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Select Here to View the MDHTALK's October News Brief in Adobe .PDF
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| October 2018 | Metal Detecting Hobby Talk News Brief Volume 9 Number 103 |
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Support The Hobby I would like to point out to the News Brief readers that there are a number of organizations taking on the challenge against various types of legislation dealing with metal detecting and gold prospecting. MDHTALK's recommendation is to visit their website and give strong consideration to joining the fight. In some cases your support may be to send emails and / or write a letter to specific legislators or to provide funds to help with the fight. Here are the organizations and a link to their website. |
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MDHTALK News Pages U.S. & W.W. News U.K. News U.S. Archaeology U.S. Legislation W.W. Meteoritic Other Media MDHTALK Article Links Return Stories MDHTALK Find a Club Read Newsletters FaceBook Clubs MDHTALK Event Calendar October |
What is a News Brief? The news brief provides a brief look into any news event. The intent of the news brief is to provide you, the reader, with news clips on what was taking place in the hobby last month. To read the whole story select the Article Link or go to MDHTALK.org. There are more news stories placed on the MDHTALK website for September the news stories listed in the MDHTALK News Brief are just a portion of all the hobby related news reported the past month. The news Brief is now available in Adobe PDF format, there is a link at the top of this webpage. The news brief is no longer emailed; it is only available on the MDHTALK website and can be downloaded. The Website's featured article for this month is: Club Volunteer Organizations A club’s organizational structure is the heartbeat for the club’s membership at large and it is entirely made up of volunteers. The elected officers must provide the leadership atmosphere to move the club forward in the fields of hobby education, legislation activity, community involvement, guest speakers and all the other interesting and important aspects of the hobby. Metal detecting clubs vary greatly in size with some clubs having memberships well over a hundred and other clubs with membership of 20 to 100. This means that some clubs have more resources than others but the challenges for each club’s leadership are much the same. In the table below you will see some of the resources required for a club organization that must meets the needs of the club membership and the needs of the hobby. This list of appointee and volunteers should not be considered the only required club resources but a very good starting point. 
Remember every one that holds a position in a club is a valuable volunteer who provides their time, skill and talents. What are the roles and responsibilities of club officers and how should they execute those responsibilities? President and Vice President must set aside their time to provide the necessary leadership for the club. Leadership is getting members involved, delegating responsibilities, and requiring general meeting participation by all appointee and volunteers in their respective roles. Leadership is not being the sole voice at the monthly general club meeting. Now having said that, I have witnessed clubs that do have a strong center leader, are very large and very productive. However, having many members involved in the club’s activities builds organizational strength and centralism. In the future as new officers are needed for vacant positions these positions can be filled from the appointee / volunteer members who have already gained valuable experience in club matters. Leadership is holding regularly scheduled agenda driven board meetings. The board meeting should include all of the elected, appointed and volunteer positions. The agenda should include a review of club projects, review of open business actions and a discussion about what new club issues or projects should be considered. View or Download the Complete Article |
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General U.S. and World Wide Hobby News
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Other News
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Public Lands for the People delivered information to the Federal EPA in Washington DC in March that legally explained that suction dredgers do not
“add” a pollutant within the meaning of the Federal Clean Water Act requiring a 402 or 404 pollution discharge permit. The EPA has assured us of
a decision in the near future, as it was passed to their specialists on the matter.
As we know, whether it is California’s SB 637, or the CA Water Board, or Idaho’s IDWR, they all defer to the Federal EPA regarding exemptions when the Feds choose to specifically state such. The fact is, the States get funds from the Federal government to carry out these directives. PLP is continuing to follow this matter up and resolve it under the Trump administration so that suction dredgers will not be labeled polluters requiring discharge permits in CA or any other State. PLP strongly believes that by submitting to a 402 permit, as some have advocated (see the article below this newsletter: “Surrendering to the Pollution Permit”), miners will run the risk of undermining and subverting our negotiations with the Federal EPA to resolve this issue at a national level. PLP also believes that when the true costs of the $6,000 permit plus the cost of hiring a water monitoring engineer per dredger (or group of dredgers), at $50,000 comes to light (which is now being hidden), dredgers will be rightfully outraged as this will not be affordable, nor reasonable. We can say this with relative certainty based upon our experts with real experience in past permitting, going back to the year 2000! On a related note, these negotiations with the CA State Water Board will not lift the existing ban on suction dredging in class 'A' waters (closed to dredging), under the Fish & Game regulations along with many unreasonable restrictions such as no winching, no dredging within 3 feet of a stream bank, 4” maximum nozzle, etc. Please review the CDFW regulations thoroughly and judge for yourself. Website |
PLP has a solution to this situation through the “Small Miner Amendments to the NDAA” now presently sitting in the Minerals subcommittee in Congress
under review and markup. We are presently being told by the subcommittee chair (Congressman Paul Gosar, AZ), that there is very positive interest in
sponsors to get this bill on track for next year. We need and certainly appreciate your moral and financial support to keep this momentum going in
the halls of Congress!
As an option, PLP is considering litigating CA SB 637 in Federal District court. Unfortunately, it's presently beyond PLP’s sole financial means without your added financial support, and especially the promised support from several mining and prospecting organizations which has vaporized. We can't even consider this option in light of the disappointing fact that AMRA and the GPAA has not committed, nor produced any civil litigation monies to PLP in the past 2 years to fight the ongoing dredge litigation against the State of California. We believe that the more cost-effective solution is through our present Federal legislative push to override the state and the state court decisions, and to stay on track and within budget. Our “Small Miner Amendments” not only solves the dredgers problems, it solves many, many more regulatory issues in a simple but comprehensive way. Read it on our website if you have not already and tell your Congressman and Senator we need this now! Read/LEARN/Support/ Join PLP today at our website: |
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Metal Detecting & Gold Prospecting Events.
Now is the time to start planning and getting your club's 2018/19 hunt information on the web. The sooner it is out and available to the metal detecting community the greater the chance for people to see it and give your event some consideration.
the Complete Event Details for October Add Your Event Information Here |
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| Metal Detecting Hobby Talk MDHTALK HOME PAGE http://www.mdhtalk.org |