The May/June Report was recently mailed; you should have that soon, if you aren't actually reading it now :-). Another two issues are hopefully on their way not too far behind. Terry and Andrea, who do the Web layout and publishing, are both in Florida and have just suffered through the worst hurricane season in many years. This of course has taken its toll, but they are digging out while still diligently plugging away on all the society tasks. From the rest of the society, our thanks and best wishes go out to them.
Take a look here for info on upcoming issues of the Goldfish Report and the publication schedule (if you have not been checking the Editor's page, you are missing one of the more entertaining elements of this Web site). We hope everyone is enjoying what is now our second year of publishing top quality content in a full color format!
If you have let your membership lapse or have been thinking about joining the GFSA, now is a great time - here is a form you can print. To submit material for the Goldfish Report to editor Matt Lyon, please see the updated society contact info. Articles and photos in electronic form are particularly appreciated.
The current line-up of people filling the GFSA offices is on the society officers page.
Seasonal Advice
The GFSA Web site launched officially under the "www.goldfishsociety.org" domain in October of 2000. So this is the first update of our fifth year. If you like the "seasonal advice" feature, this is a chance to follow the link below and see if there is anything you have not seen in the previous 48 updates.
The Web site has been a source of pride but also of frustration. For every enhancement that has been made (and there have been very few recently), there are a hundred we would like to make. Even with the proliferation of on-line goldfish sites and information, there are still roles that are not well fulfilled and for which the GFSA could be a resource. Some of these have been in the works for quite a while, with no imminent date of completion.
One telling statistic is that the counter on the entry page has slowed significantly in recent years, indicating fewer new visitors reaching the site and old ones returning. This of course affects the value proposition for the society; if the Web site does not attract members or provide other tangible benefits to the GFSA, then the investment needs to be reconsidered. However, without the effort to build new and better content and to improve the user experience on the site, it is hard to expect significant traffic. So it is a little bit of dilemma. But we have also gotten a little smarter ... for example, we now recognize that creating an entry page with no spider-able terms related to goldfish is probably not brilliant.
Here's hoping that we can implement some of the long discussed changes in the near future. The GFSA would like this Web site to be of value both to the society membership and to the goldfish hobby. Happy year 5!