| May 2006 Meeting Minutes | |
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The meeting started at 4:50pm at our new location, Cooper’s Pit BBQ in downtown Round Rock. There were 23 total attendees. New members were identified and introduced: Wesley Straw Toni Ehrhardt
Daniel Klepac started the meeting with a tribute to the late Joe Riccardelli. Joe passed away May 5th. The chapter website has a tribute page to Joe. Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family. We will miss you, Joe. Grady Wallace voices his concerns about the GPAA’s support of Texas chapters. He suggests separating from the GPAA. There was a brief discussion about their support. Not many members supported the notion. Kevin Green read the minutes from the previous meeting. The minutes were accepted by the chapter. Daniel talked about the rumors of gold locked up in black sand. There had been an assay done on the plentiful Texas black sand. It was reported that there is 6 to 12 ounces of gold per cubic yard. Gerry Davison reports recent landowner activity at the slab in Kingsland. There seems to be one landowner that is fencing in areas of the streambed. There is some uncertainty about the gradient boundary. Gerry suggests meeting with the LCRA to determine the legal boundaries of a navigable waterway. Gerry was curious about the moderators of the chapter’s website forum. Daniel and Kevin usually answer all posts, but any chapter member can respond to forum post questions. The chapter had a booth at the Jo Ann Ford Elementary Fun Days event. Our expenses were more than the money raised. Daniel will set rules for upcoming fundraisers. Several pieces of finishing equipment were demonstrated. The kids and their parents had fun at our booth. The Austin Gem and Mineral group will have a show in December. They want us to set up our trough for panning demonstrations. We are still discussing with them whether or not we will be able to charge for panning. Grady informs us there is a second trough at his old house. We need to move it to where we are keeping our other trough. Daniel described last months outing at Long’s. The weather was terrible on Friday night, but cleared up for the weekend. The turn out was low, possibly to the bad forecast. More was discussed about the GPAA’s involvement in Texas. They feel Texas is all private land and can’t help us find property to prospect on. Gerry Davison suggests they rent property for us to prospect. Landowners may be reluctant due to liability issues. Gerry will work on getting the GPAA to possibly pay for liability insurance. He also plans to put together an information packet for ranchers and farmers detailing the activities of prospectors. The chapter plans to advertise again in local newspapers for places to prospect in Bastrop and Llano. Elections were held for the upcoming 2006 – 2007 year. H.D. Hinson (not in attendance) was appointed Claim Inspector for our chapter. Gerry Davison was elected as our Claims Chairman. Current board members were all re-elected. Daniel Klepac President Claude Dotson Vice President Laurie Klepac Treasurer Kevin Green Secretary
Con Sweet informs the group that he has a friend who has property near Llano and may be willing to let us hold an outing. Con will follow up. Wesley Straw (new member) has some property near Smithville. He wants us to come out and see if there is any gold. More to follow. Grady suggests the chapter plan a trip to Murphreesboro, Arkansas to pan for diamonds in September. He recently took his family there and had a very good time. There were no Door Prizes awarded at the meeting. The meeting adjourned around 6:30 pm. |