OT Per FB .... I like that. Maybe we should add; " I will not engage in personal attacks of fellow cavers."
--- On Thu, 5/19/11, Gary McDaniel <[email protected]> wrote: From: Gary McDaniel <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] typical caver ? To: "Cavers Texas" <[email protected]> List-Post: [email protected] Date: Thursday, May 19, 2011, 1:57 PM Something that has been long and hard learned by myself is that sometimes it's just better to keep my mouth shut. I now preach that short sermon to members of Cavetex. Say I, sometimes it would be better, for all parties involved, to just keep your mouth shut. Kindly, GMcD On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 12:45 PM, David <[email protected]> wrote: It has been brought up that I am not "representative of cavers in general." I do NOT take offense by that, and what I am about to say is just my opinion. Mr. Minton is one of the top 10 cavers in the U.S., if not in the top 3. I highly respect him and his opinions. There must be over 100,000 people in the U.S. who love caves and could make a constructive contribution to caves. Only a tiny percentage of those are the so called "real cavers." And only a handful of those want to participate in a listserve where they are bombarded with e-mails, especially when these e-mails are sometimes not of interest to their caving agendas. Many cavers, myself especially, have jobs and family issues that prevent us from being active in the organized caving community. But these people can contribute when and if an opportunity arises. It may only be once a year. But it is still a contribution. So I feel I am representative of the typical caver. What I am doing in east Texas is very important to caving. There are 5 million people in southeast Texas, many of which have disposable incomes higher than other parts of the country. The event I am hosting has enormous potential. I can't predict the future, but I see a great opportunity to reach out to people who are not willing to drive across Texas to go into a cave. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I feel that I am in a position to get the ball rolling on this event, which I can see becoming an annual tradition that cavers look forward to. This isn't something I just invented. I have been working on this off and on for 13 years. Facebook has opened a giant window of opportunity to make this event meet its early potential. As for the TSA and its calendar, I see no mention of the big event this weekend. In fact, efforts by me to get the TSA to endorse the event as a valid caving related event were met with opposition. And I could say the same thing about other so called legitimate caving organizations. But that would not be in the spirit of caving. As for Facebook, There is an NSS caver that has lived walking distance from my house for nearly 8 years, and we live in a remote area far from Houston ( Arcola ). We have NEVER met. But we talk on Facebook nearly every day, like we were best friends. As for TSAANL, My notion to bring up the Activities Newsletter was mainly to point out that this "supplemental" print-out, could be done super-duper easy on Facebook. That is all I meant. And, on the response to Mr. Kennedy's post, I also have deep admiration for Jim and his incredible dedication to caving and bats. But if we had 100's of Jim Kennedy's in the world, what would we do with them.? I think if we cloned 5 of them, we would have to ship them to other planets to gate caves. Keep up the good work, Jim. I hope I get the privalege to go on one of your trips or projects someday. David Locklear President of NaturFest Association President of the Fort Bend County Speleological Association ( a virtual Facebook grotto ) P.S. Show your TSA membership, and your NSS Card at NaturFest and get in FREE ! And if you act now, by e-mailing them to me in the next 5 minutes in PDF format, you also get the life-time guaranteed Ginsu knife set. But that is not all, first person gets a stainless-steel money-clip. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] -- ~Gary McDaniel Grand Junction, CO
