Hi everyone, thanks for sticking with us during these crazy times. We, the OVAS exec, wanted to give you a bit of an update on the status of the club at this time.
Right now, the Tom Brown arena remains closed for meetings, and we are really just in a holding pattern for the time being. At this point, we don’t see having any in-person meetings in 2020, and we will just have to wait to see what happens for the 2021 portion of the season. Our first priority is the health and safety of all of our members. That being said we have a couple of items that we are excited to announce.
Firstly, we are going to be doing some OVAS Hangouts on Zoom starting in October. We are working on an exact date for the first one, as well as the frequency, but we are planning for at least once a month. The idea is just to get together virtually, talk fish or plants, likely do some tank tours and just socialize. Keep an eye on the forum for more details.
The other item we discussed was membership renewal. At this time, as we are not offering in-person meetings and our running costs are fairly low, we have decided to suspend membership renewals for the remainder of 2020. In January, we will re-evaluate, and will hopefully have a better idea of what is going on. We have contacted some of the sponsors and will be talking to the remaining ones to let them know that any membership cards expiring Sept 2020 are just going to extend, so everyone can continue to get the benefits of store discounts. New members will still have to sign up and purchase a membership for this season. For those existing members who have already renewed their membership for the 2020/2021 season and wish to get a refund, please contact our membership chair Cici by PM or by email at membership@ovas.ca.
All the best and stay safe.
Jody
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[mashshare]OVAS is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the aquarium hobby in Ottawa and its surrounding areas. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in home aquariums and provides many benefits such as discounts at local retailers, easy access to the aquarium community, attend events, and more! The club meets at least once a month at Tom Brown arena from September through to May and maintains the ovas.ca website and online forum.
OVAS is a member of the Canadian Association of Aquarium Clubs.