From: "Joseph J. Hobbs" <HobbsJ@missouri.edu>

To: "chouteau" <chouteau@coollist.com>

Subject: May Meeting Minutes

Date: Thursday, May 08, 2003 6:53 AM



Minutes of the Chouteau Grotto Meeting



Wednesday, May 7, 2003





The meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM



21 members were in attendance



Treasurer's Report: $1277.61 in the coffers



MSS Director's Report:  Bill Elliott and David Webster report that on

May 17 at Meramec State Park there will be the MSS meeting, with an

educational event at Fisher Cave.  There was some discussion of

whether we need a new MSS Director, but this was not resolved.



Foresight Editor's Report:  not available.



Old Business



The Hunter's cache will not be bolted to the wall



Programs: if you are interested in giving a cave-related program at

our monthly meeting, please let Joe Dom know.



Constitution: Joe Dom is working on it.



Grotto equipment: please return it to Quartermaster Mike Morgan, or

call Joe Dom and he'll pick it up and return it to Mike.



In March, Rick Walk brought up the issue of a donation to the

Southeast Cave Conservancy. This organization recently puchased

Valhalla Cave in Jackson County, Alabama. Do we want to make a

donation? There was discussion. A motion was made for a $100

donation; it was seconded, all approved.



Membership Manual: There was discussion of putting it online. Rick

Walk may have a working master of this document. Joe Dom will talk to

Mike O'Laughlin about getting this organized.



Ozark Underground Lab: Tom Aley is looking for help in cleaning up

the cave and drainage area. Joe would like to get a Grotto visit down

there for this purpose. The bonus would be a guided tour of the cave.

Amber Spohn will be working at nearby Talking Rocks this summer.



Stream Team activities: The DNR would like to see us revive our

stream team activity. We had Bass and Turkey and Gans Creeks in the

past (the data ended in 1999). We could do Hunter's Cave - no one

else is doing a cave stream on this program, so it would be a nice

addition.  It takes about two hours to do site survey and insect

counting, and two-four samples are needed per year. Joe Dom has made

a map of the watershed already.. Scott Schulte thinks that at one

time the Grotto did Stream Team activities in the Devil's Ice Box,

under Jim Yamcey. Scott would like to see this revived as well,

though there are other stream studies being done in the Ice Box. We

discussed giving priority to Hunter's Cave. Bill Elliott is

supportive of this and would like to be involved in it.



Ropework at Capen Park: Friday evenings apparently are going to be

the best. Mike Walk and Joe Dom will go this Friday. Contact them or

Mike Morgan for the time.



Upcoming events



Cave restoration  June 14-15 at Onandoga Cave State Park. Contact Ben

Miller or Tiffany Addington there for details.



NSS August 4-8. Porterville, California.



Mapping Cave Resources: May 15-17 in St. Louis. Bill Elliott is

managing much of this event. See his earlier emails or contact him

for details.



Cave Reports



Scott Schulte: On April 5, a cave visitor broke his ankle near Mother

Nature. The rescue went even more smoothly than the practice run! The

accident took place about 11; by 12:45 it was reported; and the

victim was out by 5:30.



Scott Schulte reports that in early April, there was a study to see

if the cave tours disturbed the Indiana bats in the cave. There seems

to be no disturbance!



Dave Webster spent a day in Crystal Caverns. "It felt good!" reports

Dave. They were installing new handrails and repairing trails.



Marck Schneider, Mike Morgan, and Amber Spohn attended the recent

MVOR, visiting Fiery Forks cave among others.



Bill Elliott caved in Arkansas recently for "Karst Caver Weekend" at

Blanchard Springs Cavern, where he taught how to do cave

bioinventory. He visited Harrow Hollow (?) cave, then a private cave

called Bergin Cave. The evaluated the "Bubba Factor" in that cave.



Amber Spohn visited Smittle Cave (Little and Big). It would be easy

for us to get a permit to visit the cave, which is open two months

each year. Talk to Amber about this. It's a very pretty cave, she

reports. Bill Elliott says the cave could use some more cleanup

assistance.



New or Prospective Members present:



Sam Gold, MU Geography Department

Will Pollock, MU Geography Department

(Sam, Will and Joe Hobbs will be doing the MU Field course on the

Geography of Ancient Maya Caves in Belize, from June 1-28).

Cathy Christiansen, leader of cave trips at the Ice Box

Matt Curry, Warrenton

Melissa Draper, Columbia



The meeting was adjourned at 7:52 PM.



Program: Bill Elliott did a PowerPoint slide show on Cave Gating in

Missouri, 2001-2003



Respectfully submitted,



Joe Hobbs, Secretary



(I will be in Belize for the next two meetings, and in Wyoming in

August. Marck Schneider has kindly offered to take over my

secretarial duties during my absence).