In attendance:

Wade Pfennig
Claudia Pfennig
Denise Roberts
Mary Graesch
Brent Arnold
Mike Garske
Baby Garske
Jim Hull
Chris Auth
Cher Auth
Harrison Auth
Kaitlin Hale
Jeff
Tristen
Sam Fernandez
Jamie Fernandez
Mike Branchflower
Mike Thomas
Marko Thomas

7:05pm Denise opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.

Club Finance Report: At the start of the evening, the club balance was $206.65. The club is buying pizza this evening so there will be an adjustment for that to the balance after today.

Last month our meeting was with the local Dr. Otto, a DAN doctor at The Elks.

Our next meeting, the January meeting will be bowling at Emerald Lanes, not at BSU since they are under construction. Mike Garske and his Furious Fireball will most likely be in attendance, and is not a sight to be missed. Details will be on the website.

7:10 p.m. - Ammon Covino spoke about the Boise Aquarium project. Information about the project can be found at www.boiseaquarium.net, and Ammon can be contacted by email at Covino@boiseaquarium.net. His phone contact is 353-4287.

Ammon mentioned that the non-profit was set up with a charitable grant and it is about 1 year out from construction. The land is located at Eagle and Fairview in an area that will include a 68 acre park. The development of the land will take place and then the construction of the aquarium will take about 4-6 months after that.

The facility is expected to be about 14,000 square feet, and will have many attractions such as a 92,000 gallon shark exhibit, seals, otters, penguins, turtles, reef fish, octopus, jelly fish, stingray tank in a 16,000 gallon exhibit, etc.

So many details are still to be worked out. They expect to have about 6 paid positions (probably around 10 paid employees), but twice as many volunteers. They will also have internships available. They are working with the head of the biology department at BSU and plan to have a marine vet on call at the very least.

He hopes to get several events scheduled in February to begin fund raising. All input is welcome, and Ammon encourages everyone to participate on the forum at www.boiseaquarium.net. Many decisions need to be made as to budgets, safety, equipment, volunteer organization and management, etc. So one of the best ways to participate is to provide input and ideas via the web forum. They are looking for input from our club and divers on how to set up and run a diving program in the shark tank.

Denise led the New Officer Elections:
For President, Jim Hull was elected, as it is traditional to have the vice president transition to the position of president for leadership continuity.
For Vice President, Mike Garske was nominated and elected.
For Secretary/Treasurer, Sam was elected.
Chris was once again denied parole from the webpage and is sentenced to serve another year.

Changing of the Guard

Jim Hull took over the meeting as the new president and talked about his goal of doing a lot more diving activities in the upcoming year.

The meeting adjourned and was celebrated by consumption of pizza and beer!

Minutes taken by: Mary Graesch and Jim Hull

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas. And may all your dives in the Happy New Year be safe dives!!!