World Aquaculture December 2018

WWW.WA S.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2018 33 As LeRoy Creswell, who chaired the Conference Steering Committee said, “The ‘Big Easy’ was a conference organizer’s dream— superb hotels and convention facilities, unique cuisine and entertainment of every persuasion.” One of my fondest memories of the conference was the opportunity to meet many of the founding members at a reception held to honor those who formed the Society and brought it through its early years. Fifteen Past-presidents and three Honorary Life Members were in attendance. During my term, the Board of Directors continued to re-think the Society’s purpose and where it should head in the future. The fanfare of the 25th anniversary was at times overshadowed by the heated debates about the Society’s organizational structure, voting rights, and mechanisms for changing bylaws. Some controversial changes were made to the Affiliation Policy in order to enhance the internationalization of WAS and strengthen its relationships with other aquaculture societies. One of the major issues was whether delegates from chapters and affiliated groups should be able to vote at meetings of the WAS Board of Directors. This constitutional exercise was time consuming and expensive, but our efforts had a positive effect as it resulted in a formal review of the organizational structure and bylaws, which was long overdue. The Board made the decision that all arrangements with other societies would be based on “association” and at World Aquaculture 94 both the Caribbean Aquaculture Association and the Aquaculture Association of Canada announced that they had developed, and approved, terms of association with WAS. My time as president made me appreciate the hard work and dedication of the people who walked the path before me and contributed so much to WAS over the years (members, directors, presidents, editors, Honorary Life Members, recipients of the exemplary service award, and Home Office staff). The directors I served with were outstanding, especially during the challenging times. Although some of them kept me on my toes, they were all supportive. I was particularly fortunate to have had Lou D’Abramo and LeRoy Creswell on my ‘presidential team.’ The support I received from Lou, LeRoy, Bill Hershberger and Juliette Massey will never be forgotten. I couldn’t have done the job without them. LeRoy Creswell, 1994-1995 Going back 23 years is more of a challenge than my younger days, but I recall that my tenure followed Bob Stickney, Lou D’Abramo and Susan Waddy….some tough acts to follow! Also memorable was falling in love with Juliette Massey! The annual conference convened in San Diego, and at that time we contracted conference organizers to help with logistics. That year we used a local group called Sea Fare and worked with a young fellow named John Cooksey. Suffice it to say we were so impressed with his skills that we hired him away to become (to this day) our full- time conference organizer. I had the distinct pleasure to present the Honorary Life Member award to Ken Chew. In typical fashion, Ken looked out to the couple thousand attendees in the room and said, “If you were ever one of my students over the years, please raise your hand.” Amazingly about a third of the group raised their hands and hooted! Our incoming president, George Chamberlain, was quite involved in shrimp aquaculture in Asia, so John Cooksey’s very first challenge as WAS conference organizer was going to Bangkok in 1996 to organize our conference there. That was our true introduction to becoming a global organization. George W. Chamberlain, 1995-1996 In its first 27 years, the Society had never held a meeting in Asia; however, one was planned for 1996 during my term as president. Back then, the president was responsible for organizing the annual meeting that occurred during his term. Consequently, the quality of the meeting would vary depending on the amount of time the president had to make preparations. I was scheduled to organize the meeting in Bangkok, so I asked the previous president, “Well what’s been planned so far?” He responded, “Nothing yet, you will have to go over to Thailand a year ahead of time and meet the host,” which in this case was the Thai Department of Fisheries. I heard that it was appropriate to take a gift, so I bought what I thought was a slick little gift, an electronic day timer, which cost about fifty dollars. I went to Thailand and visited with Dr. Plodprasop Suraswadi, the Director of Fisheries, head of a four billion dollar export industry with 5,000 employees — a very capable and professional guy. My puny little calculator was a bit of an embarrassment when compared to his domain. He asked, “What do you want, and what can I do for you?” I said that I would like to visit several convention facilities in different parts of the country to find a venue for the meeting, and I’d like to visit the offices of a dozen companies and associations that might sponsor or assist with the meeting. He said, “George, do you know anything about Bangkok traffic? You could spend all day just meeting one or two groups. How about we have them all come here to my office?” He said, “When do you want them here, how about tomorrow at 9:00 AM?” ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 3 4 ) WAS Past-Presidents at World Aquaculture 94 in New Orleans, LA. From left to right, John Glude, Gary D. Pruder, Louis R. D’Abramo, David E. Aiken, LeRoy Creswell, William Hershberger, John J. Manzi, Wallace Klussman, Susan Waddy, W. Guthrie Perry, Jr., Robert R. Stickney, Kenneth Chew, James W. Avault, Jr., Paul Sandifer and Sterling Ken Johnson.