WWW.WA S .ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2022 13 for the various chapters to support WAS through this time. The road to recovery for WAS and USAS is to have successful, profitable meetings—andWAS needs to spend money to make those meetings happen and succeed. To support this, WAS approached the USAS Chapter for a loan of $100,000. Past USAS leadership wisely invested funds for a rainy day. Our Treasurer, Eric Saillant, worked with the Finance Committee to evaluate our needs and the pros and cons of liquidating some of those funds. Although I hate to be the USAS president that ‘breaks into the piggy bank’, in my estimation this is one of the ‘rainy days’ that we were planning for. Despite current market fluctuations, we believe that we can free up enough funds to support WAS and fund USAS operations through the coming fiscal year —and still have enough in the investment funds to support two years of USAS operations at normal levels. This also presents an opportunity. To date, the USAS President’s budget has relied on the income from the meeting held at the end of her/ his term. For example, my proposed budget relies heavily on anticipated income from the 2023 meeting in NewOrleans, which means we are spending money for most of the year in anticipation of recouping those expenses at the end of the president’s term. With reliance on our savings and investments this year, this will allow future budgets to rely on the income from the meeting held at the start of the President’s term. Although that number is still a projection when the budget is drafted, the Board will have actual meeting income determined during the first quarter of the year and can adjust spending for the rest of the year. I am grateful that past Boards put USAS in a position to thrive despite Covid, assist WAS and adjust our future budget model. Looking forward, the Board and I will continue to seek ways to growUSAS andWAS and serve you, our members. We are looking forward to an amazing meeting in NewOrleans, 23-26 February 2023, and looking forward to seeing you all there! I know there are a number of special sessions planned, in addition to what promises to be a great line-up of talks and an amazing tradeshow. —Bill Walton, President U.S. Aquaculture Society As President of the USAS Chapter of theWorld Aquaculture Society, I had the privilege of attending theWAS Board meeting in person in beautiful Mérida, Mexico. Your Society worked hard to bring together the belatedWorld Aquaculture 2021 meeting with attendees from across the region and the world! Past-President Antonio Garza de Yta deserves great thanks for his dedication and hard work to make this meeting a success. At theWAS Board meeting, I provided a report on the USAS Chapter. While I want to provide you this update as well, I would like to take a moment to recognize the hard work and dedication of John Cooksey and his colleagues at MFC, Judy Andrasko and Killian Haydel in the Home Office, and your elected board members and volunteers. At the meeting, we covered a variety of far-ranging topics, with good debate and discussion and I was struck by the shared desire to helpWAS thrive. AlthoughWAS and USAS face challenges, I am glad to report that your Society is in capable, caring hands. Within USAS, we had our first post-San Diego quarterly Board meeting inMay, held virtually. We have several new officers and committee chairs, which you can find on our website (www. usaquaculture.org, under ‘About’). If you have suggestions, questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your committee chairs and/or me. We want to hear from our members! The USAS Board reviewed our financial situation. In San Diego, in recognition of the loss of income from past meetings due to Covid-related postponements, the Board approved my proposed annual budget, which had significant cuts from prior year’s budgets to achieve a balanced budget. Although these reductions did not affect any student awards, the cuts reduced the budget for publications, outreach and promotion, and travel support for Board members to attend meetings. Past-presidents in attendance urged us to take a hard look at our savings and investments and strongly consider dipping into those funds to be sure that USAS wasn’t reducing its capacity to serve you, the members. In addition to USAS needs, there is a clear need C H A P T E R R E P O R T S but it happened and was overall a success. So, let’s make sureWAS Singapore is a success and start preparing your trip. To all the aquapreneurs, I wish you great success with your projects and I hope to see you in November in Singapore. — Jean-Yves Mével, President For those of you who are preparing to come and join us in Singapore in November, it seems that all restrictions for travelling will be just some bad memories. It is easier by the day to get onto planes and cross borders. Last week, in Bangkok, the first trade show (HortiAsia) I attended was smaller than the pre-Covid era, Pres ident, continued from page 2 My sincere thanks to Antonio Garza de Yta for his recent leadership of theWAS Board and I look forward to working with him as the immediate Past-President, together with incoming PresidentElect Humberto Villarreal. We also welcome back Reg Blaylock in a following term as Treasurer, Hillary Egna and Angela Caporelli as newDirectors, andMarina Rubio Benito as Student Director. Hope to see you at aWAS or Chapter conference soon. I trust you all find a place of peace contemplating the water and the life below, wherever you are. — Jennifer Blair (formerly Cobcroft), President As i an Paci f ic, continued from page 4
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