Sunday June 27, 1999

The first silent auction was a fantastic array of Pectens, latiaxis and lots
of other goodies. Jim and Linda Brunner, in addition to all their other
duties for COA did a lot of work towards getting the silent auctions
organized. All together 7 silent auctions are planned, a lot of work and a
lot of shells.
  Forgot to mention the help of Linda Sunderland, another of the elves who
helped with the registration packets.
   The Raffle prizes were out on display today, along with the COA T-shirts
and ball caps. Raffle prizes: A MAGNIFICENT table made and donated to COA by
Dave Kempfer and filled with gorgeous shells donated by Al and Bev Deynzer,
an albino Nautilus pompilious, donated by Donald Dan, a fantastic array of
pearls in all colors along with a growth series of the pearl oyster, donated
by Richard and Lynn Scheu and a HUGE Conus gloriamaris. I'm not sure who
donated that at this time.
  Gene Everson started the opening ceremonies and after some announcements
the programs commenced.
  The first program of the day was a very apt program by Paul Monfils on
"What's in a Name". Since a lot of us are not very profficient in latin, this
program was a special treat. Paul explained some common adjectives and how
they are used often in molluscan names.  For those afraid to use latin, his
program was an excellent introduction and hopefully took the fear from some
of us. The simple way he explained the endings of us is a masculine ending, a
is a feminine ending and the ending um is neuter. He went through some
adjectives such as alb meaning white, alba feminine white, albus being
masculine white and album being neuter white. He did that with many
adjectives, aurum = gold, lutea = yellow, and so forth.
  After the first program, Linda Brunner made the announcement about the
Walter Sage Scholarship fund. There is now $15,000 in the fund. Linda
mentioned that Walter was from Louisville and then introduced Walter's
mother. His mother then introduced Walter's brother, sister in law and
nephew. Many eyes were watering more than a little bit during this emotional
introduction.
  Dr. Jose Leal, then showed us many lovely rostrate and melanistic cowries
that are now in the collection of the Bailey-Mathews Museum at Sanibel,
Florida. OOOH's and Ahhh's for the yummy oddities.
  Kevin Cummings' quick wit and quirky sense of humor made his program
"Musseling in Venezuela" a joy to watch. Even those who weren't interested in
fresh water bivalves enjoyed Kevin's program. Battling nasty mosquitos, and
other perils even worse, Kevin took us to places via slides we would never
get to see.
   After a VERY short break Karen Couch took us to Kansas, among other places
north of the Rio Grande. With her program "Freshwater Mussels: the Strength
of our Streams", she showed us some habitats of fresh water mussels and
explained sexual dimorphism in the mussels. For those unfamiliar with the
term sexual dimorphism, it means that the male and female shells of the same
species look like different species. Many in fact were named twice, one name
for the male and another name for the female.
  Dr. Donald Bosch then took us to Oman with his "Living Cowries of Eastern
Arabia". There are 36 species of cowries living in Eastern Arabia with one
more occasional species. He mentioned how some of the natives line their
boats with cypraea annulus in the belief that they will ward off evil.
  The last program of the day was "Lifestyles of the Obscure and Unusual" by
Alice Monroe. She went into some tidbits of information on radulas, iron
spicules in chitons and limpets, which help them find their own little niche
in the rocks they live in. Oddities such as the watering pot shells, some
examples of sexual dimorphism and other little bits of molluscan information.
   The day ended with the welcome party. A heavenly array of desserts and
some bluegrass music in keeping with the spirit of Kentucky.
    Still and always, the best part of the conventions is seeing old friends
and making new ones. It is always a joy to see people you REALLY wish lived
next door to you, rather than across the country or across the world. Maybe
we should all pitch in and buy our own island and all just move to one place.
Well it probably wouldn't work but it's a thought to end the day with.
                            Carole Marshall