[Delphinus]

Well ... I for one am still really into the idea of one day formalizing for exactly that reason: if we have a group it is easier to attract speakers to come give a presentation.

The basic impediment to bringing in speakers is cost. Unlike Rob Toonen who happened to be in town anyways last year, usually a society who invites a person needs to reimburse their travelling expenses, plus perhaps a small honorarium. So the kicker is, if only 5 people are interested, it kind of gets expensive. But if you have more, it's less expensive but the flipside is it's really hard to manage a large group of people. That's where the rules and bylaws come into play, whenever you start collecting funds you have to have accountability and so on.

I agree, I don't know what kind of honorarium Dr. Ron would fetch. But it might not be that bad. Never know until you ask!

I bet that, if we could advertise hard enough, and get buy-in from the stores, and the Calgary Aquarium Society, and perhaps even the marine biology crowd at the U (OK ... maybe a bit far fetched, but Dr. Ron does sometimes teach at Bamfield which has an afiliation with UofC!) ... it could be a worthwhile endeavor to do this someday, somehow...