RAW Guidelines (aka "the fine print")
(Updated 12/21/2012)
History of RAW:
The Regional Aquatics Workshop held its first official meeting in 1989.
The name was designed to provide lots of elbow room for future development.
The meanings intended for each title word by the founding attendees evoke the
sentiments that led to RAW and help us understand and preserve its unique
character:
“Regional”
Intentionally vague enough to
include a future region of any size. (Originally encompassing the Great
Lakes/Midwest region, attendees now come from all over North America,
“Aquatics”
The group is not limited to
those interested in fishes, or to those working at traditional public aquariums.
Over the years “Aquatics” has been occasionally garbled to “Aquarium” or
“Aquatic”.
“Workshop”
An intentional attempt to
avoid the creation of (or reference to) a traditional governing body that would
evolve unnecessary hierarchical structures. Read “Workshop” as “public
aquarium professionals of all levels learning from one another”.
From 1989 to 2000 RAW meetings
were organized by the host institution with informal help from previous hosts
and other interested RAW enthusiasts. Attendance has grown from 10 to over
200. The sheer size of the meetings, increasingly complicated logistics,
and associated communication issues prompted previous organizers to establish a
RAW Advisory Committee in 2001.
RAW is not part of any
other organization. However its attendees are members of other
organizations (AZA, EUAC, etc.) that have found it productive to conduct some of
their business in conjunction with RAW meetings [the day before RAW has become
the working meeting venue of choice for many AZA conservation committees
including the Coral Reef CAP, the Fish and Aquatic Invertebrate TAGs, and the
Lake Victoria SSP].
The Advisory Committee:
The RAW Advisory Committee
(RAWAC) was created to act as a resource for future RAW hosts, and to help bring
issues affecting RAW to the attention of the attendees. RAWAC is not a
governing body and any policies or actions suggested by this committee are
subject to approval by the current host and the attendees of each meeting (as
applicable).
As of its formation in January 2001, RAWAC is composed of ~25 individuals who have previously hosted RAW meetings, or were co-founders. Greg Whittaker (gwhittaker@moodygardens.com) is the current chair, effective June 2010.
It is not required that the individual remain at the original facility that
hosted RAW, but s/he should ideally still be active in the husbandry or
conservation departments of a public aquarium. A
chairperson elected by this committee serves as a conduit for information to
future hosts and to the attendees (past and potential). Official
activities of the committee begin immediately following the annual meeting.
The chairperson serves a two year term (elections immediately after RAW in
even-numbered years). Committee members may serve for an unlimited period.
As deemed periodically necessary by the RAWAC due to committee growth, an
election may be held to decrease the committee size by one member (effectively
temporarily freezes committee size since the new host is also added). N
members each cast a vote for N minus 1 seats. The committee member with
the least number of votes rotates off the committee. Should the current
chairperson receive the least number of votes, a new chairperson must be
elected. As another means of managing committee size and structure, the
RAWAC Chair may periodically ask the committee if any members wish to
voluntarily withdraw because they feel they are unable to actively participate.
In addition, members who are both: no longer employed in husbandry or
conservation departments, and who have stopped participating in meetings
or email conversations, may be dropped from the committee roster.
The Chairperson may
appoint individuals to act as temporary secretaries for individual meetings,
subcommittee chairs, etc.
Two standing
subcommittees have been established within the RAWAC: the Sponsorship
Committee (2003), and the Program Committee (2004). The former is
currently inactive because host to host communication has been satisfactory.
Subcommittee members are not required to be chosen from the RAWAC group.
Host facilities remain the primary organizers of each RAW, but are requested
to consider the opinions of these committees when planning meetings. Hosts
are required to follow the RAW Policies listed below. Chairs of these
standing committees must maintain contact with RAWAC (through the RAWAC chair)
and the hosts.
Program Committee
Beth Firchau
bfirchau@virginiaaquarium.com
is the current chair of the Program Committee, which includes Paul Loiselle,
Allan Marshall, Julianne Steers, Pete Mohan, and the known hosts for the next two
RAWs. This committee is charged with helping the hosts develop a program
for each meeting, and will help solicit speakers.
Website
Akira Kanezaki
webmaster@rawconference.org created the 2005 website and has continued
working with the new hosts.
RAW Advisory Committee Roster as of February 2012
|
Greg Whittaker (Current Chair) |
|
|
Allan Marshall (Outgoing Chair) |
|
|
Pete Mohan |
|
|
Jeff Gibula |
|
|
Paul Clarkson |
|
|
Joe Yaiullo |
|
|
Jeff Landesman |
|
|
Melissa Hartley |
|
|
Roger Klocek |
|
|
Steve Bailey |
|
|
Perry Hampton |
|
|
Jay Hemdal |
|
|
Rich Lerner |
|
|
Rich Toth |
|
|
Craig Atkins |
|
|
Mitch Carl |
|
|
Beth Firchau (2011 host) |
|
|
Mark Schick (2012 host) |
|
|
Chris Coco (2013 host) |
|
|
Kevin Curlee (2013 host) |
|
RAW Program Committee Roster
| Beth Firchau (chair). | bfirchau@virginiaaquarium.com |
| Doug Warmolts | Doug.Warmolts@columbuszoo.org |
| Allan Marshall | amarshall@flaquarium.org |
| Pete Mohan | petem@akronzoo.org |
| Paul Loiselle | ploiselle@wcs.org |
RAW Policies:
Every attempt is made to keep the organizational
structure of RAW minimized, but a few rules have been found to be helpful.
1) Site selection for RAW:
a) Future hosts are
voted on at the annual meeting.
b) Voting is for the meeting to be held two years after the current meeting
(we voted for the 2004 meeting during the 2002 RAW).
c) Voting Protocols:
i) Votes are by a show of hands and must be tallied.
ii) If only two institutions are requesting to host, and there is a tie, a
coin flip will decide the vote.
iii) If only one institution announces its candidacy at the
business meeting, that institution will win the vote by default.
iv) If a tie occurs between some of the requestors, a run off
vote will immediately be conducted to determine the winner.
v) Even if the tie is for runner-up, a run off will be held to determine
“rights of succession” in the event that the primary host needs to withdraw for
some reason.
vi) If the winning requestor withdraws before the meeting
occurs, the runner-up is given first right-of-refusal to be the new host.
vii) Should a withdrawal occur with insufficient time left to plan a RAW,
the meeting will be postponed or will skip a year.
viii) Defaulting host individuals are automatically removed from the Advisory
Committee and replaced with the new host.
ix) If no institutions put forward their candidacies (which
must be confirmed by their institutions) by the start of the business meeting, a
written vote will occur by email. The electorate for this vote will be the
attendee list supplied to the RAWAC by the host (giving all who could
potentially have attended the business meeting an opportunity to vote again).
2) Hosts should plan for a RAW business meeting to occur near the end of the
conference (not at the very end of the last day as attendance will be poor,
and not at the beginning of any day for the same reason). This is when
voting for future RAW sites and other RAW discussions and votes will occur.
3) Husbandry-related issues should be the focus of each RAW
conference, but the choice of talks is not limited to that topic. RAW
fills a unique niche for husbandry information now that other organizations such
as AZA, IAC, and EUAC have moved away from this topic.
4) In order for each attendee to maximize their exposure to
presented material, scheduling of concurrent sessions is to be avoided.
5) Keep costs to attendees minimal: Registration should be free when
possible and must never exceed $75 (1/08). Sponsorships and internal
funding should be used to support the conference to whatever extent is possible.
Keep the lodging costs down (for those aquarists attending only RAW, not any
supplemental meetings) by placing non-RAW meetings at either end of the meeting
schedule, so those attendees not involved in non-RAW activities (AZA TAG
meetings, extra ‘symposia’, and extensive tours or side trips) can make the best
use of time and expense money. Potential hosts located at cheap airfare
destinations will be appreciated by attendees who are paying their own way.
6) RAW paper sessions should not exceed 2½ days. This does not include
any special meetings that may be tacked on either end of the conference for the
convenience of some attendees. Please do not intersperse the session days
with “special event days”.
7) Host
as your means allow. As the meetings have increased in size, so has the
level of effort put into ice breakers, dinners, etc. Do not feel obligated
to equal or top previous efforts. Picnics are as good as banquets.
Remember that originally, RAW evening events featured a cooler of beer in
someone’s hotel room.
8) When offering to serve as a host for a future RAW, each candidate
should present tentative dates for their RAW, a brief summary of hotel costs,
and airline ticket prices from a few key cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles,
and Miami). The purpose of this is to give future attendees a way to
compare the costs of attending a meeting at each location prior to the vote.
9) Hosts must collect abstracts for each paper and
poster presented. These should include title, presenters, affiliation, and
email address. Text should be limited to a couple of paragraphs.
Hosts must submit the abstracts to Drum
and Croaker by Dec 15th of the conference year, in the format
used in previous issues of D&C (see Pete Mohan for more information and a copy
of the original Word document containing formatting cues.
10) Email lists of attendees of a particular RAW (specific year)
will be made available to attendees from that year’s conference. A larger,
comprehensive mailing list (or annual lists) will be kept using contact
information for all previous attendees for at least 5 years. This master
list will not be distributed to attendees (because it could be misused by
vendors), and will be updated each year by the next host.
11) The search for sponsors should begin soon after volunteering to
host a RAW Conference (two years in advance). It has become obvious that
sponsors plan their own schedules and budgets over a year in advance and
opportunities for sponsorships may be missed if host wait until the year before
the conference to begin seeking sponsors.
12) Vendors are allowed to give presentations, as long as they
contribute to the field and are not simply opportunities for advertising.
It is up to each host to determine the appropriateness of such talks.
Previous RAWs
|
RAW# |
Date(s) |
Location(s)
Host(s) |
Milestones |
|
0 |
7/22/89 |
John Culbertson & Doug Warmolts |
Casual chat arranged by John, a
vendor and aquarium fan, leads 4 attendees to support what would soon
become RAW #1 |
|
1 |
11/3/89 |
Jay Hemdal |
Single day. Name coined and
guiding principles developed. Jay invites all aquariums within
half-day drive. 20 attendees. |
|
2 |
3/9?/90 |
Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo
Warren Pryor |
Last meeting fit in a single-day or
held around a conference table. 29 attendees? |
|
3 |
10/26-27/90 |
Joe Norton |
First auditorium and formal program
for talks. 19 attendees. |
|
4 |
4/25-26/91 |
Rich Sajdak &
Craig Berg |
Group brainstormed on planned
exhibit renovations at zoo. |
|
5 |
10/4-6/91 |
Doug Warmolts & Dave |
A small RAW group helped ODNR
develop plans to convert the hatchery to an aquarium. Gales kept a
drunken sailing regatta in port. |
|
6 |
6/12-13/92 |
Sea World of Ohio & Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Pete Mohan & Dan Moreno |
Last semi-annual RAW. Tours of
Rainforest (Zoo) and Shark Encounter (SWO), both under construction.
Vote of support from attendees for Pete to relaunch Drum and Croaker.
Last ice-breaker held in someone’s motel room. 21 attendees |
|
7 |
6/16-17/1993 |
Chris Coco |
First RAW at a large stand-alone
aquarium. Attendance jumps to 35-40 as East-Coast and Southern
facilities attend for first time. |
|
8 |
7/29-30/94 |
John G. Shedd Aquarium
Roger Klocek &
Mike Mulligan |
41 folks from 17 facilities, including the first "overseas" attendee, an aquarist from Bermuda Aquarium. There were 12 scheduled talks including ones on poison arrow frogs, paddlefish, and Partula snails. |
|
9 |
7/21-23/95 |
National Aquarium in
Perry Hampton, Bruce Hecker, & Chris Andrews |
First East-Coast meeting.
Discussion groups on LSS and Conservation. AZA TAG meetings are first
held in conjunction with RAW. 55 attendees. |
|
unofficial |
3/15/96 |
ReRAW at Frisch's Big Boy, in
Warren Pryor |
5 or 6 aquariums drove to a central
point for a long lunch to attempt to recreate the original semi-annual
RAW tradition. The joke: Form a new organization called LUNCH
(Landlocked Underwater Naturalists and Curators Hanse). |
|
10 |
6/6-8/96 |
Steve Bailey |
RAW hosted a paper session and TAG
meetings for AZA conservation efforts…and confusion of RAW with AZA
begins. 72 attendees from 26 institutions (4 overseas). |
|
11 |
6/11-13/97 |
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo
Kathy Vires |
Concurrent workshops held on several
subjects. |
|
12 |
4/8-10/98 |
Charles Smith & Tom Schmidt |
Many attended a 3-day pre-RAW tour
of Texas Aquariums. Bad judgment in |
|
13 |
5/13-15/99 |
Underwater World, Mall of America
Craig Atkins &
Jeff Krenner |
Chalice first awarded to aquarium
professional with most challenging year. |
|
14 |
5/24-27/00 |
Aquarium of the
Rich Toth & Toni Davi |
Last free RAW as attendance and
costs skyrocket. AZA TAGs fixed as a pre-RAW event, instead of mixed
with RAW sessions. 120 attendees. |
|
15 |
6/3-7/01 |
Atlantis Resorts
Michelle Liu-Ferguson & Steve Kaiser |
Modest registration fee of $25.
Advisory Committee formed to deal with administrative issues on an
“as-needed” basis. 163 attendees. |
|
16 |
3/24-27/02 |
Colorado’s Ocean Journey
Rich Lerner |
RAW meets as the closing of the
facility seems imminent. RAW in the |
|
17 |
6/5-8/03 |
Riverbanks Zoo and Aquarium
Melissa Salmon |
Sea Turtle Symposium held in
conjunction with RAW. First “Aquarist Olympics”. 198
attendees. |
|
18 |
5/18-23/04 |
Mote Marine Laboratory Aquarium
Kevin Curlee |
A series of talks and workshops were
directed at improving communication among and within aquariums, and
identified priority issues on many topics for further action by RAW
attendees. ~170 attendees. |
|
19 |
6/20-24/05 |
Aquarium of the Pacific & Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
Perry Hampton & Jeff Landesman |
RAW finally crosses the continental
divide and touches the Pacific. 200 attendees! |
|
20 |
5/14-19/06 (Sea Turtle Symposium on
5/20-21) |
Greg Whittaker |
Cephalopods, sea turtles
and more with a combined attendance of about 225. A unique use was
found for a ton of expired frozen capelin. |
|
21 |
6/18-21/07 |
Alan Marshall |
Back to the Homeland of RAW (Great
Lakes and |
|
22 |
6/16-19/08 |
Joe Yaiullo |
The second Atlantis to host a RAW,
but this time the one on |
|
23 |
6/8-6/13/09 |
Jeff Gibula |
|
|
24 |
6/7-6/11/10 |
Mitch Carl |
The Oracle of Omaha, Mitch Carl, predicted we would all attend RAW in 2010. And there was a SECORE workshop. 185 attendees. |
|
25 |
5/2-5/6
2011 |
Beth Firchau |
RAW heads to
|
|
26 |
4/9-4/13 2012 |
Mark Schick |
Back to the Windy City after 18
years!
290 |
|
27 |
4/22-4/26 2013 |
Georgia Aquarium Chris Coco |
Time for some Southern hospitality! 340 attendees. |
|
28 |
4/21-4/25 2014 |
North Carolina Aquarium Hap Fatzinger |
East Coast! |
|
29 |
2015 |
Monterey Bay Aquarium Paul Clarkson |
West Coast! |
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