Orlando Florida GPAA - 2010 Meetings

Newsletters 2010

January '10

Hello Orlando GPAA!!!

I hope everyone survived the cold snap?

In a ongoing effort to establish bonds with the Gold Prospectors Supply Company "Store", we have been invited to have our next meeting at Brice Looper's "NEW STORE".

It is approximately 3 miles from our normal location at Warren Park.

Brice has offered to feed us as well. He is going to cook up a Cajun Shrimp Boil and a Cajun Shrimp Sausage Gumbo.

I have attached a MAPQUEST link below. But just in case; the new store address is 7575 Kings Point Parkway #21, Orlando FL 32819.

We will start the meeting at 10 AM not 09 AM as usual.

Please RSVP by 10 Feb via email so that we (Brice) have some idea of how much food to provide.

Also bring your own chairs.

Please do not be put off by the change of location. It is very close to where we normally meet.

I await you RSVP's and cannot wait for us all to get together 13 February!!!!

Tom Davis

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

Click here for the MapQuest Link to the Store.

February 2010.

First we welcome Ray as a guest. Ray we hope you enjoyed yourself and hope to see you at future meetings.

Old Business: Briefly discussed passed meeting agenda and participants in the Gem and Mineral show back in Nov, the Gold show in Concord, NC. The Christmas party was a success and enjoyed by all.

Steve and Kathy donated 375.00 from the metal detecting club.

Club Members.

New Business:
Our next Orlando GPAA outing will be Memorial Day weekend. Location to be determined at next meeting 13 March.
We need your input at next meeting!
Memorial Day weekend is Friday the 28th thru Monday the 31st of May.

Proposed possible locations:
1st choice; Alabama Gold Camp, Lineville AL.
2nd choice; NC Gold Camps TBD?
3rd choice; Buchannan, GA
4th choice; Mark Robinson �VP�showed up after we discussed this a group. He has a location in Georgia. He is trying to get us access to private land the Weekend Gold Grubbers. It is across the street from the LDMA property and the Gem and Gold Grubbing club.

2. Les Proehl requested that we move our meetings to Brice�s new store. The intent was to gain additional training from Representatives from the different prospecting companies. We all agree that we want more hands on training but no one has or wants to commit to the extra duties. We took a vote and elected to keep the meeting at Warren Park. Once the meeting is or has been concluded we will the commute the 2 or 3 miles to Prospectors Supply Company owned by Brice Looper for any scheduled training by the different company reps. This would be open to the public as well as our club.

Continued: The Secretary will provide Brice with future meeting dates and will request that he have any training/demonstrations done on the same dates as our meetings.

SPECIAL THANKS GOES OUT TO BRICE AND DONNA FOR FEEDING ALL OF US AT TODAYS MEETING.
The Shrimp Gumbo was excellent!
Thank you both.

Raffle: a bag of concentrates, Frank is going to supercharge the bag!!!! Bob Gaebler won the bag of concentrates.

Next Meeting: 13 March at Warren Park 0900

Until next month, be safe, stay healthy and say a prayer for our Troops.

Your secretary,

Tom Davis

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

Checking out supplies at Brices Store .

Bob, this months raffle winner.

March 2010.

At our last meeting conducted 13 Mar, 2010 we only had 13 members present. A relatively small percentage of our total club or normal participants. During our discussion of Old Business we finalized the location for our next group outing scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend.

We voted decided to go to the LDMA Loud mine property in Georgia.
Our President; Jim Green was to make contact with GPAA headquarters in California and discuss our request to gain access to this property as a group. Jim did in fact make contact and found out the following:

Since the outing would be within 2 weeks of a GPAA advertised outing and the fact that it is a holiday weekend, we cannot have access to the property.

With that said, our only other option is to see how many LDMA members we have in our club that would be going to the Loud mine that weekend. Our club LDMA members can bring up to 2 guest during that weekend.

In short, If you are a LDMA member and are planning to attend the Memorial Day outing at the Loud mine please shoot me a email message. We would ask that you allow guests from our club to accompany you on the property. This is the only way the projected 14 or so members can attend that location that weekend.
If we cannot attend Loud mine our second option was selected as Buchanan.

Next point of business was our self appointed WEB site manager Bob Gaebler and his creation of a facebook page. It is a great place to post meeting notes and to gain interest in our club. I have personally saved it as a page on my facebook for easy access. It is Orlando Florida GPAA. Thanks for your efforts Bob!

Next and last: Les Proehl� requested that we receive more training on different equipment, techniques, etc. VP Mark Robinson agreed and will instruct the next class on map reading and where to get the info for free Will be looking for the next instructor at next meeting.

New Business:
Our next Orlando GPAA outing will be Memorial Day weekend. Location to be decided based on how many LDMA members we have that can attend the outing so that we non-LDMA members can piggyback of them to gain access to Loud Mine. I foresee that we will probably be going to Buchanan.

Mark Robinson will put on a map reading class as well as show us how to get free info off the internet referencing gold bearing sites as well as metal detecting sites.

Memorial Day weekend is Friday the 28th thru Monday the 31st of May.

Upcoming GPAA (National) outings are:
5-9 May at the Loud mine camp and 12-16 May at Vein Mountain.

Raffle: Jim Green won a bag of cons!!!!

Next Meeting: 13 April at Warren Park 0900

Until next month, be safe, stay healthy and say a prayer for our Troops.

Your secretary,

Tom Davis

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

April 2010.

Hello GPAA,

Wow, what a beautiful morning and a great turnout today. It was great to see all of you; especially Tommy Chancey and our newest member, Richard "Rich" Amman. Welcome Rich.

Old Business:

We finally resolved our Memorial Day outing location scheduled for 28 thru 31 May. We will be going to the Buchanan GPAA site. There is too many unresolved issues with trying to get onto the Loud mine as guests of our LDMA members. The good news is if you really want to check out a LDMA site; contact GPAA Headquarters at 951-699-4749. They can provide you with a onetime pass to help you make a decision on becoming a member of LDMA.

As discussed we could not get a group pass to the Loud mine for two reasons: first, it is a holiday weekend and second, it is within two weeks of the GPAA national outing 5-9 May.

We will have a pot luck dinner the Saturday night of the Memorial Day outing. Our club will provide $50.00 towards meals. It was recommended that we purchase something precooked so that we can spend more time prospecting and less time cooking.

Jim and Tom starting the meeting.

We also discussed the split. We will not have a community split. Any splits will be agreed upon prior to working with another member's equipment. Please do not let this deter any member that does not have his or her own equipment. The majority of the Chapter committed to attending the outing will have equipment and will need assistants/helpers. A split between two or three on one piece of equipment is much easier that trying to split amongst 20 to 30.

We also conducted as requested our first class presented by Mark Robinson on reading maps, researching and finding locations utilizing GPS. It was a very informative class and Mark provided me with supporting documents on locating Mineral Resources On-Line. It is attached in addition to this email. Hopefully you can open. If not; email me and I will make copies and provide at next meeting. I suggested that we put it on our website but we don't want the world to see where all the treasure is hidden do we!

Mark, "Thank You" for your time putting together this class. It was well done!

Mark giving his class on reading maps.

New Business:

Frank Mercier, our treasure recommended that we get a head start on purchasing the grand prize for our Christmas Party. For those that have not attended our annual Christmas party, we take the money raised from the monthly raffles and purchase Christmas gifts for everyone that is a member of the GPAA and "participates" in our monthly meetings. Frank recommended that the grand prize be a quarter ounce gold eagle. It will cost the club somewhere around $350.00. We voted and approved the purchase of this grand prize. At near future meetings we will decide on a runner up prize and the actual gift for each participating member.

Second point of business:

Mark Robinson informed us of the upcoming Gem and Mineral show in December. He recommended that we set up a panning booth and sell concentrates and teach people how to pan for gold. This will not only help us to raise money for the club it will help us to increase membership. Remember the more members, the more assets, networking, and funds the club will have. We will also need to decide on who to purchase concentrates from. Looking for input at future meetings.

Our Raffle today was for a 2009 uncirculated silver dollar. Congratulations to Barbara Fry for picking the winning number. Enjoy!

Steve showing his Gold Specimins.

Our next class/hands on training will be on the black sands classifier presented by Steve and Kathy.

Jim Green and I will bring pans, classifiers and tubs so that we can practice up on our panning skills in preparation of our upcoming outing.

As a side note; some of you asked me for the website to Week End Gold Miner's Prospecting Club. As requested. www.weekendgoldminers.com

Special Dates:

    Next Month's Meeting will be on May 8th. 0900, We will have a pot luck brunch. Please bring your special dish.
    Memorial Day weekend is Friday the 28th thru Monday the 31st of May.
    Upcoming GPAA (National) outings are: 5-9 May at the Loud mine camp and 12-16 May at Vein Mountain.

Until next month, be safe, stay healthy and pray for our Troops safety.

Your secretary,

Tom Davis

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

May 2010.

Hello GPAA,

Wow, another beautiful day for a meeting. The breeze coming off of the Conway Chain of lakes was in our favor for once. This meeting we had some new visitors: Robert Stark "Scooter" and Gary Draheim. Glad you could make it!

Old Business:

REMINDER FROM LAST MONTH: We will have a pot luck dinner the Saturday night of the Memorial Day outing. Our club will provide $50.00 towards meals. It was recommended that we purchase something precooked so that we can spend more time prospecting and less time cooking.

We also discussed the split. We will not have a community split. Any splits will be agreed upon prior to working with another member's equipment. Please do not let this deter any member that does not have his or her own equipment. The majority of the Chapter committed to attending the outing will have equipment and will need assistants/helpers. A split between two or three on one piece of equipment is much easier that trying to split amongst 20 to 30.

Unresolved business from last month: Mark Robinson informed us of the upcoming Gem and Mineral show in December. Still need to find someone to purchase concentrates from. It was discussed that we purchase some sample bags from different groups, stores, member's etc. to see who we can get the best buy from. Steve and Kathy as well as Frank Mercier acknowledged that they could or would be interested in selling some concentrates to the club. If purchased, the concentrates could be used to make club profit at the upcoming Gem and Mineral show in December. The club has not voted on whether or not we will run a booth there as of yet. Concentrates can also be used for raffles and or Christmas gifts etc. This needs to be brought to a vote during next meeting or two.

Frank Mercier, our treasure recommended that we get a head start on purchasing the grand prize for our Christmas Party. For those that have not attended our annual Christmas party, we take the money raised from the monthly raffles and purchase Christmas gifts for everyone that is a member of the GPAA and "participates" in our monthly meetings. Frank recommended that the grand prize be a quarter ounce gold eagle. He actually purchased a 7.6 gram nugget for $290.00. We voted and approved the purchase of this grand prize. Please see new business to see how we decided to utilize this prize.

Our Raffle today was for a bag of concentrates: Camille McCullough. She panned it out at the meeting and found some bright yellow gold. Congratulations and thanks for sharing your panning technique with us.

Our yummy pot luck feast.

New Business:

Next Month's Meeting will be on 12 June. 0900.

We will have another pot luck brunch. Please bring your special dish. Several of the dishes brought this meeting were very tasty. Thanks for participating.

Frank Mercier, our treasurer purchased a beautiful 7.6 gram nugget for our Christmas party. It was brought to a vote on what to do with it: Use it as big Christmas Gift or Raffle it off. We decided on raffling it off. This is due to the fact that we spent so much of our funds that it will be hard to purchase a gift for all of our regular attending members. Every year regular participants at our meeting receive a gift on behalf of the club.

It was also decided that a 3.1 gram nugget as well as a $5.00 Gold piece dated 1901 will be prizes at the party. It pays to come and participate at our meetings!

Ken Baum provided some input and photo's on his visit to the Alabama Gold Camp. He also brought and gave away some conglomerates from the Diamond Fields in Arkansas.

Rae-Lynn and I got to discuss briefly our visit to one of the Georgia Weekend Goldminers properties. Although we got rained out; the properties looked promising and look forward to going back over the Summer.

Our class this month consisted of hands on training with classifiers, panning and a black sands separator. Thank you Steve and Kathy for bringing most of the equipment. Jim, thanks for bringing a bag of concentrates for others to practice with.

Steve feeding Concentrates.

See any Gold in there?

Pat panning those Georgia Black Sands.

Here's a few flakes +

Hopefully those of us participating in the upcoming GPAA outings at Loud Mine and Vein Mountain and our trip to Buchanan will recover more of the yellow stuff.

Next month's classes will be on Metal Detecting techniques. We suggest that those ingenious enough to make test samples out of popsicle sticks and different types of metal bring them so that we can learn the different settings on our detectors.

We will also bury metals at different depths to assist in tuning for maximum depth recovery. We will also have a coin shoot out in the park. Please bring some coins to donate to the cause. Not looking to break your piggy bank but will take anything you want to donate the shoot-out.

Next meeting 12 June, Warren Park, 0900

Buchanan Outing, Memorial Day weekend is Friday the 28th thru Monday the 31st of May.

Upcoming GPAA (National) outings are: 5-9 May at the Loud mine camp and 12-16 May at Vein Mountain. Anyone participating in the outings I request that you send me or Bob Gaebler photo of your trip for posting on the web site. www.orlandogpaa.org

See some of you at Buchanan!

Until next month, be safe, stay healthy and pray for our Troops safety.

Your secretary,

Tom Davis

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

There is no June Newsletter.

July 2010.

Hello GPAA,

Not a huge turnout at our last meeting on 10 July but we did discuss a lot as far as upcoming events but first I would like to welcome our newest GPAA member; Mr. Steve Crowder. Welcome Steve.

As far as �old business� there wasn�t anything to refer to other than upcoming classes. It was requested at the June meeting that we receive additional training on how to mine with computer research sites and learn section/township and range. After additional conversation with Mark Robinson, he suggested that we all do some home work to his next class. He wants us to research how to find different property appraiser/property owner websites so we know who owns the land that we seek to ask for permission to utilize. If you have a particular topographic map you want to learn how to read or how to associate GPS locations with, bring it to the next meeting.

New business is as follows:

First and this may require some effort on your part. We have planned to do a day outing at Pioneer Park in Zolfo Springs on 15 Aug. That is the day after our next meeting. We will be looking for fossils in/on the Peace River. This will require a permit for $5.00. Application and address is listed on last page of newsletter. Need to request this permit asap We will meet at the boat ramp. We will meet at the boat ramp at 0900 on the 15th. Directions are:

Pioneer Park / Boat Ramp: From Wauchula, head south on US 17 to SR 64 in Zolfo Springs. Turn right (west) on SR 64 and look for park and boat ramp. (1 mile)

This will require a canoe or kayak. You will also need a classifier type screen. Please check out this you tube web site to see what the river and classifiers look like. You will need to make one between now and the outing. Round classifiers we use for gold prospecting will work but the floaters look like the way to go.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP8qjY765yA

When you check out the site, notice the people are in the water getting wet! Water is warm, mask and snorkel might help. Mostly just shoveling soil from bottom of river and sifting for fossils. Will need to bring food and drink. I�m under the impression that the location where we will be looking for fossils is approximately a mile or so from where we put in. This outing is dependent upon the level of the water. We will check the flood level day of our meeting and make final decision then.

We also decided on a location for the Labor Day weekend outing. Our President Jim Green is checking with GPAA/LDMA to see if we can stay at the Loud Mine that weekend. If not; some of us can pair up with club LDMA members to gain access to and utilize the site. This will require additional communication from Jim and those that wish to participate at our next meeting 14 Aug. For those that cannot stay if any at Loud mine we will stay at the Gold and Gem Grubbers very close buy. Check out their site for camping prices.

http://www.goldngem.com/index.php
,
Steve and Cathy will represent our Chapter with a booth at the Gold and Treasure show 30-31 Oct in Gainesville, GA. Location is Georgia Mountain Center, 301 Main Street S.W., Gainesville, GA 30501. If you would like to help run the booth please let us know at the next meeting or email me. With a little luck we will have a show in Orlando next year.

Don�t forget to check out our website periodically: www.orlandogpaa.org

Until next month, be safe, stay healthy and pray for our Troops safety.

Your secretary,

Tom Davis

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

Florida Fossil Permit Application

This application is for a permit that will entitle the person named on the permit to collect, for the period of one (1) year, vertebrate fossils on land owned or leased by the State of Florida. The permittee must abide by all the provisions contained in Florida Statutes � 1004.575-576 and the University of Florida Regulation implementing this law.

DO NOT USE THIS FORM if you already have a permit or had one at any time in the past and wish to renew it for an additional year. Follow these instructions instead. This form is only for individuals who have never had a permit before. Your secretary,

There is no August Newsletter.

Sept 2010.

Hello GPAA Orlando,

Sitting in the airport in St. Louis waiting to get home and realized our meeting is tomorrow.

Just a late reminder!!!

We will discussing elections once again. If you have any ideas on who should be nominated for Pres, VP, Secretary and possibly treasurer tomorrow will be the time to speak up.

Mike and Connie Wicks as well Rae-Lynn and myself will tell you about our visit to Cleveland, GA., Labor Day weekend. Yes; we got gold!

Depending on Franks return, we may have some additional stories of his prospecting in Alaska.

See you tomorrow.

Tom

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

Sept 2010.

Hello Florida GPAA,

First things first; We welcomed Terry Vestal and Thomas Dewald to our last meeting held 11 Sep. Both are avid fossil hunters and have a desire to find gold. If anyone has plans to go prospecting anytime soon and don't mind some company, please let me know. I will pass on the word to them. Welcome to the club!

2nd, We were to hold elections for President, V.P., Treasurer and secretary this last meeting but due to a lack of member participation, a motion hold the election at the Christmas party was approved. This will insure a greater number of potential candidates for the clubs critical positions. The Christmas party will 11 December at Warren Park.

We have $128.43 in GPAA credit.

Our treasurer, Frank Mercier is back from his prospecting trip in Alaska and will square away the books prior to next month's meeting. Frank won the bag of concentrates. Things that make you go "hummnnn".

Bob G. was approved to maintain our website for another 2 years. The cost is $118.80 for the 2 years. This is paid to the website itself not Bob. If you have not checked the website out lately please go to www.orlandogpaa.org

I got the opportunity to show off some gold I dredged while visiting the weekend gold miners property Labor Day weekend. Ended up with almost 1/2 a gram. I left some there for you. Thank you Mike, Connie and Rae-Lynn for all your help. They kept the dredge running so I wouldn't (couldn't) come up for breaks. We all had a great time!

Our next meeting will be October 9th.

Hope to see you all there.

Tom

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

Oct 2010.

Hello Florida GPAA,

Our President, Jim took notes at the last meeting for me. Sorry to say I will be missing at our next meeting on the 13th of Nov. Trying to get Rae-Lynn to take notes on my behalf. I will be in Phoenix getting training on my new job. Thank you all for understanding. Notes are as follows:

There was no Secretary report because Tom was out having fun. (Hope you had enough for all of us) We had a raffle of concentrate which The winner was Debbie.

A nice turnout.

Discussing the trip to Ruck's Pit

Our Christmas meeting in December will be a great dinner. Paulette will be supervising the event so please let her know what side you will be bringing by responding to this email so Tom can forward the list to her. The chapter will be suppling a ham and Jim will be cooking the turkey again. A pan of dressing would be good.

At the next meeting on 13 November, we will need to know who will bring what type of platter/side dish? After that list has been initiated I will send an email out to the rest of our members with a list of what is still needed. Jim has confirmed with me that we (the club) will indeed be purchasing a honey baked ham. So please get out your special recipes and get them ready for December.

The main gift for the party will be an 8 gram piece of gold. Please bring a wrapped gift of about $10 for the White Elephant drawing.

The gold show is in Gainesville, GA on 10/28 if anyone wants to attend.

We had a new member named Ryan Alexander from Merritt Island at the meeting. We welcome him. He promises to bring his wife, Marilou to the next meeting. They have a 1yr old little boy named Ethan.

Hope to see everyone at the Dec. meeting. Remember, we will be holding elections.

Tom

407-207-2554
thomas.davisjr1@us.army.mil

Planning our winter fossil hunts ?

November 2010.

Hello fellow members;

This will be a short Newsletter this month, but an important one.

First off the important part, as relayed by Paulette, whom has graciously dedicated her time for planning this year�s Christmas Party. Next month�s meeting on December 11th is our Christmas Party and it is critical we get a head count of everyone who will be attending, so there will be enough gifts to go around to each GPAA member and also enough food for all to eat.

As of right now, we have the following promised:

Ham, smoked salmon and grouper, finger foods, a potato dish, ambrosia, corned beef Hot veggies, cold veggies, baked ziti, deviled eggs, Turkey, Rolls, Pies, sweet potatoes, and beverages.

We could still use a couple of desserts (we have 2 pies, as mentioned above), maybe some dressing and gravy, and anything else that someone may think of, whatever sounds good.

We definitely have to have a head count by the Sunday after thanksgiving, November 28th.

Also please everyone; don't forget the Secret Santa gift exchange, bring a wrapped gift $10.00 limit please, and get in on the fun. There will be a gift for everyone who brings one.

The party will be at Warren Park, 10:am on Dec. the 11th under the big Pavilion.

So please contact Paulette by November 28th You can Email or phone her (leave a message on the answering machine please, if no one is there) and let her know what you are going to bring and if you will be bringing any guests. Paulette: pchancey46@hotmail.com or (407) 671-2918.

Now On to our Meeting Notes;

Due to the presence of only one officer, we did not have a formal meeting, but with 15+ people in attendance we did managed to have a pretty good get together.

A nice turnout.

Steve and Kathy talking about Oregon

First off let�s congratulate Bob Gaebler on winning the Grand Prize on Saturday, Oct 30, at the GPAA Gold Show. He�s off to the GPAA�s Cripple Creek Alaskan Expedition come the summer of 2011. This marks the third year in a row that our club�s chapter members have won one of the raffle prizes the GPAA offers at the Gold Shows. Steve informed all the members that Bob was donating the trip as the Grand Prize for our upcoming Christmas Party but the excitement quickly died as Bob noted that the trip is not transferable. Boo ... We know Bob will have a great trip next summer. There are 2 new pages up our web site under the Outings Menu concerning the Gold Show, so stop over and check them out.

We would like to welcome 5 visitors, Lee Lemon, Fred Voris, Michael Brown, Eddie Carter and Lisa McCree. We certainly hope you enjoyed your visit and hope to see you again soon.

Most of the discussion was on the upcoming Party, and the Gold Show but we had two members bring buckets and bags of stuff to check out. Pat brought a good selection of the Clam Fossils he acquired from the last Club trip to Rucks Pit. There were quite a few to look through and several of them were pretty nice.

Clams on the Half Shell Anyone?

Ken brought two bags of specimens he found at the Crater of Diamond National Park in Arkansas. This was his second visit to the park and he�s yet to report a diamond find, but the conglomerates and different colored chertish type rocks was enjoyed by many. Special thanks to ken for allowing members to take home a piece or two.

Comglomerates and Cherts.

some of the Conglomerates.

Well that�s it for now, and hope to see everyone at next meeting in December. Again, please email or phone Paulette about the Christmas Party at pchancey46@hotmail.com or (407) 671-2918.

Have a great month,

Bob Gaebler

December '10

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Well, December is holiday party time for the chapter, and we usually do not hold an official meeting.

This year we did hold a brief meeting where the club held elections for club officials.

And the winners are;

President: Jim Green
Vice President: Dwayne Chancey
Secretary: Bob Gaebler
Treasurer: Frank Mercier

Congratulations and well wishes for the coming year.

As for the rest of the day, here's some photo's supplied by Ken and Bob of our 2010 Holiday Party.