From: "ashohn" Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:23:14 -0000 Subject: [wvusg] Meeting Minutes Meeting Minutes for Mar 25, 2009: Old Business - Financial Report: No change. $557.42 in the bank and $15.16 in petty cash Tera Incognito: *Send Abby Hohn photos you would like included in the newsletter, including images for the cover and trips you've been on this year. *Please have all final drafts for Abby next week. There is less than a month left for her to get the newsletter together. *Gayle Suppa will put together a list of all active Grotto members and their NSS numbers to go in the back of the newsletter by next week. Trips: Shoveleater cave - John Harman will be leading a trip on April 25 into SEC. Anyone going must be vertically competent and must attend vertical practice at Army Rock on April 8 to prove they can pass a rebelay. The trip to Oil Drum Falls has been canceled due to the weather forcast. There will be no trip to Maxwelton Cave sue to lack of interest or available time. New Business: Ellections for Grotto officers have been scheduled. Nominations will be on April 15 and ellections will be held the following meeting be on April 22. John Harman has suggested the Grotto should hold ellections at the end of the fall semester instead of the end of the year, so retiring officers may help out those stepping into office. There was a lively discussion. Such a change in ellections may cause other problems. John will write up a proposal and post it to the mailing list, so it can be discussed in depth. The Grotto will vote on the proposal next week. Trip Reports: Dave Riggs, Brian Masney, John Harman, Doug McCarty, and a few other cavers went down to Tucker County this weekend. Dave looked in a little, wet cave entrance. After some hammaring, he squeezed in, but the passage ended immediately. Then they went to survey a Close Mountain Cave #3, which is located right next to the entrance of Close Mountain Cave. After a stream crawl, the passag opens out into decent walking passage with cool mazy streets and evenues, but for some reason the cave was extremely cold. After surveying about 340' it appears they had surveyed all of the cave. Meanwhile, Doug McCarty had been out ridge walking, looking for Hailedonus Cave. He found it and left a note with directions on the windsheild of one of their cars with directions to reach the entrance. It is located in a blind valley which appears in surprisingly unkarsty terrain. There is a lot of water coming out of it, but it doesn't seem to be water from the Close Mountain Caves, which appears to disappear into the hill. Dave Riggs led a beginner trip for the Mon Grotto to Sharp's Cave two Saturdays ago. John Tudek went to the Karst Water Institute Symposium in Warm Springs, VA. It was basically a gathering of scientist sharing notes, publishing, and recieving awards. Otherwise it was jsut an excuse for bug name scientists/cavers to get together over a nice dinner and beer. The keynot speech was on Travertine Deposits.