President’s Message – February 2026

Digging It

Welcome to February 2026, the month when our Seahawks brought home a long-overdue second Super Bowl win! 🙂

I’m delighted to be starting my two-year term as the club’s new president. Thank you for electing me to this position, and thank you to Kat Koch for leading our club for the last decade.

As we move into February and beyond, I hope to see more of YOU – at meetings, on field trips, in our rock shop, at our show, picnic, and holiday party. To me, the best part of this club – aside from the rocks, of course – is the community of great people who share this passion for rockhounding and minerals. The people are what make this club great, and I hope you’ll consider joining your fellow rock enthusiasts for outdoor adventures, fun programs at our meetings, show preparation and execution, and so much more.

Our Cascade Gem, Mineral & Jewelry Show is June 27-28 this year at Kent Commons. We are starting up our Show Board meetings, which are online on the second Monday of each month at 6:30. If you would like to join us, please email me.

I joined this club back in 2021 when I was hoping to find some outdoor time with like-minded people who just wanted to go out into the woods and mountains and find cool stuff. Since then, I’ve found more than I could have ever dreamed – and made some incredible friends along the way. Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead this club. I hope you’ll reach out with ideas and feedback for what you’d like to see this year.

Noelle Barnes, President

Updated: February 9, 2026 — 3:52 pm

Presidents Message

  • Digging It!  Thanks to everyone who came to the club camp out at Teanaway campground near Cle Elum last month. After a brief spell of rain the first night, we were blessed with sun, clear skies, and rockhounding the rest of the weekend. And a big thanks to Roger Danneman for doing all of the trip organizing, and keeping us all warm and well fed during the weekend. This month I’ll be giving a talk at our club meeting about how to use Gaia for rockhounding. If you have specific questions, please bring them along or feel free to email …

Meeting Announcements

  • 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!

  • December’s date and time is coming soon. We will update this page as soon as we know more.

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