Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:15:15 -0400 From: "David A. Riggs" Subject: 2006-08-30 Meeting Minutes Minutes for the August 30, 2006 WVU Student Grotto meeting. There were 25 people in attendance at tonight's meeting. Many were beginners who are interested in going caving with the grotto. Amanda Summy, Cassidi Layfield, and Joshua Francis became official grotto members. Welcome everyone! 1. Room 304 White Hall was in use by a class until 8:20. We temporarily met in room 301 and had a bit of a social event to kill the time. We need to find out if 304 will be tied up every wednesday or if this was a one-off. Room 301 lacks a computer / projector. 2. Kyle gave an introduction to Beginners Weekend for the new people. To recap, we will camp at Seneca Shadows campsite near Seneca Rocks Sept 15 - 17 and go caving in several nearby caves. See [1] for gear list. 3. Due to some festival in town that weekend, we need to call ahead of time and reserve our campsites. Jason Simmons gave me the phone numbers for Seneca Shadows. We need to try and get an estimate on the number of people attending soon. Since we couldn't decide, I'm arbitrarily picking $8 as the price for Beginners Weekend, which includes campground fees and grotto equipment rental. If you become an official grotto member at the same time, you get the low low introductory price of $20 total. 4. Brian gave an excellent slide show featuring past caving trips as well as some non-caving grotto activities. It also featured PG-13 footage of Ben Mirable, and an action shot of The Extreme Team. 5. John Tudek announced a beginners trip that he will be leading the weekend before our "official" Beginners Weekend, on Sept 8 - 10. He will possibly go to Sharps Cave near Snowshoe. Details forthcoming from John. 6. There will be a beginners trip to Barton's Cave, near Uniontown PA, *tomorrow*, Thursday Aug 31. Meet at the WVU Rec Center in front of the concession stand and TV at 6:15. Rides and gear should be available, but if you were not at the meeting, please RSVP with Kyle. The caravan will leave promptly at 6:30, be ready to go directly to the cave so we can be back to Morgantown by 11pm at the latest. Dr. Rauch is letting the grotto borrow 3 of his personal helmets and lamps, which I will bring to the Rec Center, along with a map of Barton's Cave - Thanks! Beginners, do not forget a change of clothes, garbage bag, four AA batteries, and clothes/boots that you don't mind getting muddy! See [1]. 7. Judi Wasilewski, of the VPI Cave Club, discussed Fall VAR, which VPI is hosting Sept 22 - 24. Many cave trips, both horizontal and vertical, will be available. She is leading trips to Pighole and Clover Hollow Caves. Details at [2]. 8. Nancy said that shirts have been ordered and should be here by next meeting. We don't owe her any money yet. 9. Kyle, Brian, and I stood outside the Mountainlair this afternoon in cave gear and brian showed off some photos on his laptop. We talked to a lot of interested people and several showed up at the meeting. I think "active" advertising like this is much more effective than "passive" advertising, and it was a lot of fun - we should do it a few times a semester. I also made a new flier which is in the Files section of the Yahoo group page [3]. The meeting was adjourned and people headed to BW3 for the post-meeting. [1] http://www.caves.org/grotto/wvusg/gearlist/ [2] http://www.cave.org.vt.edu/fallvar06.shtml [3] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvusg/files - DR -- David A. Riggs