President's Message

I know! I know! I seem to be stuck on harping about safety during field trips and it’s very important that you keep safety in the front of your mind during any field trip.  However, I haven’t said much about safety when working in your clubs workshop or at one of the SFMS workshops.  It’s easy to get distracted, impatient, or so into your favorite project that thoughts of safety are pushed to the back of your mind.  I once had a classmate in a silversmithing class burn his finger badly because he got impatient and wanted to finish that last piece before the end of the day.  He had just completed a solder and tried to pick up his piece with his fingers instead of tongs.  Needless to say he let it go very quickly but the damage was done.  I am a firm believer that if you think about safety in the shop and at home it eventually become second nature and you’ll police your actions every day.  You’ll be thinking “am I doing this safely?” or “is there a better way to do this that’s safer?”.

Please remember that the SFMS workshop schedules are posted on the https://www.sfmsworkshops.org/ website.  Classes are filling up quickly so if you hesitate too long your first choice may be filled.  If that happens don’t fret!  Just step out of your comfort zone and pick something that you’d normally not feel comfortable taking.  I’ve done that a couple of times and was very glad I did, each and every time.

The first workshop of 2024 is at William Holland School of Lapidary Arts and begins June 2nd.  Wow! Is that coming up fast or what?

The Wildacres workshops are in August and September but don’t let those dates fool you into waiting too long.  There have been several people already register and several classes will fill way before August/September.  He who hesitates is lost.

The American Federation of Mineralogical Societies annual convention is being held in Ventura California May 24th thru the 26th.  Due to some personal issues I am unable to attend as the SFMS Presidential Representative and Vonda Echols will not be able to attend as the SFMS Second Vice-Presidential Representative.  So at this time I would like to express my most heartfelt thanks to Collis Antley and Lisa Roberts for volunteering to represent us at the upcoming convention.  Both have attended AFMS meetings in the past and I’m sure they’ll do an outstanding job.

Our next SFMS meeting will be held following our workshop at William Holland.  The dates are Friday June 7th for the cracker barrel meet-and-greet and Saturday June 8th for the morning meeting. The SFMS Secretary will be sending out registration forms in plenty of time for your club to send representatives.  These meetings are where your club’s voice is heard so please attend if at all possible.  Also, don’t forget that you may attend these meeting virtually.

Feel free to give me a call or shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.

Danny Griffin, SFMS President