President's Message
SEASPACE Retrospective
Right now I'm sitting here in the airport waiting for inspiration. It always seems to be a problem for me to choose a topic that I think will be of interest to our members. It's not so difficult this time since we just had another banner performance at SEASPACE. The good thing about this is that so many of us were actively involved making the whole operation work smoothly and be a big success.
I say this not only from the perspective of HUPS but from the overall effort by all of the groups that are involved. Lots of us work for more than one organization and have more than one hat to wear at this time of the year. To name just a few HUPS members that worked hard getting SEASPACE up and off the ground I'd like to recognize John & Kathy Ringrose, Paul Levy, Pat Miller, Ross & Terry Whiteside, Anne & Dwight Coles and (of course) Ken Knezick. Others like Chuck and Yvonne Jensen pulled duty at other booths, making the overall experience for visitors better and more complete.
The point that I'm trying to emphasize here is that we're all part of the dive community here in the southeast Texas region, and to some extent we all sink or swim in the same waters. In today's world, people have a tremendous number of activities to choose from and it is often difficult to maintain enough people's interest to keep things running smoothly. SEASPACE is not immune to this any more than other activities. The fact that it continues to be such an asset to the diving community is a tribute to the volunteers and underpaid staff that pour their energy and talent into it. Gene and Sara Baugher aren't members of HUPS, but what would SEASPACE do without their ability to pull all the levers and push the right buttons? Of course, HUC members handle the lion's share of the "on the floor" and "behind the scenes" jobs it takes to keep things moving along nicely, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude. Without Greg & Jean Truax and a cadre of volunteers running the silent auction, a lot of young marine professionals wouldn't have scholarships to help them along the way to their educational goals. Millie Morgan slaves away each year to organize the Environmental Awareness section of SEASPACE. This is an essential part of the weekend since it allows organizations from around the area to show what they do and promote their activities. HUPS falls into this category.
From the HUPS perspective, we managed once again to put an outstanding product on the floor for everyone attending SEASPACE to enjoy. David Lenderman and his crew assembled an absolutely fantastic photo display with over 120 prints collected from our members. Joyce and Frank Burek handled the thankless job of selecting and arranging the display with help from about 8-10 other people doing the hanging. At times it looked a bit like a stirred-up ant-hill with everything going on. Everybody seemed to be getting into the act including Jack & Tammy Allyn, George Freeman, Leonard Cichowski, Paul & Mary McDonald, Mary Lou Reid, Joe Nugent, Christa Loustalot, Henry Ragland, Paul Levy, John Anderson and a few others that escape me right now. Getting the boards assembled and the lighting right on the boards was mostly done by David Lenderman, Joe Nicklo and Dennis Vernon. Their collective efforts were well rewarded by an impressive tour de force of underwater images from around the world. It's probably not a stretch to say that the photo display was better attended than just about any other display at SEASPACE.
Getting the booth up and running was Joe Nicklo's specific task although he seemed to be everywhere doing whatever needed to be done. There's a good reason Joe was asked to handle the booth. He just knows how to get things done properly. The stalwart group of volunteers manning the booth were all coached by Joe on how to pitch HUPS to prospective members and how to sell raffle tickets in mass quantities. And sell, they did. We managed to put a lot of dollars in the bank again this year. Perhaps the best part of the raffle is how much fun everyone seems to have selling and buying chances in the Saturday and Sunday drawings. Saturday's drawing went to Faye Cutsinger, a local Houston diver who selected one of Jackie Reid's prints. On Sunday, one of our own, Gary Sweringen, managed to get the luck-of-the-draw. When Gary also selected one of Jackie's prints, a pair of mating Mandarinfish, the sweep was complete.
Back at the booth, we had set up the digital projector where some of our past presentations were shown for visitors to view. We also used this setup to do some mini-workshops on how to edit images with Photoshop CS2 and put slideshows together with ProShow Gold. Attendance at my mini-workshops was. . . moderate but enthusiastic.
Saturday evening at SEASPACE is always reserved for the film festival. This year, HUPS was once again asked to prepare a short presentation for the audience. Christa Loustalot, James Wiseman and I were selected to head up this effort. However, the lion's share of the work and most of the inspiration were provided by Christa. Using winning images from our monthly contests, shootouts, and donated images from members, she was able to assemble an exciting 9+ minute presentation complete with some funky music that fit the mood perfectly. We received many compliments afterward, a tribute to the quality of the images, advice & critiques by James, my cheerleading, and Christa's skills.
All in all, we had another great year at SEASPACE. We made some money to replace what we spent this year on projectors, a bunch of new members were signed up to help lead us into the future, and everyone had a lot of fun doing it. There is no doubt that HUPS efforts at SEASPACE over the last several years have made a large impact on the quality, beauty, and interest for all participants and visitors.
Don't forget that the next meeting will be held after the 4th of July holiday. See you at 7 pm on July 11th for Ken Knezick's presentation.
Dennis
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