The Olathe Gem and Mineral Society meets the first Thursday of each month (except June, July and August — these months are set aside to accommodate family summer vacations).
Presently the club meets on the designated Thursdays from 6:45 to 8:45 PM at Hope Chapel (formerly the Indian Creek Community Church), 12480 S. Blackbob Road, Olathe, KS. We are now meeting in room 018, but please check the published schedule in the lobby as you enter the front doors. Each of these general membership meetings consists of networking time, a short business/announcements meeting, and most importantly one or more presentations by significant individuals involved in the gems, minerals and/or the earth sciences fields. Normally these presenters are arranged for and scheduled from outside the membership so as to provide many unique topics of interest to our broad membership and visitor(s) base. Some recent topics have included presentations on “fakes, frauds and scams” in the industry, gold panning, custom jewelry design and fabrication, meteorites, colored gemstone identification, wire wrapping, and a unique demonstration of a member designed and fabricated faceting machine to name a few.
Special events for the club include our annual summer potluck picnic in June, and a catered holiday party near the end of the year.
The club also organizes, (and at times joins/cooperates with other clubs), on various field trips which are always popular with members, their family and interested friends. Recent field trips have included visits to a privately owned/controlled Missouri Mozarkite site, glacial alluvial deposits in NE KS, and fossil collecting near Melvern Lake in KS. Upcoming trips will include another Mozarkite site visit, Quaternary alluvial collecting of fossils and early man artifacts, and selenite crystal collecting at the Salt Plains National Wildlife refuge near Jet, OK. These and other trips and events as they are developed and planned will be posted on our website, Facebook and in the “Rock Solid Bulletin”. Please visit these for updates and postings throughout the year.