April 12, 2003 Meeting Minutes
Meeting called to order by President Randy Hutchison at 1:05 pm at Mitch's Cafe in Farson Wyoming.

Derek Swett was a new person at the meeting and introduced himself.
The reading of the minutes was not possible as the secretary was not in attendance.

Treasures report was given by Les Armstrong as  Pat was not able to attend.
A motion was made for the treasures report to be accepted as read and put on file. Motion was seconded and passed by the members.

Randy talked about the trailer that was bought and a picture was passed around the room to show people what we now have for the equipment to be stored in. He also talked about the purchase of the 4 wheeler and passed a picture of it around. He will make this picture available for us to put on the web page for others to view. He stated that there had already been $1290.00 worth of ticket sold at the Casper show towards the raffle for the 4 wheeler.

Committee Reports:
Claims: Randy mentioned that the paper work had not been done on one of the claims and would have to be refilled. He said that this would have to be done after the claim becomes inactive so we will have to watch to see when this happens. Keith Blair and Jim Hinesley will watch for this.

Randy also mentioned that the MARY D 1 claim that the outing dirt has been brought off of for the past two years will now be turned over to the club to prospect. This will be the part of the claim that is east of Dickie Springs. Randy will get a map of this claim to Jim Hinesley so he can make a map for the web site. As of right now the club has 9 active claims and with the addition of MARY D 1 this will be 10 for us to dig dirt on.

Les Armstrong mentioned that we need to keep watch on the claim owners to make sure that someone is not on anymore than ten claims so we don't lose our small miners exemption possibility. 

Randy mentioned about the reclamation of the claims of Jim Rutter. With all that is going on right now with guideline 19 it is not clear what will happen with this until we can figure out what we are going to be allowed to do.

The letter on guideline 19 for people to review and pick out a few topics to complain about was shown at the meeting. This letter contains just a few items that were put together for a recommendation. If you want to write your own and discuss things that interest you personally you are urged to do so.

Scott read a few lines from the response that Jim Hinesley received from the DEQ. It was total disgusting for anyone reading this letter. It seems that all the DEQ wants is to shut us down using analogies that don't even pertain to prospecting like obtaining a building permit to prospect in the state of Wyoming.

There was some discussion as to talking to a lawyer or organization that will help us fight for our right to prospect and everyone was in agreement of this. Randy mentioned a group that did this kind of thing and would try to get the proper names and see if they would help us.

Old Business:

The patches were received and one was passed around the room for everyone to see. The price for these patches will be $5.00 ea and will be available for sale immediately.

Jacque said that she had talked to John Mierzwik and that they will get the food together and that John will be taking vacation time so he will be able to be there to do the Cajun cooking for us. He stated that he would do Cajun chicken but not really spicy but would have the spice available for the people to add if they wanted. He will also have hotdogs and hamburgers for people that didn't like that type of food.

Randy also mentioned that with all the new regulations that we may not be able to do as much as we have for the outings in the past. He didn't know if the bond and permit would do for a treasure hunt or running of the dirt like we have done or if we would have to move to private land to possibly have our outing this year. Until the application for permit is filed and approved a lot will be up in the air. Carl Anderson mentioned that maybe Zane will allow us to hold the outing on his property this year and that he would talk to him about it. A few other people mentioned some other names and that they would talk to them also. It was also ask of Carl if he would approach Zane to see if he would sell some of the property to the club for just such a thing.

Carl Anderson asked what the cost was for the tax and license for the trailer was so he could get a check for it sent to Pat to take care of this. Les said that he would have Pat send him a copy of the bill so this can be taken care of.

It was suggested that a letter be drafted and sent to Dan Hausel & Lance Cook about guideline 19 and the response that was given to Jim Hinesley. Jim will get copies of these forwarded to Randy to do this.

Jerry and Tammy talked about the membership records that they have taken on the task of trying to straighten out. They have a list of about 180 members and the only 29 have responded to the requests that they sent out. Jerry said that he had worded the letter wrong and will have to re-send again to get a response whether the information is right or wrong. They are still trying to get the laminating machine and membership seal from Connie so they can make new membership cards. It was said that the original copies of the membership applications will be kept by Pat and that the information will be e-mailed to Jerry and Tammy every 2 weeks. This will allow a duplicate set of record to be maintained. Jerry was given the packet information to be sent out to new members and said that he will make a information packet for prospective members.

There was also a motion made to extend the membership, for 1 year, of the people who had not received anything since they have joined. This will maybe allow us to apologize for not getting the information to them so that they could be active members. 

New Business:
Dan Palmer ask if the club was going to participate in South Pass City Gold Rush Days? It was stated by Jim Hinesley that he should talk to Tom Lindmier and see if he could get approval from the DEQ to pan gold in Willow Creek. If the approval can be obtained we would be glad to do it again this year.

Randy also mentioned that if we wanted to do "Day in the Park" in Riverton this year so more raffle tickets could be sold on the 4 wheeler that it should be taken care of soon. A motion was made, seconded and passed to do this. Les will have Pat contact the proper people to get our booth space set up. The volunteers for this were Larry Barney, Les Armstrong, Scott Luers, Jim Hinesley, Bill Marlatt and Keith Blair.

It was discussed that a booth in the Sweetwater County Fair might be a good place to sell raffle ticket and memberships also. Carl Anderson said he would check into the price of the booth and what would be required of the club to do this. It was also mentioned that if anyone knew of any gathering to sell raffle tickets they should contact Randy to get this set up.

It was mentioned that the Netscape WPA e-mail address was not working and that Keith would check with Carol Power to see if we can set one up with Wyoming.com

There was a discussion about the Jack Morrow Hills and that the information Jerry passed out had the address for us to respond to. This has to be done by May 23 to be counted so we better get the membership informed for this. It was said that a little letter will be put on the web to try to encourage people to suggest that the "Preferred Alternative" be the one that the BLM approves as for this is the most common sense approach for everyone.

The next meeting will be May 10th and will be in Atlantic City area at a place to be determined at a later date. It will be at 6:00pm so we can have a day of prospecting before the meeting. 

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded and passed.
Meeting was adjourned and then the raffle was held.

Respectfully submitted by Bonny Hinesley