Geneva Area Pond Club's free meeting on February 17

We're continuing to meet on the first and third Sundays of every month, both to discuss ponds and to socialize with all the friends we've made through the club. When spring arrives and our ponds come to life again, they'll benefit from everything we learned at the winter meetings.

The main topic of discussion at this meeting will be the management of the Geneva Area Pond Club and its web site at http://ponds.meetup.c.... Suzanne and Peter founded the club in 2004, but they're its leaders, not its dictators. They always welcome advice, suggestions, and criticism from the members. Complaints are especially welcome; without them, the leaders won't know what changes to make. Suzanne and Peter also solicit recommendations for topics to discuss at the bi-weekly club meetings, and for subjects for Peter to write about and add to his other tutorial articles on the web site.

Many other topics of discussion are bound to rise up spontaneously at this meeting, as always. Most have nothing to do with ponds, because club members share many other interests as well. The discussions never flag at these events, and are often punctuated with bursts of laughter from the various conversational groups.

Understandably, pond club members want to see a wide variety of ponds with their different fish, plants, fountains, cascades, waterfalls, streams, islands, lights and other features. That's why we try to meet in a different member's home and garden each time. Every member has the right to host a meeting, which requires little more than providing some snacks and drinks for those who attend. Suzanne and Peter always offer all the help the hosts need, both before and during the meetings. To schedule a convenient date for a meeting chez vous, just write to them at PeterSuzanne2@hotmail.com.

In that way, hosts can meet all the active members of the club, as well as the latest newcomers who joined this winter. If the new members have filled in their personal Profiles on our web site, we'll know their special interests and can discuss them at the meetings. To see your own Profile, just go to the web site, click on the link marked 'Members,' then scroll down and click on your own name. If you see that you haven't yet answered the few introductory questions there, click on 'Edit your profile,' describe your interests, then scroll to the bottom and click on 'Submit.'

While you're at the web site, check out all the other pond club meetings scheduled there. (You'll also find meetings of the other club Suzanne and Peter founded, the Geneva Area Turtle and Tortoise Society.) Click on http://ponds.meetup.c... to see a list of meetings, then click on each meeting's title to get full details. There you can let the hosts know if you expect to attend by simply clicking Yes, Maybe, or No. If your plans change, you can always return to that page to change your RSVP.

If you click on the link marked 'About Us,' you can learn lots more about the club, and see where on our web site you can find hundreds of identifying photos of pond fish, pond plants, and club members' ponds, informative articles about ponds, road maps and travel directions to places we meet, and other interesting information. Enjoy browsing.