Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:02:22 -0500 From: "David A. Riggs" Subject: 2007-01-24 WVUSG Meeting Minutes Minutes from the Jan. 24, 2007 meeting of the WVU Student Grotto. There were 11 people present at tonight's meeting, and we have two new members, Tom Lilly and Dan Brooks, and one "new" returning member, Katherine Gurtler - welcome to the Grotto everyone! Upcoming Trips/Events: 1. This weekend, Jan. 27, Brian Masney [1] is organizing a trip to Scott Hollow Cave [2] in Monroe County. Ben Mirable will be taking us to "Kansas" and the "Iron City." This cave has some huge passage and great formations, however you may only enter the cave if you've been a registered NSS member for at least one year [3]. Contact Brian if you would like to go on this trip. [1] Brian Masney [2] http://www.wildcaving.com [3] http://caves.org/info/member.shtml 2. There will be a Monday evening beginner trip into Bowden Cave near Elkins either Jan. 29 or Feb. 5. Contact Kyle McMillan [4] with questions; he will post details "real soon now". [4] Kyle McMillan 3. Saturday, Feb. 3, there will be a beginner-level trip to see some Tucker County caves, located less than two hours from Morgantown. We will not be camping (day trip only), and will probably visit Red Run / Moore's and ?? (open to suggestions). More details at next week's meeting. 4. The WVU Phys Ed dept. is taking a week-long trip to TAG for Spring Break. They will spend 3 days backpacking, a day rock climbing and rappelling, and one day doing a couple horizontal caves - there will be no vertical caving. The trip costs $250; register soon as slots are limited. See [5] for details. [5] http://www.wvu.edu/~physed/lapbroch/teenadult.htm#savage 5. Spring VAR will be Apr. 27 - 29 in Durbin WV (Northern Pocahontas County), hosted by the Front Royal Grotto. There will be lots of great caving trips (including Cassel, Tub, Carpenter-Swago), speleo-vendors, and most importantly... pancakes! Many WVUSG members plan on going. See [6] for details and pre-registration. [6] http://www.varegion.org/frontroyal/var.html 6. Kyle wants to plan a trip to Butler Cave and Cave Mountain Cave. John Tudek wants to do Bone Cave. Other Topics 7. Dave Riggs made a motion that the Grotto donate $50 to the family of Jason Simmons; the motion passed. Individual donations were also collected. If anyone else would like to make a donation to the Simmons family in the name of the Grotto, please contact treasurer Jessica Morning ASAP [7]. [7] Jessica Morning 8. Jessica Powell(?) talked to the WVU library about the possibility of housing the Grotto's library in their building. It turns out that this would require us to give up ownership of the material, it would not be allowed to be checked out of the WV collection room, and it would be available for viewing by any library patron. It was decided that this was not an improvement on the present situation, other options are being investigated. Trip Reports 9. Brian Masney talked about ridgewalking the Druid Cave area of the Cheat Canyon, and about ridgewalking the Elklick Valley in Tucker County [8]. Nobody else went caving (for shame)! [8] http://flickr.com/photos/masneyb/sets/72157594490951616/ Benevolent Dictator Kyle McMillan made a motion at 8:40 that the meeting be adjourned and that we reconvene at Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck [9]; the motion passed. [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weck - DR -- David A. Riggs