Part of the Library available for our Members to check out. Our Librarian is Holly Hargraves and she can be reached at librarian@austinpondsociety.org

The Austin Pond Society held their first meeting of the year this past Monday Jan 21, 2019 at the usual place, Zilker Botanical Gardens here in Austin, Texas. This Society has been in existence since 1993 catering to the interests of many of the Pond enthusiasts in the Austin area..

The one position that is still vacant after the recent Board changes is that of Hospitality which is responsible for providing the group with the light meal at the start the meeting. In lieu of this, we settled for pizza from one of our Sponsors, Jet’s Pizza with the membership providing salads and deserts. As usual, the pizza was delicious and although I don’t eat pizza very often, I grabbed two large slices this time around.

I counted 28 members there which included the new Board, a little less than what we hoped for. Some of this was due to our scheduled Speaker, Katie Boyer from the US Fish and Wildlife Services  unable to show due to the Government shutdown. In her place, BJ Jenkins, our Programs and Special Events Coordinator put together a contest. This consisted of the logos from the different Pond Tours for the past 16 years each sub titled with the year which in turn had to be linked to specific statements. At the end of the contest, the winners were Glen Hubenthal and Mary Word who had paired up to work together as the contest was designed for pairs.

Thanks to BJ and all of the other people involved for all of their work on gathering together these 16 Logos. Many are from actual tee shirts, 2008 for example.

Having fun at the Logo Contest. The entry screen should read 2019….

Following the contest, there was a short Q&A from members who had a couple of pond questions. Many people had differing views on advice offered to resolve the questions which made for interesting listening. We heard the sad story of a member who left the hose running while topping up his pond resulting in the death of all of his fish due to the chlorine in the water. This sparked off a discussion regarding the varying amounts of chlorine that the City uses especially during times of drought. Unfortunately, almost everyone early in their ponding careers learns this lesson the hard way. I suggested that pond owners should attach a water timer between the faucet and the hose as they are reasonably cheap at Home Depot or Lowes generally costing less than $20.00.

Ted Paone and BJ Jenkins with Andy Filtness

Ted Paone is the Pond Tour Chairman for this years Tour. He graciously offered to perform this duty for a third time having had this role for both the 2016 and 2017 Tours. He outlined the need for additional volunteers on the Pond Tour Committee. The plan is to have 6-7 ponds each day, North and South and he is still looking for ponds to show.

There was no real business other than the urgent need for a Hospitality volunteer. There was a brief discussion of the upcoming meetings and then Madam President, Barb Lenhardt called the meeting to a close.

The Business section of the meeting.

Pictures of the meeting to music

The next meeting will be on Monday February 18 at the usual place and time, Zilker Botanical Gardens at 6:30. The scheduled Speaker is Cindy Cassidy from the Texas Night Sky Festival and her subject will be Night Skies and Light Pollution. Hope to see you there.