Welcome to the Show, the annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies (RMFMS) hosted by the Wichita Gem and Mineral Society. The combined meetings featured vendors, competitive and non-competitive display cases, demonstrations by skilled lapidaries, lectures, lunches and banquets, Federation business activities, and meeting new and previous friends. See previous posting on driving directions to the city.
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| A couple of display cases. |
Most official activities of the Federation were held
on Saturday (April 25) and started with the Editors/Webmasters Breakfast at 8:00 am. Under the leadership of Pick & Pack (CSMS Newsletter) 2015 Editor Lisa Kinder, members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society (CSMS)
garnered a number of awards led by Jack and his First Place in Junior
Articles Under 12 for Radio Waves Powered
Radio. Other awardees were:
Steven, 3rd Place Junior Articles
12-17
Guide to Amazonite
Kevin Witte, 2nd Place, Adult Articles
Summer’s Swan Song Pocket and the Big Kahuna
Mike Nelson, 3rd Place, Written Features
Field Trip Report: Trout Creek Pegmatite
Mike Nelson, 2nd Place, Special
Publications
Paleontological Resources Preservation
Late Saturday morning I presented a talk to a variety
of show attendees entitled: Geology and Physiography of Kansas;
Collecting Minerals and Fossils. On
Sunday afternoon Ron Wooley, an opal miner, talked about his experiences
collecting opals in Australia.
The RMFMS House of Delegates Meeting occupied much of
Saturday afternoon and was fairly routine.
A large number of Federation clubs sent delegates, something like 35. President Matt Charsky represented the
American Federation of Mineralogical Societies and offered greetings from the
Federation office. President Jaeger (RMFMS) noted that a large number of
members (many committee chairs) are serving the Federation for the first
time. Secretary Thomas received reports
from 40 committee chairs and officers, possibly a record! Treasurer Maggard
reported the Federation ended FY 2014-15 with 78 member clubs and a total
membership of 9,014 members—an increase of 623 members over FY 2013-14. The
Federation added one new club, the Daisy Mountain Rock and Mineral Club of
Anthem, Arizona (northern suburb of Phoenix).
In FY 2015-16 the Federation also added the Apache Junction Rock and Gem
Club (eastern Phoenix suburb), and its 230 members. The Federation has lost the Arizona
Leaverites Club (Phoenix) and the Chanute Gem and Mineral Society
(Kansas). However, for this FY the
Federation has gained over 700 new members!
In addition, the RMFMS donated $1,764 to the American Federation
scholarship fund.
The Long Range Planning Committee submitted “tens of
pages” of revisions and updates to the Federation’s Operating Procedures. This project started three years ago when I
chaired a small committee (with Betty Cain) to offer suggestions and we turned
in our report two years ago at the Tulsa meeting. The Committee’s report was accepted by the
Delegates.
New Federation officers elected by the Delegates
included:
President: Beth Simmons (Denver)
Vice President: Liz Thomas (Tulsa)
Secretary: Wayne Cox (northwest Arkansas)
Treasurer: Gene Maggard (Wichita)
The Delegates offered a round of applause to Alice
LaBonte for her editorial leadership of the Federation Newsletter. And, after a number of other rather ordinary
reports, President Jaeger noted the upcoming banquet and the Sunday morning
PLAC meeting and then adjourned the convocation.
The Saturday night banquet had some fairly tasty food,
compared to most other hotel food events that I have attended! However, the highlight of the evening was the
introduction of Dr. Forest Sawyer, the winner of the AFMS-sponsored scholarship
for 2016. Dr. Sawyer teaches at the
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City and will use his
award to fund two, $4000 scholarships for Tech graduate
students. I found it sort of
serendipitous that Dr. Sawyer’s dissertation advisor is a very good friend of
mine, and a member of his graduate committee was my graduate school roommate.
Sometimes it seems like a small world!
On Sunday morning I convened a meeting of the Public
Lands Access Committee (PLAC) chairs and interested visitors. Major discussions centered on: 1) USFS and
BLM rules on collecting invertebrate fossils; 2) the creation of many new
Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) and Wilderness Areas (WA); and 3) the road
closures on large tracts of USFS land.
As the PLAC Chair for the last year, my major interest
has been the implementation of new USFS collecting regulations for invertebrate
fossils. Although I disagree with many
of the individual regulations, it behooves Federation members to try and work
with their local USFS leaders. Keep in
contact with the local offices, and “know” the regulations.
The future, maybe within the next year, will bring
draft collecting rules and regulations from the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM). PLAC state directors will need to
muster club members to take action (individual letters and comments) if BLM
draft regulations are as strict as the USFS rules. The drafts will be published in the Federal
Register and I will try and monitor such in order to notify state directors.
Other states, especially New Mexico and Wyoming, also
have a variety of problems associated with road closures and proposed WSA/WA. Their directors are working hard to try and
ameliorate the situations.
In summary, the Wichita club had a great show and
thousands of people attended. Show Chair Gene (and I am certain
assisted by spouse Peggy) rounded up an amazing number of Show workers and is
to be congratulated. Pat and Mary constructed Delegate gift bags and table favors that were quite unique and
impressive and will be remembered by recipients for many years. President Jaeger and his officers have pulled
the Federation out of the doldrums and a major slump and we now have a bright
future.
I was curious about a gold prospecting club in Kansas so
stopped in for a visit. Where do you
collect gold in Kansas? Why right in
downtown Wichita!
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