August 2018 Newsletter now available

Check out the August 2018 Beacon for current info about club events, field trips and volunteer opportunities.  Also includes info about the upcoming Gem and Mineral show!

All the latest

Check the right side bar for an update about the 2018 Gem and Mineral Show.   

Our March newsletter is available.
 
New members are always welcome! There is a membership application included with our monthly newsletter, or you can join at either a meeting or a field trip.

Items for the May silent auction at club meeting

Silent Auction items for April meeting

Gold Panning Program

Thanks to Karen Blisard for supplying this photo taken at the October club meeting.  David Rinsch is demonstrating gold panning to the Club.  

 

Where does Silver City get it's minerals?

A great program was held at last week's club meeting by Ron Pharr that included a discussion of the formation and evolution of the geology of the region. Here's a photo taken after the program with our speaker and retired geology professor Jack Cunningham.  

January 2015 Club Meeting Highlights

GRANT COUNTY ROLLING STONES GEM & MINERAL SOCIETY

• The Grant County Rolling Stones Gem & Mineral Society met on January 8, 2015, at 6 PM at the Silver City Senior Citizen's Center.  They shared a pot-Luck Supper.
• The meeting was called to order by the new President, George Skibo.  New members and guests were introduced.
• The Minutes were approved as published in the Beacon.
• Marcia Fisch gave the Treasurer's Report.  The Starting balance was $ 16,796.14.   Income was:: Dues - 195.00, Donations - 137.06. and Lodgers' Tax (repayment of what was spent on advertising for the Show) - 2,702.44.   Expenditures were:  Beacon Printing Oct-Nov - 106.90, and membership in the SCGC Chamber of Commerce for 2015 - 135.00.  The Balance for January 2015 was $19, 588.74.   So far this year membership of 45, with 33 households.  (25 life members).  There were 49 members at the December meeting.
• Ansel Walters reported on the January Field Trip on January 17. 2015.  The Trip will be to Granite Gap from the Arizona side. There are mines there with specimins of Malachite, Galena, Chrysocholla, and Chrystals.  (For further details see the January Beacon
• A letter was read from Marcia Andre, the WEBMASTER.  She needs your help with information and articles for the Website. If it not interesting, it will not be looked at.
• The Library Case has been repaired and is ready for members to check out and Return books to now.  We need a new Librarian to take care of the case and books.
• Tickets were available for the raffle at the Rockhound Roundup in March in Deming.
• Thank - you notes were read from: our Student at WNMU receiving the Scholarship, the Daily Press and WNMU for our year-long support, and The Geology Department at Tech at Socorro for our support of the Mineral Symposium.
• The December Party Quiz was read and answers solicited from the members present.  They did quite well.
• It was announced that Karen Blisard's mother had just passed away. Our condolences to her.
• The Name-Tag Drawing was won by Paul           .
• The Rock draw was held with spirited competition between ticket purchaser's.
• The Program did not show up because he thought the meeting was the 14th.  This program will be presented in February.
• The meeting was adjourned.

Secretary, Mary Margaret Soule'

A couple bits of news

Submitted by Lee Stockman

Two Items for your attention:

1.  At our meeting tomorrow evening, September 12, Mary Dowse will present a program on her trip to Australia. 

Here is her description of what she will talk about:

"Mary Dowse, Professor of Geology at Western and world traveler, will present a program about her visit to Australia in the Summer of 2012. She spent a week in the Pilbara in Western Australia, sleeping in the bush and looking at very old rocks which she will tell us about. After a week of meetings in Brisbane she headed for the Great Barrier Reef to study learn more about reefs and swim with sharks, little ones."

As always Mary's talks are most informative and entertaining.


2.  Jeannine Weiner, Club Historian would like for  people that took pictures at the show to get them to her so she can put together a slide show for the web page as well as the archives. Maybe those with pictures  could burn them to a CD and bring them to the meeting.

Come visit the club!

Another great reader wrote wondering about visiting one of our meetings.  Here's the the response. 

Hello Reader, 

Thank you for asking about the Grant County Rolling Stones Gem and Mineral Society.  In answer to your first question, we encourage and welcome guests (and potential new members) to come to our meetings! You may join us at 6:00 for our potluck—just bring plates, silverware, etc., and a covered dish to share—or come around 6:45 for our usually brief meeting, then the rock draw, and lastly the program.  Our March program will be Digital Microscopy, or looking at rocks REALLY close up on the computer.

Non-members are also welcome to come on field trips as guests of members. To get an idea of what places we go and what we look for, I’d recommend going to our blog http://rollingstonesgms.blogspot.com/ and scrolling down the right column to the newsletters.  They will provide you more information about our society than I could supply in a simple email.

Don’t be shy.  Just show up, then at the beginning of the meeting we introduce guests and new members.  Don’t hesitate to ask questions, and if you decide to join, our Treasurer Marcia Fisch will be happy to sign you up.

We hope to see you there!

Kyle Meredith

Past President, GCRSG&MS

Come to our Annual Christmas Party

Our regular December meeting, 6:00 p.m. Thursday the 13^th, will be our Annual Christmas Party and Gift grab. First the potluck—a turkey and a ham will be provided—then everyone who has brought a gift can participate in the rather chaotic exchange of gifts. Men bring a gift marked Male, and women bring a gift marked Female. Please make sure your gift doesn’t exceed $10 in value and pertains in some way to our gem and mineral society. (Fuzzy slippers really wouldn’t be appropriate, I think.) If you’re not familiar with the rules, you’ll catch on soon enough. It’s a lot of fun with a lot of laughs, and some great gifts, besides.

After the Gift Grab, we’ll have a game and a Show and Tell. Bring your “favorite rock” and be prepared to talk up to a minute about its special qualities. (No dissertations, please.) See you at the party!

Mary Dowse speaks to the Club

by Lee Stockman, Program Coordinator

The January Program for the Rolling Stones Meeting was presented by Dr. Mary Dowse who talked about the geology of the Gila River Drainage and its adjacent areas. Beginning in the Proterozoic and working toward the present, she discussed the accretion of the North American Continent in which several segments including the Mazatzal Provence, came together where southwestern New Mexico is today. These segments adhered and built what we know as North America.

Mary discussed the periodic ocean incursions into the area, the building and erosion of mountain ranges, violent volcanic eruptions and the effect of the spreading of the North American Continent as each contributed to what we have around us today.  The talk was an expanded version of the presentation Mary made to the Gila Symposium last year.

July club meeting

Last night's club meeting began with a wonderful potluck, followed by an action packed meeting. As the show approaches, there were many items of business raised by the show committee members. Everything is on track for a bigger and better-than-ever Labor Day Gem and Mineral Show. Members signed up for an assortment of tasks such as set-up and take-down, greeting visitors, delivering posters and brochures, and helping with our vendor dinner. Everyone's help is needed, so members who are still without show jobs should consult their July Beacon for needs and contact information. The meeting closed with a great presentation on rock tumbling by our own expert, Ginger Coombs.

Recent club meeting

We sure enjoyed Thurdays' club meeting! Jack Cunningham's program on volcanos was very informative and interesting. And, didn't you think that potluck was exceptionally good? We were pleased to see the big turnout for the meeting, and all of the new members!