January field trip

by Kyle Meredith (Rolling Stones member, Field Trip Coordinator)

I want to thank Wade Cave for leading a successful (and LARGE) field trip to Round Mountain! He told me there were 36 people on the trip, and as best as he could tell, everyone found something, and some people found A LOT of somethings.

I guess there was a bit of a snafu in finding the turn-off from the highway, but with a little guidance from Lee, everyone got back on track and made it to the collecting site. I can relate to that—I have certainly led us astray on previous trips. You just have to accept those little adventures with good humor.

After lunch, Wade and some others decided to do the loop, looking for geodes, but without much success. It is a vast area, but many people have collected there over many years, and in most cases the easy pickings and impressive finds have been taken away.

That’s something we really need to consider when we do these trips. I’ve been to many sites where there is little evidence of the material we went to find. Part of our mission as a gem and mineral society is to share our interest with others, including the generations that come after us. It’s hard advice to follow—I know from personal experience as a collector—but we should limit ourselves in what we collect. It seems ridiculous to think that the opportunities at Round Mountain will ever disappear, but how many buckets does it take to strip an area, especially with as many people as we draw on our trips? Legally, we are each limited to 25 pounds per day (plus one piece) with a total limit of 250 pounds per year.

Additionally, according to information on the BLM website, “You may not collect any artifacts, ancient or historical, on public lands [including] ARROWHEADS OR FLAKES, pottery or potsherds, mats, rock art, old bottles or pieces of equipment or buildings.” This is something I hope EVERYONE will consider on all our future trips.

Welcome to the new members that joined, and I hope we see you at the meetings and other club functions! Remember, the Rolling Stones is more than just field trips.

2010 Show Update

The 2010 Gem and Mineral Show Committee has been organized and is up and running! Our biggest accomplishment to date is booking the new Grant County Business & Conference Center as our venue for the show, which will provide so many things that we’ve had on our “wish list” these past few years. More and better parking! More room! Plenty of nice bathrooms!

We’re in the process of figuring out just how much of the Events Center we will need. As an example, the Committee hopes that we can provide programs as part of our event, similar to the wonderful programs we have at our Club meetings.We also have more room for displays or demonstrations or perhaps even events for children. We would very much like to hear your ideas, so please drop me an email, or visit with another of the Committee members. If we are going to provide these activities as part of our show, we must move forward quite soon so that this can be included in our promotional materials.

This year’s committee, in addition to myself as Chair, consists of Lequita Lett as Vendor Manager, Karen Murphy as Publicity Manager, and JR Calkins as Site Manager. We very much still need to fill the role of Hospitality Manager, so please contact me if you’re interested or just have a few questions. In addition, each of the committee members needs an assistant. Last year, we had a much larger committee and quite a few meetings. We are doing things just a bit differently this year, with a much smaller committee and less frequent meetings.

In addition to a Hospitality Manager, the Show Committee needs a part-time Publicity person -someone who can cover the responsibilities while Karen is away during the probable months of April and May. In addition we also need volunteers who will commit to managing the:

• Vendor dinner
• Greeters
• Displays
• Programs and Demonstrations Children's events or crafts
• Name tags for volunteers and vendors

Thankfully we have a few folks who are willing to continue with Show responsibilities, which we appreciate very much. They include:

• BJ Burch - Silent Auction
  
• Lee Stockman Food Services
  
• Ginger Coombs Wheel of Fortune
• Josh Reeves and Kyle Meredith - field trips

The 2010 Committee will be hosting a special field trip to the Event Center in a few weeks to discuss show lay-out and design, so we’d like to get these roles identified as soon as possible. If you’d like to participate in that field trip, drop me an email.

We plan another great show, and are so excited about the new venue and all of the possibilities that it affords!