The Bitterroot Conglomerate OCTOBER 2019 Volume XXXXVI Issue 10

October has arrived and with it an early winter it seems and that means the end of our rock collecting season for this year, though that doesn't mean the end of the rock fun. Now is the time to clean, cut, tumble, polish, or shine up your collected treasures and don't forget to label them as well so you will be ready come May to put a display case in the Gem & Mineral Show. Just a  reminder our next meeting (Tuesday October 8th at 6:30pm) is the last Tuesday meeting of the year and starting in    November our meetings change to the second Saturday of each month. I would like to close in saying thank you to all those who have offered to run for the officer positions for 2020 and also say there is still time left if anyone else wants to run.   

Submitted by, 

Ed Kubu

Acting President 

The meeting was called to order by President Ed Kubu at 6:34 p.m. who then led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.    

The August minutes need correcting as follows:  “We will vote on the nominations at our November meeting.”  The minutes stated the “October meeting” which is not correct.  A motion was made to approve the corrected minutes by Darrell Coyle and Faith Farley seconded.  Motion was approved.    

Faith Farley gave the treasurer’s report.  A motion was made to accept the report by Don Tibbs and Wayne Farley seconded it.  Motion was approved.    
 

OLD BUSINESS  

Nominations:  Faith Farley is on the nomination committee and needs two more people to make a three person committee.  Don Tibbs volunteered to be on the nominating committee.    

The following positions are available and some have volunteers already.  However, anyone can “put their name in the hat” for any of the positions:  

President:  Ed Kubu  

Vice President:    

Treasurer:  Faith Farley  

Secretary:  Dana Jong  

Board Member 1:  Mark Harris  

Board Member 2:  Ralph Luther  
 

NFMS Director:  Darrell Coyle  

NFMS Delegate:  Beverly Gibson  

Calling:  Beverly Gibson  

Hospitality:  Pam Chulik  

Kitchen:  Betty Kubu  

Program:  

Scholarship:  Pat Tibbs  

Historian: Jim Hudspeth  

News Editor:  Ralph Luther (He would like someone to take over.)  

Sunshine (sends cards to sick members): Faith Farley  

Field Trips:  Jim Hudspeth  

Website:  Heidi Gordon  

Ticket Sales:   

Kids Club Lead:  

Kids Club Assistant:  Pat Tibbs

We held a discussion about replacing Daly Days with Apple Days.  Faith says Apple Days didn’t bring in new members and the booth is costly.  Apparently, the Farmer’s Market booths are free to non-profits on non-special days.  We may do the Farmer’s Market next year.  Rebecca Dane volunteered to do a booth a time or two.  We can also look into having a booth at Frontier Days (Western Heritage Days) in June. 

Lewis and Clark Caverns Candlelight Tour:  Reservations open up the Monday   after Thanksgiving.  We need members to confirm that they are going by the November meeting because the tours fill up    quickly.   Reservations will be made by Ed Kubu for the entire group so we can be sure  the club will be able to take the tour as a group.  The club will pay for this trip.  The dates for the tour are the weekend before Christmas and the weekend after.  Members will need to sign up for the tour by the October or November meeting.  There is a hike outside to and from the cave.  Also, the formations in the cave are UV reactive and will glow a few seconds after the light is turned off.  A mid-wave UV light (Convoy) is a good choice to bring to the tour. 

 Wayne Farley brought an uperlite (sodalite) specimen for club members to examine under the UV light.  Thank you Wayne!  

Lapidary equipment donated by Wayne Farley:  Ed Kubu found out that the club needs to be incorporated and insured with a liability policy of $1,000,000 for the club members to use the equipment at whatever location is chosen.  The club is incorporated and has an adequate liability policy so we fulfill both those requirements.  There also has to be a publicly scheduled meeting that is announced in advance on either the club website or in the newsletter.  Only club members would be allowed to use the equipment.  Additionally, there has to be a trained instructor familiar with the equipment on site.  Darci Rainey has a report on how other clubs deal with this issue and will have a report at the next meeting.  Wayne says there are about 12 pieces of equipment.  The use of the equipment would encourage interest in the club.  Does anyone know of a location where we could use the equipment?  We might also be able to loan out equipment to individuals.  The Federation has training videos that we can borrow.  We can temporarily store the equipment in the club shed.  We will need a team of people to transfer the items from Wayne’s  property.  We will table this issue until the next meeting when we have more information.

  
NEW BUSINESS  

Reminder:  Meeting days and times change to the second Saturday at 2:00 p.m. for November through February.    

Officer Candidate Presentations:  Any candidate has the opportunity to make a presentation to club members.  

Field Trip:  Doug Klieger will lead the field trip on September 15th.  We will be going to the Lincoln area and collecting from 20 different locations.  There will be multi-colored jasper and agate.    

Patches:  They are finished and are available for pickup as are the vests.  The patches are $20 each.  See Faith Farley.    

Faith Farley read the alert on the Hughes Creek issue:  The longstanding dispute over a gate at Hughes Creek may finally be coming to an end.  On July 9, the Montana Supreme Court denied a second appeal from Hughes Creek area landowners and upheld a district judge’s decision to dismiss a request for a writ of review.  The Ravalli County Commission told the landowners the gate needed to come down last year; but opted not to take action until this appeal was heard.  The large gated road should be open  soon for recreational rockhounds and other recreational pursuits.    
Darrell Coyle mentioned that there are thundereggs to be found in the Hughes 

Creek area.    

Faith Farley reported that Phil and Audrey Tromness from Michigan met our club members at the Calvert Hill Mine field trip, and they complimented Ed Kubu on helping them to know what to collect at the mine and where to find specimens. Thanks to Ed for being helpful to visiting rockhounds!  

Our 50/50 winner was Mark Harris.  

A motion was made by Faith Farley to adjourn the meeting at 8:01 p.m. and Ralph Luther seconded it.  Passed.

Respectfully submitted,  

Dana Jong, Secretary   

Program:  DVD - MINDAT and It’s Uses.  It was very interesting and informative about how to find places to go rockhounding.

New & Returning Members:

Please remember to introduce yourself to the new members.

Program Committee:

Scholarship Committee:

We have received no applications for our $750 scholarship this year.

Show Committee:

No Report

Sunshine Committee:

No Report. 

MT Council Report:

No Report.