"How Fossil Community Got Lost—and How We Get It Back": Request for feedback

[pefty]

As promised, your #ThePaleoCommunityOrganizer update for March 31. (See previous thread here.) 

 

After a 12-year(!) hiatus, the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) has finally rebooted American Paleontologist, the old avocational paleontology standby, as a community newsletter. To do what I can to support this effort, I've signed on as a columnist, with a column called The PaleoCommunity Organizer. It centers the community aspect of our shared avocation and looks at all the ways in which acting as a community can inspire and save avocational paleontology and help it thrive in the 21st century.
 

And, well, it wouldn't be much of a column about community if it were just me talking. A crucial aspect is hearing from y'all, whether that means calling me out on something I missed, or naming a powerful example of something I only just touched on, or reframing the conversation as you see it. The community always knows more than I do. So, community, bring your feedback here to The Fossil Forum, where we can build on each other's ideas and craft a better avocational paleontology world for all of us.
 

Action item for you:
 In the comments below, I'd love to hear your feedback on the first PaleoCommunity Organizer column, which starts on page 10 of this first issue of the American Paleontologist newsletter. This first installment of the column is called How Fossil Community Got Lost—and How We Get It Back, Part I.

So, where to find this first issue, hot off the virtual presses? Right here: https://www.priweb.org/research-and-collections/american-paleontologist

 

My thanks again. You can continue to find links to all these Fossil Forum discussions of PaleoCommunity Organizer columns at the following homepage for The PaleoCommunity Organizer: https://www.priweb.org/research-and-collections/american-paleontologist/pco

 

Edited April 1 by pefty

[joshuavise]

As a complete newbie, I would love to see a column written for complete newbies by a professional that would cover things like how to train your eye to identify different types of rocks, how to find and use geology charts, how to recognize variations within one type of rock, how to use the most common tools effectively, etc.  My biggest issue is that I live in a city built on a granite dome, but the outskirts have sedimentary rock, yet I don't really know how to distinguish them, either side by side, or separating one from the other in a bedding plane.  This means I don't even know where to start to look for fossils in my area.

 

Hope this is useful feedback.

[Brian James Maguire]

Hey there @pefty i really enjoyed the article as i did the rest of the publication, i paid for membership today! Your article really struck a cord with me as i am one of those people that carries out my work in total isolation, i think its a shame that theres such a lack of interest in community regarding fossils and fossil hunting here in ireland, i joined the fossil forum thinking i would connect with other Irish people with the same interests as myself so we could share our experiences , to date nobody has contacted me from ireland apart from one chap on the west coast, its a pity really , having said that I couldn't have imagined the amount of knowledge i gained from non irish members here , it has been fantastic and i hope i shined a small spotlight on the richness of Carboniferous fossils that ireland has to offer , anyway! Well done with the article and heres to many more, regards BJM

[pefty]

@Brian James Maguire Cheers to that! I agree it's strange that a nation as rich in fossils as Ireland should have no fossil clubs   Luckily, the global nature of sea level change through geological time has left Ireland's fossil record oddly similar to those of places like Missouri: a thick clastic/carbonate Ordovician sequence (with all the appertaining fossils) capped by a massive Early Mississippian sequence of carbonates (with all the appertaining fossils). Our differences are swamped by our commonalities, and the global fossil club that is The Fossil Forum provides a remarkable opportunity for learning from others remotely when learning from others locally just isn't feasible.

 

That said, I did find this listing of amateur geological associations on the Island, in case you haven't yet checked them out for potential fossil folks: 

Cork Geological Association

Galway Geological Association

Belfast Geologists Society

 

Hope you keep seeking out and finding the fossils and the fossil community that keep you going.

[pefty]

@joshuavise right on. I definitely believe that if you have a need, then other folks have that same need, so calling out your own need ends up helping lots of other folks along the way. Fossil and rock clubs do typically offer what you're looking for but via ad hoc experiential learning, peer to peer, based on local knowledge. A more structured approach that covers the scope you're looking for typically encompasses an entire field course in geology. That may be why it's not so easy to find encapsulated on a single webpage—or even a whole website. Do others reading this thread know of a good online educational portal for the scope Joshua is after?

 

If not, maybe the scope you seek is an area in which PRI can step in and make a difference. Let's see what the next few American Paleontologist newsletters bring.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

2 hours ago, pefty said:

in which PRI can step in

 

Coco

[Balance]

Thanks for sharing this!
 

The publication is very appealing visually. It’s a comfortable vibe. Casual but informative. 
much of the content was beyond my knowledge but that’s to be expected when Im a amateur. 
 

New blood is required for true revitalization. Without it you just end up with a small blip of interest resurgence before status quo returns to the existing membership. So while your playbook is excellent. It doesn’t address the lack of new players. 
 

Florida has more Farriers( horseshoers) than anywhere in America. The Florida Farrier Association was a big part of my education. Classes and demonstrations taught me ideas that turned into my routine. My mentor was president for a couple years and I even took on the role of secretary so we could manage everything while we drove around working together. It was thankless and time consuming but we actively grew the association’s participation. There’s loads of members who pay their dues just so they can put the FFA logo  on their business card. So member volume isn’t the issue. It’s participation. 
 

‘Time’  is what’s against these clubs. Using Myself as an example I have no time currently for additional club meetings regardless of any interest. Partly because they are spread out hours away and partly because my kids are the age where we are constantly shuffling them around and working on school projects or homework etc. I’d love to take LA to a club meeting but we literally don’t have time with everything that’s scheduled. We’d instantly be “users” of the club without the ability to give back to it. That’s not a lesson I’m ok with LA learning. 
 

Unfortunately, I personally believe my age group (30-50) is the key age group to get involved. One reason is we have younger kids we can bring. Kids like when other kids are around to associate with. Just as we get excited about a rare tooth or fossil. They tell glory stories to the kids their age about their own adventures. Getting youth or young adults involved only works if you have the structure and leadership that middle age and older adults can facilitate. You need resources to have depth and diversity. The younger you are the more ambitious you’ll be but most likely you’ll have fewer resources to explore the ambitions. If a club isn’t gearing its content toward the younger participants. They will loose interest. Interestingly, I’ve noticed my kids don’t loose interest in the activity’s. Just in the “club”. 
Proving the point that the current program has the ability to breed an isolated hobbyist result. 
 

So lots of downers… here are some things that we have done that worked for bolstering membership involvement. 
 

-Annual shoeing contest and lectures- the key here is the contest. Farriers are ridiculously competitive. If we have a lecture scheduled on fundamentals of farriery nobody will come. If they get to complete against the other farriers or just watch that competition. We get 50 participants all weekend and a full lecture on fundamentals. I don’t care how good you do in the contest. My goal was just to get fundamentals taught to as many people as possible. 😊

 

- quarterly “zoom” lectures. - These are great because people can participate on their phones, computers or whatever. “Time” is less influential because nobody has to travel.  I watch these in my garage. Interestingly, I feel like I’ve connected with lots of folks just by participating in the questions or comments during the presentation. Since your publication is global. This might be a nice program for y’all. I’d sign in. 
 

-🫣 You gotta get the more experienced and older members to be nice to new members. I don’t know why people do this but clubs beg for new members and then only 2 people in the club talk to the new member. That’s right out of your playbook. - for us, the old timers think we are after their secrets. The secret is skills and practice evolved with the younger generations and the guys hoarding the knowledge are actually the ones who get left behind. This is sociological, not fossils. Unfortunately, it drives club participation way way way more than the content of the club. 
 

-kids area - So we learned that folks with kids want kid specific stuff that the kids can do while the parents participate in the adult specific content. Also interesting we learned people without kids don’t want kids there at all and are often annoyed by kids. Keeping the younger people occupied with an age specific environment and project makes them feel like they came to an event and were a part of it. Not just  kids bored waiting to go home. Kids also bring friends. Friends have parents that hear about their experiences and might come themselves next meeting. 

 

So I’ve said a lot. Didn’t intend to but I just watch these special interest clubs die or flounder in the last moments of death for years. Maybe socially we have isolated ourselves too much to de-evolve back into a community based society? If I had to put my money on a bet I’d say the easy access to any specific interest online removed the need for the club. I don’t need “old timer Joe” to give me a tip because there’s a place called TFF. So the club is now just social and society is inverting. 
 

As a neuro divergent person I’ve dedicated a great deal of my brainpower to translating and understanding neurotypical  people and society. To summarize it all, ignorance is loud and runs everything away from it. It’s the only way to protect the secret ignorance keeps. That it knows nothing. Interestingly ,only ignorance thinks it’s a secret. The rest of us are turned off by it and in turn. Isolate to avoid it. So turn down the ignorance and you’ll turn up societal participation. 

 

Jp

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2 by Balance

[Brian James Maguire]

14 hours ago, pefty said:

@Brian James Maguire Cheers to that! I agree it's strange that a nation as rich in fossils as Ireland should have no fossil clubs   Luckily, the global nature of sea level change through geological time has left Ireland's fossil record oddly similar to those of places like Missouri: a thick clastic/carbonate Ordovician sequence (with all the appertaining fossils) capped by a massive Early Mississippian sequence of carbonates (with all the appertaining fossils). Our differences are swamped by our commonalities, and the global fossil club that is The Fossil Forum provides a remarkable opportunity for learning from others remotely when learning from others locally just isn't feasible.

 

That said, I did find this listing of amateur geological associations on the Island, in case you haven't yet checked them out for potential fossil folks: 

Cork Geological Association

Galway Geological Association

Belfast Geologists Society

 

Hope you keep seeking out and finding the fossils and the fossil community that keep you going.

Unfortunately these are the three farthest cities from me 

[pefty]

On 4/2/2024 at 2:01 PM, Brian James Maguire said:

Unfortunately these are the three farthest cities from me 

 

Sounds like you're near Dublin then  The IGA still meets at Trinity College and seems like it should be a great venue for connecting up with the right folks. https://geology.ie/