Cascade Mineralogical Society

From the Top of the Rock Pile . . . . March’s Zoom General Meeting went well. We saw some of Terri Gerard’s sphere collection, Bob gave a lands’ access report plus a brief report from Roger, our Field Trip Guide. You can always check our website for the next planned field trip plus the details on where to meetup. We also saw some new faces at the March meeting. Hopefully more of you will decide to attend our April Zoom meeting. You can join via your smart phone, laptop, tablet or desk top computer. If you don’t have a …

The General Meeting for April will be an online Zoom meeting on April 8th at 7 pm. This month our member, Jim Grace, will talk about what he looks for in a stone for faceting and the cut to make. Jim cuts all his own stones and is very well known gem cutter in western Washington and for his fabulous collection of faceted gems.  You can find him displaying at rock and gem shows in the area. More specifically, he always has a display case at the West Seattle show. Look for his display case if you want to see some fabulous faceting.   The link for the meeting will be in your email around the first week of April. Everyone stay home and be safe. If you have to go out be sure to wear a mask. Hopefully we will see each other in-person in May or June. In order to attend a Zoom meeting you need to download the app no matter what type of device you are on. Then setup an account for yourself. Now here is where the good part comes in where you can make yourself look awesome! There are filters that make you look better on camera. Here is how you access them: Sign into your Zoom app account. Click on your profile picture. Click the Background & Filters tab. Click the Video Filters tab. Select the desired beauty filter. The filters can smooth out your complexion, adjust your lighting, give you a background of your choosing, etc. You can try several of them and keep the one you like best. Zoom will now keep this setting for all Zoom sessions. You can always go back into the settings at any time and change the filter. Now let’s all jump in with both feet and attend our March general meeting!

The Board has voted that for 2021 our annual dues is just $15 for your entire family. So please renew your membership if you have not done so. Even though we currently can not have club meetings in person we are making every effort to keep our club running smoothly. We are still providing you with our monthly club newsletter. Our field trips are continuing as soon as the snows melt so check the website, be sure to read our monthly “Tumbler” and register for automatic notification of our next adventures. On field trips we will require 6 ft distancing and no carpooling other than with your immediate family. Our “Young Tumblers” can continue to work on their badge of choice. All the badges you can earn is under the Young Tumblers link on this website. It’s a great time to concentrate on earning 1 or more badges.