For the second meeting in succession, the Austin Pond Society had to get out of it’s comfort zone and do things a little different than normal mainly due to the inclement weather we have had for the past few days. Texas experienced very heavy rain sometimes almost torrential resulting in flooding and the ensuing cancellations resulting from it. The monthly meeting that we had scheduled for this past Monday, April 18 is the one we know as our Annual Plant Swap at which our members bring and exchange pond and garden plants and anything pond related. Normally, as we are dealing mostly with pond plants we set up on the back lawn with our collapsible ponds that we have specifically for this occasion and our members are able to wander around and take their time in viewing what is on display with an eye to having first dibs on it if is there by the time we start the actual swap part of the meeting.

Due to the fact that it had rained all day, the lawn was off limits to us so we had to make do with the small overhang area outside of the back doors to the meeting room. We restricted the ponds to just one and all of the other plants were sort of distributed around the general area. Did I mention that it was still raining and we were glad to have the small amount of cover that we had. Three of the members even wore their waterproof rubber boots for the occasion.

The Board Members had been e-mailing each other throughout the day as we were making decisions on the fly whether to go forward or to cancel the event. The final decision was to go ahead and be damned with the consequences. As usual, we started off with a meal which this month was Pizza accompanied with salads and desserts brought in by the members. We tried to get a very rough count of the number of people we thought might attend to try to get the Pizza order somewhat in line the the number of attendees. Needless to say, we were way off and had enough Pizza left over to feed a whole herd of hungry teenagers. It was not wasted and found its way to several people’s homes some who were almost reluctant to take it home.

I should add that there were several Board Members who were not present having taken this opportunity to make trips to various parts of the country before the very busy upcoming time of the Pond Tour. Among them, Jeannie, our President, BJ or Publicist, Betty our Librarian,Nancy our Treasurer and last but not least, Juliette, out Secretary. Luckily, there was not a lot of business to discuss and Jeannie had left the proceedings in the very capable hands of Barb Lenhardt, our Programs and Special Events Coordinator. There were a few announcements and some discussion from the floor in a general question and answers session. The main piece of business came from Glen Hubenthal who announced that it was time to elect the Koi Person of the Year and asked for nominations from the floor.

Stephen Monfrini

There was only one name put forward and that was for Stephen Monfrini mainly for his work on performing along with Jeannie, very many Fish Rescues this past year. It didn’t hurt that Stephen is also the new Hospitality Chairman which almost always guarantees a lot of popularity. Personally, I thought it was a good choice as fish rescues are messy and are not a lot of fun especially in the big ponds so I was very happy to second his nomination. Well done Stephen.

Following the voting which was done by acclamation, it was time to get on with the business at hand, namely the Plant Swap. I was not interested in taking home any plants and neither did I bring any in although I have plenty at home that I would like to share. I made an announcement and passed out flyers showing what I had to give away just in case anyone was in interested. Then I busied myself taking pictures.
In a way, I’m glad that we had to do things differently as it did give me something to write about and different pictures to post. Anyone who happened to review the past three years of Plant Swap reporting would be hard pressed to tell the years apart. We got out of there early with very little cleanup to do as the members all left with brand new plants. Did I mention that they also had to take home any of those that were left over that they had brought in and were not taken.

Even though we managed to get it off, I would not call it a success. The inclement weather had a bearing on the number of attendees and I counted 35 members in all at an event that usually has more then 50 people. The area was too small and the plants were virtually on top of each other making it difficult to pick and choose and in the end, members just grabbed what they could without being as selective as they would have liked.
Maybe, we should think about holding a smaller Plant Swap in the Fall.

Below is the video of the Business Section of the meeting.

APS Plant Swap April 2016 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.

If you click on any picture it will make it full size and you can advance by using the arrows. Use the “Escape” key to get back to normal size.