Field Trips

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One of the great benefits of our club is the opportunity to go out in the field and find your own cool rocks. Whether you want to collect specimens or find stuff for making your own jewelry, field trips are how you do it. Our club sponsors numerous trips each year. In addition, The Southeast Federation of Mineralogical Societies enables us to attend field trips sponsored by clubs throughout the Southeast. So, we end up with as many as two trips each month. Many of the trips are at no cost. Some are fee based mines which charge a minimum fee to collect. In either case, they are always fun.

Most of the time, children are more than welcome to go collect on these trips. Occasionally, there might be an age limit. Sometimes you can even take your dog along to collect.

On the “Past Field Trips” page, you can see some of the places we’ve been and what we have collected.

CCGMS Field Trip Handbook

Toby Stewart & John Anderson, Field Trip Co-Chairs

Only CCGMS members whose membership is up to date can attend field trips.

TYPES OF TRIPS THAT CCGMS WILL PARTICIPATE IN:

Field trips sponsored by the SFMS or SFMS associated clubs that CCGMS has been invited to attend.
Field trips sponsored by the Dixie Mineral Council or the Georgia Mineral Society that CCGMS has been invited to attend.
Field trips sponsored by CCGMS for its members.
Some trips will NOT have a limit to the number of participants and there will not be a sign-up for these trips. Members will simply show up at the meeting site and proceed to the collecting site with the group. Failing to arrive by the published departure time printed in the announcement may mean you are left behind.
Some trips will have a limit to the number of people who can attend. This is often due to limited parking at the collecting site or the landowner has placed a limit on the number of people who can attend. There will be a sign-up period for these trips and a wait list will be kept once the field trip has filled.

CCGMS FIELD TRIP SIGN-UP PROCEDURES

A date and time will be published with the announcement for all of the field trips. This will be the earliest you can e-mail to make a reservation for the field trip. All sign-ups will be made via the field trip e-mail address. Since we have co-coordinators for field trips there are two e-mail addresses which are coordinator specific. The email address for John Anderson is ft.ccgms@gmail.com. The email address for Toby Stewart is ccgms.fieldtrips@gmail.com. One of these e-mail addresses will be published with the field trip description.

a. The date and time will be very specific as to when someone can sign-up for the field trip.

b. Example of date and time: January 1, 2024, 7:00 a.m.

c. The time stamp on your e-mail will be used to determine your position on the field trip.

d. Trying to sign-up prior to the published date and time will not be accepted.

2. Members can only sign-up themselves and their immediate family members.

3. Members will be contacted by the Field Trip Coordinator as to being on the field trip list or if they are on the wait list based in the order their email has been received.

4. If those who have been confirmed for the trip find they will not be able to attend the trip they must inform the Field Trip coordinator they will not be able to attend so that someone on the wait list can attend the trip.

ATTENDANCE POLICY FOR SIGN-UP TRIPS

No Show, No Tell (or call) Policy and Cancellation at the last minute without cause:

If a person or persons sign-up and are accepted on the field trip and they do not show-up at the meeting location and do not call the field trip leader that they will not be attending the field trip they will be considered a No Show.
A person who calls at the last minute to say that they just cannot make the field trip will be considered “without cause.”
In these situations, the participant will be sent a message via email that they missed a limited attendance field trip and if they repeat as a No Show/cancellation without cause they will lose some of their privileges for attending future field trips. The President of the Club will be CC’d with the participants warning message and the Board will be made aware of this warning.

FIELD TRIP CONDUCT AND POLICIES FOR PARTICIPANTS

Participants at a field trip must be a current member of an SFMS club that has provided their membership with SFMS liability insurance. Note: All current CCGMS members are covered by SFMS Liability insurance. This means that no non-member friends or relatives can attend.
All official field trip (CCGMS, DMC, GMS, or SFMS) sites visited are not to be returned to by participants unless the site is located on public lands or road cuts. If participants return to a private site, we could lose our access to that site. Participants are not to share official field trip locations with other persons or other clubs, especially locations that CCGMS has arranged with private landowners.
If a trip description asks participants to pre-register for a trip, they must sign up and receive confirmation of their spot on the trip. If trip descriptions don’t ask participants to sign up, they can just show up at the designated meeting place at the time listed in the trip description.
Participants must follow all safety and collecting rules put forward by the trip leader. Failure to comply with the Trip Leader’s rules will cause the participant to be asked to leave the site.
Participants must be considerate to other participants on a trip and take only as much material as they can reasonably use for their own personal use not to sell commercially.
Field Trip sites that have been visited on previous Field Trips: Participants are not to visit a site immediately before a scheduled field trip to insure specimens available to participants. Also, they are not to go to a site ahead of the group on the day of the field trip. All participants are to meet at the published time and go as a group to the site and leave before or when the trip is scheduled to be over.
Participants are not to park their vehicle where it is blocking the road, a gate, or another vehicle.
Participants need to always fill in any holes they dig on a collecting trip and make sure they pack out all their trash.

Something for Everyone!

Cobb County Gem & Mineral Society has something for everyone. From our Monthly Meetings, First Tuesday Class, Junior Rockhound Events, Field Trips, fully equipped Lapidary Shop to our special classes, there is always something to do and learn. Please see the calendar on the scheduled events page.