Current CAFE News

Club Meeting - Saturday, July 10, 2021, 6:30pm

The July meeting of the Champaign Aquarium Fish Enthusiasts (aka Champaign Area Fish Exchange) will be 6:30 pm on Saturday, July 10, at the home of Phil and Carie Nixon. They will show how they rear fish outdoors for the summer. This will be an outdoors meeting, so bring a lawn chair if you have one. There will be a limited number of chairs available, so if you don’t have one, no problem. Please contact the club directly for the address (or see your newsletter).

Please follow current CDC guidelines.

Individually packaged snacks will be served.

Phil and Carie will show their outdoor fish breeding setup. People who are fully vaccinated may also have a tour of the fish room in the basement.

Club Meeting Location Update

While the restrictions due to COVID-19 are being lifted across Illinois, we are still unable to use our regular meeting place. Currently, the University of Illinois requires a negative test within the last 4 days before you can enter one of their buildings. They are planning on changing this to require proof of vaccination or a negative test. We don’t know when they will alow the use of their facilities for outside groups like ours. It is time to look for alternative meeting locations, even if they are only temporary. We will be discussing this at the meeting on the 29th at Art and Carol’s home.

Our next scheduled auction is in January 2022, and we have all hopes that this auction will be able to take place.

Open Positions Remain for 2021

We have a few vacant positions to fill for the remainder of the year. Please contact Art Pesch or Carie Nixon if you are interested in helping the club by serving in one of these positions.

One Board Position — Members of the board determine the business and activities of the club. Most of these issues are discussed and voted on via email. There is usually only one phsyical meeting a year, on the same day as the annual members meeting in February. This meeting is usually quite short. Being on the board does not take a lot of your time, but it is important in determining how the club proceeds.

Secretary — takes notes at all physical board meetings. Minutes are not taken at the monthly club meetings. Secretary is a required position for any not-for-profit organization such as CAFE.

BAP Chair — Breeders Award Program. While we have offered this program and it is still official, there has been no participation by members for a number of years. If someone is interested is reviving this program, please check out our web- site for a description of the program and contact either Art Pesch or Carie Nixon.

Programs Chair — is a very important positon to the club. The program chair schedules speakers for the club meeting. When we are able to actually meet, we need 7 programs a year. Speak ers can be club members or guests. We are able to pay fees for a limited number of out-of town speakers.

Newsletter Editor — is also an important position to the club. The editor creates a monthy newsletter to imform and educate our membership. The newsletter includes club news, upcoming events, articles related to keeping aquatic plants and fish, and classified ads from members. Most of the newsletters go out via email, but if a member does not use email, a paper copy is mailed. Please consider being an active club member by volunteering for one of these openings.