Monday, June 28, 1999
We had a lovely hospitality room set up in the hotel with muffins, bagels,
coffee and juice. The muffins and bagels were a donation from Homer and Ann
Rhode and were certainly welcome. It was a great way to meet others in the
convention party as well and many new friends were made.
After the opening ceremonies and announcements and door prizes the Shell
Derby winners were announced. The ribbons were beautiful as were the trophies.
Land and Fossil Shells Category was won by Vicky Wall for an exhibit on Zebra
Mussels, the Louisville Unlimited Award was won by Travis Payne. Travis did
not have a title for his exhibit, so thejudges decided the the name should be
"Disgustingly Beautiful Shells." Travis had HUGE shells in his exhibit, many
of them world records. One of Anything category was won by Peggy Williams
with an exhibit of Chitons and Self Collected worldwide was won by Gene
Everson. Shell of the show any manner was won by Harry Lee with Cymbiola
chrysostoma (Swainson, 1824). Single shell category was won by Marilyn
Lucarelli with a Babelomurex juliae (Clench & Aguayo, 1939) and shell of the
show self collected was won by Gene Everson for Chicoreus eversoni D'Attilio,
et al. (My way of saying I forgot to write it down and now I can't remember)
  The programs then commenced with Gary Rosenberg "In Praise of why we study
mollusks and comparing them to other groups. Then on to Harry Lee
"Constantine Rafinesque, odd oracle of the Ohio." Harry told of this
eccentric beyond belief naturalist and his oddities and contributions. He is
a fascinating man and well worth studying. Ross Gunderson explained some of
the concepts of digital photography with some examples of how to improve a
photograph through the wonders of computer enhancements.
  After an extremely short break Bob Lipe had a program titled "Senegal Then"
followed by "Senegal Now" by Gene Everson. They compared field trips in terms
of the primitive conditions then and now. Truthfully, although Senegal has
big cities, skyscrapers and many other modern facilities, it remains somewhat
primitive in many ways. Jose Coltro finished the morning session with "New
Findings Along the Brazilian Coast" and showed us many new species of shells
being discovered just within the last year or two.
   After a short lunch Gary Coovert gave us "The Road to Discovery: a
revision of the marginellas and a new family of marine gastropods. Hank
Chaney then explained the "Evolution of the Shell Book" where he talked about
many of the early authors, those before and some after Linne'.
  The annual business meeting was held and Gary Rosenberg explained who was
awarded the COA scholarship grants. I don't want to say too much about the
annual meeting. It was a very productive one and I will let someone who has
more knowledge fill you in. After the meeting, Lucille Green gave us a lovely
preview of COA 2000 which will be in Houston, Texas from June 22, 2000 till
June 26. There will be a field trip before, during and after the convention
so mark your calendars now.
  The rain came down extremely hard and fast and we were all wondering if we
would get to go on our Star of Louisville cruise. Fortunately the rain
stopped and we had an absolutely marvelous evening to cruise. After our long
day, we were ready to relax and the friendly crew of the Star of Louisville
helped us do that.