BLUE RIDGE GROTTO
MEETING MINUTES
February
20, 2009
Susan Burr Al Stewart Mary Sue Socky Dave
Socky
Pat Sims Marian
McConnell Dan McConnell Carl Cornett
Alan
Staton Doug Feller Cole Semones Trish Geiger
*Mike Frazier Carl
Alls Greg McCorkindale
*
denotes guest
CHANGE
IN FORMAT: THE meeting started off with
introductions and the Program, so
Vice Chair Dave Socky could leave
early for the long drive down to Gap
Cave, VA.
PROGRAM: Slide Show of Recent
Cave trips into Scott Hollow Cave, WV,
Buttterknife
Cave, VA, Big
John’s Cave (Natural Bridge),
VA, Gap Cave, VA
and Doe Mountain Cave, VA.
Photos by Leanne Barley, Rickey
Shortt, Marian McConnell, Dave
Socky. Awesome photos!
CAVE TRIPS
1/31/2009: Marian McConnell
and Carl Cornett took a Roanoke City
Parks & Rec group to Island Ford Cave, VA.
Someone had left a ton of trash in the cave entrance! They saw the most bats they had ever seen in
IsF, too.
2/14: Alan Staton,
Glen Hugus took a BSA group into Porter’s Cave, VA. It was a huge trip, with Glen’s kids, 18
scouts, and adult BSA leaders = 28
people. The little ones got tired, and
the bigger kids got bored. Fortunately
they had a great meal afterwards back at Scout base camp.
2/7: Carl Cornett, Dan
and Marian McConnell took five guys
from a church group into Catawba Murder Hole, VA. It was the coldest the cave had ever been @
45F (a true winter cold sink!)
2/7: Mike Frazier took 12 BSA
scouts into Tawney’s Cave, VA. He
had “three generations of one family” - son, father, and grandfather on the
trip. The kids were great.
2/14-2/15: Mike Frazier,
Paul Stern and Lynchburg College
Outdoors students did a long road trip down to Florida,
where they did Ginnie Springs, Devils Eye/Ear Spring, and swam with the
Manatees in Rainbow
River.
2/7: Susan Burr
and Pat Sims did some digging,
excavation work in Grand Caverns.
Susan reports that there was not much room to dig, but she has ideas for
next month.
UPCOMING:
3/7/2009 – Monthly
trip to Grand Caverns for resurvey work
3/21/2009:
March BRG trip to The Boarhole, WV.
John Pearson is leader, Susan Burr
is trip coordinator. At this time, the
trip is limited to 9 people and is full.
(One person had to cancel, Carl Alls moved from standby list to take the open place, trip is still full).
BUSINESS
MEETING
TREASURER 2/20/09
General Fund $ 7031.73
Conservation
$ 156.09
Equipment Fund $
341.00
Cave Bucks
$ 115.30
Total: $ 7,644.12
Committee
Reports:
Newsletter: Good
newsletter this month, lots of articles and photos, keep the submissions coming
in! Membership: BRG has 53 members, and 1 subscriber (amended to 2
subscribers, see member proposals)
ROCKS:
2 new caves for the VSS – Butterknife Cave, VA
and Big Jim’s Cave, VA
S&T: have been unable to
get hold of director to schedule RocWood vertical training session.
Conservation:
vacant
Ways
& Means: vacant
Membership Proposals –
Nothing
tabled. NSS Membership brochures are at
the front desk.
NEW! – Mike Frazier, NSS 53334 RE, submitted his membership
letter. Mike is sponsored by Susan Burr.... Mike’s proposal is tabled, to be voted on at
the March 2009 BRG meeting. No other proposals.
OLD BUSINESS
Let There Be Lights - Doug Feller
has purchased 5 lights for the BRG
grotto gear. Pat
Sims immediately took possession of the lights. (Pat
has traded out 2 half working systems with the new lights. Old lights are being saved, used for
backup). Doug also took 2 original
“Mountain Blue” lights, to make one
working light from the two.
NEW BUSINESS
WNS
is spreading. It
has been found in Trout Rocks (Hamilton) January 2009. Trout
Rocks Cave
Preserve is CLOSED until further
notice. (While WNS in Hamilton
is not “official”, an on site pathologist examined one dead bat and determined
that it had essentially no body fat. Other living bats showed evidence of
fungal growth.)
A discussion followed on what can cavers do
to prevent the spread of WNS:
We don’t know if the bats are spreading WNS
amongst themselves, or if cavers are tracking the fungus to new caves on their
caving gear. We cannot control bat
behavior; but ALL CAVERS NEED TO:
1) Keep out of all BAT Caves and WNS caves listed on the VAR
Limited Access Cave List.
2) AFTER EVERY TRIP
– clean and disinfect YOURSELF and ALL OF YOUR GEAR. If visiting multiple caves, then wear a
complete change of suit, boots, pack, gloves, and disinfect helmets, lights,
pack contents and whatever else may come in contact with the cave dirt.
WNS a cold loving soil fungus that does not
live above 75F. Ways to kill this fungus on your gear are:
·
WASH all clothes, etc. in hot water
and detergent. A mild bleach solution
should be used where appropriate.
·
Put
everything that can be heat dried on the hottest dryer setting possible.
·
Stuff that cannot be washed should be
treated, wiped down with 70% isopropyl
alcohol
·
Boots,
helmets, etc. should be sprayed with a cleaner, such as 409 Antibacterial
cleaner.
·
Clean, disinfect contents of your pack
too. Bag
everything in Ziplocs, and change baggies after each trip.
·
Use a clean plastic garbage bag to
contain all your muddy cave gear.
Discard old bag in the trash, and use a new plastic bag for each trip.
·
Disinfect yourself, your gear tub and
your car trunk, too!
In addition,
Trish Geiger
wanted to know if there is bail out money for WNS.
Pat
Sims thinks WNS was invented to make Dave
Socky wash his cave gear.
Joking aside, please take steps to prevent
any possible spread of this bat killing disease.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- SCCI has cancelled the Fricks
Cave Open House do to WNS concerns.
- Nature Conservancy wants us to
renew for 2009.
- No one has volunteered to host
Fall VAR 2009. BRG does not wish to!
- Eastern Region NCRC Weeklong will
be in Harrisonburg, VA May 1-9, 2009. (closer to home!)
- NSS seeking submissions for the
ICS/NSS Print Salon 2009.
Deadline is May 1, 2009
- Pre-register for
Spring VAR 2009 (April 24-26) – forms are in DUMP,
on the front desk.
- NCRC is offering two $200
scholarships for the June 13-20, 2009 Weeklong seminar in Bedford
IN.
- Available from NSS Bookstore: “Vertical Bill:
The Story of Bill Cuddington
and the Development of Vertical Caving in America”. On sale $28.00 - $32.00
- NEW VAR CLOSED CAVE LIST is
available. We have a few hardcopies
for folks. There are updates,
winter closures, and new info on WNS.
.
-
Meeting ended 8:36p.
Minutes submitted by
Mary Sue
Socky
Substitute Secretary, Blue Ridge Grotto.
Get
Over the flu, soon, Aaron! Hope you feel
better!