February 10th, 2025
Meeting started at 6:31pm at Chester’s Hamburgers on 410. Tobin Simpson moderating.
Announcements
Mio needs one more person for the Honey Creek trip on March 15th.
Trip to 1 O’clock Cave near Woot on Saturday March 1st -Aaron
Government Canyon trip on March 1st -Matt Taylor
Jill Orr is looking to switch hosting sites to obtain custom emails and save money.
Motion to make the move has been by Matt Taylor, seconded by Matt Feibelman, and approved by majority vote
Bexar Grotto will create a letter to voice concerns about the construction of a water treatment plant in Gray Forest by Lennar Corp., which will affect the Edwards Aquifer. Attend town meetings and protests to support the rejection of the building permit. Court hearing is from February 19th-21st.
Bexar Grotto is looking for new locations for vertical practices.
Leia Hill will be putting together Bexar Facts newspaper. Articles will be published quarterly.
Old Bexar Grotto laptop is declared junk because it still runs Windows 7. Since we have the MacBook, it is officially retired.
New Business
A page on the Bexar Grotto website will be created for cavers to submit trip reports.
Trip Reports
Marvin, Lisa, Matt Feibelman, Caitlin, and Emily went to work on Al’s Roadside Pit at Hill Country SNA. The pit was surveyed and the wood cover was repaired. We may have sealed a rabbit inside. The repaired wood cover is named Caitlin’s Roadside Dance Floor.
Next day, Marvin and Lisa survey Mark’s Cave and found a lot of salamanders.
Mio went exploring in the caves in her property, and found some new leads. She will eventually be putting together formal survey trips.
Amy, Matt Taylor, Tobin, Joe, Jim, Julian and Greg went to continue surveying Jaime Hole. They managed to rappel down a 30ft drop, which followed a fault line that the cave may have been created from. They now have a ladder in there.
Meeting is adjourned at 7:15pm.
January 27th, 2025
Meeting started at 6:30pm at Chester’s Hamburgers on 410. Tobin Simpson moderating.
Announcements
Trip to Government Canyon and Hill Country SNA is upcoming
Upcoming in Bear Cave cleanup on Feb 8th. Currently a waitlist -Marvin
UT Grotto has an upcoming Deep trip on Valentine’s Day weekend
TSA is having a winter meeting on March 1st at Chiapa(?) campsite. Location to be confirmed.
TSC is looking for an At Large Board Member -Joe Mitchell
TCMA recently had new board members elected.
NSS convention is coming up in June at New York (the state)
Brazil ICS convention is also upcoming, and early bird price ($100!) is ending at the end of the month (very soon).
Bexar Grotto T-Shirts are for sale by Marvin
Jill Orr is working on a solution to get emails working for the contact page on the Bexar Grotto website.
Hydro Geo is happening on October 18th & 19th -Geary Schindel
Ross Sr. Is working on creating an endowment for Ross Jr. He would like this endowment to provide high quality equipment for a nominated under 18 caver from across the country.
Trip Reports
Marvin Miller led a survey trip to Dinosaur Cave with Greg Mosier. There’s still plenty of surveying left to do.
One gentlemen spent a month and a half in Mexico, and went to 3 caves.
Joe Mitchell went to check out a potential cave on a private property. Unfortunately it went 4 meters, but it was very nicely decorated.
Leia Hill is gaining more vertical experience (yay!)
Tom Florer went to go explore a potential cave on private property with Matt Taylor & Geary. Found about 20 meters worth of cave. Only Matt could fit in the cave. Property owners grilled them hot dogs and twinkies(???) Turns out the cave is owned by a raccoon and it promptly evicted Matt.
Amy, Zoe, and Tobin went to the SPAR training at Sonora Caverns. They learned a lot on how to rescue people in caves.
Matthew Feibelman went to Government Canyon with Steven Gutierrez, park rangers and scientists from Plano to look for bats. Found no bats 😟. Went to Robber Baron Cave the next day for George Veni’s Biological Survey, and immediately found bats.
George Veni was able to complete the Robber Baron Cave Biological Survey over the course of 2 days.
Today’s program is an equipment auction by Amy.
Meeting is adjourned at 7:24pm.
January 13th, 2025
Meeting started at 1830. Matthew Feibelman is moderating. Caitlin Stoops taking notes.
Member dues are due today! They are a whopping $5!
Election Results:
Tobin Simpson is the new President
Matt Taylor retained cave trip chair
Amy Schoenenberger is new program chair
Matthew Feibelman retained secretary
Emily Thompson retained treasurer position. Bexar Facts newsletter editor chair - no nominations, will fill position at a later time
New Members:
Amber
Announcements:
NSS: Awards open until 15 November. NSS Convention in New York City.
TCMA: Board Meeting and Budget meeting held.
TSS: Board meeting. There are lots of caves out there that have been unexplored in a long time - worth considering. TSS books for sale.
Upcoming Trips:
Honey Creek: January 25th trip (work weekend - 2 spots available. Msg Mio Spyker for details)
Additional Honey Creek Trips: February 15, March 15, May 10th (or 17th?)
Hill Country project 1 February - Contact Marvin
Government Canyon 4 March - contact Steven
Woot/Jaime Hole February 1st - contact Matthew Taylor
Bear Cave Cleanup trip February 8th - contact Marvin
SPAR training @ Caverns of Sonora 19 January - contact Bree