Chairman's Letter   

By Ray Grant

     This year the Foundation has 113 paid members, 4 life members, and 26 one hundred-hour volunteer members. Many are new members and many of
these new members are helping with our activities such as the Collection Committee, the Flagg Show and the Minerals of Arizona Symposium. I welcome these members and I am especially thankful for all their help as it has it has made my life easier and has made our Foundation much better. We can use help from all members and the Museum also has many opportunities for volunteering. There is a lot of work to do.
     All the new members led me to think about the "institutional memory" or history of the organization. We only have two members who belonged

Ben Benham hugs his unique A.L.Flagg Distinguished Service Award.

to the original Flagg Foundation, Marc Watson and Ben Benham. Then there is a small group who have been involved for the past 18 or so years since the name was changed to the AMMMF. The other members have joined since and have less "institutional memory" about the history, organization, purpose, and goals of the Foundation.
     I am going to try to put some Foundation history in the newsletters to give members some idea of our past. I am going to start with the story of the Woolery Mineral Collection, which is really the very beginning of our organization. 
     For the next three newsletters you will find my request/plea for the donation of your excess mineral specimens, lapidary material and lapidary equipment.   
     At the Flagg Show we give away many hundreds of specimens to kids (the future of our hobby) and teachers and our supplies are always depleted. We need good small specimens that we can give away, things that a kid would think are exciting.   
     We also need better specimens that we can sell at the show. The Flagg Show makes money, but our major source of income each year is from the sale of specimens.
     Your donations are tax deductible and you can bring things to the meetings, the Flagg Show or contact a Foundation officer to get things picked up.

Marc Watson receives A.L.Flagg Distinguished Service Award from Les Presmyk.

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