NEXT MEETING: JUNE 16TH

PROGRAM: Identifying and organizing Fenner’s rock collection.

REFRESHMENTS: R THRU Z  please bring goodies.

Program:           We will be working on identifying and organizing Fenner’s rock collection. This      

                        will be a very good time for the younger members to see a variety of different

                        minerals and fossils, as Fenner has been given several collections. It may also

                        give some of us ideas on how to organize our own collections or inspire us to do

                        some weeding out. We hope to have a good turn out of both teachers and students.

                       

Club Calendar

JUNE 16^th                   Regular Meeting at FENNER NATURE CENTER 7:P.M.

JULY 23^rd                   Picnic and Show Work Bee at the Laylin’s

Sept.1^st                       CLM&Ms board meeting. 7.p.m. Okemos Library

Sept. 15^th                    Regular meeting of CLM&LS at North School 7:30 p.m.

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The June 16^th meeting is being held at Fenner Nature Center. Fenner is located on the Southeast corner of Mt. Hope Avenue and Aurelius Rd. the entrance is off from Mt Hope. We have several things to discuss and to vote on so we hope for a good turn out. We will vote on changing the May Banquet to June. Neil Snepp has a proposal to do with the Midwest Convention. See you at the meeting.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------News Flash

 The wedding of Amanda Miller and Ed Drown on May 20th was witnessed by club members: Jean Ann, Dave and Aura Wahl-Piotrowski. With less than 2 hours to go, the planned elopement was changed to an "ambush wedding". The parents of the bride and groom were told to be at the Clinton County courthouse if they wished to observe the blessed event. Several traffic laws were violated in the process, but both sets of parents were represented. The couple will honeymoon in the Keweenaw doing what comes naturally, climbing on rock piles.

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Our congratulations to Amanda and Ed. Our congratulations also to Jonathan

Notice-An auction of Florence Hill’s estate will be held on July 16^th at 10 p.m.at 3135 Okemos Rd, Mason. Several tumblers and other lapidary materials are included

Neil and Connie Snepp have had a display in the show case at Fenner Nature Center for the last 6 months. Friends of Fenner and the Fenner staff wish to thank them for a great display. They will be removing their display at the June Meeting so we need a display to replace it. If you are interested in having a display in the case let Marie Lewis know. Phone 349-2263.

Neil Snepp has proposed that our club bid at the Mid-West Convention,August 16-21-to be the sponsoring club for the 2007 Mid-West Convention to be held as a part of our October 2007 Show. A discussion will be held and we will be asked to vote on the proposal at the June meeting.

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Show-To replace our rock storage in Grit’s garage we are considering the purchase of a 2 axle utility

            trailer. Because of the quantity of material that has been acquired Show Chair Roger asks that             any time you can spare some time please call and come out and help sort, box and price show       material. We also need many new flats. Phone 349-3249

SHOW PICNIC- There will be a work picnic at the Laylin’s on July 23 or 30^th to put together exit gifts and Petoskey stone polishing kits. Date to be decided at the June meeting.

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Letter of thanks to some of our hard working members from a 3^rd grade

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO MR. ERNEST S. AUGHENBAUGH, MS. KARA MILLER, MS.JENNIFER MARTIN, and MS. ELAINE ANGSTMAN FOR A WONDERFUL HANDS ON SCIENCE PRESENTATION!!!! THESE FOLKS ROCK!!!!

The 3RD graders would like to thank Mr. Aughenbaugh for bringing in his fabulous display of fossils. We had a wonderful opportunity to talk with a fossil expert. In addition, we were allowed to touch the fossils! Mr. Aughenbaugh also gave each of us samples of MINERALS of MICHIGAN. This ties in with our curriculum in Science. What a terrific way to end the unit. Mr. Aughenbaugh gave me crystallized pyrite . What a beautiful addition to my mineral collection.

We would also like to thank Ms.Kara Miller, Ms.Jennifer Martin, and Ms. Elaine Angstman for their hands—on PETOSKEY STONE presentation. Each one of us received a stone to polish, and polish we did!! it took a great  deal of elbow grease, but like always, we were up for the challenge. Then they gave us the stones we worked on! What a terrific educational experience!

These generous people came from St. Johns and Lansing to do this presentation for free. I would be remiss if I did not also include the folks that hooked us up. Thank you Joshua Witgen for your love of rocks and fossils and for hooking us up with these great folks. Thank you Mrs. Witgen for making it happen, we really appreciate it. The great thing about science

is: IT IS EVERYWHERE IN GOD’S CREATION!! Ms. Bensen and the 3rd graders

Unpublished minutes of past board and club meetings are available if you desire to read them.

CML&MS Board Meeting May 5, 2005

President Richard Miller called the meeting to order at 7:22 pm at the Okemos Public Library.

Board Members Present: Richard Miller. Sue Casler. Alan Hukill, Ernie Aughenbaugh, Roger Laylin, Lola Pearson. Mary Gowans. Arie Koelewyn, Elaine Angstman (welcome back!), Milt Gere, Lee Laylin. Chris Juroszek and John Jursozek. [Board members absent: Dan Sine (brief appearance before meeting started) Gordon Lewis, Fred Stahmer, Kara Miller, and Gaylord Brooks (works nights)]

Vice President: Dan Sine May Program Banquet. Speaker will be Dr. Robb Gillespie, Western Michigan University-Dept. of Geosciences. [Anyone wishing to put a display at the Banquet is welcome to do so.]

Recording Secretary: Sue Casler — Highlighted minutes of the April Board Meeting; anticipate complete minutes to be published in next newsletter.

Corresponding Secretary: Lola Pearson — Reported that a sympathy card was sent to the family of Martin Sotala who recently passed away.

Treasurer’s Report: Alan Hukill — reviewed receipts/disbursements and balance for the month of April. 2005.

Directors: Chris Juroszek-No Report; Gaylord Brooks-Not present; Milt Gere- can still send letters to the MDNR re: legality of collecting on state owned mineral land/& below the ordinary high water mark.

Roster Secretary: Ernie Aughenbaugh — No Report.

Liaison Officer: Alan Hukill — Announcement-Spencer’s Rock Shop going out of business sale, May 26-30th, located in Davison, near Flint. Also reported that to date, only four guests have signed up for the Banquet.

Membership: Elaine Angstman — Due to Elaine’s absence: action was not taken on a membership application received in December 2004: therefore, Alan HukilI moved, and Roger Laylin seconded the motion to accept the membership application for Jeff, Hudson and Cogan Seelye, as sociey members. and acceptance is retroactive to December 2004. Motion passed.       

Field Trip: We still do not have a Field Trip director for 2005. A suggestion was made to see if an individual member(s) could take turns leading a field trip (or two).

Publications: Roger Laylin — The club directory is complete. will be available at the May Banquet and then those that are not picked up at the Banquet will be mailed.

Community Outreach: Elaine Angstman — Petoskey stone polishing demonstration for school children, May 9th at St. Joseph School in Pewamo.

Show: Roger Laylin — Work Bee times need to be scheduled; will decide at June 16th membership meeting-which as a reminder will be a Fenner Nature Center, (located on Mt. Hope, east of Aurelius Rd.). All dealer deposits have been received, except for one. Flyers for the show are available if anyone interested — see Alan Hukill. Lee Laylin can order some T-Rex T-Shirts (and some cool Mineral Shirts); are folks interested in ordering? so that we can wear them at the October Show. Elaine Angstman reported that she has gathered rocks/minerals from Tucson, New Mexico and Peru for the Silent Auction. Also, it was mentioned that some rock clubs have an old trailer that they use for storage of club belongings .

We are still looking for a place to store all of the club stuff that is currently being stored in Grit’s garage.

Old Business: Just a reminder that the June 16th Membership Meeting will be held at Fenner Nature Center (Mt. Hope & Aurelius) — a suggestion was made that in lieu of a program, maybe we could help identify some of the Nature Center’s rocks.

A suggestion was made to move the annual Banquet from May to the month of June. [The club generally has to find another place to meet in June because the school is closed]

New Business: Alan Hukill — At the Midwest Mtg. — club will now have to pay insurance (Federation) for juniors and all members including Life Members. [Possibly can be limited to  “Active” members and not include those who are out of state or inactive.]

Alan Hukill moved to adjourn the meeting, supported by Mary Gowans. Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Sue Casler. Recording Secretary

The April board meeting minutes are lost in space, see Sue Casler at the meeting if you wish to read them.

Senate Bill 263  (S 263) PDF
Paleontological Resources Preservation Act
"Here we ago again!"

On February 2, 2005, *Mr. AKAKA (for himself, Mr. BAUCUS, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. ROBERTS, and Mr. INOUYE) introduced the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.  This bill has already passed out of this committee without amendments and is ready for action on the floor of the Senate.  Plans appear to have this bill pass by a simple voice vote (something the Senate is not willing to do for federal judicial nominations!).
*[Daniel AKAKA of Hawaii was the same sponsor of this bill the last time it was introduced and failed. (108th Session of Congress-2004)]  

The best plan now is to let your Senators from your state know about this strategy and request their help in blocking any passage of this bill by VOICE VOTE on the floor of the Senate without input from commercial and amateur collectors.  This will give us an opportunity to provide some testimony in committee to again block Senate passage. This is very bad legislation, and I ask that you do what you can to block passage by voice vote. There are many good reasons why, and they boil down to:

1. This bill masquerades as protecting fossils and academic inquiry. IT DOES NOT! To the contrary, it inhibits knowledge and inquiry. The majority of what is known about fossils has been gathered by commercial and amateur collectors, and most museum collections are the result of commercial and amateur collections.

2. The Secretary of the Interior asked that academic, amateur and commercial fossil collectors be consulted in the preparation of potential legislation regarding fossil resources on public lands. We were not consulted, our input was not solicited, and there was never any opportunity for us to testify. If the bill is stopped, goes back to committee and we get our chance to testify, the bill will most certainly be scrapped, as it serves neither the resource nor the public.

3. This legislation is the product of the academics alone, in concert with BLM and Forest Service personnel through the aggressive, organized lobbying efforts of only a few powerful members of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and would be a tragic mistake if enacted. It is elitist and exclusionary and was crafted and promoted in a strategy specifically designed to ignore and bypass those of us who would be most affected and the public at large. Links to find your local House and Senate Representatives are listed below. You will just need to list your state and zip code, and the page will return the mailing address, phone numbers, and additional links for more information such as local offices, for your Representative.  Make sure that you send copies both to their local office, and their office in Washington D.C., AND ALSO CALL THEIR OFFICE IN D.C. 

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Thanks for your help in this very important issue.  Remember that the loss in the passage of this bill may lead to additional legislation to further restrict the collecting of petrified wood and invertebrate fossils.  Can mineral collecting restrictions on federal lands be too far behind???

Jim Flora  SFMS Webmaster and Field Trip Chair             
  Email: sfms@amfed.org website: http://amfed.org/sfms

(Source of some of the above content was taken from http://www.aaps.net/legislative-alert.htm and the March 2005 issue of the AFMS Newsletter.                                                                                                                                                                               This  entry can be found at    .amfed.org/sfms/Senate_Bill_263.html      Members without computer access can write to Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow  at Russell Office Building,  U S Senate,  Washington D C ,20510-2202     Phones -   Levin 202-224-6221  --Stabenow  202-224-4822 Following is a Quote from a letter sent to Sen. E. Dole By  The Gem And Mineral Society of Franklin , N. C. Inc.               First , and most important, this Act creates an entirelynew class of criminals!  The penalties associated with an    act of innocently picking up a vertebrate fossil are Draconian in the extreme, treating a hobbyist as though he/she were  a Heroin                              dealer.            

                              Make your opinion count!                              Editor  Roger