2004 Meeting - Columbia, South Carolina June 17-20

We would like to invite you to attend this year's NANFA Convention in Columbia, SC on June 17-20, 2004. Our annual convention is a great place to meet other NANFA members, hear some neat presentations about fishes and the aquatic environment in general, and spend a day or two visiting some of the local areas and collecting fishes you may never have seen before. South Carolina has a diverse range of habitats, from mountains to piedmont to coastal plains, so we have a lot of options! You will need a South Carolina recreational fishing license to collect nongame fishes in South Carolina. Anyone who wants to should be able to find some interesting new fishes. The weather in early June should be warm but not oppressive, and many of the fish may still be in breeding coloration. For those of you wishing to bring your families, there are many historical sites and attractions for them to visit around the state.

Riverbanks Zoological Park & Gardens has been kind enough to allow us to have our auction, speakers and banquet in their facilities. Dustin Smith, Fritz Rohde and Chip Rinehart will be acting as your hosts. The format for the meeting will be a full day on Friday of collecting trips around South Carolina, with the possibility of brief forays into North Carolina. Friday night we will have our annual auction as well as guided tours of the aquariums at Riverbanks Zoo. On Saturday we will have presentations of interest to NANFA members by some well-know and highly regarded speakers, followed by the banquet that night, also at Riverbanks. Sunday, for those interested, we will do some more collecting. This year's convention t-shirt will again be an original design by Casper Cox; make sure to get your order in early.

On Saturday, our meeting will begin at 8:30am with a lunch break at 12:30pm then resuming again at 2:00pm and continuing until approximately 5:00pm. A brief list of our speakers and their topics below:

  • Patrick McMillan - Aquatic Plants

  • Gerald Pottern - Shiners of the subgenus Hydrophlox

  • Fritz Rohde - Pygmy Sunfishes

  • Brian Wagner - Crayfishes

  • Dave Neely - Sculpins

  • Ray Wolff - Aquarium and Pond Maintenance

  • At least one more TBA

We are honored to have, as our special guest speaker at the banquet, Dr. Robert Goldstein, who will be speaking on collecting in South America.

Here are the details of how to get to and where to stay in Columbia:

CONVENTION LODGING: Holiday Inn - Columbia Airport The rooms will be non-smoking doubles, and some smoking rooms will be available at your request. The rate will be $65.00 per night and will include a complimentary hot breakfast buffet in Magnolia's Grill which is the on-site restaurant.

For more info on the motel go to http://www.holiday-inn.com/cae-airport or to make reservations call (803) 794-9440.

*NOTE: Make sure to mention that you are with the 'NANFA' group and tell them to use tracking number "2-NAN".

The deadline for making reservations is May 25, 2004.

This Holiday Inn is located on Chris Drive, just off of US #1at I-26 (Exit 111b) and is a short 10 minute drive to Riverbanks Zoo via I-26/I-126. For any of you that may be flying in, it is also very close (approx. 10 minutes) to the Columbia Metropolitan Airport and has free shuttle service to and from the airport.

AIR TRAVEL: Columbia Metropolitan Airport is served by several major air carriers with direct connections to many North American cities. The airport is about 10 miles west of the meeting site, connected by US #1/I-26/I-126.

TRAVEL BY CAR: Columbia is located in the center of the state easily accessible via interstates I-20, I-26, and I-77.

CONVENTION REGISTRATION: The registration fee for the convention is $65 if paid by May 16, $75 at the door. A spousal registration fee of $20 will cover attendance at the Saturday evening banquet and admission to other convention events. Also, this year we will have a special student registration rate of $25 ($30 at the door) for middle school, high school and college students. Early registrations should be made out to NANFA and sent to: Dustin Smith, 1229 Walnut Street, Newberry, SC 29108 .

We hope you can make it to Columbia this June. If you have any questions, please contact us at:

  • Dustin - home phone 803-405-1847 or Dsmith73@hotmail.com

  • Fritz - Fritz.Rohde@ncmail.net

  • Chip - home phone 803-808-3502 or Ipchay61@aol.com

Dustin Smith, Fritz Rohde, Chip Rinehart: Convention hosts