CENTRAL VIRGINIA GOLD PROSPECTORS Report on January 19, 2008 Meeting MEETING LOCATION: The next meeting will be on February 16th at the Lovin Gold Prospecting Supplies store, 1082 Main Street (Route 15) in downtown Dillwyn at 10 AM. Bring a lawn chair. Meeting was called to order by Club President Ben Vaughan—there were approximately 75 members and guests present. The officers were introduced and everyone welcomed. Treasurer and Secretary gave their reports. The ounce nugget raffle ticket sales began. The nugget ounce + specimen was passed around for everyone to see. The tickets will be $5 each and unsold tickets can be turned back. This is our big fund raiser for the year and the drawing will be at the October meeting. There also will be nice nuggets for the three top ticket sellers. ALASKA TRIP RAFFLE: There was a discussion on whether to continue with this raffle—sales haven't been too great. It was decided to have a deadline for a minimum number of 250 tickets sold. If at least this number of tickets haven't sold then the Alaska raffle will be discontinued and EACH Alaska raffle ticket will be converted to 2 nugget raffle tickets. If you have purchased any tickets for the Alaska trip and this proposal doesn't suit you, contact us and we will give your money back. This decision will be finalized at the March meeting. DREDGES AND DREDGE SIZES: A discussion regarding what is a legal size dredge and the option of termination of an individual's membership if this is violated. It is the decision of VMRC that inside diameter of the suction hose can be no larger than 4 inches as far as they are concerned. As far as the THE CLUB PROPERTIES ONLY the club discussed this issue—we are not trying to enforce Virginia laws but want to set parameters as to what the club will allow. The motion was made to allow use of 4 inch or less manufacturer size dredges only at the leased club properties, a vote taken and passed. What you do and use at any private property you as an individual have permission to dredge is between you and them. Properties 2, 5, 6 and 7 are the only properties open to dredging—this was voted on by the membership and approved. NEW BUSINESS: We no longer have a lease to access to Property No. 8 at Goldvein. We are still looking for a property in that area. We don't know for sure why the landowner didn't want to renew our lease—but we don't think it is because of any improper actions of the club members. EASTERN GOLD PROSPECTORS ASSOCIATION: This was discussed at the December meeting, at which time it was decided that the discussion would be continued at the January meeting. On January 19th, a legnthy discussion was held as to whether the CVGP wants to maintain its status as a member of GPAA or break loose and pursue opening properties on the East Coast to gold prospecting to be leased and operated by the Eastern Gold Prospectors Association. There was a very lengthy discussion on this subject, pros and cons. Every member present who is a member of CVGP was eligible to vote on whether to drop our affiliation with GPAA as one of their chapters—to drop was approved by a majority to become affiliated with the East Coast group. As many of you are aware, there has since been much discussion on the internet, etc. about this decision so it will again be a topic of discussion at the February meeting. It is strongly recommended that you come to this meeting. At this point I would like to refer to the Central Virginia Gold Prospectors club By-laws Section 3B where it outlines the requirements to be eligible to vote on club matters. There will be copies of the CVGP By-Laws available at the meeting for members. There is also included with this Newsletter a copy of the CVGP Update which was sent to those club members with email on January 23, 2008. This statement will be elaborated on at the upcoming meeting. We would like to emphasize that all interested members should try to be present at this meeting. Email UPDATE Sent on January 23 to Membership: As some of you know, at the meeting last Saturday there was a discussion about the formation of an Eastern Gold Prospecting Association organization, whose purpose was to be to promote recreational prospecting and unite the different areas of the east coast in that endeavor. Along with this discussion, there was a discussion about what the GPAA does or does not do for us as a club. There was a vote to withdraw as a GPAA Chapter and for CVGP to align itself with the EGPA—the majority voted to withdraw from GPAA and align with EGPA. Since Saturday there has been lots of discussion about this subject and the people involved in the formation of the EGPA have decided at this point to cancel all plans regarding the formation of Eastern Gold Prospectors Association and its relationship with Central Virginia Gold Prospectgors. THIS IS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. This will be discussed at the February 16th meeting. At that time the club can decide and if necessary re- vote on the decision of whether to stay with GPAA or not. Of the four individuals, Ben, Kathy, Bob and Sandy, who were the initial individuals in EGPA, and three of whom are officers in CVGP, it will be left up to the Central Virginia Gold Prospectors as to whether they want us to continue as club officers. We are very sorry it has come to this point and on behalf of the four of us, we would just like to say that our only intention was to try and benefit and protect the right to do recreational prospecting in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It has been a pleasure to serve the CVGP group and only hope that the club continues to grow and have fun. `````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` The drawings for the nuggets and other items was held and then the meeting was adjourned.