Gem and Mineral Clubs can Recruit More Members!

American Geode

How Gem and Mineral Clubs can Recruit More Members
American Geode team members have the good fortune of being members in good standing with many different gem and mineral clubs from New York to Pennsylvania, Vermont to Texas. We have also been vendors at many shows hosted by gem and mineral clubs, and supporters and buyers to even more different shows organized by gem and mineral clubs throughout the US and Canada.
In addition to gems, minerals, geodes, fossils and rockhounding, American Geode has decades of experience in SALES. With this essay, we would like to share tips, tricks and advice for gem and mineral clubs to recruit brand new members!
1. Less is More! We have been to many gem and mineral club tables at various shows, and while giving gifts to prospective members is a nice gesture, usually it’s too much too early. The result can backfire on you! The person has just arrived to the show, they don’t want right from the start to be carrying papers and flyers and bulletins and free sample minerals. That does not create a desire or need for that person to join your club!
Instead, try these steps:
a. Upon introduction, ask the prospective member what his or her interests are? Is it education and lectures? Is it field trips? Is the interest purely social? Find out WHY the prospect may want to join your club so that you can offer them a SOLUTION! Take notes. Are they interested in rockhounding field trip, fellowship or education? Tell the prospect to “Enjoy the show, and be sure to stop by before you leave to learn more about the club.”
2. Don’t “hot box” your prospective members when you meet them! The term “hot box” means expending undue pressure on a person to join your group or affiliation. To the person being “hot boxed,” they will call it a “turn off.” Again, “Less is More.” Educate the prospect about the club, ask questions, that shows mindful and sincere interest in them and will appeal to them, and then “hook” them on the return visit. While the prospective member is touring the show and dealers, plan and prepare a relevant gift, relevant information and means to sign up when they exit the show. For instance, if the prospect says they are interested in rockhounding, have your field trip leader or officer, or someone who has been a frequent field trip rockhound, talk to the prospect about the last trip. Have a schedule planned for the upcoming trips to share! If the person is interested in lapidary and jewelry, be ready to discuss access to equipment if that is a benefit of your club, or discuss the other members who are lapidary experts and how often your meetings are about lapidary. The trick is to make the conversation relevant. While your club has many, many great things to offer, satiating and fulfilling someone’s rockhound or mineral need is going to sign up more users than sharing the other great, but irrelevant strengths your club has to offer.

3. How do you “hook” your new members? Prepare, prepare, prepare! When you meet them the first time, write down their name, note if they are with someone or their family. Be prepared to offer a family membership at the lower price point. Be prepared to sign up people THAT DAY! Have the forms ready, have plenty of pens, have pocket cash to make change if someone pays their dues with cash, and have someone be ready to take credit cards via Paypal device you can attach to your phone. Does your club offer on-line sign-up and membership? Then have a laptop ready for someone to sign up right there! Whether it’s retail sales, high-end luxury good sales, memberships to any organization, when people walk away, and you don’t get the sale, the chances of them returning to complete the sale later are as low as 5%. That would be a terrible shame when you have someone who is a “hot prospect” because they are at your club show!
With these “sales tricks” we know you will succeed!

Red Hill Fossil Discovery Part II


Later on Saturday, October of 2017, the American Geode team made it to the famous outcrop called Red Hill that is near Renovo, Pennsylvania and close to North Bend, Pennsylvania. Red Hill is the site of a very famous tetrapod discovery, one of the earliest tetrapods discovered in North America. The outcrop is very steep, and very dangerous. American Geode classifies Red Hill as an “advanced” or “expert” fossil site. Red Hill is managed by a volunteer group nearby who host and house a fossil and geology museum that American Geode was very lucky to view during a private tour later that day. You can see where boulders have fallen out of the cliff, shards of rock crumbled on the road nearby, and while we were there, occasionally a pea sized pebble to a golf ball sized rock would drop from the cliff.

The fossils that one can find are Devonian plants, and if you are very lucky, one can find an insect, and if lightning strikes twice, once could find a tetrapod again. The American Geode team found many examples of Devonian Plants, but the rock is crumbly. When we brought the Devonian Plant fossils in matrix back to American Geode headquarters to clean up, we sprayed them with water sealant to help seal and protect the matrix.

We did not find any insects, but one of the rockhound paleontologists there described finding a scorpion one time!

If you have some time in the area, rockhounding or not, the museum nearby is a very educational and interesting experience. The museum information is here: https://www.facebook.com/RED-HILL-FIELD-STATION-AND-FOSSIL-DISPLAY-121627314538811/
*Call ahead to the museum! This is a volunteer staffed museum, so do not expect normal hours, and do not rely on information on their site. Call ahead!*

Here are photos of the Red Hill fossil trip and our Red Hill fossil discoveries! To see and purchase Red Hill fossils from the American Geode collection, go to our eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/usr/americangeode
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Fern Fossils Discovery in Centralia, Pennsylvania


American Geode returned to the abandoned ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania to trace the source of rumors and stories about fern fossils that had supposedly been discovered in this dangerous, forgotten town in the heart of coal country. October 2017, returning from a successful trip in Renovo, PA, making a Red Hill fossil discovery, the team decided to stray a little off of I-80 and revisit Centralia. Centralia, PA is an old coal town that had been abandoned, demolished and condemned in the 1990s due to an underground coal mine fire raging since the early 1960s. Centralia can still be discovered on a map, and it is like walking into a set for “The Walking Dead,” or a show set after the Apocalypse.

There are many articles written about Centralia that contain more history and background than American Geode can share. We were there because people were telling us that they found fern fossils.

We parked the car past the second cemetery in town, walked about 300 meters, and found a hillside that was in fact covered with slate and shale. This was somewhat treacherous and American Geode would classify this site as “intermediate.” Wear boots with soles made for rocky and slick surfaces, wear gloves, long sleeves in case you stumble, and bring water and food because you are in an abandoned town after all. We were reluctant at first to start digging, but to paraphrase Walt Disney it was time for us to stop talking and “just get to work.”

We were very excited when we started finding branches, and some ferns. American Geode believes that this is the site of a swamp or marsh where trees fell and died. We found many more branches and logs than we did fern fossils. The fern fossils are the most dramatic however and most highly sought after. Following is background on the fern fossils one can find in Centralia, photos of our adventure and a video. We are selling many of the fern fossils we discovered this trip. Please contact American Geode for details or visit us on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/usr/americangeode
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From the American Geode eBay shop:

Fern fossils, tree branches from Centralia, Pennsylvania, from an abandoned off-limits site. This is the first time they have come to market.

Discovered by American Geode in October 2017.

Excellent set of 17 fern and plant fossils, museum quality. Academics, curators, collectors and interior design professionals have called our plant fossil collection some of the finest ever assembled. These fossils are becoming increasingly rare. The mineral Pyrophyllite is what gives the fern and vegetation impressions their unique white color. The unusual gold tint is rare and is caused by iron ore that was present during the fossil formation.

Name: Fern Fossils and Tree Branches
Fern Species: Alethopteris
Location: Centralia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Time: Pennsylvanian Sub-period, 320-290 million years old
Llewellyn Formation

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Rockhound Visit to “The Echo” in Pennsylvania

***June 12, 2019 – American Geode received an email from a gentleman who lived in the area, and knew about this site, and informed us that what we were calling “The Little Grand Canyon” is actually called “The Echo.” We have corrected the title of the article with this new information.

So the American Geode team had planned for a rockhound trip for quartz crystals in McAdoo, Pennsylvania, and instead of finding the cache of quartz, we found something even better,,,,Pennsylvania’a “Little Grand Canyon.” So the American Geode team had heard stories and rumors of rockhounds finding large quartz crystals around McAdoo. We had to go see for ourselves!

The area around Mcadoo is largely abandoned coal mines, strip mines. There is a lot of abandoned history in the area as the coal industry dwindled. You see the row houses that make up the small towns that dot the areas around the abandoned and closed down strip mines, and when you are driving you notice the division between new homes and new business is very stark from the older homes and the old coal mining business.

The story we were told is that rockhounds were finding quartz around the areas exposed by the mining operations. We drove to the largest strip mine in the area, and it was clearly and heavily marked with “no trespassing” signs. Now we don’t do anything illegal, but sometimes what we do may be “unlegal,” but we do abide by “no trespassing” signs when we see them.

We drove around to some other areas not far from the strip mine, kept finding “no trespassing” signs, and we nearly gave up until, while driving down one road, Joe noticed a shack on the side of the road, a fella was sanding down the leg of a coffee table or a stool or something, but his porch was full of stones. Joe said “pull over!” and we did. I let Joe do the talking in these situations, he is kind of like Anthony Bourdain and has the gift of being to strike up a conversation with just about anyone he encounters. Well, after Joe spoke to this fella for 5 minutes, he comes back to the car with directions where the locals find the quartz crystals!

So we followed the directions that our new friend Drew had shared, and we were able to find the path he told us would lead to the locale to find the quartz.
Rockhound Mcadoo 1

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We followed the paths, that were not marked “no trespassing,” but they were not exactly marked “welcome” either. We stopped in our tracks when we saw what looked like THE GRAND CANYON! This gorge, unknown if man-made or natural, was giant, steep, sheer cliffs, beautiful, and a site to behold. Here are the photos:
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Now we are pretty reckless at American Geode, but without the right equipment we were not going to scale the Little Grand Canyon to find the source of the large quartz crystals. We did find the area however. Look closely in these photos at the blue rope, tied to the tree? We had been told that people scale down that thin rope, more like cord, to an overhang where one can dig into the side of the mini canyon. Look closely, the rope, cord really can be hard to spot.
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So we may return to this spot in the spring with proper equipment, but we did make a wonderful discovery during this trip. The Little Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania is a sight to behold.
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When we were walking about, look what we found on the ground!
Mcadoo Quartz close up

Mcadoo Quartz

Red Hill Fossil Discovery Part I


Red Hill is a giant outcrop in North Bend, Pennsylvania that is site of one of the world’s most famous fossil discoveries. Red Hill is the location that helped establish a time-line, and proof of the earliest tetrapods to walk on North America. Red Hill is a fossil location that American Geode would classify as “expert” or “master.” It is a very dangerous location, not only because it is along the highway, but because stones and boulders still fall from the sheer cliff. American Geode made a Red Hill discovery however, and here is the American Geode story about our recent trip to Red Hill.

We started driving around 1am on Saturday morning, so we could stop at another fossil outcrop on the way to Red Hill. Traffic is still heavy leaving New York City however. We tell everyone that just getting out of New York City can be half the time and trouble when you’re on a road trip. The game plan was to stop at an outcrop in Pennsylvania, old Route 15, which is from the same period as Red Hill.

We finally got to the location around 6:30am, and decided to take an hour’s nap as the sun had not risen yet. When we awoke an hour later, we were not alone!

Hell of a way to start a rockhound trip! After the bears ran off however, we started picking around in the rubble and found many Devonian plant life examples, and some fish scales!
Fish scales : Duncannon Member, approximately 367 my.
Devonian Plants : Duncannon Member, approximately 367 my.
Bears : Mamma and her 3 cubs
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American Geode would classify this site on old Route 15 as moderately easy. While one can not scale or walk up the outcrop to get to the source material, clearly the elements cause large pieces and boulders to drop. We did not use any tools, we just wore gloves and turned over all the stones and slabs that were on the ground. This site does not have a name to our knowledge other than “old Route 15 fossil spot,” but it was a fun way to begin our trip to Red Hill.

After seeing the bears that morning, I was pretty happy with the trip. It could only get better, or only get worse!
The encounter with bears was picked up by one of the local newspapers as well:
http://s.pennlive.com/kU3Zyrc

If you would like to learn more about rockhounding, or compare notes with American Geode or learn more about places to search for fossils, or to join forces, please contact American Geode by visiting the American Geode homepage: http://www.americangeode.com

Now for “Red Hill Fossil Discovery Part II” when we finally got to the fabled locale, for more excitement, and much, much more hard work!