WAMAS Winter (annual) Meeting - Jan. 24, 2026 - Dr. Richard Pyle - & Fragfest

Name: WAMAS Winter (annual) Meeting - Jan. 24, 2026 - Dr. Richard Pyle - & Fragfest
Start: 2026-01-24T13:15:00-05:00
End: 2026-01-24T17:00:00-05:00
Location: Green Acres Center

Schedule

Sat Jan 24 2026 at 01:15 pm to 05:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Green Acres Center | Fairfax, VA

This year we are combining our Winter/Annual meeting with Fragfest. We will vote on club officer positions that up for election (President, Treasurer, and Membership Director); hand out free frags / do white elephant frag exchange; and enjoy a potluck lunch together and hear a presentation by Dr. Richard Pyle.
WHO: WAMAS Club Members & Family
WHEN: January 24, 2026
Time: 1:30 - 5:00 pm
WHERE: Green Acres Center, 4401 Sideburn Rd., Fairfax, VA
FOOD: Potluck lunch
Speaker: Dr. Richard L. Pyle - "Diving Deep into Biodiversity: Leveraging the Latest Technology to Explore Deep Coral Reefs."
Last year we hosted a Potluck Holiday Party where WAMAS members came to enjoy fellowship, food, and frags. This year we are continuing the tradition, but rolling it into our Winter meeting as well where we are honored to have Dr. Richard Pyle speak to us.
So what’s special about this “Holiday Party”? First, awesome people that are into reef aquariums. And food! It’s potluck after all. And, given how much we like corals, frags! Including free frags.
Frags will come from one of two pools (in addition to the frags that sponsors, vendors, and members will be selling), the first table will be composed of member donations. Bring frags, get frags, it’s that simple. This is a great opportunity to get some free beginner frags, as well as some easier to keep SPS, LPS, BTA’s, macroalgae, et al.
The other table will be frags that either the club is buying outright from vendors, or donations from some of our awesome sponsors/vendors. This is a white elephant frag grab. We will form a line, and grab a frag (no peeking… with the volume of frags that we had last year, there’s no time to cherry pick, it’s grab and get back in line). There are a few ways to access this line, and you’ll need tickets to do so:
When checking in, members will given a ticket (family memberships get two).
Bring food for the potluck and get another ticket.
Bring frags for the member donation table and get more ticket(s).
Lastly, at that point we will sell extra tickets for those wishing to get back into line and get more frags.
Personally, last year I left with about 12 frags. No SPS as I’m an LPS and zoa guy, but I had plenty of named zoa frags, 3 or 4 different cyphastreas, a blastomussa, and at least 3 challices.
We also have the following sponsors selling frags:
Coral Candy Aquaculture - Brian has been extremely generous to the club.
Frag Shak - our newest sponsor. He’s coming all the way down from New Jersey and promises to bring some nice stuff.
And member vendors:
VA Coral Cabin will be there attending his first meeting and selling frags.
Combat Corals has set up previously and always has beautiful frags at an excellent price. Carl really takes care of us.
Graham (GW3) will be selling frags and typically will pre-sale via the WAMAS forums. Graham always has high end SPS and LPS.
We are also expecting new sponsors, and more vendors selling. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out via FB or preferably the forums.
If you aren’t a member and you’d like to join, do it in advance of the meeting at www.wamas.org You can join at the door, but we don’t want to create a backlog for our volunteer door checkers. We look forward to seeing everyone there!
- Free Door Prizes
- Quarterly meeting raffle prizes
- 50/50 cash drawing (benefit WAMAS)
- FREE Frags (from WAMAS Sponsors)
- White Elephant - frag exchange gift table (bring a frag(s), get a frag(s)
- bring frag(s) & get extra tickets for chance to win frag(s) from frag tables
Annual Membership: $20 individual / $35 family (https://wamas.org/forums/join.php/)
WAMAS was established in 1999, and in 2002 we obtained 501c non-profit status. Membership costs $20/yearly. Fees cover quarterly meetings, to include guest speakers focusing on marine sustainability, coral propagation, and reef aquaria. Fees also pay for our forums, where currently we have had over 100k threads and over 800k posts. The wealth of knowledge and local camaraderie makes a tremendous resource. Membership also gives access to the buy/sell forums, where we regularly have members selling and giving away frags, fish, and aquarium supplies. We are also present at the Reefing USA Coral Shows that come through the area biannually.