Victoria Lapidary and Mineral Society > 2023

Year: 2023

Upcoming meetings in 2024

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Hello,

We hope you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. The beginning of the year can be a little confusing as to the dates of club events due to stat holidays etc, so to clarify, here are the dates we have decided on. As always, these dates, workshop dates and field trip dates can be seen on the club calendar at https://vlms.ca/calendar/

January 2nd, 7pm: Board of directors’ meeting

January 8th, 7pm Annual General Meeting and first Members’ Meeting of the year.  Location: the lawn bowling club.  Note, this is not the first Monday of the month, which is New Year’s day.

January 30th, 7pm: Board of directors’ meeting

February 5th, 7pm: Members’ Meeting, Location: the lawn bowling club.

February 26th, 7pm: Board of directors’ meeting

March 4th, 7pm: Members’ Meeting, Location: the lawn bowling club.

March 15th-17th Rock and Gem show at the Da Vinci Center

March 25th, 7pm: Board of directors’ meeting

April 8th, 7pm: Members’ Meeting, Location: the lawn bowling club.Note, this is not the first Monday of the month as that is the Easter weekend,

Message from our President

Posted on by Becci Simmons

I wanted to take this opportunity to pass along some thoughts about club activities and events this past year.  It’s been quite an eventful and successful one for the club.

We had a record setting attendance and revenue at the March show.

We held an awesome auction bringing in some big dollars.

A terrific bus trip to Chilliwack to attend the BCLS show.

A great strawberry social attended by many.

An excellent fall show that surpassed all expectations.

Programs that were interesting, captivating and educational..

Field trips that were so well attended that they would have filled a Greyhound bus (with people and rocks).

A huge backlog of lapidary courses was cleared.

I want to thank all of our members who organized and coordinated events and also those who so generously gave up their time and volunteered.

On this note, just like in Jose Feliciano’ song, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Yvan Gagnon, President

BCLS Gem show – club trip

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Good day.  I just wanted to say a few words about the clubs’ trip to Chilliwack.  First, thanks to Vanessa for organizing the bus trip.  The ride was really smooth and the driver was really attentive to our needs (there was A/C on the bus).  The show was really good and many purchases were made.  There was something for everyone.  Sean found some really nice opals.  Mike Hill, one of our past presidents, now 1st vice president of the BCLS was selling his wares.  Other vendors that come to our show were also there.  On the trip back on the ferry, our members availed themselves of Seans’ knowledge of rocks and minerals to identify some of their purchases.  There were rocks all over the tables and some people were curious and looking, wondering what was going on.  Carson took the prize for heaviest suitcase.  There must have been something in the vicinity of 100 lbs of rocks in there.  Leni bought a fossil and I found a few minerals she didn’t have.  It was a beautiful day and maybe a bit warm inside the building, but all in all it was a good day for everyone who participated.  See you at the strawberry social!

Yvan Gagnon, VLMS president

Upcoming: Field Trip: Sunday, May 28th, ’23

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Field trip to : Walker Creek
Date: Sunday, May 28th, ’23
Meeting place: Juan de Fuca Rec Centre / A&W in Sooke
Meeting time: 9:00 am / 9:30 am

There are a few who missed last month’s trip there and really want to go there, and others who want to go back, including us, so let’s make this a balmy end of May trip and we stand a better chance of seeing no snow and can hang out in the area for a longer time.  We won’t stop at the first creek first, we’ll go straight to the end. 

Additional stuff: Ridesharing is working!  Riders, thank you for contributing to gas costs for your ride!  And drivers, thank you so much for being so considerate.  We can venture out a little further if we can help each other by cutting costs.

Things to bring

  • water (for drinking)
  • rock hammer
  • safety glasses (eye protection)
  • gloves
  • hiking boots or good treaded running shoes (I recommend the boots)
  • backpack or bucket for collecting

Annual Club Auction – May 1st, 2023

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Our auction yesterday was a great success. We managed to auction off all but one lot (sorry Sean) out of 102. We collected quite a bit of money for the club and it’ll go far to continue the funding of the clubs’ activities. There are many, many people to thank for the success of the auction.


I’ll begin with: Jay Prazma: His kind and generous donations of equipment and materials contributed immensely to the auction.


Thanks to all others who made donations and brought merchandise for the auction.
Thanks to Barb for making the clubhouse available for most of the afternoon, giving us enough time to set up.
Thanks to Karen for helping out with the auction process and keeping me on track.
Thanks to Allana, Kathryn and Karis for recording and keeping track of who bid on lots and paid how much.
Thanks to Dave for processing all the payments and keeping track of all that money.
Thanks to the members who helped set up, carry purchases to the cars of successful bidders and take down tables and chairs at the end.
Thanks to Becci for posting on our website all the pictures of items that would be available at the auction.
And most of all, thank you to all the members who most enthusiastically participated in the auction: you made this the great success that it was.
I apologize if I left anyone out.