October Business Meeting Summary

By Andy Thompson, MDSC Secretary

Photo from the kids' area at the NVMC show. Photo from NVMC's Facebook page.

President Dan Teich joined our club’s monthly Zoom meeting while driving through Kansas City. He called the business meeting to order and thanked everyone for coming. From Bowie, MD, new MSDC member Bryant joined us for the first time and reported he has a strong interest in the Chesapeake Bay impact crater. He said that on several occasions, he has enjoyed studying our YouTube video of David Powars’ (USGS) presentation from May of 2024 which explains David’s efforts documenting that impact event.

A brief discussion ensued ranging from the pleasure of attending the Eastern Federation’s programs at Wildacres, NC, and recognition of October as Breast Cancer Awareness month (thanks to Sean).

Members then focused on two upcoming events, the MSDC picnic to be held at Kathy and Ken Hrechka’s house and all the logistics involved in supporting that important event.

Photo from the NVMC show. Photo from NVMC's Facebook page.

The second event discussed at length was preparing for the annual gem, mineral, & fossil show at George Mason University during the weekend of November 22-23. As with last year, MSDC will have a table for meeting new and old friends and for selling donated minerals. Members spoke of the importance for all club members to support this show by:

--> Donating minerals to MSDC so we can sell them and raise funds for our annual donation to the Smithsonian Department of Mineral Sciences and to support a college student’s summer research.

--> Members who are donating minerals can bring them to the MSDC’s table at the show but it is much better to contact Dan Teich (msdcdan@gmail.com in DC), Andy Thompson (thompson01@starpower.net in MD), or Susan Fisher (novaya2@cox.net in VA) or Kenny Reynolds (KennyReynolds62@gmail.com in VA) so the minerals can be priced and labeled appropriately for sale.

--> For specific information about the show, see the info provided in a separate panel of this newsletter. For more details, you also can go to the website: 33rd Annual Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show November 22-23, 2025, Northern Virginia Mineral Club

--> The NVMC show at GMU is great fun! Be sure to seek out and find the many friendly MSDC members there who will be working with the children’s activities, led by our Treasurer John Weidner, and staffing MSDC’s table. Several of our members also will be selling at the show: Dave Hennessey, Kenny Reynolds, Ken Rock, and Casper Voogt.

Reports from Club Officers

Vice President for Programs Kenny Reynolds identified the presenters and programs for our future meetings.

November 3, Ronald A. Sloto, P.G., “Classic Mineral Locations of Chester County, PA;”
December 3, Part Two of Fred Paraskevoudakis’ presentation on the amazing minerals of the ancient silver mines of Lavrion, Greece;
January 7, 2026, Dr. Todd Ballinger describes the lifecycle of precious metals (platinum, palladium); and
February 4, 2026, Dr. John Grant will be our presenter.

Treasurer John Weidner shared that the club remains fiscally solvent.

Secretary Andy Thompson encouraged members to be in touch to donate minerals and staff the club’s table at the GMU mineral and fossil show the weekend of November 22-23.

Old and New Business

With no further business to discuss, Dan called for a motion to close the Business Meeting, which, being received and voted unanimous approval, he then turned the mic over to Laura Dwyer to introduce the evening’s speaker.