!! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and looking forward to a New Year. I know that our Association is ready for a year of learning new techniques and teaching others how to enjoy their water garden. We are committed to bringing you the latest, best, and least expensive way of ponding.
We have a very dynamic group of Directors and, with their guidance, we will try new things this year. I am scheduling a Director's meeting on Jan. 9, 2003 at Gary and Janet Craven's place in Boone (1409 13th St. -- 515-432-9123). I am timing this meeting so that it is before our membership meeting on the 13th. We want to report to you our discussions and plans for the year. Is vital that, as a member, you express your wishes and interests to any one of the Directors. (The list of Director's is on this newsletter). WE WANT YOUR IDEAS AND INTERESTS!! You can even come to the Director's meeting, if you want, to see what we do and have a good laugh. That didn't come out the right way -- I meant that it is a good time and we laugh a lot.
So far, for the coming year I have lined up Dr. Charlie Drews (everybody remembers Charlie -- the Invertebrate Zoologist from ISU that does a great program and has very funny limericks) to do a presentation for us in March on The Role of Oxygen and "Pollutants" in Our Ponds (Ecosystems). I have lined up several outstanding gardens for us to tour again this summer (one being 7B Ranch in Webster City again -- back by popular demand). I am going to ask Deb Spencer from the Water's Edge in Lawrence, Kansas to do a program for us. She is an extremely talented presenter and it will cost us to get her here. She is one of the leaders in the water garden industry. This will be a program that all three chapters should join in on as well as our sister organizations.
Okay, I need to get to our program for this month. Simon Seah has graciously agreed to do a program on "Piping, Pumps, and Pond Hydraulics" on Monday, January 13 at 7:00 PM. It will be at the Cambridge Fire Station (directions are at the end of this newsletter). We were there a little over a year ago and it is a great facility for us to use (for free). Most of you will remember that Simon was the guy that we had lined up for our Sept. meeting but due to a flight delay was not able to make it. Simon works for Water Creations (The "Go To" Water Garden Wholesaler and Distributor) in Des Moines and has considerable experience with water gardens.
It will be a great meeting and I am really looking forward to seeing everybody there.
The Big Toad, Jamie