BLUE RIDGE
GROTTO of the National Speleological Society
BRG Minutes
for August 16, 2024
Jersey
Lily’s; Roanoke, VA
Attendance
|
Nick Schmalenberger – Chair |
Kelly Perkins – Treasurer |
Marian McConnell – Secretary |
|
MarySue Socky – Membership |
Rolland Moore* |
Lynn Ott |
|
Susan Burr |
Barry Ferguson |
Helene Ferguson (sub) |
|
Jerin Manalel* |
Abbey Mays |
|
*Guest
TRIP REPORTS
·
7/16 – La Pech Merle in
France – Abbey and Alexander visited while in central France. Commercial trip;
no photos allowed. They did see a cave paintings 29,000 years old.
·
7/20 - McClungs, WV –
Nick, Kelly, Logan, Dave, Ben – enjoyed the 5-hour trip, went in the historic
entrance.
·
7/21 – Patton’s, WV –
Nick Schmalenberger went with Greenbrier Grotto.
·
7/27 – Sunny Jim Sea Cave, San Diego, CA – Commercial cave Nick Schmalenberger went into with his Mom and Dad.
Had about 200 stairs.
·
8/3 –Bone Norman Cave, WV – Pick up trip with Lauren (Mystik wasn’t feeling well), Brian, Riley,
Susan to the pinch.
UPCOMING TRIPS:
·
8/18 – Nick Schmalenberger will be helping
Martin DiLeggi on a dig near the church on Gray Ledge Road in Botetourt
County. Nick will provide details if anyone is interested in helping.
·
8/24 – Lone Ash Cave (AKA Bertha Cave),
VA – organized by Susan Burr. Meet at 8:30a at HROM. $10/person covers guide
and ride to and from the cave (3.5 miles). $7 parking fee to the park will be
waived if you let them know you are on the caving trip. Easy cave. Please let
Susan know if you plan to go.
PROGRAM: “The
Secret Chambers of Akiyoshido Cave” in Japan
|
BUSINESS MEETING |
Treasury Report – Kelly Perkins, Treasurer –
The total for the treasury report as of 8/5 is
$6546.39.
Committees:
●
Newsletter –August issue will be combined
with the September issue.
●
Membership – currently we have 55 members &
5 subscribers.
●
ROCKS – Per Dave Socky - Ongoing work in
Allegheny County in Warm Springs every Wednesday, and on the 4th
Saturday of each month. Lots of RASS members helping. Digging, surveys,
mapping, etc. if anyone is interested.
●
Safety & Techniques – N/A
●
(No BRG Officers’ meeting was held on August 13th.)
Membership Proposals: None
Old Business
·
BRG Payment Account:
The goal was to add an option for BRG members to pay for their dues (and any
other charges) online, through our Google group account. Per Kelly: The Paypal
account has been set up. You can pay for dues, t-shirts, etc. this way, or by
cash or check to Kelly in person.
·
BRG Data and Reports
Digitized: Kelly suggested setting up a way to record, track, print out
information such as the monthly Treasurer’s report and Membership list. Per
Kelly this being set up by Dave (who is on travel).
·
GoFest in Roanoke
October 18-20 Per Nick Schmalenberger: Parks and Rec advised if we volunteered
with CaveSim, we could get the activity discount, bringing the cost for a booth
down to $100. Without CaveSim, it would be $450 for a booth. October 1st is the vendor registration
deadline. If we choose to get our own space, we may have to do some
fund-raising such as raffling off donated items. We would need enough BRG volunteers to volunteer to man the
space during the whole 3 days; Friday (5-8p), Saturday (10a-8p), and
Sunday (11a-5p) with 4-hour shifts to sign up; note that the am shifts require getting
there an hour early to set up! Also, Nick is working with Martin to either
borrow or build a Squeezebox to use IF we have our own booth. To build one would take an estimated
$150 of materials.
Nick moved
that we register BRG with $150 for our own space; but if CaveSim is funded, we
will cancel our space and volunteer with them, and donate that $150 to CaveSim.
It was seconded by Kelly, and passed unanimously.
·
T-Shirts: As of this
meeting, 56 shirts (so far) will be "ordered" on the spreadsheet. (Marian
entered the ones handwritten at the meeting on the spreadsheet, including the
extra 20.) The shirts will be short-sleeved, 50/50 blend Gildan brand, with
our logo on the front; you select color from chart provided. https://www.apparelvideos.com/cs/CatalogBrowser?todo=ss&productId=8000
They will be $10 each (and since we ordered more than 48, then the price
goes to $8.25 each. There will be a $2 charge to cover shipping & handling
per shirt (which is probably a little over what it will actually be). There
will also be an extra charge for any shirts 2XL or larger. The spreadsheet link
for BRG tshirt orders is: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XVdF9U40UxC9ebKEIos-B5VGt3IeBmmzfbZDKiqvfTg/edit?gid=702833397#gid=702833397
Nick moved that the
shirt prices be $10 each + $2 S&H for a total of $12 each (except for the
2XL or larger sizes), that we will order 20 extra shirts (M-XL assorted sizes
and colors), and that BRG will pay for the entire order, to be reimbursed by
the people who ordered them. Any overages between actual cost and the final
invoice will be donated to BRG. Susan seconded it and it passed unanimously. A
message to all members will go out with the minutes with the deadline of
midnight Friday August 23rd to get orders in.
·
Who would be
interested in helping BRG sponsor a VAR in Fall (late September or early
October) of 2025 in Bath County at the RASS field station property? The
property has been offered for free, has electricity, has a source for porta-johns,
and Alex Sproul has a contact for catering. If BRG takes this on, we need to
decide ASAP to do all the planning and logistics that will be required –
volunteers, etc. Nick
suggested that we have a planning meeting (perhaps at his house) soon for those
interested to review the VAR Planning Guide and go over it line by line to see
what we would need to do and who would be willing to do any of the various jobs.
New Business: None
Announcements:
●
Lynn Ott brought a Big Bertha inflatable air mattress
and 6-person tent to give to anyone interested; Jerin took them to use and/or
share with the VPI Grotto folks.
●
Healthy Caving – let’s be healthy going
underground. Rules were posted in the DUMP.
●
Please send verified cave info updates for https://var.caves.org/index.php/conservation/closed-caves/closed-cave-list to Brad
Blase.
●
We are in summer bat closure, only a few caves
are closed for bats, so cave elsewhere. VA = April 15 – Oct 15 (maternity
colonies) and WV = May 15 – Sept 1 (maternity colonies).
●
Catawba Murder Hole
Cave is CLOSED
2023 CAVER CALENDAR:
●
August 24 – Lone Ash/Bertha Cave BRG trip (sign
up with Susan)
●
August 29 – September 2 – Old Timers Reunion
(OTR)
●
September 20 – BRG meeting 6:30p Jersey Lily’s
Salem, VA
●
September 20-22 - Eastern Region NCRC is
offering a weekend course, Orientation to Cave Rescue (OCR) held at the Elkins
Fire Dept. and camping will be at the OTR site in Dailey. See https://ncrc-er.caves.org/
for updates on registration and class info.
●
September 27-29 – Fall VAR @ Hungry Mother
Lutheran Camp; Marion, VA by www.outofboundsgrotto.org
●
October 3-6 – TAG Fall Cave in – Tommy’s Lazy G;
Union Grove, AL
●
October 18 – BRG meeting 6:30p Jersey Lily’s
Salem, VA
●
October 18-20 – CaveSim return to Roanoke
during GoFest? If not, we will have our own space.
●
November 7-10 – Karst Waters Institute 4th
Appalachian Karst Symposium, Lewisburg, WV
●
November 9 – WVCC Banquet, Lewisburg, WV