November 25, 2014 General Meeting Minutes

Okay, so I skipped the October meeting minutes, but they were pretty boring. The best part may have the description of a New River Cave survey. Below you'll find the minutes from the November meeting.

No introductions but threats of food being shared. In attendance were Mark D., Glen, Mark L., Pete, Ken, Emily, Mike, Lisa, Rachel, and Rob. The calendars have all been claimed.

Mark D. recommended that the “I’ve always wanted to try that!” Meetup Group should wait until warmer weather, but Pete felt that they’d get to know one another better if they packed into 2-3 hotel rooms because overnight bonding is a plus.  Mark D. expressed uncertainty about the winter trip because he plans to tie an untie-able knot in the very near future.  Even if the trip is put off until springtime, the best approach might be a slide show about caving followed by sign up list for the trip.

With regard to the anniversary/holiday party, ice, cups, and utensils will be provided by the Littles. The party starts at 6 PM and then dinner sometime after 7 PM. Rob’s action item is to solicit more responses to the online RSVP. Ken is trying to arrange to have Steve Simmons’ squeezebox at the holiday party.

Lisa suggested that she might be interested in hosting a squeezebox assembly party to build one for Lisa and Mike.

Glen offered a donation to the grotto and thanked us for leading him on the Hancock Cave trip.

Ken mentioned three items proposed by the museum and then opened discussion:

1.  Presentation topics should be shared in advance with the museum staff so that they can post them on their web site (agreed to by membership).
2. Meetings could be moved to Thursdays when the museum stays open late to make it easier to find your way in (met with reluctance by the membership because Thursday are packing nights but agreed that holding events on Thursdays once or twice a year might be appropriate).
3. Outreach help with an exhibit at Darwin Day at the museum February 14 this year 

Most discussion revolved around the last item. It ranged from the micro-superhero Tardigrade Girl to cutout boards with people’s faces. The museum’s mammalogist might need help with a bat display, but Pete suggested that blind crayfish and fish might be available for preserved exhibits through the older scientists at the museum.

Regarding recent trips,we began with descriptions of three teams during the Hancock Cave bat count.  Glen really enjoyed his first caving trip and found it a lot more physical than he thought. He carried buckets of water into the cave and washed graffiti off the walls. He was disappointed in not seeing any bats. His group chased some false leads, and Glen’s mom did not approve of the trip.

Pete’s group found the only bat during the bat count, and it was probably just a little brown and not yet in hibernation. He found it easy to spot because it was on a light-colored part of the wall.

Emily’s niece found the Hancock Cave trip awesome but was sore afterwards. They wandered around a lot, but Emily couldn’t reconstruct the order that they visited all the rooms. While going down the Breakdown Staircase, Emily’s pack landed fifteen feet in the air but was handily retrieved from a fortuitous angle.

Mike and Lisa discussed their recent trip to Butler Cave where a new cartographer is comparing the output of 18 miles of cave data.  They dropped a rappel line into the lead, and it led into an out-and-back loop ending in a round room. The forty-foot waterfall yielded just a few drips, and they couldn’t get to leads across the top of the waterfall.  They were underground for seven hours, but Mike was miserable in some passages that were almost the right size for Mike.  In the two tight squeezes, Mike could move through using only hips. Part of the cave passage was much colder, so Lisa would like to find a new surface entrance.

In terms of upcoming trips,

• Thanksgiving Weekend – Pete headed for TAG caves (maybe Fern and Valhalla)
• Dec. 13—Carlin and Dave cancelled their plans, so Ken is free to go caving if anyone is interested
• Jan. 1 – Cave survey in Smyth County
• Israeli caving –Rob’s been facetiming with Israeli cavers and plans to join them.  Rob may visit salt caves, gravesites and archaeological digs.

Then we watched the rest of the John Cole NSS Luminary talk. The officers voted to make a grotto donation of $200 to West Virginia Cave Conservancy thanks to their acquisition of Hancock Cave.