World Aquaculture December 2018

WWW.WA S.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2018 35 series, in Montpellier. In 1997, in that international context, it was also my pleasure to announce plans for a conference and exhibition to be held in Sydney in 1999. In 1997, I also recorded our intention to hold a meeting in Africa. Originally penciled in for 2005, it was to be a further 12 years before it materialized with the great event that WAS held in Cape Town in 2017. It is exciting for me to see our Society now advertising WAS meetings all over the world - almost as a matter of routine. A glance at the upcoming meetings list indicates that within the next four years (2019-2023) WAS will hold events in India, Costa Rica, Hawai’i, Singapore and Canada — as well as those in its homeland, the USA. Wonderful news for me! In my final report as WAS President I stated that I had three great ambitions — to see the first Asian assume the WAS Presidency, to see us hold our first meeting in Africa and to see the proportion of WAS members from non-North American locations increase to 80 percent. Since then I have been delighted to see Charles Bai fulfil the first of those dreams and Cape Town the second (with the added benefit of a newWAS Africa Chapter too!). My third ambition remains a dream…. Joe Tomasso, 1998-1999 My biggest lesson learned, and probably a good one for all EXCOMmembers, is that you really don’t start and finish anything as president. You finish what was placed in motion a few years before and start what others will finish after you are gone. Most presidents are deeply involved in Society business before taking office and they have had an opportunity to be involved in plans that will (hopefully) come to fruition during their presidency. For this multi-generational process to work, it is critical that the members of the EXCOMwork well together. Fortunately for me, I was a part of several EXCOMs (mine, along with those of presidents George Chamberlain, Meryl Broussard, Michael New and Patrick Sorgeloos) that could argue late into the evening, but never lose sight of the common goals we had at the time — to stabilize the business operations of the Society and move it forward as an international organization. I think we accomplished our goals. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, the people involved were able to develop a financial model that provided adequate funding for Society programs. We were also able to move the Society from a more USA-based group to a world group. One of the major ways we did this was to set up a three-year rotation for our conferences in which we met outside the US two out of three years. This rotation was initiated in 1999 with the meeting in Sydney, followed by Nice, and has continued ever since. About this time, was.org was established and communications within the Society changed forever. Email also allowed the Board and committees to function in a way never before possible. Central to all of this was the contracting of John Cooksey as our conference manager. John Nickum and Sandy Shumway first met John at a conference in 1991. When John Nickum, Sandy and I ended up as the Steering Committee for Aquaculture 1995 (San Diego), we contracted with Sea Fare to produce the conference. Within a few years, John was contracted with WAS directly (I ended up negotiating with John to develop his first contract) and he (along with Mary, the kids, and other family members) have been with us ever since. A lot of other things happened during that time. The Board was diversified to the point where half of the membership was from outside the US. The WAS magazine was relaunched (thanks to the efforts of Bob Stickney) and Craig Tucker convinced Science Citation Index to cover our journal. Agreements were also reached between the USAS and WAS to produce the very successful Aquaculture America conference series which occurs when WAS meets outside of the US. It was a lot of hard work by many dedicated people but I think we have something to be proud of. Patrick Sorgeloos, 1999-2000 The one detail that I remember frommy presidency was the hard time we had to convince the Board to organize the first WAS conference in China, scheduled for 2002. Board members were extremely reluctant: they don’t speak English, poor facilities, etc. Finally, we convinced the Board but then things got really difficult when a NATO (USA) plane accidentally dropped a bomb on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Balkan war ( 7 May 1999 – Ed. ). That night I received calls from Board members in the US that we should forget about going to China. More convincing was needed but in the end it turned out to be a very successful conference. For many WAS members it was their first trip to China and for many (from both academic and private sectors) it was the start of successful cooperation. Thomas Losordo, 2000-2001 Some of my most valuable contributions were made as a Board member rather than as president. During the Board meeting in late 1992 the European Aquaculture Society ceased having a voting member on the Board of Directors of WAS. After that point, I spent many hours as committee chair, co-chair or Board Officer negotiating and redefining the relationship between WAS and EAS. Out of these negotiations came (for a time) a European edition of the World Aquaculture magazine and an Agreement of Association between the two societies that allowed for the continuation of combined society events in Europe. As a member of the WAS Board I also spent time as a founding member of the Aquaculture Engineering Society, negotiating the conference relationship between WAS and the newly created AES. During my presidency in 2000 I traveled to Korea to help pave the way for a relationship with the Korean Aquaculture Society and the development of the WAS conference that was held eight years later in Busan. James H. Tidwell, 2001-2002 My time as president of WAS was a time of turmoil, of highs and lows. The 9/11 attacks occurred during my term. A big part of the job is travel. After the attacks, they had profiles for people to get extra security screening. I have worn a beard since my late 20s but a beard was all it took to get pulled out of every line in every airport for months. Seems funny now but not so funny then. My mom had passed away about a month before that. I had small children at home. Travel may sound or seem glamorous at times but it can also be the loneliest place in the world. One of my highs was being President at our meeting in Beijing. China is such a huge aquaculture producer, then and now. There ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 3 6 )