Does anyone have a DVD to present at club meeting?

Does anyone have a DVD of a talk that would be a good presentation for a Micromount Club Monthly Meeting? Either on localities, photography of micromounts, a how-to demonstration, a micromount symposium presented by another club, or ? Preferably free or cheap.

For anyone interested in the world-famous locality Cerro Rico, Potosi, Bolivia, I recommend the film "The Devil's Miner". I've seen it advertized on the internet for as little as $11. Apart from those with an interest in it as a mineral locality, or anyone interested in primitive third-world mining, it is a film even the general public and kids would find entertaining, so a meeting your club could invite a wider public to attend. (I'm not sure what the copyright legalities say about showings in a private club meeting, versus a public theatre; you might have to pay a royalty to someone.)

Hi Joseph
I for one, wish to put in a good word for the old fashioned style of mineral club programming
What might that be?
Real speakers
You can ask them questions, they can show you specimens
and maybe they can even be convinced to lead field trips, which
by the way, I still feel are the backbone of any healthy and growing
mineral club. It is also much easier to get media coverage, when you
have a real speaker, than when a club resorts to the passive entertainment
of canned talks on CD and DVD formats...
I used to program for a number of clubs, and I found that universities and other clubs are
ripe soil for seeking out speakers, many of which would love to have the chance
to share their excitement and passion about whatever it is they are researching
or personally interested in. Besides, many clubs have quite healthy bank accounts
and over time become jealously careful about spending any of it on programming, which
in the end would actually cause the coffers to grow as new members stream in , attracted
by good programs...I have perhaps overstated my case, but there is my little pennyworth.

Ray,

Thanks for your reply. It was good meeting you at our club's meeting (held in one of the rooms at the Denver September show) and having you show us how you had found a printer useful for labeling micromounts. :~)
I agree that live talks are better, and in the first year of the club's existence we have had talks on Point of Rocks New Mexico (a micromineral deposit similar to Mont St-Hilaire) with a field trip there a few months later; a talk on the use of crystallography to help identify minerals; and 3 weeks ago a talk about the Hansonburg Mining District Bingham, N.M. (Includes the Blanchard Claims, MexTex Mine, and Royal Flush Mine). The talk was complete with 140 "slides" of minerals, 40 micromounts to look at "under the scopes", and reprints of the paper published in the Mineralogical Record January-February 1989 issue were passed out to those in attendance. The talk was timed to take advantage of the field trip to the Hansonburg District, arranged in conjunction with the New Mexico Mineral Symposium the following week.
In regards to spending all that money in our coffers, ha ha I wish. :~) We just opened a bank account a few weeks ago but have not yet started to collect dues. One of the first things we have committed to spend money on, is a home web site [www.rocky-mountain-micromineral-association.com] to help communicate about meeting dates, make announcements, etc.
I had been told that some mineral symposiums filmed their talks and put them on DVD, and I was hoping to take advantage of some of those talks to give us a wider diversity (perhaps even international?) at our meetings. In fact, if you come back down to the Denver show again next year, it would be great if we could impose upon you to give a talk about some Canadian micromineral localities?

Joe

If that is your wish, Joe, I can oblige you, as I make the pilgrimage to Denver and Tucson every year, and in fact did give 2 talks to the main Denver show, last year. Putting together a talk is a bit of work, so let me know how serious your invitation is. If serious, please send me a pm and we can discuss this further.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2009 09:36PM by Ray Hill.