Prez Says...

by Kenny Reynolds, MSDC President

**Kenny Reynolds and his minerals at the NVMC show at George Mason University, November 23-24, 2024.**

Hello MSDC members and welcome to December 2024!

It has been a year of great accomplishment for our club. Our membership continues to grow and thanks to Zoom, our meetings are attended by people from all over the U.S., including Canada and overseas.

We have had a great assortment of excellent presentations throughout the year thanks to our Vice President of Programs, Cindy Schmidtlein. Cindy has agreed to serve one more year in this role and I'm so excited to see who she brings for us next year.

We also have Ken Rock as editor of our newsletter Mineral Minutes and he is doing a fantastic job! Ken obviously spends a lot of time and effort to give us such an excellent newsletter every month. Please consider submitting an article for our newsletter. These efforts are much needed and appreciated.

I also want to thank Andy and Betty Thompson. Andy was always there for me, lending advice and helping with emails. He was always a phone call away and a great friend during my presidency. Betty has been crucial in coordinating all of the Zoom meetings which we have relied on since Covid. MSDC owes her immense gratitude!

I also want to thank John Weidner for managing the club’s finances year after year. John also devotes considerable time towards teaching young people about geology and mineralogy. John was a rockstar at the NVMC show at George Mason University preparing materials for kids and helping them learn and have fun. The “Kids Activities” section of the show was crowded on both days of the show.

Ed and Susan Fisher, organizers, planners, and primary keepers of the minerals donated to MSDC to support club activities; and Dan Teich, MSDC President-elect, working at MSDC's table during the NVMC show at George Mason University.

Speaking of the NVMC Show, our fundraising table had great success thanks to all involved! Susan and Ed Fisher manned the table on Saturday and Andrea Lubawy and Dan Teich, our newly elected president, oversaw the table on Sunday. Their combined energy and enthusiasm, coupled with many great donated mineral specimens, allowed us to raise enough funds over the weekend to cover our annual award to a promising geology student at George Washington University in 2025. A special thanks to everyone who donated minerals and books to support MSDC. We couldn't have done this without you!

**Susan and Ed Fisher enjoying some rock-related humor at the NVMC show at George Mason University.**

That brings me to the end of my three years as your president! Thank you for your support and your continued efforts to make this a great club! It has been an honor to serve you and I will continue to help all that I can.

Please join us for our December 4th meeting when Jim Van Fleet will be speaking to us about collecting minerals in Franklin, New Jersey.