Prez Says...

by Kenny Reynolds, MSDC President

From left to right: Kenny Reynolds, Mark Boyer, Corey Houghteling and his son.

Hello MSDC members and welcome to October! The summer went out with a bang and some much-needed rain has washed away a very hot and dry July, August, and September. I'm sure everyone's lawn surely appreciates the rain! Now with cooler temperatures, it's time to get out and do some rockhounding or visit a mineral show.

Speaking of which, I just got back from one of my favorite shows, the Franklin New Jersey two-day fall show. There were about 50 outside dealers and about 8 indoor dealers present. The weather couldn't have been better with blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70s.

Special dig at Fireman's Park hosted by the Franklin Fire Department, Franklin, NJ.

The show featured an unusual mineral dig in the same location as the outdoor show. I must say it was very unusual to see people digging for minerals right across from people buying and selling minerals. It was definitely a first for me! I've included some pictures of the show and dig for your pleasure.

Digging friends John Anderson (left) and Travis Wolf.

Moving on with club activities, our board of directors had a recent meeting to discuss some important matters, one of which was finding some needed help for our Vice President Cindy Schmidtlein so she can continue on as VP. Cindy has done a fantastic job finding speakers for our meetings and we urged her to continue for another year.

Cindy asked for help with some of her duties, such as introducing our presenters, because she may not be available to attend all of our meetings. Our member Laura Dwyer stepped up and will be helping Cindy out this year with this duty. Thank you, Laura!

We are still looking for someone that would like to learn Cindy's methods for finding presenters, scheduling their presentations, and filling out our schedule well in advance because so many of our presenters have busy schedules and appreciate booking well in advance. If you would like to be a helper or an apprentice to Cindy, please let me, or any of our board members, know at our meetings.

Second, we discussed finding a new meeting place for our club. We all had hoped that the Smithsonian would eventually welcome back our club to the Smithsonian but more and more it looks like that will not happen. Many ideas were discussed and hopefully we will be able to find a place sometime next year. If any members have any DC locations in mind, please feel free to discuss at our regular meetings.

Third, we discussed a new possible President. This is my third and final year as President and we need some ideas. Hopefully Dan Teich will be throwing his hat in the running. If any other members would like to nominate themselves or someone else, please keep it in mind as our election will take place next month at our November meeting.

Finally, we are always looking for mineral-related articles for our newsletter "The Mineral Minutes." Please submit articles to our fine newsletter editor Ken Rock!

I hope to see you at our next meeting on October 2!