February 2018 – President’s Message

Presidents Message

A Note from the President’s Desk . . .

Our Cascade Gem and Mineral Show is fast approaching. It’s approximately 7 ½ months until show time! At our general meeting, when the Board was getting ready to put a deposit on the venue, almost 100% of the attending membership said they would volunteer to help with the show. Well now is the time to step up. There are still a lot of positions that need volunteers so you can pretty much have a pick of what you would like to help out with. We need everyone’s input and ideas. Our first all-hands-on-deck show committee meeting is on Feb 5th at 6:30 to 7 pm, at Wendy’s, 505 E Smith St., Kent. Please plan on attending the Show Committee Meeting! The Board meeting follows the Show meeting and everyone is welcome to stay or not.

I will not be at our February Board and General meetings as Mike and I are heading to the Tucson Gem Show. We will be gone about 3 weeks as we are driving and planning on stopping to hunt for rocks along the way. We will also be looking to purchase items for ourselves plus 2 or 3 very nice items for our Show raffle.

The Club ended 2017 in very good financial shape. We have made great strides in balancing our budget plus having the funds for the show venue deposit. I want to thank everyone that has purchased items at our auctions throughout the year and bought the excess club machinery and rocks. The auctions are very important to the club as annual membership dues alone doesn’t cover our expenses.

I am very excited when looking ahead at 2018. Our club is steadily growing, our 2018 projected income and expenses are in balance and we have resumed our annual Rock & Gem Show. Thank you to everyone that has contributed their time and efforts to making our Club a success.

Kat Koch

CMS President

Updated: March 1, 2018 — 11:32 am

Presidents Message

  • Digging It!  I hope you’ve all had a chance to get out and look for rocks during the lovely weather we enjoyed in July – it’s been mostly perfect rockhounding weather. And for those of you who were able to come on the field trips led by our fearless wagon master Roger Danneman, I hope you found some good material. Big thanks to Roger for getting us all out there and helping us find beautiful rocks! August is a bit of a break from the usual club meeting cadence – instead of having our club meeting on the second Thursday …

Meeting Announcements

  • Our August meeting will not be happening at the American Legion – instead, this month’s meeting is our annual club potluck and picnic on Saturday, August 15. Join us from 12-4 at Gene Coulon Park, South Shelter 2 – setup begins at 10:30am. Bring something you want to share and/or donate to the club auction, also happening during the picnic. 

  • September’s program is coming soon. We will update this page as soon as we know more.

  • Noelle Barnes will present Using Gaia for Rockhounding, an overview of the features and tricks associated with the app Gaia and how you can use it for GPS, saving waypoints, navigation, photo tagging, trail recording and more. Show and Tell: Bring the rock(s) that have the best “story” – and tell everyone how you found them and where!

  • Club board member Paul Ahnberg will talk to us about the impact of wildfires on our lives – from protecting your home to staying safe while out rockhounding – and what we can do today to help mitigate our risk. Paul will combine his knowledge gained from learning at both the WSU Green School (Master Gardener) and WSU Climate Steward programs. Show and Tell: Bring something you found, from a place that you know has since been impacted by floods or wildfires – or was impacted shortly before you arrived. Tell your story!

Current News