Dear Friends of Mineralogy,

I was fortunate to attend five mineral symposia during the last year. There is nothing like a gathering of like-minded souls to discuss mineralogy and collecting. I find symposia, and their associated shows, to be much more relaxing yet energizing than "shows" alone.

One of the interesting features of each symposium is that they are all different. Not only in subject matter, but also how they are run. Some hold mineral shows in conjunction with the meetings and others keep the mineral "business" more informal (back of the car or on the bed kind of stuff). During my visit to the Pacific-Northwest FM Chapter symposium I noted that they provide a protracted break time between sessions to provide traffic to their show. At the symposium that I run, an informal "tailgate" motel is designated and mineral buying-sellingtrading begins the evening before and resumes Saturday night after the banquet. The "show" and symposium are actually held in different venues.

Which is better? I don’t think it makes a difference. Financially, show-coordinated symposiums can keep their costs down by utilizing dealer fees. A non-show symposium requires direct contributions from sponsors to hold down costs to the participants. The object of a symposium is to attract participants; keeping costs down increases the chances of people attending. Both methods appear to work well based on my experiences this year.

Through the auspices of FM chapters, at least six regional symposia are held each year that essentially include most of the US. Reports in the newsletters indicate all are very successful. The national FM also co-sponsors the Tucson show symposium along with the Mineralogical Society of America and the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society. The national FM has also begun to sponsor regional symposia where no local chapters exist like the New Mexico Mineral Symposium. Through FM support of all these symposia, we are accomplishing our objectives:

" ... to promote, support, protect and expand the collection of mineral specimens and to further the recognition of the scientific, economic and aesthetic value of minerals and collecting mineral specimens."

I believe the sponsorship of both local and national symposia are critically important to the vitality of both the hobby and science. Where else do the field collectors, silver-pickers, and scientists have the opportunity to meet in a friendly atmosphere and explore mutual interests? Many new discoveries (both collecting and scientific) are shared at these meetings that leads to a symbiosis between amateur and professional. This is what FM is all about and I applaud our chapters and all FM members for their good work.

Best wishes to you for the upcoming holiday seasons and coming New Year.

Virgil W. Leuth, President

Previous Leters from the President

• August 2007
• May 2007
• December 2006
• May 2006
• December 2005