(NOTE: "Conejo" pronounced 'kon-a-ho (n) is the Spanish word for "rabbit", hence the logo design at left, and was the name given by the early Spanish explorers in the early 1700's when they came through the valley and noticed the thousands of jack rabbits that lived here, thus designating this area the "Conejo Valley")

Serving Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Moorpark, Simi Valley and neighboring communities in and near the Conejo Valley area of Ventura County in Southern California

Choose a Page on this List - Club Membership - Annual Show - Pebble Pups - Links to other Clubs - Meetings & Programs - Show Pictures - Field Trips - Lapidary Shop - Code of Ethics

The Conejo Gem and Mineral Club (CGMC) is a non-profit organization run by volunteers.  The Club promotes and extends the knowledge of minerals, geology, fossils, lapidary arts and associated fields. Click here for a map to our Club Meetings & Lapidary Shop The CGMC was founded in 1971, and is a member of both the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies and the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies.

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Conejo Gem & Mineral Club Information:

Members typically have an interest or involvement in mineralogy, geology, paleontology, rock cutting, faceting, polishing, making cabochons, collect rocks, minerals or fossils specimens. Come to the Conejo Gem and Mineral Club and become a member of one the largest hobby groups in the United States

Club Meetings: The 2nd Thursday of every month, 7:30pm, (Youth program starts at 7pm) at the Hillcrest Arts Center, 403 West Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks, CA. Across from the Oaks Mall. These 2-hour get-togethers involve a brief business announcements portion followed by a 20 minute social time serving cookies, juice, coffee. You can check out what was found on the last field trip and what you can find on the next. There is a monthly raffle, Then a 45 minute program given by a guest speaker sharing their knowledge on geology, jewelry making, rock, mineral and fossil collecting, volcanology, paleontology and many other fascinating subjects. There are many different interests for members to check out at our club, we’re not just rock hounds. Members are involved in jewelry, wire wrapping, bead making, geology, fossils, minerals and lapidary arts. During the business section, youths are invited to attend a separate program where they can learn some science or a craft. We have programs for younger members to further their knowledge of earth science, geology and rock/mineral/fossil collecting. Let us know what interests you have and we will introduce you to members with similar interests. We print a monthly bulletin for our members to keep them up to date on club happenings. There is also a modest library for members to freely expand their interests.

Summertime, July 12 noon to 4pm. we have a Picnic/BBQ at the park, information below. Ice Cream social in August, Silent Auction in November and in December a Christmas party, they are a lot of fun. Our club is very family orientated so the whole family can participate in a fun hobby together and get some exercise in the out doors. Operating funds are generated from membership fees and proceeds from our annual show held April 21st, 22nd 2012 called the Pageant of a Thousand Gems (follow the link for more details).

We put on an annual Gem and Mineral show, participate in the Gem and Mineral Department exhibits at the Ventura County Fair, and support other Gem and Mineral Clubs by displaying when we are invited. We are members of the Arts Council of the Conejo Valley, the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies (regional) and the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (national).

Lapidary Shop: Available for members who would like to cut and polish rocks and minerals. We have a 24” saw, a Trim saw, 2 Genie polishing machines, a fine polish wheel, 18" Rociprolap, Large Gripper.

Field Trips: Each month we have field trips, some local day trips, others overnight camping/motel. At the club meeting you can check out the rocks, minerals and fossils that have been collected on field trips. To give you an idea of the rocks, minerals and fossils you might find, check out the specimens brought in to each monthly meeting. You don’t have to be very experienced. There are many members willing to share in their knowledge of collecting rocks, minerals and fossils. We have many different types of field trips for all ages, so there is always something for everyone.

Please send us an e-mail if you have any questions or would like further information not found in this site. Webpage related concerns may be directed to the same e-mail. Contact information is below.

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Happenings:

Here are some current & upcoming things involving our club. If you read this or have something to say let me know. My e-mail is below. If you e-mail me things I can probably copy paste and add to the "Happenings"

January 2012:

Club Meeting- January 12th 2012 7:30pm Hillcrest Art Center, 403 Hillcrest Drive. Thousand Oaks Click here for a map to our Club Meetings & Lapidary Shop

Youth programs. Start 7pm, club meeting 7:30pm.

The Board of Directors meeting will be January 19th Thursday, at the Hillcrest Arts Center.

The Prez Sez: Robert Sankovich

Last month, I didn't submit to the bulletin. My computer had problems and I had to take it in and get it fixed.

We had a good turnout for the Christmas party. We had lots of food and a fun gift exchange. I want to thank Mary Pat, Sal & Mitty Scarpato, for being on the Board, and sharing their time and effort for many years. They are much appreciated!

We have three new Board members for the Club: Jacob Ross, Treasurer; Stephanie Jones, Secretary; and Mike Havstad, Federation Director. We do have two Board positions open, Programs and Field Trips. We need members to volunteer for these positions. Mary Pat will share her knowledge on how to set up programs and Mike Miller and I will help with field trips. Mike Miller is a Lapidary Shop Foreman with Manny Valdez. Contact them if you want to use the shop. If anyone is interested in doing the web for our Club, let me know. At our Christmas Party Sal and Mitty Scarpato were given recognition from the CFMS and our Club and received a certificate for Rock Hound of the Year. I want to thank them for all the time and effort they have put in our Club. Down below on the CFMS page there is more information on Sal and Mitty. Our Club has gotten bigger over the years and we are going to have a fun year. There will be field trips, programs, our Show, the summer picnic, and our holiday party. Looking forward to seeing you there. Dues are due, renew your membership with Deb Sankovich.

Robert Sankovich

Programs: Mary Pat Weber, V-P January 12th:
AMETHYST DEPOSITS OF THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO
The largest commercial deposits of amethyst in North America occur near the Canadian border in Southern Ontario. Unlike the more common Brazilian amethyst, this material is unique due to inclusions of red hematite in the outermost layers of the crystals. Club member Dick Weber first visited these deposits in the 1970s while studying for his graduate degree in Geology at the University of MN, Duluth. Dick has returned several times over the years and on two recent visits was given special access to the workings of the deposit by the mine owners. As part of this presentation he will display some of this highly prized amethyst from his personal collection.

February 9th 2012
This program will be devoted to a “Show and Tell” for all members to bring and share with the club their fossils, minerals, gems and all other finds from the past year whether it’s from Quartzsite, other Rock Shops or from your Rock Hounding adventures. We encourage all members to participate! I will bring a sign-up sheet to the next meeting on January 12th or please contact me if you are interested.

Deb Sankovich
(805) 494-7734
Sankovichdeb@yahoo.com

OPPORTUNITY TABLE
Delfina Bucaria, Ways & Means Chairperson. Our raffle at the meeting

Pebble Pups: Youth Program Coordinator Jenny Dunehew: The youth and club meeting will be at 7:00pm.
We have a new Youth Program Coordinator. Jenny has educational and fun programs for the youths. There is a new time for the youth program, 7pm. This gives members with kids to have the youth program, then have time for the social time with the raffle, and then they can all watch the monthly program. Check out the Youth Program link for more information.

COMMUNITY EDUCATION Mitty Scarpato
Community Education Coordinator

Membership: Deb Sankovich VP
Our current membership is 105 adult members and 32 pebble pups. A warm welcome to our new members who joined the club at the June meeting:

At the Holiday Party we had 26 adult members and 7 pebble pups attend. The Club also had 6 guests.

A warm welcome to our new member that joined the club in December:
Leslie Cox - Leslie has been interested in rocks and minerals for 10+ years and she has come to several club meetings in the past year. Leslie's interests involve lapidary-jewelry art, carving/sculpture, silversmithing and micro mounts. She also has some small jewelry tools!

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUES ARE DUE!
Membership dues for 2012 are now past due!! For those of you who have not yet paid 2012 membership dues, we will provide a brief grace
period but we encourage everyone to pay sooner rather than later so we can settle our account with our larger umbrella organization, the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies (CFMS). A portion of each member’s CGMC dues goes as dues to CFMS, as well to the insurance policy provided by CFMS, and we need to pay that early in January.
Dues are $20 per individual and $30 per family. Please mail to Deb Sankovich at the address below or bring to the next meeting on January 12th. Please pay or you will miss all the benefits of our club. Thank you!

Deb Sankovich,VP
Membership CGMC
1961 Havenwood Drive
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
sankovichdeb@yahoo.com
805-494-7734

The following members will serve as elected officers for 2012
President: Robert Sankovich
Programs: 1st Vice-President Open Position
Field Trips: 2nd Vice Presidents Open Position
Membership: 3rd Vice-President Deb Sankovich
Editor: 4th Vice-President Becky Williamson
Treasurers: Jacob Ross
Secretary: Stephaine Jones
Federation Director: Mike Havstad

Appointed officers for 2012
Art Council: Camille Van Ast
Community Education: Mitty Scarpato
Historian: To be announced
Librarian: To be announced
Parliamentarian: Roy Foerster
Publicity: Deb Sankovich
Refreshments: Delfina Bucaria
Shop Foremen: Robert Sankovich, Manny Valdez, Mike Miller
Show Chairman: Robert Sankovich
Ways & Means: Mitty Scarpato, Delfina Bucaria
Website: Robert Sankovich
Workshop Coordinator: To be announced
Youth Program Coordinator: Jenny Dunehew

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
January
1/8 Daphne Howell
1/20 Angela Yglesias
1/23 Florence Meisenheimer
1/24 Jan Madsen
1/24 Andrea Harmon
1/24 Mackenzie Somogyi
Henry Chabot

Field Trips Upcoming: Please let us know if you are going to go on the field trip. The weather can change, if we don’t know your going we won’t be able to contact you if the field trip is cancelled. There will be maps and flyers at the club meetings. There are still people who show up for the field trip without notifying us, you can still be part of the field trip, but it is important that you let us know your going to attend. Please let us know if your going to attend, e-mail or call us. I have new truck, it's a white Ford F250 four wheel drive, crew cab, if your looking for me, look for my truck.
Contacts:
Robert Sankovich CFMS 805-494-7734, rmsorca@adelphia.net
Ron Wise, Ventura/Oxnard Clubs, 805-794-0737 clintwise@hotmail.com
Jennifer Flatten, Oxnard Club jenniferflatten@yahoo.com

Upcoming Field Trips 2012:
Field trips for the Tri Clubs, CGMC OGMS VGMS. Ron Wise VGMS/OGMS, Jennifer Flatten, OGMS will be 2011 VP Field trip leaders. If your interested in being a co-field trip leader with them contact them, or the nominating commette. I will be the CFMS field trip south leader with Adam Dean. I'll still be doing field trips in 2012. There will be a good variety of field trips next year. There still will be a Tri club field trip to Bishop Trip for garnets and ammonites. Adam and I will work out the CFMS field trips for 2012, they will be on our bulletins and the CFMS website and the tri clubs.
See you there.

Robert Sankovich
CFMS Co Chair Field Trips South
rmsorca@adelphia.net
805-494-7734

CFMS http://www.cfmsinc.org/
Mike Havstad will now be the Federation Director for our Club. For 2012 I'm the CFMS Co Chair Field Trip leader. I also was voted in to be Secretary for the California Federation Mineralogical Society Board

CFMS Tri Club Committee 2013 Show:
Were going to need people to volunteer for show chairs and committee's from the 3 clubs, if your interested let me know and you will be put on the list of the position your interested in. We have all of the Director positions filled. From our club we have Deb and I, and Sal Scarpto as Treasurer

2013 CFMS Tri Club Show Them Contest.
Valli Davis from the Ventura Gem & Mineral Society won.
California Rocks!

Rockhounds of the Year: The Conejo Gem & Mineral Club is honored to nominate Mitty and Sal Scarpato as our 2011 Rockhounds of the year. Mitty and Sal have been members of our club for some time. Sal our Treasurer, Mitty our Secretary, and past Youth Programs Coordinator and putting a program together each month for the pebble pups at our meetings. Mitty is currently on the Earth Science Tri Club committee, where they enhance geology education in Ventura County Schools and Libraries. They have made Rock Boxes, with 9 specimens of each Igneous, Metamorphic and Sedimentary specimens, with educational documents explaining the material. They have donated Rock Boxes to 57 schools, and are working on 61-91 now. They have made 3 Ventura County Fossils kits that the schools will be able to check out. Through donations to the Earth Science Tri Club Committee, they have been able to donate 814 minerals, fossils, books to schools and libraries in Ventura County. They are currently ordering 140 “Rock Odyssey” videos for elementary schools. Mitty goes to many schools, girl scout meetings, boy scout meetings, and has geology programs for each. Mitty and Sal are an integral part of our annual show. Mitty, for many years, has been the Youth Room Chair, filling many grab bags and many games. Sal has been past Show Chairman, and Kitchen Chair. He is now current Treasurer for the CFMS 2013 Show. Each year they go out to Quartzsite to get material and specimens for our local show. Whether it is our Show, our picnic, our Christmas party, or our monthly General meetings and Board meetings, Mitty and Sal are there to participate and help. They have put in much time and effort and have helped make our Club the wonderful Club that it is. Mitty and Sal Scarpato go above and beyond helping our Club and they deserve to be our Club Rock Hounds of the Year.

Robert Sankovich
CFMS Secretary and Co Chair Field Trip South

Lapidary Shop:
The 24" saw need some work, All other equipment is operational. If you want to use the shop, contact: Mike Miller 805-530-3744 rockfndr@att.net Manuel Valdez 805-492-1609 mvaldez2@netscape.com Robert Sankovich 805-494-7734 rmsorca@adelphia.net The time is flexible, You call us and we can set up a time that works for you and the shop foreman. I bought a Gripper tool at Quartzsite, it fits into our 24" saw clamp and using a 3 prong type arms it can grip rounded and odd shapped roacks, I plan on using it on my uncut geodes and nodules. I won't have put them in plaster to cut them. I have tried the gripper and it works great, grabs the nodules and makes it a lot easier to cut them in the saw.

Manuel Valdez 805-492-1609 mvaldez2@netscape.com
Mike Miller 805-530-3744 rockfndr@att.net
Robert Sankovich 805-494-7734 rmsorca@adelphia.net

The club has bought a used 18" Rociprolap made by Rose Enterprises. It's cast iron and heavy. The whole thing probably weighs 100lbs. There are two parts, the pan, and the base. We will now be able to polish larger stones, slabs, geode/nodules. It will need to run through several grit stages and polish, that will take time so we will make it so you will check it out and use it at your house. If your interested, contact him. We have to make a user manual.

CGMC IS ON FACEBOOK John Rodrigues a member of our club set this up. It will be good to promote our club and show. Check it out. From John:
I set up a FANs of Page on Facebook for CGAMC. Any members that are on Facebook can become a fan and send the link to all of their friends on FB and so on... Any fan can then post whatever to the page that might be of interest. I am fairly new to FB but it works well for my Photography Workshops I am organizing. Hope it works for
the club. Email me if you have any questions.
Here is the link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Conejo-Gem-and-Mineral-Club/359006179163?ref=ts
Thanks. Take care!
John Rodrigues

THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM DINOSAUR HALL
Opens July 16, 2011 The all-new, 14,000-square-foot Dinosaur Hall is twice the size of the Museum’s old dinosaur galleries. It will rival the world’s leading dinosaur halls for the number of individual fossils displayed, the size and spectacular character of the major mounts, including the world’s only Tyrannosaurus rex growth series, and the way that paleontology comes alive! In these spacious, light-filled galleries, visitors will encounter science not as static information but as a vibrant, ongoing investigation into mysteries — some resolved and some still being explored. The stunning centerpiece of this gallery is the Tyrannosaurus rex growth series, featuring a baby, juvenile, and sub-adult T. rex. It's the only series of its kind in the world. Baby: About 2 years old when it died, this 11-foot long specimen is the youngest known Juvenile: At the young age of 13, this T. rex already measured more than 20 feet long and weighed about 4,000 pounds. A rare specimen, this fossil provides a crucial link in understanding the rapid growth of the T. rex. Thomas the T. rex: This never-before-seen fossil was excavated by NHM paleontologists in southeastern Montana from 2003-2005. It is estimated to be a 70% complete specimen, one of ten most complete T. rex specimens on earth. At 17 years old, 34 feet long and nearly 7,000 pounds, this giant completes a series showing dramatic changes and rapid growth of T. rex. Mid-spurt, it’s estimated that a T. rex could gain 1,500 pounds in a year.
http://www.nhm.org/site/explore-exhibits/permanent-exhibits/dinosaur-hall
Robert Sankovich

California State Mining and Mineral Museum:
I wanted to let you know that the California State Mining and Mineral Museum, which houses and displays the Official California Collection of
gems and minerals, is on the State Parks closure list. This is the third year we have been on the closure list but unfortunately it is looking very dire for us this year.

In an effort to garner grassroots support to keep the museum open we have created a facebook page. We would like to invite your members to
comment or voice their concern over the closure of this museum. This collection was started in 1880 by the State legislature and has been on
continuous display for 131 years. The collection contains approximately 14,000 specimens from all over the world and from California. It is
anticipated that if we close it will be by July 1st 2012. If that happens it is very likely that the collection will be put into storage. This is a premier
collection on the west coast and spawned collections in many of the other western states. We would appreciate any help you and your members
could provide. If you could pass the word in your newsletter as well it would be appreciated.

There is a link on our facebook page to the California State Parks Foundation which provides suggestions about how to help. The link to our
facebook page is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/California-State-Mining-and-Mineral-Museum/192306770823629
We need your help to spread the word!

If you would like more information or have questions, please feel free to contact me.

Darci Moore
Curator II
California State Mining and Mineral Museum
209-742-7625
dmoor @parks.ca.gov

Contacts:

Robert Sankovich
President, Show Chairman
805-494-7734
rmsorca@adelphia.net

Deb Sankovich
VP Membership
805-494-7734
sankovichdeb@yahoo.com

 

 

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