General Meeting Minutes – February 27, 2018

by ·0 Comments

Introductions

(with thanks to Zeke for transcribing the minutes)

In attendance: Mike Broome, Eric Williams, Zeke Van Fossen, Matthew Weiss, Martin Groenewegen, Hunter, Michael McBride, Bryan, Ken Walsh, Mark DeWitt, Brad, Pete Hertl, and Emily​ Graham

Emily started the meeting with the question: what technological advancements are you looking forward to in caving?

 

Business

  • There was an officers’ meeting. An online grotto member list is forthcoming and Eric is working on it.
  • We’re having a gear swap at the April meeting. See your email for a list of the items. Caving and outdoor gear are the only items permitted.
  • Registration is open for Spring VAR. TriTrogs should plan to go because we are a considerably larger group than the host grotto, and they may need our help.
  • There is a cave rescue orientation April 13 through 15. The grotto will help pay for people who would like to attend.
  • The annual grotto trip will be August 25-26. Further details are yet to be determined.
  • We still need programs for this year’s meetings. Eric is the contact for programs.

 

Trip Reports

  • Matthew, Emily, Ken, and Kim went to survey Lowmoor Mine & Cave in Virginia. Ken and Matthew and only went in about 15 ft and surveyed the mine above, but Emily and Kim went farther in to push leads. Matthew spotted three bats and would like to return. Five teams of three people surveyed ~3000′. Emily added that some television was filmed there. A caver had been paid to cover some graffiti with mud and covered some survey stations
  • Mike Broome went to the Butler Cave project weekend two weeks prior. It was a wet weekend. They did some digging and found some more survey stations. When they came out of the cave, two inches of snow had fallen.
  • Pete went to the Bone-Norman Cave System that same weekend. He reported that there was a lot of water in the cave, but not as much as other times.
  • Brian talked about expedition caving and told a story about Lechuguilla Cave. One person in one group was far too slow, and the entire groups were compelled to turn around and go back out as a result. He added that expedition groups are looking for good people with different skills.

 

Upcoming Trips and Activities

  • April 13-15: NCRD OCR: Orientation to Cave Rescue (Open to beginners)
  • April 21: Grand Caverns Clean Up Ken will be helping out. Oldest commercial caverns in the US. Sunday: offereing tours with a USGS geologist at 10 and 1 pm. Cavers get to join for free. Contact Ken if interested. Might be cleaning off algae, putting formations back together.
  • March 16 – 18: Michael is attenting FL Cave Cavort
  • April 13 – 15: NCRC OCR at Chimney Rock State Park
  • April 21: Grand Caverns Clean Up (Grottoes, VA)
  • April 27-29: Spring VAR at Hungry Mother State Park (Marion, VA)
  • May 3-6: SERA Cave Carnival (Scottsboro, AL)
  • May 11-13: GirlScout Trip to Lowmoor Emily’s nieces girl scout trip Ken, Diana, Kim
  • May 12-19: NCRC Training Seminar (Mentone, AL)
  • May 25-28: Speleofest (KY)
  • July 28 – Aug 4: NSS Convention (MT)
  • Aug 25-26: Annual Grotto Trip

Program

​A short break was taken, and then Eric led a program on knot tying to close out the evening.​