Yes, we love rocks! We love rockhounding! We enjoy learning about gems and minerals! The SLO Gem & Mineral Club holds monthly meetings on the second Wednesday of the month. Of course, during COVID, we held Zoom meetings. We hope we don’t have to resort to that again.
Our benefits include monthly field trips, annual gem show, monthly newsletter, social events, and interesting speakers at our club meetings where we learn about lapidary arts, rock identification, rockhounding sites, jewelry making, geology, and all things regarding Earth sciences.
The San Luis Obispo Gem and Mineral Club is the oldest gem and mineral club in San Luis Obispo County, established in 1947, incorporated in 1953. We are a non-profit, nonpolitical, non-sectarian, charity-rooted educational society. Our main purpose is to share our knowledge and appreciation of Earth Sciences. We foster community, with an understanding, awareness, and love for our planet. Our members enjoy public exhibitions, lectures, video programs, demonstrations, field trips, and research. We learn rockhounding methods for collecting, identifying, and classifying rocks, minerals, fossils, as well as how to polish, mount, and display our rock specimens. Our group is keen to gain knowledge about the geology of the Central Coast. We are members of the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies (CFMS) and by extension affiliated with the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (AFMS).
We happily encourage and promote an interest in Earth and geological sciences, minerals, and the lapidary arts. Our members include gem and mineral collectors, hobbyists, gem cutters (faceting) jewelry makers, Rockhounds, and nature enthusiasts. If you are interested in rocks, gems, and minerals, you are welcome to join us!
Officers for 2024
President: Rick Hicks
Vice President: Kim Noyes
Secretary: Tammy Lauinger
Treasurer / Show Chair: Mary Rafferty
Membership: Evelyn Lopez
CFMS Director: Dan Manion
Club Merchandise Chair: Shanna Bedesem
Webmaster: Tamar Carmona
Silent Auction Coordinator and Club Librarian: Donnie Moore
Junior Rockhounds Program: Mike Shipsey, Donnie Moore, & Kim Noyes
Annual membership dues is $20.00 for an individual or $30.00 for a family and $15.00 for students. $9.00 per person of that membership fee goes to membership and insurance with the CFMS. If you would like to join us, you can download a membership application here: Membership application (PDF format). Mail your check with the form to our address shown on the form. Or, if you wish, we can use PayPal to invoice you for the membership so you can use PayPal or a credit card to pay the dues. In that case, just send us an email with your information including the type of membership desired (single or family).