April 2024 Meeting Minutes
Minutes of the Meeting of Shenandoah Valley Gem and Mineral Society
Meeting date: April 8, 2024
18 members and one new member met in Bridgewater on April 8. Jack reminded everyone that the shop is open this Saturday April 13.
Cindy & Charlie mentioned that the Herrick family has contacted them and they will be working on delivering, sorting, and making lists of the new materials for the third Herrick auction. These pieces are very heavy and large (basketball size to 3' across - too large to be trimmed in our shop.) More details to follow. There's a lot of work involved in getting these items ready for auction. We thank them for their dedication and time for preparing this auction for us.
Liz Johnson from JMU mentioned that the SE geology meeting will be held next year - March 20-21, 2015 at JMU. There will be exhibits, geology presentations & lectures for the 600 people who will attend. She may be able to get us a special meeting at the conference. More later.
Several members brought yellow minerals to display:
Kelly had a 14" diameter heavy piece of evaporite from a cavern or hot spring? He had some TX quartz & a faceted laser-gem. He told us a story about having to collect an entire truckload of rocks from a lady who sold him a chunk of petrified wood if "the yard was cleared first".
Charlie had some bumblebee jasper and KY agate he got from our overnight field trip to KY in 2017
Cindy had a beautiful specimen of branched sulfur probably collected from the walls of a mine shaft and a pair of mounted ammonite fossil halves. She also had some jasper and amber.
Debbie had some small samples of wavelite, sulphur, clay from AL, and calcite.
Jack brought some bumblebee jasper and explained that there are two types of this - the #2 type is harder which produces less dust when cut. He also had a flat piece of ocean jasper and a brilliant yellow & red piece of slag that he got from Mike Herrick. {This was definitely the "yellowist" piece shown tonight.}
Larry had some yellow calcite and yellow fluorite. He had a 6" piece of celestine with sulfur attached to the back. The piece had originally been collected in Sicily on Jan. 24, 1856. The piece was then displayed at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Really cool! He had a chunk of limestone from our field trip to KY that had a vug with yellow-fluorescent calcite inside.
Eva brought a few unknown pieces that she got from a museum in Denver, CO
Wayne had a brilliant 10" chunk of pyrite from Peru.
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Upcoming meeting notes: (Details later)
May - Tom Tucker will invite us to bring unknown minerals and he will explain/demonstrate how to identify them.
June - Marcia Morris will take us on a virtual trip to South Africa from her visit in March
July - our annual picnic at the pavilion at Bridgewater Baptist Church
August - George Lott (from local archaeology club) will do flint knapping
Club Officers and Staff 2016-2024
President – Michael Pabst
Vice President – Leo Cloutier
Educational Outreach -- Deborah Grimm
Secretary/Newsletter -- Deborah Grimm
Field Trip Coordinators - TBD
Co-Treasurers – Scott Gregory/Deborah Grimm
Show Team Leaders – Scott Gregory/Jack Glenn
Web Site Coordinator – Jack Glenn
Club web site: shenandoahvalleyrockclub.org
Club Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ShenandoahValleyGemMineralSociety
Club email: svgem-min-club@live.com