A Note from your President, Steve Hart

May 2009

 

I hope you enjoyed our General Meeting this month.  The big news was about how much fun everyone had at the Fallon Field Trip--there was snow, hail, lightning, rain, 5 rattlesnakes and lots of rocks!  Everyone had a wonderful time--that’s what we’re getting known for--our outstanding Field Trips!  Check out the photos of the trip under Fieldtrips, Photos and Shows.

 

We had our Logo contest and the members chose a great design created by Joanne Thomson.  Congratulations, Joanne!  You will soon be seeing our new logo everywhere.

During the business portion of the meeting, members accepted the resignation of Gerry Hill as Treasurer, voted to elect August Lincoln as our new Treasurer (effective 7/1/09), and then voted to elect Gerry Hill as our official Field Trip Chairman.  We also voted to approve the revised By Laws.  We’ll have them posted for the next meeting.

 

A free new educational event was also introduced at the May meeting.  “What do you Know?” was explained by Juanita Anglin.  The idea is to learn the basic types of stones from books in our Library and then guess what stone is represented each week--the person knowing the most about the stone is then awarded the stone!  At this first event, Lisa Ekdahl had the most information, and she was given the 51-carat faceted (Brilliant Cut) Rose Quartz stone--it was one beautiful rock!  We plan to do it again next month, so be sure to brush up on your basic geology concerning faceted stones.

 

Applications were closed for the World Rock Tumbling Championships, and the featured presentation for the evening was Steve’s summary of how to properly fill both rotary barrels and vibratory bowls to achieve a high-efficiency tumbling process.  The day after the meeting, we met at Steve’s house to crush, weigh, label and mail all the contestant’s rocks.  You’ll soon see the photos posted.  That was a big job!

 

Gerry explained that our next Field Trip will leave the Shop at 6 AM on Friday, May 22^nd for the trip to Davis Creek, where there’s a whole mountain of Obsidian.  This trip features a CFMS and Co-Op partnership, and should be more than awesome.  On these spring trips, you should layer your clothing & take a light jacket & rain poncho--carry a spare pair of shoes & socks, and bring two to four buckets & a pointed rock pick for digging up half-buried specimens & whacking an occasional rock.  Finally, bring plenty of water & food.  Staying hydrated, warm & reasonably dry is your key to success.  You will be scurrying up & down hills all weekend, so wear good shoes.

 

It’s hard to believe, but next month’s General Meeting will mark our 12^th meeting in the new Shop--we’ll be 1-year old!  It’s been a great year, by any standards, although for many of you, a lot of hard work too.  I hope you will agree that we have met our goal to provide a fun place to learn about rocks.  See you on June 16^th!

 

Sincerely,

 

Steve Hart

May 21, 2009

 

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