May 2008 Meeting Minutes

The meeting started at 4:00pm at our new location, Hal Brosious’ home. There were 10 total attendees. This meeting mark’s the Chapter’s 5 year anniversary. We have to elect new officers.

Prior to the meeting, members arrived early to have their concentrates from the last outing processed by Kevin Green and his blue bowl. Hope Matson had the most gold in her concentrates. There were 10 small specs. Everyone’s concentrate showed color. Gerry Davison gave a presentation on riffle construction and theory. He drew pictures on a large tablet and showed the mechanics of how riffles work. He also gave step by step details on how to construct riffles from flashing. These activities were held outside.

Daniel Klepac started the meeting with praise for all those who helped out at the recent GPAA Gold Show in Belton. Our booth sold bucket classifiers and other items donated by members. The infamous panning trough was setup for the youngsters (and adults) to pan for gold and gems at 1$ per pan. The Chapter made $463 from the trough and sales. Daniel purchased 10 new “Hex” gold pans to sell at future outings. Chapter members John Griffin and John Brueckner won prizes at the show. John G took home a Desert Fox Spiral Panning Machine and John B won an all expenses paid trip to the GPAA Alaska Outing at Cripple River. Congratulations to both winners. Daniel won First Place in the panning contest. That makes 3 consecutive panning contests that he has won. Daniel says he is officially retiring from any more panning contests. Congratulations to Daniel.

Kevin talked about the Halliburton Outing that was held last month. There were approximately 50 people at the outing. Special guest Joey Wilson attended and shot video of members prospecting. He was in Texas filming a show for his website, ProspectingChannel.com. The show was centered around Boo Coo and his antics but several members got their 15 minutes of fame. Joey was the cameraman for Perry Massie’s Prospecting America TV show. Thank you Joey for including us in your video. Hobby Halliburton, the landowner, was very pleased with the outing. He commented on how clean everyone kept his property and followed the digging rules. He and his staff prepared a huge BBQ dinner with all the fixin’s for only $10 per person. Everyone had dinner and a good time. Several items were auctioned off to raise money for the Chapter. Items that were auctioned included a nugget (donated by Rob Goreham), a hat and gold pan signed by Tom Massie and a set of DVD’s donated by Joey Wilson. The landowner even hired musicians to entertain Saturday night after dinner. He was so impressed with our group, he has asked us back for a fall outing. Kevin will get with him and work out the details.

Daniel asks the group what we should do with the trailer that was purchased to haul the Chapter’s equipment to shows and outings. Unfortunately, the trailer only made it to Claude Dotson’s property and has been there ever since. It is in dire need of repair. Daniel suggests that we sell the trailer and get it off Claude’s property. He will work with Claude on its disposal. Daniel will inventory the equipment in the trailer. The Chapter has a blue bowl, spiral wheel, banner and tarps that will need to be stored elsewhere.

The GPAA has new procedures in place concerning elections. New guidelines and forms were mailed to us from Walt Eason from the home office. It was decided to have Gerry Davison as the Chapter contact listed in the GPAA magazine instead of Daniel.

Officer Elections

Daniel Klepac was nominated for President. He accepted.

Jay Forsythe was nominated for Vice President. He accepted.

Gerry Davison was nominated for Treasurer and Outing Coordinator. He accepted both.

Kevin Green was nominated for Secretary. He accepted.

All were considered elected by acclamation.

There is an upcoming event in Llano in September. We plan to have a booth setup demonstrating prospecting equipment. Daniel reminds everyone that we will need volunteers to help man the booth.

Gerry attended the GPAA Alaska trip last summer. He brought pictures from that trip and gave an excellent presentation. The person he was partnered with on that trip submitted an article to the GPAA magazine that was published. Pictures of Gerry were included in that article.

Kevin reminded everyone about Equal Access to Justice and the current Forest Service proposal on our website. Action must be taken to prevent the closing of public lands to prospecting.

Special Thanks to Hal for letting us use his home for the meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 5:30pm.