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Contents:
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF MINERALOGICAL SOCIETIES
Volume 53, Number 8 It's Time For the "Really Big Shoe" With apologies to the late Ed Sullivan, the Points and Pebbles Club is planning on a "really big shoe" from October 12th - 15th as it plays host to the combined American Federation and Rocky Mountain Federation Conventions. Moab is an exciting place to visit. Nestled in one of the most scenic areas of Utah, Canyonlands and Arches National Monuments are but a few short miles away with their spectacular rock formations. River rafting, hiking and rockhounding opportunities abound in the area. October is a pleasant time to visit this spectacular area...and with a major show and convention thrown in there should be no excuse for you not to be there. A variety of field trips are being planned as well as lectures. Information and sign up for the field trips, which will occur during the show week and a few days following the show, will be available at the Spanish Trail Arena, locale for the show. Meetings of the American Federation and Rocky Mountain Federation will be held at the Moab Valley Inn, host hotel for the convention. The schedule for the week is as follows: Monday, October 9:
Tuesday, October 10
Wednesday, October 11
Thursday, October 12
Friday, October 13, 2000
Saturday, October 14
Sunday, October 15
Included elsewhere in this newsletter are registration forms for the show and meal functions as well as competitive and non-competitive exhibits. Please feel free to duplicate these for your club members use. Show Time By now all should know that the 2000 AFMS/RMFMS Show and Convention is October 12-15 in Moab, UT. Earlier, some errors occurred in the dates listed. It is a four day show starting on Thursday, October 12 and will be held in the Spanish Trails Arena in the southern part of Moab. You are encouraged to make an effort to attend this Show and Convention in Moab. If you have never been to Moab, you will be pleasantly surprised as it is a beautiful place with canyons and Colorado River scenic views. Besides the show and field trips, there are number of other activities, all the way from guided Jeep trips to rafting on the river. Field trips are planned the four days of the show and three days after the show. You sign up at the show for the field trips. The initial show packets were sent out first class the middle of April to all the Rocky Mountain Federation personnel and clubs, usually to the club president. Updates were sent out later that month or in May. Also, all AFMS Officers, Directors and Committee Chairs, including Regional Federation Editors, should have gotten their packets sometime in May or June. If you or your club didn't get a packet, those show forms and information are printed on pages 8 - 10 of this newsletter. As hard as the show committee tries, inevitably some will not receive a packet. Dean Richardson ,Show Chairman, and his committee are trying hard to make sure that everything goes as planned, but as all show chairman know, some things just won't cooperate. Hopefully, all your show, convention, hotel, motel or camp ground arrangements will all be without surprises. The AFMS Officers and Directors Annual Meeting is Wednesday, starting at 9:00 AM in the Moab Valley Inn's Canyonland Room. The AFMS Scholarship Meeting is immediately following. Set up of the exhibits for the show starts at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, at the Spanish Trials Arena. I hope many of you are planning to bring an exhibit (or exhibits) as it takes exhibits to make the show. It is also interesting and informative to see the results of the skills of many of our rockhound friends. I know Edna Whitehorn, Exhibits Chair would be pleased to receive your applications. She can be reached at 1637 Navajo Drive, Ogden, UT 84403, phone I think you will find this a unique experience as its not often that an American Federation Show is held in a city of this size and in a setting of this nature. Some consider Moab as the rockhounder's dream and I agree. Regardless of whether or not you have been to Moab, you need to make a serious effort to come to the Show and Convention hosted by the Points and Pebbles Club and assisted by all the clubs in Utah. See you there. Fluorescent Mineral Display at Moab, Utah Dean Richardson, Show Chairman of the AFMS/RMFMS Convention at Moab, Utah, has challenged me to get a large number of UV, fluorescent displays for the show. He has offered to build a dark room adequate for our requirements. This will be a real opportunity for display of your special minerals at a National Show, in a dark room. The display can be any UV category in the AFMS Uniform Rules or non-competitive. There will be a limited number of standard 2 x 4 x 2 ft cases available that can be finished with a black liner. Display UV lights and timers will not be available - exhibitors will need to bring their own. Applications and show information may can be found elsewhere in this Newsletter. Please info Chet Hazelwood, Rt 4 Box 608, Oklahoma City, OK 73121 or email chet@hazelwood.com. The show dates are October 12 - 15,2000. We need advance notice to provide room space. Hope to see you there. A Chat With Izzie B Hope that you are having fun this summer. Thus far, it has been busy and productive one for Bill and I. We have attended shows, learned at seminars, judged at the Ventura County Fair, and dug for rocks at Virgin Valley. Bill is currently on his week long deep sea fishing trip. As I write this is late July, we are looking forward to our CFMS Show and Convention in early August and then relaxing at some club picnics. We spent four days at the Northwest Federation Show. It was great to see old friends and meet new people. I really enjoyed their show cases. They were divided into two rooms and I kept going back to take yet another look at several cases and spent much time admiring the exhibits. We stopped to see some old friends at Virgin Valley and met some new people. Our opal digging was not productive for opal, but we did find some nice petrified wood and that created a desire for me to review some of the petrified wood identification techniques. Our North Orange County Club just happened to be having a seminar for three days at a club house in the mountains where some of our members have cabins. Now I am straining over a microscope to identify the wood that we found to complete a petrified wood case for the CFMS Show. Upon arriving home, we learned of the death of Jessie Hardman, my mentor. A marvelous lady who had the greatest compassion for enjoying rocks and minerals of anyone that I ever knew. What an inspiration she was to so many. If you had a question you could just call Jessie. I shall surely miss my wise, loyal advisor. Monterey Park Gem Society also held a seminar entitled "A Promenade of Pearls" in July. One of our members owns a pearl farm in China and he was the lecturer. We learned everything you ever will want to know about pearls. A very pleasant evening for our guests and profitable for our club. This might be something for other societies to think about. It started at 4:00 on a Saturday. There was a lecture, dinner, demonstrations on how to string pearls and make necklaces, and an opportunity to buy pearls. This was followed by a raffle and question and answer period ending about 9:00. The club members expressed their pleasure at a dim sum breakfast on Sunday morning. Attendance was good at the seminar and we made a nice profit for the club. I think the time from 4:00 to 9:00 contributed to our success. We had many senior citizens that attended from our area. Before the leisure of summer ends, Bill and I are taking an Elderhostel class on "HELP me! LEARN THE COMPUTER". Hopefully you will see an improvement in what I can get this machine to do. Fall is approaching and there will be much to do. Keep Dan Informed If the AFMS is to continue to keep you and your club members informed we must have the name and correct address of the individuals who should be receiving the AFMS Newsletter each month. The Central Office has no way to keep up on the numerous changes made within AFMS affiliated clubs each year, let alone each month.
When you do this, please indicate the name of your club, Federation membership, and if possible, the name(s) of the persons who should no longer receive the newsletter and of course their replacements. Each AFMS affiliated club is entitled to receive three (3) copies of the AFMS Newsletter each month. Address changes/corrections should be mailed to Dan McLennan at the address shown on page 11 of this newsletter. That Was Stupid!! Did you ever find yourself hurt and saying to yourself "That was stupid!!" Welcome to the rest of us. But, why do we do stupid things - things we know better than to do? Things that common sense would tell us would go wrong? One of the most common causes of an accident or injury is complacency. We're doing something we've done tens or hundreds of times before. Nothing has ever gone wrong. So, we disengage our brains and think about something more interesting. Then "WHAM", our attention is grabbed. Something went wrong and we had an accident. This is how we lose eyes and fingers. This is how we get run over. This is how we get conked on the head by a boulder. This is how we burn the *&%!%&*% out of ourselves. This is how we drive in front of an 18 wheeler. This is how we break our finest rock. This is how rocks go flying around the shop. This is how...(finish it yourself). One of my favorite stories is told by a safety expert on PBS who also is a great Cajun cook. He heard that a machinist has lost a finger by getting it caught in a machine. So, on his next inspection trip, the safety expert slowly approached the machinist - talking to others on the way. He can tell the man really doesn't want a safety man around. When he gets there he says "Whoeeey , I hear you lost a finger. How in the world did you go and do a thing like that?" The machinist reaches toward his machine and says "Like this." - and loses another finger. So, how to avoid complacency? For a start, let's consider an airplane pilot. They have a list of things to check and do in a set order. So, from the time they approach the airplane, they follow the list and continue following it until after they finish at their last stop. A waste of time? Not if they are flying you or yours. You don't want them to forget ANYTHING!! So, think through the things you do routinely. Recognize where something might go wrong. Take steps to stay safe time after time - yes using a list if you can. When safety is a habit, we're all happier. How might it work? Let's say you are making cabs. You might touch the grinding wheel with a finger. Consider how you hold the dop. You might find the stone flying off the dop. Are you wearing eye guards? Apply this thinking through the whole process of making a cab. Then figure out how to be safe from those problems. How about your driving? Do you change lanes without looking over your shoulder? Do you stretch yellow lights? Do you brake late and find yourself pushing hard to avoid hitting the car in front? Do you drive around with a cell phone? Do you get impatient and pull in front of approaching traffic? I'll bet every one of us has done every one of these through complacency about driving a vehicle. Think safety!! Plan what you going to do and look for troubles that may come up. Figure out how to avoid them. Then practice your new safe method - every time. Each Club - Each Year- One Rockhound California Federation
Submitted by Anne Ruffner, Secretary Southeast Federation
Submitted by: Leona Feldhausen, Vice Pres., South Central Federation
Submitted by Michelle Hoffman, Secretary Eastern Federation
Northewest Federation
Rose Alene McArthur, Federation Director Future Rockhounds of America It seems impossible that summer is over. Snow geese will soon be heading south and Future Rockhounds of America will be heading back to school and regular club meetings. Junior leaders all across the Federations are busy planning fun filled activities for the meetings. The Junior President of the Che-Hanna Pebble Pups, Isaac Joseph, and I are thinking about our own programs as well. We would like to share one of our favorite games with you. It's ROCKO, a game based on BINGO. About 4 years ago, we spend one meeting making the game, and the next meeting playing it. We have played it many times since then. I keep it in a cookie tin and have it on hand just in case the scheduled speaker can't make the meeting and there is no time to plan something else. We got the idea for this game from the Eastern Federation Publication: "Working with Young People" by Mabel Kingdon Gross. This booklet is just full of great ideas and available from the EFMLS Supply Chair, Ned Reynolds, 37 Broadway, Amenia, NY 12501-0394 phone: 914-373-9548 for $2.50 plus $1.40 for shipping. This book isn't just for Junior clubs. Program chair persons will find it very useful. For example, one of our regular club members attended one of our Pebble Pup meetings where we played ROCKO, saw how much fun we were having, and up-graded the game to a challenging adult version, now enjoyed by many clubs in our area. To construct this game: You'll need card stock or paper. (make at least as many game boards as you have club members) cut it into 5 by 6 inch cards, use a ruler, pen or pencil, and divide each card into thirty 1 inch square spaces (5 across and 6 down) On the top row write (one letter in each space) R-O1-C-K-O2. The center square is marked "FREE". Get your favorite mineral identification book and construct a master list out of mineral names. We used minerals starting with the letters a to e under the first column (R), then f-j under O1, k-o under C, p-t under K, and u-z under O2. We used 20 mineral names for each letter column and made different arrangements for the game boards or cards. We filled in all the spaces on the cards by hand, however, a computer makes this task very easy and the cards can be cut after they are printed. You can also buy bingo cards and write the mineral names on them. We took poker chips, wrote the letter on one side and the mineral on the other. You could also write the mineral names on a deck of cards. Just having a master list, where you check off the names called, will work fine as well. The caller picks a mineral name from the master list or chips and the players cover that square with rock chips, beans, corn or what have you. One word of advise, don't use M & Ms, players will eat them every time! The player who gets a row covered first yells ROCKO (and gets first pick from the box of mineral prizes.) Even when adults play this game, we often hear: "Oh, that's how you pronounce that." (Handouts with mineral name pronunciations are nice to have on hand) Be creative and have fun and do share your favorite programs and activities with us. Dear Club Officers:
In Memory of Jessie Hardman On Sunday morning, June 25, 2000, the gem and mineral hobby lost a dear friend and dedicated participant when Jessie Hardman succumbed to pancreatic cancer. She had been diagnosed in the latter part of April and had been receiving hospice care at home. Her daughter, Susan Webb, living in Pennsylvania, came to care for Jessie in her Long Beach home at that time. Susan says that she was assisted and supported greatly in this effort by Catherine and Frank Manus, members of the Long Beach Mineral and Gem Society, who lightened her task immeasurably. Jessie is survived by her daughter and two granddaughters, Patricia in Georgia and Catherine in Pennsylvania, and by a son in Houston, Texas. Jessie had just attained her 88th birthday. Jessie and her late husband, Harvey, became involved in minerals early in their marriage while on a trip to Mexico. They belonged to several gem and mineral clubs in Southern California including the Long Beach Mineral and Gem Society, Southern California Micro-Mineralogists, and Mineralogical Society of Southern California, and Jessie had held offices in each and every one of them. One of her fellow members recently said, "There wasn't a job that Jessie wouldn't accept." Harvey and Jessie were avid mineral collectors. She was a frequent exhibitor at local, CFMS, and AFMS gem and mineral shows. Jessie loved trading thumbnail and micro-mineral specimens with folks around the world and traveled extensively during her lifetime. During her travels she visited many of the Clubs overseas and made friends with their members. Jessie was one of the CFMS Podium People for many years, giving slide programs and presentations to member Clubs based on her travels and extensive mineralogical knowledge. Jessie worked as a Physical Education instructor in the Long Beach Unified School District and at Long Beach City College, and in the Long Beach Recreation Department for many years, teaching both women's and men's sports. She also was on staff at the Campfire Girls organization in Long Beach following her retirement.. Jessie's involvement with teaching young people was a source of great gratification to her. Because of her love of teaching, I and her family feel it would be appropriate that donations in Jessie's memory be made to the CFMS Scholarship Fund. In 1979, Jessie served as CFMS President. She received the Golden Bear Award in 1980. She was on the CFMS Museum Committee for several years, and was named CFMS Scholarship Honoree in the 1984-1985 year. Jessie was at one time Chairman of the CFMS Rules Committee and wrote the first CFMS Show Guidelines. Until the past couple of years, she served as a judge for CFMS and AFMS Shows. Jessie was the CFMS Honoree to the AFMS Scholarship Fund in 1993. Jessie served on the first AFMS Uniform Rules Committee and authored the first Exhibitor's Handbook, along with many articles on judging and on Federation history. Jessie was inducted into the National Rockhound and Lapidary Hall of Fame in December of 1999. Jessie's comprehensive collection has been given principally to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Gem and Mineral Section, where she was a weekly volunteer for many years. Other friends and mineral groups, such as Southern California Micro-Mineralogists, also received some of her specimens. Recently the Museum dedicated their California Mineral Exhibit to her. She started volunteering at the Museum in the early 1960's. Jessie was a founding member of the Los Angeles County Museum''s Gem and Mineral Council. Cards and letters may be sent to Mrs. Susan Webb at 77 Roundwood Circle, Collegeville, PA 19426-2887. Honnnk, Honnnk "Hey, y'all, - looks like we've got us a convoy here." We rockhounds go on a lot of field trips. Often we go in convoys. Most often, someone says, "Follow me", we all pile into our trucks or cars, and away we go. Sad to say, we're not really thinking about safety. So let's do that a little while. First, before you leave, everyone should get full information about where you're going and how you'll get there. Then, as the convoy goes along, no one will get frantic about losing it and missing out on the trip. That way, they'll pay attention to what's going on around them instead of worrying. A quick copy of a hand drawn map or written directions would be best. Otherwise, talk slow so people can make notes. First, let's talk about the leader(s). The first car should contain the guide who knows exactly how to get there AND the first car should have a cell phone AND the first car should have a cruise control. The last car should also contain a guide who knows how to get there and a cell phone. That way, the last guy can tell the lead car when to slow down, to speed up, that there's a problem, or what else is happening. If someone has car trouble, the "tail-end Charlie" can also make sure they get the help they need and get on to the field trip when they can. The speed of the convoy is important. Ever watch a kid pull a Slinky across the rug while holding one end? The coils close up and spread out at random. The back end is standing still one minute and then moving way faster then the front end the next. Well - that's what happens in a convoy. If all the cars went real slow, this stretching and shrinking might not be too bad. If they went real fast, things might get out of hand. And, there are always road conditions, traffic lights, stop signs, and other traffic to worry about. So, the first car should adjust speed according to what's going on. On a 4-lane, speed up (see below). On a dusty road with no wind blowing, slow way down. After a stop sign or after a traffic light or after a turn, slow way down until "tail-end Charlie" reports being by the point of change. On the open road, set the cruise control at 5 to 10 miles per hour under the speed limit. Then the stretching and shrinking won't get out of hand and no one will worry about getting left behind and the last car won't have to drive 80 once in a while. If you're driving in the convoy, there are some things to pay attention to, also - such as the plate number and color of the car you are behind. Your distance behind the car in front should be as constant as you can make it. For safety reasons, you should observe the 2-second rule - never be closer than 2 seconds behind (count "one thousand one, one thousand two"). If you see a car behind that isn't in the convoy and wants to pass, open up your spacing so they won't feel that they have to pass several cars at once. That way, they probably won't tailgate you. Do you remember the old saying "Monkey see, monkey do"? That should be you in a convoy. If the car leading you shows brake lights, step on your brakes. If it shows a turn signal, turn on your signal. If it changes lanes, you change lanes. If it speeds up or slows down, you do the same. If it pulls to the shoulder, you do too. And when you all get there with no problems, smile and start hunting that find of a lifetime. If you think I'm exaggerating the possible convoy problems, you should see the exchange bulletins. EVERY ONE of the problems mentioned above recently happened on ONE club field trip. Half the drivers got separated and were lost and never got there. There was an accident. One car got a speeding ticket (trying to catch up). How To Kill Your Club In 13 Easy Steps
And How To Resurrect It
Micromounters Hall of Fame Inductees The Micromounters Hall of Fame honors those who have served this hobby to the highest degree. They are the leaders, the movers and shakers of the past and present who have shown the way for the rest of us. They have not only built sizeable collections, but they also have earned and deserved a worldwide reputation among mineral collectors in general and especially among micromounters. During the Paul Desautels Memorial Micromount Symposium, held this year on September 8 - 10, two outstanding individuals will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. They are Georges Favreau and Margaret "Sugar" White. Georges Favreau has been collecting microminerals for over 25 years and has published numerous articles, mostly on his favorites secondary arsenates and coppers. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the spread of micromounting and the study of crystallography is his development of the 3D crystal-modelling computer application called FACES. This program is designed specifically for amateurs to help them visualize crystals. "Sugar" White has been a volunteer in mineralogy and paleontology at the Earth Science Department of the San Bernardino County Museum for over 20 years. She has co-hosted mineral workshops, and was designated a Research Associate and elected to the Museum's Court of Honor. Famous for her photomicrography, Sugar has published work in many journals and won a large number of awards. Begun in 1981, the Micromounters Hall of Fame inducts one or two individuals per year - usually an "Old Timer" and a modern micromounter. Previous honorees are:
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