2001 Meeting Home Page
Texas Chapter AFS 2001 Meeting
San Marcos, Texas
“Values and the Aquatic Environment”
Meeting Overview
The theme of this years conference is “Values and the Aquatic Environment”. Beyond the biological assessment of value which includes parameters such as water quality, species diversity, and habitat complexity, lies an often harder value to quantify and articulate concerning the contribution of our natural resources and a healthy environment to society as a whole. The panel members lined up for the Monday morning panel discussion will address this as they speak on the value of the environment from several angles including economic, social, and religious. The Continuing Education Committee has once again arranged for a number of different classes to be offered during the meeting. Each of the three classes will be taught twice (one hour long), so you have the opportunity to participate in two of the three listings. This will take place at Aquarena Springs on Sunday, January 21 (see registration form included in this newsletter for topics and times). A mixer will follow shortly after the completion of the continuing education classes, complete with glass bottom boat rides on Spring Lake. On Monday, the conference will move to the San Marcos Activity Center for the rest of the meeting. The Monday night banquet with its usual flurry of activities will be held there as well. The keynote speakers for the banquet are Ed Bonn (first TCAFS president) and Dick Luebke. Charter members will be recognized during the banquet and chapter awards will be presented at this time as well instead of during the business meeting as done in years past. The meeting will conclude Tuesday, January 23 around noon. See you in January.
Continuing Education
As in the past, continuing education will include multiple classes taught concurrently. Human Dimensions will be taught by T. O. Smith – T. O. is going to give a brief synopsis of his job and then tantalize our brain cells with a provocative presentation on “Valuation of the Aquatic Environment”. Shirley Thompson of Creative Services, Austin HQ, is putting together a presentation on “Audio/visual planning and preparation“. She will cover popular specifics on “how to make a presentable figure from a table full of data”, “how to present statistics in a simple manner” (little fishes work for me here), “choosing appropriate backgrounds”, and finally “how to add pictures without breaking the data storage bank”. I don’t know how many of you TPWDers have used creative services, but Shirley does an exemplary job. You wont want to miss this one. Last, but far from least, Captain Steve Pritchett of TPWD Law Enforcement Division who head up the recently created Environmental Crime Unit (ECU) will present a class on what the ECU is and a little history about this group and how they operate. He will also cover criteria for making an environmental crime and follow-up action. Steve will also entertain questions. We probably all come across incidents that could classify as environmental crimes, but may not know how to report them or to whom. This class is designed to bring us up to snuff so our observations don’t go unacted upon. Continuing education will begin at 2:00 pm on Sunday, January 21 and conclude at 4:00 pm. Each of the three classes will be presented twice, allowing you to attend your choice of two classes. Classes will be held in the Aquarena Center (Spring Lake Complex). Immediately following continuing education and in the same general area will be tours of Aquarena Springs in the glass-bottom-boat. And after the glass-bottom-boat comes mixer time…..all in the same area…..education, tour, and fellowship.
Hotel Information
Plans for the Texas Chapter’s Silver Anniversary scheduled to be held in San Marcos from Sunday, January 21 through Tuesday, January 23, 2001 are progressing well. Motel rooms have been blocked at the Comfort Inn located at 1611 IH 35 North. Their telephone number is (512) 396-5665 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 
(512) 396-5665 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Room rates are $45.00 plus tax for single and double rooms. Be sure to mention you are attending the AFS meeting in order to get this rate.
Directions
Hydrolab User Seminar
Randy Glover, of Electronic Data Solutions, will be giving a workshop following the Texas Chapter AFS Annual meeting on Tuesday, January 23, 2001, at 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. He will be covering such topics as maintenance and calibration, data logging and data transfer, deployment examples and tips, as well as answering any questions you may have. The workshop is free but the attendance is limited to 20 people. To register, contact Electronic Data Solutions at (208) 324-8006 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (208) 324-8006 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email them at elecdata@elecdata.com and tell them your interested in attending the workshop and give them your name, address, phone number, and email address.