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What Local Metal Detector Club do you belong to?

msand

Elite Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2013
Messages
29,333
Location
Iowa City
I noticed this Forum has Group Memberships that you can Join Social Groups. I wounder how many of us here on this Forum Lead or is a member of your home City Metal Detector Club?

I have not been to any local meetings myself but was thinking about attending one.
 
I am interested to know how many of us here on this Forum Lead or is a Member of your home City Metal Detector Club?
 
I went to a local relic hunters club a couple times. It had about 8-10 crotchety, older men that were probably friends for decades. Even though the online newsletter said "visitors welcome' sure didn't feel like it at all.

Now they're down a few and I think they would rather have it that way. Where the club dies out and just fades away.

Kind of sad, really.
 
2 years ago I joined the local club MWAS, Midwest Artifact Society.
http://www.mwas.org/wp/

One of the oldest in the country, started in 1976...and one of the best.
I have made friends, gotten to hunt sites that never would have been open to me, usually, won a ton of great and expensive prizes at our annual hunts and plenty of coin prizes in our monthly meeting contests, and because I am a member I have had more fun and had a much better time doing this hobby than should probably be allowed by law.
A much better time than I ever would have had if I was still a lone wolf, for sure.

Several threads about clubs on the forum, lots are not so great, it seems, with cliques and closed off members and attitudes that turn people off, but not a speck of that here in mine.
Absolutely everyone is open and caring and supportive and I feel blessed to have found this great group of people and try to do the same.

Just the fact that I can hang with a group of people that have a similar interest in what we do and can appreciate what we go through to find what we do is worth its weight in gold.
Nobody in my real life ever understood most of this stuff, and except the people on these forums and Ryanchappel, one of the few friends I hunted with back in Bama, I was pretty much alone in this world.

My club and the people in it are one of the best things I have ever found in my 4 years doing this hobby.
 
I am a member of a group in my area http://www.cascadetreasureclub.com/contacts.html. I enjoy the meetings, discussing and looking at what others have found. I also appreciate the monthly group hunts, because I normally hunt alone, and the company is really nice. I've learned from the experienced people...they've been really helpful.
 
The Topeka Treasure Hunters Club was chartered and established in 1975. It is a nonprofit organization for individuals interested in the hobby of electronic metal detecting.

The TTHC is a Family-Oriented Club. Family Memberships include Husband, Wife, Children and Grandchildren up to 18 yrs old.

The Club sponsors activities such as a National Coin Hunt, Club Hunts and Outing that bring the hobbyists of common interests together and for good fellowship and a Monthly Newletter.

tthc.mymdforum.com
 
I am my own club and I will pop the tires of anybody who tries to follow me. :D
 
There's the Sacramento Metal Detecting Buffs club, or something like that down near my work. I just don't have time right now, to spend an evening or an entire weekend day doing this unfortunatly. Lucky to be able to stretch my lunch hour out, and maybe get a few hours on a weekend day here and there. Have two young kids.

Maybe some day I'll try it out, a weekend hunt would be fun
 
A member of Cowtown Treasure Hunters here in North Texas and Like it a Lot . Being a member gets you on sites that otherwise you could not hunt on such as old Ghost towns and such here . Lots of great people and lots of fun and get togethers at club Picnic and member competition hunts
 
Mass Treasure Hunters club we meet in Newton, Ma every third friday of the month. New members are always welcome we have a wide variety of ages. We also do a raffle for 1oz silver rounds and a finds table with different catagories.
 
Joined Mid-Western Artifact Society in 2001. Served as Secretary from 2003-2005, and I've been elected each year to the Treasurer position since leaving the Secretary position (end of this club year will make 9 in this position). Last year, our club crossed north of the 70 member mark, and we're just one of THREE in the local area, with yet a fourth, Topeka Treasure Hunters Club, an hour away.
 
I belong to the GPAA, Gold Prospectors Association or America. It's not a local club.... but it is for any and all type of prospecting whether you use a gold pan, sluice or metal detector. If there is ever a Metal Detecting Club near me, I will join in a heart beat!
 
reply

M-sand, unfortunately the day-&-age of physical clubs has long been on the decline. Their days got numbered when the internet took off in popularity, in the mid to late '90s and early 2000s.

In the old days, going to form or join a club was the only way to have contact with the outside world. The only way to hear the latest technology news. To see what others are finding. To get questions answered, or to answer others. To boast of your own finds. To get target identifications. To vicariously enjoy other people's exploits, stories, experiences, etc.... To meet others in your area to buddy up and hunt with.

HOWEVER, notice that every single one of those club functions has now been replaced with the internet forums. You can sit in the comfort of your living room, and do every last one of those things, without getting your l*zy b*tt out of your chair and having to drive somewhere, at a certain night/time of the month.

Hence interest in clubs began to wain in the mid 1990s -to-the-present. Only the bigger cities now have any clubs left. And it would be very hard to start a new club nowadays. Oh sure, people might give lip service and tell you what a great idea it is. But when the rubber hits the road, and they have a question, or a show & tell item, or need to communicate, guess what they'll do? Hop on the internet. heck, we even have regionally specific forums now, where it's JUST people from your state or area.
 
M-sand, unfortunately the day-&-age of physical clubs has long been on the decline. Their days got numbered when the internet took off in popularity, in the mid to late '90s and early 2000s.

In the old days, going to form or join a club was the only way to have contact with the outside world. The only way to hear the latest technology news. To see what others are finding. To get questions answered, or to answer others. To boast of your own finds. To get target identifications. To vicariously enjoy other people's exploits, stories, experiences, etc.... To meet others in your area to buddy up and hunt with.

HOWEVER, notice that every single one of those club functions has now been replaced with the internet forums. You can sit in the comfort of your living room, and do every last one of those things, without getting your l*zy b*tt out of your chair and having to drive somewhere, at a certain night/time of the month.

Hence interest in clubs began to wain in the mid 1990s -to-the-present. Only the bigger cities now have any clubs left. And it would be very hard to start a new club nowadays. Oh sure, people might give lip service and tell you what a great idea it is. But when the rubber hits the road, and they have a question, or a show & tell item, or need to communicate, guess what they'll do? Hop on the internet. heck, we even have regionally specific forums now, where it's JUST people from your state or area.
I disagree strongly with this statement. Since our club started a better designed web site and forums of our own, we've seen membership GROW, significantly, not decline. The internet can be a great tool for increasing the scope and reach of your club, not something that decimates it.

Granted, we have had other exposures which have helped as well (club was covered in a spread in a supplement to the Kansas City Star nespaper, interviewed on local NPR radio, assist local law enforcement, and assisted the city of Olathe and archeologists to recover / map historical finds at a camp site at the crossing of two major wagon trails before construction of a park on the site, just to name a few).

Maybe if all your club does is get together and show monthly finds, maybe that's true, as that's easily replaced by forums. Ours actually has monthly outings together all as a group once a month during warmer months. It's great to be able to see other detectors in use, learn new techniques, and particularly useful for those new to metal detecting or trying to decide on which to purchase, and I consider that a significant advantage over some other clubs of which I know. There's a real difference between members being left to only get together with others making their own plans (which of course ours do as well), and having an actual hunting trip where all are invited each month. This is where you get many of the complaints of "cliques", and I think our monthly hunts together serve to make our members more welcoming to inviting new people detecting on their own trips out together as well. For our club monthly meetings outdoors, we also hold a great pot luck lunch where the club supplies hot dogs fresh off the grill and everyone attending brings a dish to share.

I've never got a good meal from somebody sitting at a computer screen. :D

I also know of another club 3-1/2 hours away that was formed just last year. We're the 34th State down the list in terms of most populous, and yet we have 4 clubs located across three major areas within our borders of which I'm aware, and another right ON the border of MO in the area of MWAS.

It just takes some commitment to make it happen, and good rules. Ours have been refined over time. If anyone is thinking of starting a club or is an Officer in one having some challenges, I'd be happy to share some of the things we've done to help make it the success it's been historically for more than 30 years.

At a time when detector shows are hitting the airwaves with inflated values of finds, and setting unrealistic expectations, and yahoos whom refuse to use hand diggers in parks but are carrying in Lesche Sampson and other shovels that are causing bans across the nation, I think clubs are even MORE important. We've successfully reversed a city public parks ban in our area and got them to implement a yearly free permit system, and are in the process of trying to do the same in another city as well.
 
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