Conchology Section
Auckland Museum Institute

Season's Greetings all
Well, the year started off at a rapid pace and seems to have sped up as the months progressed. I have found the time between meetings narrowing to what feels like days!
I would like to thank you all for supporting the Club over the past 12 months, and would specially like to acknowledge those members that have managed to attend our meetings on a regular basis, those that are on our committee and executive, and those that put in extra hours to make the auction the success that it was. 2009 looks to be another great year for us with the Shell Show in March.
Wishing you all a safe and relaxing holiday period.
Happy shelling and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
Martin Walker

New Zealand Shell Show 2009
Dates have now been confirmed as 27-29 March 2009 for the shell show. Please mark these days in your diary now!

Thank you
To Doug and Judith Snook for supplying our lucky door prize at each month's meeting - your generosity and thoughtfulness is appreciated.

Excerpt from an email to Margaret Morley from Mike Szabo (reprinted with permission from author) ...
"You will probably remember Katherine my daughter, who once upon a time in the late 80's was the only junior member of the Conchology Society. She has in fact carried on and made a career out of her interest, completed a PhD at the Australian National University, followed by a three-year Post Doctoral Fellowship funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Guam establishing the Archaeology Section and syllabus within the Anthropology Department. Her interest in shells remains and she has just been awarded through the University of Wollongong, a five year Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship by the ARC. Some of your older members might also remember Katherine and maybe interested in this development and the undoubted influence that you and other members of the Shell Club had on her formative years."

The annual Christmas Party
To be held on Tuesday, 9th December 2008.
The meeting shall commence at 7:30 pm with the Annual General Meeting.
As usual we shall have our wonderful Christmas Supper, with our cake being supplied by Gladys Goulstone (thank you in advance Gladys!), so please bring along a plate of food to share.
And don't forget the Christmas Shell lucky dip - bring along a shell wrapped and labelled either WW (worldwide), NZ (New Zealand) or LS (landsnail)!
Shell trays for viewing include one or two trays of your most treasured or favourite shells - we could have a little competition and see which tray generates the most interest!
We look forward to seeing you at the Epsom Community Centre, 202 Gillies Avenue, Newmarket (in the larger room adjacent to the one we usually meet in).

This is the final newsletter of the year.
Thank you all once again for your support and encouragement over 2008.
I wish you a very safe and happy Christmas and New Year holiday season with family and friends.
I am fortunate enough to be able to holiday again at the Sandspit Caravan Park over January, and then time in the Coromandal - lots of fabulous beach locations to appease my shell fanaticism!
As our first meeting in the New Year is February, the next newsletter shall be published at the end of January 2009.
Jan

Newsletter Mailout
Thank you to Joan Hetherington for kindly responding to our request for help. Joan shall be taking over responsibility for mailing out the newsletter next year.
Jan shall continue to provide secretarial support and typing/formatting of the newsletter – unless this all changes at the AGM!!!

Request for Auditing Services
After many years of wonderful service to the Club, Kelvin Stace is no longer auditing the books.
Does anyone know of someone who would be willing to take this role on?
Please let Luen or Martin know.

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