Past Meetings
2007
- December 5 2007: The 3rd annual club live auction!
Free pizza and pop, shared goodies, and a gift exchange.
Also: the club trophies for
best self-collected and acquired specimen. Here is
the auction catalogue.
- November 7 2007: Karen Fox and Donna Hollander gave
us a workshop on lapidary. Jeff Shallit gave a mini-talk on
"midwave madness".
- October 3 2007: Stephanie Martin and André Mongeon
gave us a mini-talk on garnets, and displayed many different types of
garnets from their personal collection.
Matt Devereux gave us a wonderful slide show
about the amazing fossils of the Burgess Shale. Matt spent 10 years
collecting specimens at the world-famous site in British Columbia.
- September 5 2007: Reiner Mielke gave a short talk about how
to clean and trim mineral specimens. We also had our annual
show-and-tell about our summer collecting adventures.
- June 6 2007: We met at Jeff Shallit's house,
20 Richmond Avenue, in Kitchener, for our
June Potluck Supper.
Then tour guide Peter Russell led us on a rock tour
all around downtown Kitchener.
- May 2 2007: Jeff Shallit gave a talk about
"elements in minerals". Amy Partlow gave a mini-talk on "emeralds".
- April 4 2007: Bill Lechner gave us a great show-and-tell on
micromounting. He showed computer slides of many rare minerals from
such localities as the Aris Quarry, Namibia, and Mt. St. Hilaire. He
gave away about 20 micromounts free!
Abel Land displayed his science project on fluorescence.
- March 7 2007: Nick Eyles, U of T professor and author of Ontario Rocks,
spoke on "Monumental Science: geology and society of ancient Egypt".
André Mongeon gave a great mini-talk and
slide show on ruby.
- February 7 2007: Sandi Loytomaki (owner/operator of Hollyoaks)
talked about "Stone People - an indigenous perspective on gems,
minerals, and stones". Stephanie Martin gave a mini-talk
on "minerals of Poland" and showed fluorescence of some specimens.
She also donated some
Poland minerals for the draw!
- January 3 2007: Club Co-President Gary Partlow spoke about
"Arizona and the Grand Canyon", and Rob Allie gave a mini-talk on
on "synthetic gems" .
2006
- December 6 2006: 52 members and guests showed up for the
2nd annual holiday
live auction. For the auction catalogue,
click here.
40 live auction items and 11 silent auction items were sold, with much
of the money going to the club. We had visitors from as far as Toronto.
Our first annual "Best Self-Collected Mineral Award" went to our club
co-president, Gary Winkler, for epidote collected from Marmora. Our
first annual "Best Acquired Mineral Award" (aka the "Silver Pick") went
to Bo Renneckendorf, for a beautiful quartz cast with pyrite from Romania
Pizza and treats were enjoyed by all, in addition to the
usual mineral Christmas exchange.
- November 1 2006: We heard two mini-talks.
- October 4 2006:
Jules Spiegel spoke about silversmithing.
- September 6 2006:
Our annual "Show and Tell"! We heard about collecting hanksite from Searles
Lake in California and petrified wood in Arizona, amethyst on highway 35,
zeolites in Nova Scotia, and this year's field trip to Marmora. There
was a silent auction, and giveaways of hanksite and corundum.
- June 7, 2006: We had our annual potluck picnic
at the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at
Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU). Afterwards, we examined Laurier's
collection and helped identify unlabeled items. All volunteers went
home with a mineral or two.
- May 3, 2006: Alan Morgan from the University of Waterloo
spoke about "Geoscape Grand River". Bob Sharpe gave a mini-talk
on the Mineral of the Month: tungsten minerals.
- April 12, 2006: Special meeting and slide presentation
at the CEIT building at the
University of Waterloo: "Treasures of Tucson", 7:30 PM.
- April 5 2006: Bill Plavac was going to
speak about "Mineral Collecting
in Newfoundland" but had to cancel, so on short notice
Jeff Shallit gave a talk about
meteorites instead. The mineral of the month was
sodalite and hackmanite.
- March 1, 2006: Ken Steele, District Geologist for Central and
Southwestern Ontario, spoke about "Southern Ontario Minerals in Your Life".
Mineral of the month: copper, presented by Ed Stiles. Gary Winkler
passed out free barite
specimens, courtesy of Bill Plavac.
- February 1, 2006: Matthew Manson spoke on
"Diamonds in Canada: a view along the Pipeline",
and Rich Paterson gave a mini-talk on quartz.
- January 4, 2006: Ulymar Rocha talked about imperial topaz, and
showed two movies.
Rob Fox gave a short talk on the "Mineral of the Month" -- diamond.
2005
- December 7, 2005: Pizza for Christmas, Xmas gift exchange,
and live auction! 32 items were auctioned off for the benefit of the
club. There were donations from Bill McIntyre, Reiner Mielke, Gary
Winkler, Stonebridge
Imports, The Weather, The Gneiss Guy, and Calaverite Fine Minerals.
- November 2, 2005: A big turnout came to hear
mineral dealer and Gneiss Guy Ken Dardano
tell us some of his rock tales. Thanks, Ken!
- October 5, 2005: A repeat visit from gemmologist Karen Howard,
speaking on history and folkore of gemstones.
- September 7, 2005: Show-and-tell for summer finds, and mineral
identification. Reiner showed off his silver, and Ray showed off some
nice quartz.
- July 6, 2005:
Peter Russell gave us a tour of the
rocks and minerals located in buildings in uptown Waterloo.
We saw granite and syenite in the railroad station (Paul Puncher),
crumbling sandstone on the Bank of Montreal building,
garnets in the Waterloo Public Library, granite and fake granite in the
Marsland Centre, fossils in the limestone near Erb's grist mill, and
even sphalerite and dolomite along Father David Bauer Drive. Thanks
to Peter for a great tour. Next year: downtown Kitchener.
- June 1, 2005: We met at the Peter Russell Rock Garden on the
University of Waterloo campus for a potluck and personal tour by Peter Russell
himself.
- May 4, 2005: We met at the Café Bon Choix for dinner with ROM
mineralogist Malcolm Back and then heard him lecture about "Identification
of a New Mineral", walfordite.
- April 6, 2005: Kellee Ganci spoke about healing with crystals.
- March 2, 2005: Karen Howard discussed gemstone identification.
- February 2, 2005: Peter Russell instructed us about how to make
a great micromount.
- January 5, 2005: Jeff Shallit spoke on "How to Buy and Sell Minerals
and Gems on Ebay".
