The Austin Pond Society held it’s monthly meeting at the usual place, Zilker Botanical Gardens  in Austin. About thirty members showed up and were treated to a meal of Pulled Pork with Coleslaw. There were a lot of deserts including a strawberry pie that was absolutely delicious. Thanks to the Members for supplying these wonderful treats.

The original Speaker for the evening, Kieran Docker, is a Pond Builder who had an emergency with one of the ponds he had built and had to attend to it causing him to miss the meeting. That left an empty space in the proceedings but Barb Lenhardt who is our Programs Director came up with a very innovative idea to fill the time. She presented to the group an idea she had to rebuild her pond and asked the group for opinions.  It was like opening up a floodgate with some very interesting  ideas and comments plus a lot of good humor. In no time flat, the hour had passed.

I am not sure that Barb ever intends to put any of the suggestions into practice but if nothing else, the rest of us, who incidentally think we know it all, had the opportunity to put forth our thoughts and ideas. We also learned from the others giving us all something to take away from the meeting.

Following Barb, Jeannie, our President took over. There was very little business but it did include a vote for Rebecca Brewington as the new Membership Officer and Nancy Hall as the new Publicity Person. Julienne Smith who had retired for a month, volunteered to come out of retirement and again be the Secretary for the upcoming year. She was quickly approved by the Membership in case she changed her mind. Volunteers are very hard to come by in this organization and we really need some new blood on the Board. If you are interested in any of the Board Positions, please let Jeannie know. You can use this link.

Jeannie returned with a few announcements primarily that there was definitely NOT going to be a Public Pond Tour this year and that she was looking for ideas in its place and was open to suggestions from the floor. Some discussion centered around a Members Only event and the idea was left open for further consideration. She did mention that there are already two Members who have volunteered to run the Tour next year. The evening closed with the ever popular draw much to the merriment of the members.

APS February Meeting 2018 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.

 

The next meeting will be held on March 19 at the same location. The Program is still in the planning stage but Barb assures us that she will have something for us to enjoy. Hope to see you there.