On The Rocks

Federation Education

- Bob Jones

The American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (AFMS) is a national organization that unites rockhouds across the nation. It is broken into seven regional federations, which incorporate clubs from the 48 contiguous states, as well as Alaska. Four of these regional organizations host annual educational retreats for club members who would like more formal training in one of many facets of our hobby.

Regions that offer organized retreats include the Eastern, Southeast, California and Northwest federations. If your club is a member of a regional federation or is affiliated with the AFMS, you are eligible to attend any one of these educational retreats.

To encourage you to look into participating in a retreat in your region, this article will describe just one retreat: the Eastern federation retreat at Wildacres Retreat, in the North Carolina mountains. This event has been ongoing for decades and is an outstanding example of what a regional federation can do for rockhounds. It is partially underwritten by the Wildacres Foundation. I’ve been fortunate to be Speaker in Residence at Wildacres 10 times since 1989.

I was able to take advantage of some of the educational programs at these retreats, like the cabochon-making class, but my main function was to give a one-hour talk on some educational subject each day of the program.

The Eastern Federation of Mineralogical and Lapidary Societies (EFMLS) retreat is held in western North Carolina, near Little Switzerland, twice a year—usually in May and September. Members of AFMS-affiliated clubs can attend the lapidary retreats for a small fee. They enjoy a full week of wonderful educational programs, conducted by experts in the field.