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 Gem Show is on June 29th and 30th, with set-up on June 28th. Roger is looking for volunteers, so be prepared to help when he calls or emails you. We need a volunteer to ensure all the signs we need inside the venue are made and printed. We also need a volunteer to order street signs for our new location, place them before the show, and take them down. Then I am looking for a volunteer to take charge of the club sales table and set up the sales table. We need …

Meeting Announcements

  • Topic: Out-of-state rockhounding sites by Roger Danneman Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Montana, etc. – So many rockhounding places! We have a few members who have combined a road trip vacation and rockhounding that will collaborate on this. It’s interesting to see the variety of material from these areas. After this meeting, you may want to plan a road trip too! Show ‘n Tell: Show us something you have found or bought on a road trip.

  • April 11th – Rock Bingo (Spring Break) and Food Drive This meeting is our annual “Rock Bingo” night. It is held during spring break so our Young Tumblers and their friends can attend without worrying about school the next day. Each member is asked to bring 3 wrapped items for each person who intends to play Bingo. You can play up to 3 games in person, and every person goes home a winner. Please try to donate an item you would like to receive, not junk slabs and rocks. Let’s all plan to have a fun evening together. Guests are welcome, and we encourage our Young Tumblers to bring their friends. Food Drive – We are collecting food for the Kent Food again. Try to donate 1 item or more for every person playing Bingo.

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