August 2019 Meeting Minutes
Minutes of the Meeting of Shenandoah Valley Gem and Mineral Society
Meeting date:August 12th, 2019
Intro:
There were 29 members and 3 guests present. We opened the meeting at 7 pm with no show-and-tell this month.
Thomas Hale introduced himself as a graduate student who is proposing a project to collect and document the history and current information about the minerals of Virginia.
He will be speaking to our club at the October meeting.
Old Business:
Jack Glenn gave a PowerPoint presentation about upcoming show info. His theme was “persistence”.
He reminded members to begin working on their display cases for our educational part of the show. The cases may be picked up during one of the lapidary shop times at the Waynesboro Church of the Brethren.
Jack emphasized that publicity is paramount to the show’s success. Marcia has contacted the radio stations and community bulletin boards, and Cara, Marcia, Charlie and many others have been distributing flyers and pads all across the region.
Each member was asked to pick up posters, flyers and pads to distribute in their local areas.
He suggested that we volunteer to reciprocate the favor by bringing brochures/business cards to the show from the businesses that help us promote our show.
New this year are magnetic car signs - that were half the price of an outdoor billboard. Members who took these are requested to return them after the show. He recommended removing them from a vehicle every few days so that the paint will not show a “shadow” of the sign.
A Truck Mania event and the Augusta Expo Yard Sale will also be at The EXPO on Saturday. These events will help bring people to our show as well.
A committee from the yard sale will be available to assist us in putting up yard signs and removing them for publicity. We need some volunteers to help with this.
Jack (our mighty webmaster) set up a Face Book ad in coordination with the EXPO folks. It was put up on Sunday August 11 and will continue through the show dates.
There have been 3.5 thousand views already with 186 clicks on “coming”. Pretty good results for a 24 hour run!
He reminded us that we are a non-profit organization and that some of the monies earned are donated to the JMU geology department to assist with educational projects and field trips for the students.
Please join me in giving a HUGE THANK YOU to Jack and all the others who have volunteered their time, energy and resources for all their work and efforts for us & the show.
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New Business:
- Be sure to “spread the word” for Sept 20-22 at EXPO
- Show times are 2-6 Friday, 10-6 Saturday, 11-5 Sunday. Friday evening carry-in meal at 6:30. The vendors are very appreciative of this meal. Please bring a dish to share.
- For updates and info please see http://tinyurl.com/SVGMS-show-2019
- We will need lots of volunteers to make the show a success. Please try to be at the next meeting for opportunities to help.
Program Report:
Our program was presented by a former club member, Scott Duresky, who lives in Charlottesville and has been working on a research project for 7 years.
He talked about this research and presented a slide show of some of the minerals he has been studying.
Scott has been working with our president Mike Pabst and Dr. Michael Wise of the Smithsonian to detail photos and information about his specimens.
The program was titled “The Historic Rutherford Mine Pegmatite #2 of Amelia Courthouse, VA Featuring Research with Pyrochlore Supergroup” by Scott Duresky and Michael Pabst.
Scott explained that the mine has been closed for 30 years, and that only by good fortune does he have a collection of minerals that includes some that are found nowhere else in the world.
Scott had visited the mine hundreds of times since he was a high school senior, and is very familiar with the type of minerals found there.
The minerals from this mine are grouped into feldspars, metals, rare earth minerals, and microlites.
The identification of many of the rarest minerals involves using sophisticated equipment that can analyze the chemical make-up of the mineral to include elements and compounds. Tony Nikischer of Excalibur Minerals in Charlottesville works closely with Scott to make sure identifications are accurate. The use of dispersive x-ray spectroscopy can identify composition to the tenth of a percent.
There were 3 pegmatites found at the mine, but #2 has yielded some of the better and rarer specimens.
Scott showed beautiful photos of cleavelandite, tourmaline, helvine and cassiterite.
He showed some photos of minerals that have only been recently identified due to advances in technology.
Dr. Lance Kearns of JMU has helped identify some of these. Examples of the newly identified minerals included rhabdophane, columbite-Mn, chlorophane, fluorcalcomicrolite and oxycalciomicrolite.
A couple of these are not even on www.mindat.org yet! (this is a site that has thousands of mineral photos, descriptions and locations)
We’d like to thank Scott for sharing this wonderful presentation with us and for all the anecdotes that made for a very interesting and educational evening!
Field Trip Info:
Please refer to “SVGMS Field Trips News” documents you receive from the club secretary for a description of the current status of field trips and details about upcoming trips.
If you are a club member with paid-up dues and you do not receive the “Field Trip News” document when they are emailed, please contact the secretary at loverocksandminerals@gmail.com or at a monthly meeting to correct this issue.
This will be the principle way information about field trips are distributed to members, so we want to insure everyone is correctly addressed.
Scott Steele will give an update at the next meeting.
Next meeting:
October - (Tentative) Thomas Hale will be presenting his work on the Virginia Mineral Project
Looking ahead:
Please be aware that our September 9th meeting will be at 6:30 at the Fishersville location of the Augusta county library. We must leave the library by 8 pm so we will start earlier. We will be discussing the show and volunteer opportunities so please attend if you can.
Remember that the lapidary shop is open the Saturday following a regular meeting and on the second Saturday after that. Leo, Charlie & Jack can assist you. Open from 9 am to noon.
There are several slab saws and trim saws. Keep in mind that safety is a priority, and wear closed toe shoes, safety glasses, with no loose hair or long sleeves. Children must be supervised and closely monitored to insure they are safely using the equipment. Check this page to see what you can learn to do!
If you’d like to present a program, please talk to an officer at a meeting.
Be sure to keep up with our website www.shenandoahvalleyrockclub.org and our Facebook page Shenandoah Valley Gem and Mineral Society for updates and information.
Deborah Grimm, Secretary
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Club Officers and Staff 2016-2019
President – Michael Pabst
Vice President – Leo Cloutier
Show Co-Chairs – Dean Hostetter/Scott Gregory
Educational Outreach -- Deborah Grimm
Secretary/Newsletter -- Deborah Grimm
Field Trip Coordinators - Scott Steele
Treasurer – Scott Gregory
Web Site Coordinator – Jack Glenn
Club web site: www.shenandoahvalleyrockclub.org
Club Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ShenandoahValleyGemMineralSociety
Club email: svgem-min-club@live.com