General Membership Meeting of the Vernon Placer Miners Club

Met June 7, 2022 at the Hall at 1204 30th Ave, Vernon BC.  President Gerry Morrison opened the meeting at 7:00 PM. Note-taker was Cal Olsson. 9 members attended the meeting. The minutes of the last meeting were read. Brent Zvonarich moved, the minutes of the last meeting be accepted as read. Seconded by Otto Breikeuz. Voted on and passed.

Thanks to the church Elders of Peace Lutheran for the show of good faith, letting us meet here again! You know what good faith is? Good faith is faith in your fellow man/woman and the goodness of the Higher Power.

  • Old Business Arising out of Last Meeting’s Minutes:
  • Gerry Morrison is going to look into whether participant waivers for protecting the executive from being sued in the case of club outings etc. would be sufficient insurance next time he talks to the insurance broker

 

  • Correspondence:
  • Donna Smith had email from someone wishing to go panning on members’ claim without the claim owner being there.

 

Reports:

 Membership Report by Donna Smith.

  • 18 families are currently paid up members in good standing.
  • 15 Life timers in good standing
  • 2 Honorary members in good standing.
  • There is a common dues due date of October first. Dues are $20.00 per year per family, Oct. to Oct.

 

Treasurer’s Report by Donna Smith

Income………. $______________ Expenses………..$__________ Balance…$_____________, Adopted by a show of hands

 

  • BC Open Report by President

Concentrating on having one next spring in 2023.

New Business

President Morrison suggested instead of the usual business format we have a discussion instead of the upcoming things we need to deal with to get moving again as per our mission statement.

 

  • Rick Peterson moved we have more outings. Seconded by Cal Olsson. Discussion: If I was a young man or woman who had heard about gold panning why would I want to join a gold panning club for or not join for? It would likely be mostly for the outings and not for excessive long talks about volunteering for a BC Open (even though I may see the need to finance the group and its activities). The club could have more mature experienced members I could learn from. Some of the club members may have claims where we could have prospecting/panning outings to. These mineral claims the BC government lets us have are priceless. Not least is, hopefully, good fellowship and potential friends. Therefore it is moved we have more outings. Voted on and agreed to.

 

Presentation:

Some of the members told very interesting stories of how they had helped placer prospecting/mining  newcomers. A lot of the experiences were tough at the time but amusing in retrospect.

 

Announcements.

If you want to get away for-a-while on an outing you’re welcome to come on out to the Kettle River on June 12th and help me prospect my placer claim. If you want to pull an overnighter there is a place to camp (its crown land) and call Rancid Crabtree at 250 766-4071 (has answering device, will call back) for directions etc. anyone and especially club members are welcome to come at your own risk. Hopefully the snow will have melted off the trails.

 

Social Convener’s Report by Donna Smith:

Best Wishes for a happy birthday for May 2022 go out to:

 

Attila Vasarhelyi won the 50/50 draw and donated it back to the club; thanks Attila!,

The meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM.

 

Political Liaison and Information CommitteeReport by Rick Peterson

There is a BCPMA conference call coming up which Rick and maybe some other member is going to take part in. The BC Gov. is looking to increase work permit fees and a few other issues to deal with. The BCPMA general meeting may be held in Vernon this year. Usually in the past some government officials have attended. Any VPMA Assoc. members can come. Get in touch with Rick at 250-681-0908 or email trimguy@live.ca for any questions, clarifications, comments etc.