General Meeting Minutes (September 23, 2014)

Meeting started at 7:42 PM. Glen, Pete, Rob, Emily, Mark D., Carlin, Martin, Mike, and Ken were the few in attendance. Rob skipped discussion of the NSS building fund.

Ava and Rob and Pete will help Mark plan his outreach efforts to outside meetup groups.  A destination may be in the Blacksburg area.  “I’ve always wanted to try that” and a local rockclimbers group both want to cave.  The numbers of people might get high. The rock climbing gym was enthusiastic about the program. They might set up a wait list with a fifteen-person limit. Suitable helmets might be an issue.  The might use VPI area helmets and borrow from grotto members. If it doesn’t happen until spring, Mark wouldn’t die.

Bugfest recap from Pete H.—33,000 people visited BugFest and it went off pretty well.

Holiday Party—Figure out who will host the event and then send out a poll with the possible dates.  Rob will send out a poll. [ed. Mark and Rhonda L. agreed to host the party on December 8]

Next month’s program suggestion—understand how batteries work. Other ideas included stuff from convention. John Cole from the NSS web site on the Luminary series—inventor of the rack. Some videos are better to watch in a group. 

Trip reports—Ken described his window-washing descent into the 4000-year old volcano Thingnookagigur in Iceland.

OTR—Pete, Carlin, Rob, and Mark D. did Stillhouse and Sinks of Gandy through trips.  A Northern long ears may have been spotted at the entrance.  They went downstream first where no one wanted to follow.  They eventually found their way to the big room.  They also encountered Mennonites in dresses in the Sinks of Gandy right before they’d be getting muddy up to their knees.

This group also visited Sharps Cave and found pack rat nests were very active. They found the waterfall and the sculpture gallery and both sides in under 3 hours, not to mention the Giant Flying Gourd Room and Halloween Hall.

Missed Opportunity Cave—Dave D., Carlin and Mark D. surveyed up to the 2700 feet mark, but the furthest station is only 1000 feet from entrance.  There may only be one more full day trip to the cave because they’ve now found all the walls. The stream is not passable, but you can travel above it.  Brian Williams and Steph Petri with Carlin jovially complained about the survey.  The four different levels from a very well decorated cave with a few places to sit up.  A jumble of breakdown sits in some areas, but Dave and Mark could stand up occasionally during their survey. Carlin kept on his wet suit the whole time, and it was really necessary. It’s the squeeze and maneuver that gets you wet.

Carlin also reported on a small cave in Marion. Stairstep Springs Cave had 3 entrances. A decent amount of water was flowing out, and they needed wetsuits. In the main entrance they found a cave salamander tail inside a spring salamander, as well as a bunch of salamanders and frogs. They finished the survey (80 feet).

Upcoming Trips

Sept. 27 – New River Cave survey (Ken, Pete, and Ava)

Oct. 4—Over the Edge (Mark D.)—Wells Fargo building in Raleigh (32 stories)

Oct. 9-12 – TAG Fall Cave-in near Menlo, GA

Oct. 10-12 – Fall VAR at Rich Mtn Battlefield, Beverly, WV

Oct. 18 - New River Cave survey (Dave West)

Oct. 30 –Bat Ranch Halloween (Rob)

Nov. 8 – Hancock Cave Bat Count (Ken)

Others?

For the program, we joked around while watching a video entitled Secret Cave. Then Mark treated us to the video about caving unicyclists, or were they unicycling cavers?