Champaign Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE), formerly known as Champaign Area Fish Exchange, is nonprofit organization in East Central Illinois based out of the Urbana/Champaign area for aquarium hobbyists interested in tropical fish, natives, marine/reef, planted tanks, ponds and all aquatic life to interact and share knowledge. We typically hold monthly meetings as well as 2 auctions per year. Most events remain paused due to Covid. Check back monthly for updates.

CAFE's auction scheduled for January 15, 2022 at The Vineyard Church in Urbana, IL has been cancelled due to concerns about the new Omicron variant of Covid, the rising number of Covid cases in our area, and the limited number of volunteers available to work the event and help make it a success.

As summer nears, we'll post updates regarding our July 2022 auction.

Hello Fellow CAFE Members,

It has, unfortunately, been far too long since we have been able to hold our regular meetings or our twice yearly auctions. Currently, with no meeting site available to us due to University of Illinois restrictions and other meeting site closings, resuming monthly meetings looks doubtful for several months. Our next auction is scheduled for January 15th at the Vineyard Church in Urbana; the site of our most recent auctions two years ago. In order to hold this auction, we will need Club members to help us out. The most critical need is for help (about 4 people) to work starting at 8:00 for check in. Then some other people will be needed throughout the day.

If current state and federal COVID-19 indoor meeting requirements do not change, we will enforce a strict mask policy with only the auctioneer being allowed to be unmasked.

In order to make a decision about proceeding with this auction, please send me an Email at capesch@gmail.com by no later than December 15th so we can decide to proceed or to cancel the auction.

Thanks in advance for all your support. Also, have a great Thanksgiving!

Art Pesch
Auction Chairman
Board Chairman

CAFE's first auction since COVID impacted our lives in early 2020 is currently scheduled for January 15, 2022 at The Vineyard Church located at 1500 N Lincoln Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 just south of the I-74 Lincoln Ave exit. Seller check-in begins at 8:00am. The auction will begin promptly at 10:30.

Please check back closer to the event date as the event may be canceled if Illinois experiences another spike in COVID cases.

We recently discovered something has happend to most of the old content on the website. Please be patient has we work to rebuild the website and restore the most critical content. While we're at it, we are also making the site mobile friendly to make it easier to read on cell phones. If you are attending auctions held by other aquarium clubs and like using our label maker, it was unharmed.

CAFE sent a questionaire to it's members late summer 2021 after three outdoor events had been held with low attendance. The results of that questionaire indicated that those who normally attend our monthly meetings were not yet ready to gather together in indoor spaces due to COVID. We'll be glad to start organizing events again should the situation change. If you had previously been reluctant to attend but have since had a change of circumstance or a change of heart, please let one of our board members know. You can find contact information for our board members in the last newsletter.