The Regional Aquatics Workshop held its first official meeting in 1989.  The organization’s name was designed to provide lots of elbow room for future development.  Additionally, the moniker evokes sentiments that led to RAW’s foundation and helps us understand and preserve its unique character:

 

“Regional”

Intentionally vague enough to include a future region of any size.  While RAW originally encompassed only the Great Lakes / Midwest region, attendees now come from across North America and Europe.

 

“Aquatics”

The group is not limited to those interested in fishes or those working at traditional public aquariums.  Over the years, “Aquatics” has been occasionally garbled to “Aquarium” or “Aquatic.”

 

“Workshop”

An intentional attempt to limit the creation of a traditional governing body that would evolve into unnecessary hierarchical structures.  Read “Workshop” as “public aquarium professionals of all levels learning from one another.”

 

From 1989 to 2000, RAW meetings were organized by the host institution with informal help from previous hosts and other RAW enthusiasts.  Growing pains associated with steadily swelling attendance (and costs), increasingly complex logistics, and emerging communication issues prompted previous organizers to establish the RAW Advisory Committee (RAWAC) in 2001.  The RAWAC is comprised of past conference hosts and serves to advise and support current and future conference hosts.  The RAW Program Committee (RAWPC) was later formed to help hosts recruit speakers and organize sessions.

 

Until 2024, RAW did not legally exist.  On January 11, 2024, The Regional Aquatics Workshop, Inc. was formally incorporated in the state of Ohio - the state where it all began in 1989.