Georgia Geocachers Association
June 2004 Meeting Minutes

The June meeting was held June 12, 2004 at the Lanier Museum of Natural History. Although it was warm and muggy, 13 new members and 45 current members showed up for a special series of events: we were here to hear Dr. Mark Patterson update us with his presentation on snakes, the Jeep 4x4 Travel Bugs were here and to be passed around, and, well, read on.

First, ~eric~ kicked off the meeting by explaining how the Jeep Travel Bug distribution would be done. He sadly told that because Mtn-Woman had been in an accident and broken her kneecap, the Jeeps (in the custody of Mtn-man who was tending to her) had not arrived. However, the drawing would go on as scheduled, as Mtn-man was on the way.

We were privileged to witness the first appearance at a meeting of the new “TB Corral” built to hold the Travel Bugs brought to meetings. From here forward, TB’s brought to the meetings will be placed in the corral are for anyone who wants to take one, swap one, or just leave one. Hopefully, our members can help them go their desired ways by taking them and placing them in an appropriate cache. We will no longer include them in the regular raffle unless they are very, very unique – see about El Diablo’s hiking stick certificate below.

Once everyone was signed in, we went inside to enjoy Dr. Patterson’s excellent and knowledgeable presentation on snakes. One of the highlights of the show was having phat.bak and Team Pez (Cory the PEZ-Head) on the front row center. They have certain reservations about the safety of snakes. They were very brave and sat (mostly) through the “show” calmly. Fine presentation by Dr. Mark, as always, and everyone learned something new.

~erik~ stated later, "The Lanier Museum of Natural History is in danger of being closed by the county. I'll be writing an e-mail to him to pass on to his bosses that won't directly mention the impending closing. It will mention that we greatly enjoyed the exhibits, that they were far superior to the "stuffed animals" type exhibit commonly seen in "Nature Centers". I'll also mention the fact that we had people drive from as far as Savannah to attend. If anyone else would like to send a "thank you", Dr. Patterson's contact info is:

Dr. Mark A. Patterson Ph.D.
Environmental Program Supervisor/Museum Director
Lanier Museum of Natural History
2601 Buford Dam Rd.
Buford, GA 30518
O) 770.932.4460
F) 770.932.3055
Mark.Patterson@gwinnettcounty.com"

After Dr. Mark's presentation, we returned to the tent outside for the Jeep distribution and regular raffle. Ah, yes, Mtn-man had arrived with the special TB’s.

As it magically turned out, there were enough Jeep Travel Bugs so everyone who had stuck around got one. Another highlight of the meeting.

We then conducted the regular raffle. A special prize of a free El Diablo hiking stick was drawn for (Gift won), and then several items including some “smashed” coins, an AM/FM radio and an ammo can cache were awarded.

The meeting was adjourned among good kidding and plans for finding some local caches. A most special cache was in the area: "Clayjar's Alaska Quest 2004." Clayjar brought the cache on his trailer hitch so we could all sign in. This "meeting" cache will travel over 10,000 miles to the Arctic Circle and back this summer.

Next month’s meeting will be held on July 10th at 3:00 p.m. in the Kennesaw area. Watch the meeting cache postings for details.

Special thanks to Dr. Mark Patterson for the use of the facility and the presentation, to Jeep and Geocaching.com for the Jeep TB’s, to Rebel for the “TB Corral,” to Clayjar for the cache and to all who attended.