December 2018 – Presidents Message

Past Presidents Message

We have had a very successful year!

December 2017 our membership was 41 families with 59 active members. Our November 2018 membership is 72 families with 95 active members. We are nearing what AFMS and NFMS consider a large group – 100 members.

After a 5 year absence, CMS resumed their Cascade Rock and Gem Show under the leadership of Mark Hohn. Everyone from club members, to visitors and vendors have said it was a great show! A big thanks to Mark as it was a huge undertaking. The show same venue has been reserved for September 21 & 22, 2019.

This year we started our youth group “Young Tumblers.” We have 4 active members. Alex Danneman, Isaiah Fu, Aiden Cerenzie and Cora Unger all earned their AFMS Showman Badge for their case displays plus 1st Place Ribbons for their respective display categories at our Gem Show. CMS is very proud of our young members and hope in 2019 the number of active members to grow.

Roger Danneman has been the Field Trip Leader for the past year. He is continuously on the lookout for new locations and ideas for field trips. This is a huge job and I thank Roger for the great job he is doing.

We won AFMS and NFMS website awards for the past 2 years. The website traffic grows monthly. February 2017 our website traffic was 110 views. September 2018 it was 2,444 partly because of our Gem Show. We are now averaging 900 +/- views a month and growing every month. Mark Hohn has done a fabulous job with our website.

CMS’s newsletter, The Tumbler, has won AFMS and NFMS awards for the past 2 years. Our club has also won AFMS and NFMS awards for articles in The Tumbler and the Keith’s monthly cartoon.

CMS now has a positive financial picture. With Rich Russell leading the way we were able to let go our storage unit. This was a huge undertaking and could not have been accomplished without Rich and Mark Hohn. Thank you to both of you!

Our Board of Directors announced last month that our dues are going to be lowered as of January 2019 from $30 annually to $25 annually. The Board was able to do this because of the success of our Gem Show and the now positive cash flow of the regular club treasury.

Thank you to each and every one of our members that have contributed to the growth and success of CMS!

We will have a few new faces on the Board of Directors in 2019. I am looking for new ideas to continue to lead us forward in 2019. If you have any suggestions or ideas for our club please don’t hesitate to share them with a Board members.

I hope to see everyone at our holiday dinner on Sunday, December 16th.

Happy New Year and have a great holiday season! Our club really rocks!

Kat Koch, President

Updated: June 2, 2019 — 9:43 pm

Presidents Message

  • From the Top of the Rock Pile Our annual club picnic went off great. The grass and Arboretum area was not wet or muddy, plus it didn’t rain while we were there. We had the usual club members attend, plus a few new faces. I forgot to count how many people attended, but I estimate around 40. Thank you, Angie and Brian, for shopping for the food and setting everything up. Thumbler’s Tumblers donated a tumbler for our picnic auction and another one for our holiday auction in December. The new double-barreled 15# tumbler sold for $120, approximately one-third the …

Meeting Announcements

  • We are going to show a video of the most unusual and amazing things found in Amber. It isn’t just insects. We are also going to have a recap of how our Gem Show did last month. Show ‘n Tell: An item that has something trapped inside or a picture rock, thunder egg, or geode that looks like it has an insect, animal, or face inside.

  • Maureen will speak on the geology and the movement of the Washington coastline over millions of years. Show ‘n Tell: Favorite rock or mineral from Washington

  • Glen Ripper is a leading authority on Obsidian. He is a walking encyclopedia which should make this an interesting and educational meeting. Show ‘n Tell: Obsidian – let’s see your colors.

  •   We start the day off with a potluck holiday meal. The club provides roasted turkey and ham. Members fill in with their favorite holiday potluck dish. We follow our meal with the election of officers for the coming year. Our final activity is our club auction. It is a great time to pick up great bargains on rough rocks, polished rocks, slabs, fossils, opal, etc. Our Young Tumblers can use their Rock Bucks to purchase auction items. This meeting is also our semi-annual food drive for the Kent Food Bank. Please remember to bring something. The Food Bank has informed us that they need feminine hygiene products and grape or strawberry jelly. People donate loads of peanut butter but never jelly. They also receive very few donations of feminine hygiene products.

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