The Mandatory Settlement Conference in the consolidated California dredging ban case continues today. Public Lands for the People is hoping to enjoin the State Water Resources Control Board into the settlement conference to prevent the water board from harassing suction dredge miners should the judge eventually rule in the case and allow dredgers back in the water.

Read the full story: Miners win federal preemption battle: California Superior Court judge rules against state’s ‘scheme’ to ban dredging: http://www.goldprospector...al-preemption-battle

Hello Brandon;

Well it has been almost a year since your answer to me. Lets summarize, in your zest to make this club a face book based for profit club you have completely stopped supporting PLP. If you have paid attention at the gold shows you will not see many 20-30 something's in attendance. You do not see people walking around with there messaging equipment, you see people that probably do not even have computers. I know that you cancelled the outing at Duisenburg last year because you did not like the "face book" style of signing up due to the fact that you did not like the amount signing up.

At that camp there are a lot of people living off the grid, that do not have even a phone. At some point they had the ability to join LDMA but because they can not do a "face book" sign up you decided to cancel the outing. That is totally out of line and should never have been allowed to happen. It NEVER would have happened in the past.

My last question to you is by taking the money and running, what are you going to sell in the future when nobody can even go into the public lands to do ANYTHING. You have replaced most of the people that knew what they were doing with 30 something's that do not know which end of a gold pan goes up. As a point we have been to the last 3 chapter summits and at every one there is some new person that can not spell dredging, let alone ever been mining. In fact the first time you showed up a member in the summit raised their hand and asked who you were and why were you at the summit. In ending your grandfather, dad and uncle had it right you do not have a clue. I hope GPAA and LDMA can survive you as we were hoping to pass our LDMA membership to family members in the future.

Thank you, Terry Moore 

Hello Terry;

I would like to start out by expressing regret that you are dissatisfied with the efforts our organization is making to support the prospecting industry. GPAA, as the largest prospecting organization in the world, continues to act as a strong collective of 50,000+ active members, 130 + local chapters, and partner to hundreds of local prospecting related businesses who welcome all experience levels to the prospecting industry. We maintain the largest circulated publications in our industry which keep members up to date on current events all over the country, and provide direct and indirect support throughout the year to a wide variety of groups who depend on us for support.

This year alone we plan to welcome approximately 700+ GPAA annual and Lifetime families to experience our LDMA membership atmosphere during our scheduled outings. Our focus will be on education, entertainment, and fostering new relationships within the LDMA.

It appears you may have attended the 2015 Gold Show at Pomona. It was a very successful event for all who were involved including the chapters, the vendors, the attendees, as well as the PLP. I spoke with several board members who expressed their appreciation for the donation of a booth, and their desire to continue growing our relationship in support of prospecting and mining. Tens of thousands of dollars were raised to support local prospecting clubs, including just under $9,000 brought in for the major prize raffle, which was split equally among the participating chapters. That could not have been possible without the unified support of large equipment manufacturers like Minelab, Keene and Gold Cube (to name just a few) who donated their equipment, and the efforts of volunteers from each chapter who made operation of the event possible. 

I know of at least 1 chapter who plans to donate all the money they raised at the raffle to PLP. Of course GPAA does not dictate what each local non-profit chapter can do with the funds they generate. I consider this to be a great victory in our efforts to support each of these local clubs, groups who are so important to the growth of our support base.

In any event, I have forwarded your concern to 3 board members of PLP. I hope they can help to clarify the significant support GPAA members provide to their efforts. It really is the strength of our membership that makes everything we do possible. I hope you will reconsider your position.

Sincerely,

Brandon Johnson