A Note from your President, Steve Hart

November 2008

Swap Meet on October 4, 2008

On Saturday, October 4, 2008, our little rock club came together on a rainy day at the Oroville Municipal Auditorium and held our very first show! We billed the event as a Swap Meet/Rock Show/Yard & Plant Sale, and we were jointly sponsored by the Feather River Recreation and Parks Department. We were pleased to see almost 500 visitors show up for the event, and we really had a good time talking about rocks and jewelry to our friends and neighbors. We obtained free publicity from the Digger, and our local radio station, KRBS was there to broadcast live from the auditorium. Our flyers and website drew in visitors from the surrounding communities of Grass Valley, Roseville, Yuba City, Wheatland, Chico, Paradise, Forbestown, Redding, and others.

Many members and non-members donated items of great value--we had a great silent auction for pretty rocks and a wonderful raffle for jewelry, gemstones, and a beautiful original photograph. Our Show Chairman, John Hees reports that many other individuals worked long and hard in the planning process and in the set up Friday night. Others donated their time to serve at various stations during the show, and to help us clean up the mess after the show was over. It would be impossible to thank everyone who contributed, but you know who you are, and I am so proud that our 3-month old organization could do such a great job in our very first event!

This event helped to put the Feather River Lapidary and Mineral Club on the map. Thankyou!!!

General Meeting on Tuesday, October 21, 2008

We hope you will attend our General Membership Meeting next Tuesday. It’s a great place to talk rocks and enjoy a short program. And don’t forget our Rock-Raffle, which allows you to stock up pretty rocks for yourself! We will have more details about the results of the Swap Meet too.

Membership Outlook

We have been accepting “Charter Memberships” since May at a cost of $10 for Juniors, $30 per person and $50 per family. These memberships primarily help us repair and purchase equipment, and we greatly appreciate those 75 individuals who have contributed, knowing that our first “year” of operation expires on 12/31/08. We hope many more of you will decide to join as a charter member before the deadline of 12/31/08. Yes, we will accept your Charter Membership check if you drop it off on your way to your New Year’s Eve Party!

Then, on January 1, 2009, membership dues will be due and payable for the full year of 2009. Our dues will remain the same. Everyone who wishes to continue their membership should have their dues paid no later than the January 20^th General Meeting, so we can meet our financial obligations to the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies, of which we became a member in June of 2008. There are 111 rock clubs in the CFMS. Our club started with 60 members (the 51^st largest club in CFMS) and in just 3 months, we have grown to 75 members (the 43^rd largest). Look out world, here comes Oroville!

Website

Don’t forget to look at the Calendar section of our website for upcoming events. For example, did you know that this weekend, you have the choice of attending shows at Placerville, Anderson or Santa Rosa? Or that our next Field Trip is on Saturday, October 25^th? Do you know where we are going? Check it out!

Our website became operational in August, 2008 and it is clear that it has played a key role in getting the word out to our members, as well as keeping other clubs and individuals aware of our activities. Many of you who came to our recent show learned about it from the website. Everyone can help us get our story out if you will just give a little piece of paper to everyone you see that says:

www.orovillerocks.com

Thanks!

Field Trip Information

In addition to the information you can find in our website Calendar section, you won’t want to miss the General Meeting next Tuesday, where we will thoroughly explain the where-when-what-how of our next field trip. The last three field trips of 2008 are more than enough justification to become a Charter Member of the club!

President’s Perspective

With our first show behind us, we are now ready to concentrate heavily on getting our Shop operational for rock grinding and polishing, as well as offering the training our members need to begin using the machines. Look for our announcements soon. We finally have a few bucks in our treasury to spare, and the Board is developing a budget plan to make it possible to set a regular shop-schedule for lapidary work.

I would like to thank Ron & Sandy Minor for volunteering to be our Program Committee. They are looking forward to lining up and scheduling the programs for our General Meetings.

We still need people in the following positions: CFMS Director, Shop Foreman, Scholarship Chairman, Librarian, and Historian.

Our next CFMS Show (called the Annual Fall Business Meeting) will be in Visalia just 3 weeks from now on November 7-8-9. The CFMS Director would attend that meeting for us, meet & greet the CFMS officers & other club directors, and bring back any news and messages from the meeting. I have been acting in this role for the past 5 months, and I really need a volunteer who would be interested in helping us in this area (NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED!) We’re learning together. Call soon! We need YOU!

Thanks again to everyone who made our first show such a success. You are a great bunch of people.

Steve Hart

October 15, 2008

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