WPA Meeting 3/13/2004

The meeting of the Wyoming Prospectors Association started out with Dennis Tippets from Minex Resources Inc. giving a brief discussion on how he and his partners started this gold Corporation and some of the things they did to get started. Dennis's primary purpose was to draw the winning ticket for the 4 wheeler raffle being's he was an independent person and didn't have a ticket in the box. The winner was Tom Noonan of Casper. Congratulations and thanks Tom!

Meeting was called to order by President Scott Luers at 2:05 pm. with all officers present. Scott asked for every one to introduce them selves. There were 3 guests and 31 members present at the meeting.
Scott read the minutes of the previous meeting. There was a motion to accept the minutes as read and put on file. Motion seconded voted on and approved.
Deb read the treasures report with the balance of the monies turned in at the last minute for ticket sales not included. There was a motion and second to accept as read and put on file. Motion carried

Scott asked for committee reports
Claims Committee
 Les Armstrong said that the LJG has not yet been taken care of and that they are thinking of breaking it into 2 claims to take care of the activity around the area.

Lease Committee
Randy stated that he has drawn up the contract and was just waiting for the board members to approve it so he can propose it to the land owners.

Outing Committee
There was no one present from that committee but some discussion on the place as it is still pending on the lease of the property. It was stated that Jacque Schmidt will take care of the food and John Mierzwik will cook for us again. The outing is still being planned for June 25, 26, and 27. A paper is being drawn up and will be posted on our web page as to volunteers needed and who to contact.

Being no other committee reports Scott ask for old business
Old Business
Bonny Hinesley stated that she had got a new list from the Brunow's and that by her count that there are 151 current paid members and was also given paperwork for 2 new members today.

Jim Hinesley asked if any more progress had been made on the purchase of the auger had been done and it was reported that Scott and Randy is still trying to decide on what size would be the best for us to have. There was some discussion on what the auger was to be used for and why did we want one. 

Randy Hutchison reported that the T shirt (3 Dozen) had been purchased and will still be $12.00 each because he was able to get them at a discount. The hats are still yet to be determined and Carl Anderson stated that he would check out another source to see what kind of pricing he can get them at.

Being no other old business Scott called for new business
New Business
It was stated that the Board of Directors had met and updated the changes to the Bylaws that had been approved by the members at the meetings. At the Board meeting it was discussed as to how to get more participation from the member for club functions. They came up with an incentive program to see if this would be of interest to the membership. The members at the meeting seemed to be very receptive to the idea and so it will get started. The incentive package will be as follows to get started with. A card will be given to each member and will have an area for the elected officers to sign. The combination of signatures will get rewards, so far the rewards are as follows: 5 signatures = WPA patch, 20 signatures = WPA T-shirt, 30 signatures = WPA baseball cap, 100 signatures = Keene Sluice box. These are some examples of what has been discussed. A signature can be obtained as easy as attending a meeting = 1, Chair a small committee = 5, file a claim for WPA members to use = 10 signatures per 20 acre claim or 80 signatures for 160 acres. This is just some of the examples discussed and can be added to at any time to make it viable to the membership. It was also discussed if cards can be combined (family and friends) and it was determined that they could. This card will be the responsibility of the owner because no record of them will be kept. Jim Hinesley had a sample of the card and passed it around the room. Jim will get the supplies necessary for these cards and have them available for the next meeting. In the board meeting it was also discussed to have some kind of demonstration after the meetings for members to learn or try different things. At this meeting Randy Hutchison had his computer set up so people could learn and try to access information from the BLM mining records. 

At the next meeting, in April, Keith Blair will give a talk and demonstration on using and reading TOPO maps. If anyone would like to help Keith on this he would appreciate it. 

It was also discussed that for the May meeting day that we could have the membership show up at the Crusher Claim Bridge and people could work as teams prospecting the Mary D2, Crusher, and the Mary D 3 claims. This would help people know where the claims are and maybe where to look for gold on them. 

Being no more new business the meeting date for April was set for April 3 because the normal meeting day, second Saturday of the month, will be Easter weekend. It will be held at the residence of Randy Hutchison being that no one present wanted to set up a place for the next meeting.
Meeting was adjourned and the raffle was held. During the selling of tickets Randy and Jim helped people work with the BLM lr2000 program. There was a lot of interest in it.

      Prize                   Winner

Folding Shovel ------Bonny Hinesley 
Finishing pan ------Bonny Hinesley 
WPA patch ------Bonny Hinesley 
Gold picker ------Peggy Gress 
Gold Sand ------Keith Blair 
WPA decal ------Larry Noble 
Loupe ------Bill Willenbrecht 
Scoop ------Deb Palmer 
Mercury dime ------Athena Jones 
Mercury Dime ------Chuck Brackenbury 
2 Sm gold pickers ------Evelyn Willenbrecht 
Green gold pan ------Arron Raymond 
Keen magnet ------Paula Jones
WPA patch ------Kim Raymond
Gold sand ------Murray Palmer
Gold picker ------Jim Brines
WPA Hat ------Les Armstrong
2 Sm gold pickers ------Bruce Gress
WPA decal ------Joyce Raymond
Finishing pan ------Aaron Raymond
Scoop ------Peggy Gress
Mercury dime ------Bonny Hinesley
Green gold pan ------Brina Snell
2 Sm gold pickers ------Randy Arndt
Congratulations and Thanks to the winners

Respectfully submitted by
Bonny Hinesley WPA Secretary