We kept an eye on the weather to the very last minute and it paid off! We met at the Juan de Fuca parking lot at 10am and by 10;15 we were on our way.
There were 7 of us, plus Megsi of course!
The weather was sunny when we arrived.
We parked at the first parking lot and took the first trail on the other side of the gate down to the water. It was a 2 minute walk from the car – quite manageable even with some snow on the ground.
The beach was great, not a lot of snow and everyone quickly went to work. Lots of conversation and fun.
About 20 minutes after we arrived, the big cloud that had been dumping wet snow on Metchosin caught up to us and within 10 minutes it had passed, giving us only a very light dusting. Everyone kept panning or digging or whatever they were up to.
No gold for me – just a big iron very old spike that took a while to find.
We did get gold, however, as expected, someone before us must have found the nuggets!
Looking forward to the next field trip, it will be announced at the meeting tomorrow.
Year: 2023
Monthly meeting: Feb 6th, 2023
Topic: Can We Predict Earthquakes? Tales of the Cascadia Subduction Zone
Presenter: Ms. Isaporn (Grace) Sethanant – School of Earth & Ocean Sciences – Faculty of Science UVIC
The meeting was well attended and passionately presented, there was lots of talk about it afterwards.
Click on the pictures to see them larger and to run them as a slideshow.
The presentation was given by Ms. Israporn Sethanant who has been so kind as to share a pdf of the presentation itself below for those of our members who might not have been able to attend in person:
Tales of Cascadia (download)
Field Trip: Island View Beach, Jan 29th, ’23
The field trip to Island View beach was very well attended, with 16 members showing up.
The tide was quite high when we arrived and the weather very cold and sunny. We started off going to the left first to give the high tide time to start going out. After about an hour we turned around and slowly worked our way back towards the cliffs.
One member found a beautiful small agate. Others found jasper, pretty quartz and also a few interestingly shaped rocks. A very determined flower stone hunter managed to find their very first one!
The tide unfortunately did not recede enough to get us close to the cliffs, however now we know the tide heights that should get us there. Island View always has a lot to offer – if not just for the views and the wildlife. And the wild crazy people sailboarding in the cold water in the winter!
Board of Directors & Annual General Meeting 2023
The Victoria Lapidary and Mineral Society is a non-profit society under the Societies Act. As such, we are run by a board of directors who are elected once a year at our January Annual General Meeting. There are 9 elected postions plus the Past President, and a further 8 positions who are appointed by the board. Our new board this year is:
| Elected Positions | |||
 | President Yvan Gagnon president@vlms.ca |  | Past President Allana Shillito allana.shillito@vlms.ca |
 | Treasurer David Jackson treasurer@vlms.ca |  | Vice President Karen Rowe vicepresident@vlms.ca |
 | Membership Becci Simmons membership@vlms.ca |  | Secretary Position Vacant secretary@vlms.ca |
| Member at Large Joanne Nielsen joanne.nielsen@vlms.ca | | Member at Large Karis Zabolotney karis.zabolotney@vlms.ca |
| Member at Large Robert Belz robert.belz@vlms.ca | | Member at Large Hayden Sander hayden.sander@vlms.ca |
| Appointed Positions | |||
| Laphound News Editor Position Vacant laphoundnews@vlms.ca |  | Librarian Kathryn Hawkins librarian@vlms.ca |
 | Field Trips Sean Maier fieldtrips@vlms.ca | | Field Trips & Program Coordinator Arlene Modderman arlene.modderman@vlms.ca |
 | Program Coordinator Karol Jorgensen karol.jorgensen@vlms.ca |  | Show Chair Sarah Hamilton showchair@vlms.ca |
 | Social Committee Barb McKenzie barb.mckenzie@vlms.ca | | Workshop Karen Rowe lapidaryworkshop@vlms.ca |
| Webmaster Becci Simmons web@vlms.ca |
We are still looking for volunteers for the following positions, please contact president@vlms.ca if you would be willing to donate your time and join a convivial and supportive team to help keep our club going.
- Secretary
- Vice President
- Laphound News Editor
- Social Committee Chair
Rock and Gem Show ’23 – vendor application
If you would like to apply to be a vendor at the Rock and Gem show ’23 please download the form below and follow the instructions.
VLMS Invitation to Apply March 2023 Rock & Gem Show
The show will be held at the Da Vinci Center, 195 Bay St, Victoria, BC V9A 3K4, on March 17th, 18th and 19th, 2023.
Christmas party, 2022
As is traditional, instead of a members’ meeting we held a Christmas Party in December. There is no speaker and no club business meeting. Instead we had a pot luck and sit and chat. Here follows the social committee report:
- The VLMS annual Christmas party was held at the Lawn Bowling Club on Monday,
December 5 th , 2022. - The Club was decorated with fir boughs and colored metallic bows, and the seating
was in a horse-shoe arrangement so that everyone could see each other and chat
comfortably. - Members were asked to sign up with the item or dish that they had chosen to bring,
and although only 19 members signed up originally, the ranks swelled for a total of 38
people in the end. - There was a well rounded variation of items, like turkey, ham, sausages, scalloped
potatoes, German style sauerkraut and red cabbage, raw veggies and dip, Greek salad,
a large Caesar salad, 3-cheese appetizer with crackers, cranberry salad, guacamole
and tortilla chips, and multiple wonderful desserts. - Thank you all, who brought the delicious food!
- There was an optional gift exchange. Next year we hope to have more of a program,
with prizes to be won. - Pictures were taken of everyone and they will be submitted for the next Laphound
News. - Everyone cleaned up with an amazing efficiency, and the whole event finished at
8:30pm.
Some snapshots of the event – click on the pictures to see them larger:
