Mountain Federation Newsrmfms.org/uploads/newsletters/2018/2018-02-Feb-RMFMS...2018/02/02 · final selection if more than one individual is nominated. The name of the Awardee has

Rocky Mountain Federation News, Vol 49, Issue 2 Page 1

Rocky Mountain Federation News

The official publication of the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies, Inc. The RMFMS is a regional member of the

American Federation of Mineralogical Societies, Inc. and is issued monthly (except June and July). It is a privilege of membership of

the RMFMS and cannot be exchanged by the editor for individual club newsletters from other regional federations.

www.rmfms.org

February 2018

Volume 49, Issue 2


Contents

From the Editor ................................................. 2

Affiliations ......................................................... 2

Letter from the President – February 2018 ...... 3

Treasurer Report – February 2018 ................... 4

AFMS Scholarship Foundation .......................... 5

Dinosaurs are Great .......................................... 6

A Pebble Pup Geode ......................................... 7

Junior ACROY Nomination – Cole Jackson ........ 8

RMFMS Library .................................................. 8

RMFMS Convention and Show ......................... 9

AMFS/EFMLS Convention and Show .............. 11

February/March Upcoming Shows and Events

......................................................................... 16

New Show Announcements ............................ 16

Show Flyers ..................................................... 17

RMFMS Board and Committees...................... 20

Cover photo courtesy and copyright of Erin

Delventhal of the San Juan County Gem and

Mineral Society. “Bagley/Frisco Mill, near

Animas Forks, Silverton, San Juan County,

Colorado”

From the Editor

Thank you to our contributors for this edition,

with special thank you to Erin Delventhal for the

cover photo and to our two junior members

Elkan and Jacob for their articles. Please be

encouraged by these contributions to consider

submitting your own, or advising a fellow

member to submit their work. If you have a

show flyer or other show information you’d like

published, please send it to me.

Recently, I was asked to present to a Teen

Science Café group. I will be their first geologist

and first female presenter since their inception

in 2016. Do your local organizations know about

the resources (i.e. people with sharable

knowledge) that you have in your club? May be

time to “advertise” your club to the locals such

as school principals, museums, libraries, etc.

Please submit your contributions for the next

issue by March 5th to

[email protected].

Heather Woods

Affiliations

The Rocky Mountain Federation of

Mineralogical Societies (RMFMS) is a member

of the American Federation of Mineralogical

Societies (AFMS).


Letter from the President – February 2018 By Liz Thomas

February is here and it is a time of love and romance. I think this applies to our love

of rocks and minerals. So much so, I have a tendency to have far too many rocks. But

just can’t seem to let them go. Oh well, I am a rock‐acholic.

I hope each club knows that there is a helper for their area within Rocky Mountain. By

this I am saying that each state has a director that is there to contact with questions

and comments. If you do not know who yours is, here is the list….

Arizona Jodi Brewster PO Box 487, Miami, AZ 85539 623‐810‐9780 [email protected]

Colorado Kathy Honda 2591 S Richfield Circle, Aurora, CO 80013 303‐556‐4498 [email protected]

Kansas Bill Smith PO Box 3591, Hardtner, KS 67057 602‐296‐4652 [email protected]

New Mexico/Texas Robert L. Carlson 1585 Los Pueblos, Los Alamos, NM 87544 505‐662‐5534 [email protected]

North Dakota Russ Oliger 13700 22nd Ave. SE, Menoken, ND 58558 701‐255‐6440 [email protected]

Oklahoma/Arkansas Virgil Richards 26815 51st St., Broken Arrow, OK 74014 918‐640‐9592 dws@dances‐with‐snakes.com

S Dakota/Nebraska Sony Hemscher P.O. Box 376, Piedmont, SD 57769 605‐431‐2755 [email protected]

Utah Tom Burchard 875 E. 4500 S. S. Ogden, UT 84403 801‐4797‐4286 [email protected]

Wyoming Stan Strike 2132 Gail Ln, Cody, WY 82414 307‐250‐1244 [email protected]

If you have not been contacted by one of these people in your state, call or send them an email to just

say hello and thanks. I hope they do the same in return.

With this being the beginning of the year, this is a great time to take stock in your personal club. Are

you promoting your club the best way you can? Children are our future for the growth of the club and

the hobby. The kids badge program gets them involved in the learning of rocks and minerals. How does

the Badge Program work? The program consists of an FRA Membership patch, 20 badges (Rocks &

Minerals, Earth Resources, Fossils, Lapidary Arts, Collecting, Showmanship, Communication, Field Trips,

Leadership, Earth Processes, Earth in Space, Gemstone Lore & Legend, Stone Age Tools & Art, Gold

Panning & Prospecting, Rocking on the Computer, The World in Miniature, Special Effects, Fluorescent

Minerals, Reaching Across Generations, and Maps), and a “Rockhound Badge” for kids who earn 6 of the

20 badges. Kids earning all 20 badges are awarded an AFMS cloisonné pin. All the information about

the badge program can be found on the AMFED.org website under Kids Corner. So please, for the growth

and longevity of your club, take a look at this program to get the future of rock hounding alive again with

our youth.

Spring is fast approaching and time again to get out to hunt rocks and minerals. Be safe out there and

find the good ones and leave nature as it was.

Liz Thomas

RMFMS President


Treasurer Report – February 2018 By Gene Maggard

Your treasurer is still trying to get all club reports turned in, and dues and insurance fees collected. Still

have 4 clubs to go. It appears that one of the clubs will not renew their membership in RMFMS. RMFMS

had 10,577 total members reported in 2016‐17. We have 9,844 total reported members to date for

2017‐18. Adding in last year’s memberships for the four clubs would give us a total of 10,361 total

members. A slight decline from last year. This would be the first decline in membership since I have

been treasurer (2006 as I recall).

With the loss of the one club’s membership of 174 members, our loss of membership will be somewhat

higher. I have read various articles about an overall decline in membership in most of our regional

federations. There seems to be plenty of interest, and probably increasing interest, in rockhounding and

associated activities, but less interest in joining a club, and no interest by lots of clubs in being members

of a regional federation. I can offhand think of several large clubs within RMFMS boundaries that are

not interested in being an RMFMS/AFMS member.

I don’t have an answer for this situation, but it is a problem and needs to be addressed. We need as

many people as possible joined together to protect our access to public lands in order to pursue our

hobby. Many public land managers have no idea of the recreational value of rockhounding, or that it

even exists. Perhaps someone smarter than me can figure it out. Several knowledgeable people in

RMFMS are actively working on the problem.

Otherwise, the Treasury is in good shape. It is time to issue the first quarter financials. I will work on

that after we are back home and should have a financial report for the March newsletter.

Gene Maggard

RMFMS Treasurer


AFMS Scholarship Foundation By Richard Jaeger

Each year, through the AFMS Scholarship Foundation, the Rocky Mountain

Federation gets to designate an Honorary Scholarship Awardee who then selects

two Geoscience graduate students to receive $4,000 scholarships. This individual

has the distinction and privilege of selecting an institution or institutions from

within the boundaries of the Federation and then, in cooperation with that

institution, choosing the student to receive a scholarship grant.

Any Rocky Mountain Federation Club – or individual – may submit a person for nomination for the

Honorary Award Recipient. Perhaps there is a college professor or museum director who has given

programs for your club or helped with your shows who you would like to nominate. We need a short

bio on the person telling us why you are nominating them for the Award. Please submit your nomination

to me; my contact information is given below. We have a Scholarship Committee which will make the

final selection if more than one individual is nominated. The name of the Awardee has to be submitted

to the AFMS Scholarship Foundation by Nov. 1, 2018.

The Scholarship Foundation depends on donations made by clubs or by individual rockhounds in order

to be able to give these scholarships. With six federations participating, the amount awarded per year

throughout the American Federation is $48,000 ‐ $8,000/Federation. The following donations have been

received since the beginning of our fiscal year on Nov. 1, 2017:

From Muriel Fink ‐ $100.00 ‐ In memory of Jim Hurlbut Wichita Gem and Mineral Society ‐ $450.00 ‐ Including $50 each in memory of Ruth Weisharr,

Jim Berrends & Quentin Askey Topeka Gem & Mineral Society ‐ $495.10 Tulsa Rock & Mineral Society ‐ $272.00

The RMFMS will also be donating approximately $1,700 from interest earned on our various accounts.

I hope that a number of other clubs will consider making donations to the Scholarship Foundation.

Please send nominations for the Honorary Scholarship Awardee and monetary donations to the AFMS

Scholarship Foundation to me at the address given below.

Richard D. Jaeger

RMFMS Scholarship Chairman

3515 E. 88th St.

Tulsa, OK 74137‐2602

918‐481‐0249

[email protected]


Dinosaurs are Great By Elkan Normandin

Dinosaurs are great. Dinosaurs are awesome, Dinosaurs are cool. They even have scales. What color are they?

About the poet: Elkan Normandin is seven years old and attends Lake

George Charter School in the mountains of Colorado. He is in second

grade. Elkan enjoys participating in the Pikes Peak Pebble Pups and

playing sports, flying remote control aircraft, and looking for rocks.

A dinosaur watches an erupting

volcano. Art by Elkan Normandin.


A Pebble Pup Geode By Jacob Kania

At our Pebble Pups meeting, we learned many things about geodes. The geode I worked on was found

in Dugway Utah. I sawed it in half with a diamond tipped blade! Inside was a cavity lined with the

mineral quartz. The geode fluoresced green under an ultraviolet black light. On the outside of the

geode, an eye‐shaped ridge occurred on the end of the broken geode.

About the author: Jacob Kania is a member of the Pikes Peak

Pebble Pups and is 8 years old. He attends the Lake George

Charter School and is in 2nd grade.

View of a Dugway Geode. Quartz crystals line the

cavity of the geode. From the Jacob Kania

collection. Image © by the author.


Junior ACROY Nomination – Cole Jackson By Rose Fowers

It is my pleasure to nominate Cole Jackson for Junior Rockhound of the year. Cole was born on in

Glendale, AZ. Because of his interest in geology, his family joined our club.

Cole attends the 7th grade at Blue Ridge Middle School in Pinetop, AZ. He is active in choir and football.

Besides his love of rocks, he is a history buff with particular interest in WW II and ancient Roman

history.

Cole has assumed the responsibility of researching and writing a Rock of the Month article for our

monthly club newsletter. This article is designed to help educate inexperienced club members on

various minerals. Cole never has to be reminded to write his article each month which is an immense

help to our Editor. In spite of the demands of his school work and participation in extracurricular

activities, Cole finds the time to do his “rock homework”. He and his parents are active participants in

our monthly outings and meetings.

Cole’s future plans are to become a geologist, psychologist or a history teacher...or all of the above!

Rose Fowers

President

White Mountain Gem & Mineral Club

PO Box 3504

Show Low, AZ 85902

RMFMS Library By Heather Woods

The RMFMS Library is an excellent source for material to supplement your club presentation. The rental

fee for each program is $4 to cover shipping and handling. For DVD’s, priority mailing (approximately

three days) is $7, and if you order two or more DVDs at once, it will automatically be shipped priority.

The lists are available at www.RMFMS.org/library. Please order at least three weeks in advance, but you

may contact the librarian at [email protected] to see if it is possible to get a program sooner.


RMFMS Convention and Show



AMFS/EFMLS Convention and Show






February/March Upcoming Shows and Events

February 23 – 25, 2018; Denver Gem and Mineral Guild’s Jewelry Gem & Mineral Show (See flyer on

page 17); Friday and Saturday 10am‐6pm, Sunday 10am‐5pm; Free admission; Jefferson County

Fairgrounds, 15200 W. 6th Ave. (W 6th Ave. & Indiana), Golden, Colorado. Lapidary supplies, crystals,

fossils, unique jewelry, gem, mineral, and fossil exhibits, gem cutting, lapidary, and demonstrations.

Grab bag sales – proceeds applied to scholarship at Colorado School of Mines. www.denvergem.org

March 16‐ 18, 2018; Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Society’s Treasures of the Earth Show; Friday and

Saturday 10am‐6pm, Sunday 10am‐5pm; Admission $3 except Friday is “Dollar Day”, children under 13

are free; Creative Arts Center at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds, Gate 3 @ San Pedro and Copper St.,

Albuquerque, NM. Over 50 dealers of gems (crystals, faceted, cabs, rough, and set in jewelry), decorator

items, jewelry, books, supplies, beads, and lots more. Includes a mineral ID booth, education booth,

stuff for kids, silent auctions, and displays. Contact show‐[email protected] for additional information.

March 23 – 25, 2018; Fort Collins Rockhounds Club’s 57th Annual Gem and Mineral Show (See flyer on

page 18); Friday 4‐8pm, Saturday 9am‐6pm, Sunday 10am‐5pm; Adult admission $4 for one day, $7 for

3‐day pass, students (12‐18) is $1, children under 12 free with adult; The Ranch/Larimer County

Fairgrounds in the Thomas M. McKee Building, 5820 Arena Circle, Loveland, CO 80538, (970) 619‐4000.

This year’s exhibits feature fluorite and fossils. Door prizes, mineral specimen grab bag sales, children’s

activity table, demonstrations and the silent auction are ongoing. Gem and mineral dealers sell

everything from ore‐grade specimens to fine jewelry and stone beads. Show Chair: Nancy Howerter

(970) 206‐9569, [email protected].

March 24 – 25, 2018; Daisy Mountain Rock & Mineral Club’s Anthem Gem & Mineral Show (See flyer

on page 19); Saturday 9am‐5pm, Sunday 10am‐4pm; Admission $3 Adults, $2 Seniors and Students, kids

12 and under free; Boulder Creek High School, 40404 N. Gavilan Peak Pkwy., Anthem, Arizona 85806.

Kids’ events, jewelry, gems, minerals, fossils, fluorescents, beads, wire wrapping, geodes, raffles.

www.dmrmc.com

New Show Announcements

July 14 – 15, 2018; Tulsa Rock and Mineral Society’s Annual Gem Mineral and Jewelry Show; Admission

$6 Adults, children free under 12 with paid adult admission, free admission for uniformed military,

scouts, police, and fire; Exchange Center at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds, 4145 E. 21st St., Tulsa, OK.

Show includes gems, beads, fossils, jewelry, crystals, working exhibits, demonstrations, florescent

display, touch and feel display, spinning wheel, grab bags and free kid’s zone. Show information contact

Finis Riggs, [email protected] or Eric Hamshar, [email protected]. Vendor inquires

contact [email protected], (918) 346‐7299, or Liz Thomas, [email protected].


Show Flyers




RMFMS Board and Committees

President Liz Thomas [email protected]

Vice President Bob Regner [email protected]

Secretary Wayne Cox [email protected]

Treasurer Gene Maggard [email protected]

Historian Cinda Kunkler [email protected]

Past Presidents Richard Jaeger Diane Weir

[email protected] [email protected]

Arizona State Director Jodi Brewster [email protected]

Colorado State Director Kathy Honda [email protected]

New Mexico/Texas State Director

Dr. Robert Carlson [email protected]

Oklahoma/Arkansas State Director

Virgil Richards dws@dances‐with‐snakes.com

South Dakota/Nebraska State Director

Sondy Hemscher [email protected]

Wyoming State Director Stan Strike [email protected]

Utah State Director Tom Burchard [email protected]

Editor Heather Woods [email protected]

Publications Contest Linda Jeager [email protected]

Webmaster Jim McGarvey [email protected]

Finance Robert Hains (Chair) Wayne Cox

[email protected] [email protected]

Convention Advisory Dr. Robert Carlson [email protected]

Insurance Gene Maggard [email protected]

RMRMS Show Chairman Dr. Martin Kocanda [email protected]

Nominations Richard Jaeger (Chair) Judy Beck Dr. Robert Carlson

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Fluorescent Technical Pete Modreski [email protected]

Fossil Technical Roger Burkhalter [email protected]

Lapidary Bill Smith [email protected]

Mineral Technical Pete Modreski [email protected]

Programs Contest Gene Maggard [email protected]

Program Library Gene and Peggy Maggard

[email protected]

Webmaster Contest Jennifer Gerring [email protected]

Boundaries Bill Smith [email protected]

Membership Directory Kay Waterman [email protected]

ACROY Sheri Johnson [email protected]

All American Club DeLane Cox [email protected]

International Relations Mike Nelson [email protected]


Long Range Planning Judy Beck (Chair) Dr. Robert Carlson DeLane Cox


Name Badges Richard Jaeger [email protected]

Parliamentarian Gene Maggard [email protected]

Permanent Address/Trophies Dr. Robert Carlson [email protected]

Junior Program Terri Harris [email protected]

Ribbons Peggy Sue Moore [email protected]

Scholarship Richard Jaeger [email protected]

Supplies Finis Riggs [email protected]

Safety OPEN

Credentials Janet Smith [email protected]

Public Relations DeLane Cox [email protected]

Gold Pan Award Dr. Robert Carlson (Chair) Richard Jaeger


Public Land Advisory (PLA) Colorado/Nebraska/North Dakota

Mike Nelson (Chair) [email protected]

PLA Arizona Dr. Alex Schauss [email protected]

PLA Kansas Jared Kyner [email protected]

PLA New Mexico/Texas Mel Stairs [email protected]

PLA Oklahoma/Arkansas Stan Nowak [email protected]

PLA South Dakota Brandon Nelson [email protected]

PLA Utah/Nevada Jack Johnson [email protected]

PLA Wyoming Richard Gerow [email protected]

Uniform Rules Lee Whitebay (Chair) Jay Bowman Roger Burkhalter Dr. Robert Carlson Paul Otto

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Documents

Mountain Federation Newsrmfms.org/uploads/newsletters/2018/2018-02-Feb-RMFMS...2018/02/02 · final selection if more than one individual is nominated. The name of the Awardee has