From: "ashohn" Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:44:28 -0000 Subject: [wvusg] Meeting Minutes Meeting minutes for January 15 2009: *Note that the meeting time has been changed to 8:00. Old Business: - Financial report $875.00 in the bank and $15.16 in petty cash. - Purchase of survey instruments - John Harman has offered to order a set Suunto instruments off of Ebay. He'll test them and if they function he'll hand them over to the Grotto and get reimbursed. - Kyle worked a football game at the end of last semester, so the Grotto should receive a paycheck of about $40 in the near future. - The ad in the DA still needs to be updated, which Abby Hohn will finally get around to doing this week. - Recruiting efforts: Next week some Grotto members will be meeting at the Mountainlair to try to recruit new members. One group will meet on Tues at noon and another will meet on Wed at 5:30. Because the Grotto has had difficulty getting new members John Harman suggested that we should all brainstorm some kind of gimmick before next week's meeting. Some ideas we discussed were: 1. building a squeeze box and having people try it out at the mountainlair 2. trying to recruit people at the rec center during vertical practice, which may involve wearing dirty cave suits during practice. 3. Posters. We could cheaply print out some large posters to hand out. Dave Riggs has also offered to update some fliers, which John Harman will put up posters around campus. New Business: Upcoming trips - Kyle Mcmillan suggested going back to survey some more in Maiden Run this Monday, Jan 19. So far Dan Brooks, Nikki Green, Kyle, and Abby Hohn have shown interest in going. A meeting time hasn't been set. We talked about going ice skating next Thur (Jan 22). The adult skate is from 9:00 - 10:30. A few members are going down to the Crawlathon, which is Jan 22-25. There will be some cool cave trips, squeeze box competitions, and Gordon Brace will be giving a presentation on Hellhole. He'll be using photos of the Grotto's own Brian Masney. You can get more information at www.crawlathon.com The Grotto will be going down to Greenbrier County January 31. There are a lot of big, interesting caves in the area and it should be a good time. A few ideas for trips have also been suggested for sometime in the future: 1. Kyle Mcmillan suggested going to WISP some Wednesday night instead ofa meeting. 2. Nikki Green would like to go down to Bowden some week night. - Dan Brooks suggested that the Grotto website could have rotated images. The webmaster will arrange that. If you have any photos you can send them to Dave Riggs at driggs@speleo.us - The WV Cave Conservancy bought the dug entrance to Max Welton Sink Cave. Because of the Grotto's previous involvement with Max Welton Dave Riggs suggested that the Grotto should donate some money to the WV cave conservancy. A motion was passed to donate $50. Dave will get the contact info anf Gayle Suppa will send a check. - The Grotto library needs to find a home. We argued about where it should go, but still need to come to a definite solution. - Dave Riggs proposed buying three books for the Grotto library; Art Palmer's Cave Geology, Alpine Caving Technique, and the 2nd edition of On Rope. Kyle Mcmillan offered to donate his copy of Alpine Caving Technique. The other two books will have to be purchased. - Abby Hohn wanted to put out an issue of the Grotto's newsletter Terra Incognito this semester. She has offered to act as the editor, but is asking that Grotto members write trip reports and donate photographs. She'll provide a better outline next week and all ideas and writing is welcome. Trip Reports: Kyle McMillan, Dan Brooks, Brianne, and Jamie went on a few trips over break. First they went down to Germany Valley to do Harper Cave and Sites. A few weeks later they went don to TAG. They bounced some pits and did some caving. They hit Cemetary Pit, South Pitsburgh Pit, Cagle's Chasm, Neversink, and Valhalla. In Valhalla they went back to the Megadome, which is over 200'. They came out at night with an impressive moonbeam shining down through the mist. TAG Nikki Green, Aaron Moses, and Abby Hohn went to TAG the same week as Kyle's crew. It was a very wet time, with lots of rain and waterfalls. They hit the warm up pit in Ellison's, Neversink, Flowing Stone, Mandy's Pit, Holiday Hole, and Fountain Pit. After the TAG trip Nikki Green went to Shovel eater cave with John Harman and Cullen Hencke. They surveyed 110' past John's bolt climb from his previous trip A few weeks before John Harman, Gayle Suppa, John Fair, and Kenny Nazzlerod went to Shovel eater. John H did a bolt clim with Gayle on belay, while Kenny and John F worked on a dig nearby. TAG in December Dave Riggs, Abby Hohn, John Harman, and Gayle Suppa went down to TAG for about 5 days. It was Abby and Gayle's first ever TAG trip. They went to Moses Tomb, Cemetary Pit, South Pittsbirgh Pitt, Cagle's Chasm and Jeepside, Neversink, and Valhalla. Dave Riggs did too much caving in the West to talk about at this meeting. He's giving a slideshow presentation at the Mon Grotto meeting in Fairmont on Jan 26 about caving in the Pacific Northwest and Arizona. Dave Riggs, Brian Masney, and Aaron Bird went to Druid. They dug out 6.5 - 7 feet at a crack, which was sucking when they got there. By the time they left the temperature had changed outside so that the air stopped moving and eventually began to blow. Jon Tudek went to Bortal with the Mon Grotto. They spent about 3 or 4 hours underground.