Association of Friends of Mineralogy and Geology
| Association of Friends of Mineralogy and Geology (VFMG) |
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| legal form | non-profit registered association |
| founding | 1950 |
| Seat | Heidelberg |
| Chair | Michael Hohl |
| Website | vfmg.de |
The Association of Friends of Mineralogy and Geology eV (VFMG eV) is, according to its own information, the oldest and largest collectors' association for minerals and fossils in Germany , with many members abroad. Comparable organizations in Switzerland are, for example, the Swiss Association of Radiators, Minerals and Fossil Collectors (SVSMF).
Club goals
The VFMG sees itself primarily as a collectors' association that is open to anyone interested. The resulting spectrum of members, which ranges from scientists to long-term collectors to school pupils, ensures new scientific knowledge and an exchange of experiences across social and professional boundaries through networking. Both collectors and scientists benefit from the intensive collaboration.
The statutory goal of the non-profit association is the promotion of science and education in the fields of mineralogy , petrography , geology and paleontology .
history
The VFMG was founded in Roßdorf near Darmstadt in 1950 by several people interested in geosciences , some of whom came from the university there. After several moves, the headquarters are now in Heidelberg. In the same year, on July 1, the first issue of the club's journal Der Aufschluss appeared . In the following three decades, district groups emerged in the territory of the FRG . Starting in 1963, the Heidelberg district group held the first of the Rhein-Neckar mineral exchanges, which are still being organized by other organizers. By the early 1990s, the association grew to over 10,000 members.
With the political change in 1990, individual district groups were also founded in the former GDR . However, during the turnaround, many of the former, state-organized Kulturbund groups became independent, locally oriented collectors' associations that wanted to keep their newly gained independence and therefore did not become VFMG district groups. In addition, the rights to the specialist journal Die Fundgrube , published by the Kulturbund and comparable to the Aufschluss , were acquired during this time . For a short time the lettering of the treasure trove was also shown on the cover sheet of the exposure .
Changes in leisure time behavior, the gradually increasing demographic change and the inaccessibility of more and more mineral and fossil sites due to various causes (e.g. designation of sites as nature reserves; collection bans in quarries due to increasing safety awareness, etc.), it was abandoned In the mid-1990s, the number of members and the district groups decreased. In order to raise awareness of the importance of geosciences and raw materials again in the public, the VFMG has been proclaiming the mineral of the year since 2018 .
activities
The editorial office of the association's magazine Der Aufschluss including the supplement Aktuell as well as the following activities organized at the federal level are coordinated from the office in Heidelberg and the board :
- Organization of the annual winter conference with excursion and lecture program in Heidelberg, connected to the date of the Rhein-Neckar mineral exchange
- Organization of the annual summer conference with excursions and lectures at changing locations in Germany and the neighboring countries
- Special geoscientific excursions
- Trade fair appearances at the following mineral exchanges: Rhein-Neckar-Mineralienbörse; Freiberg Mineral Exchange; Mineralienbörse Suhl and the Münchner Mineralientage (Munich Show)
- Awarding of the Wilke Prize, worth up to € 500. This is intended to encourage and honor particularly talented and committed authors (in the clue ).
- Action Mineral of the Year (since 2018). The impulses for the mineral of the year are taken up by many other organizations. The geosciences are fundamentally strengthened and made more public through special campaigns in connection with the mineral of the year .
Further activities on site are carried out independently by the district groups.
Club magazine Der Aufschluss
The club magazine Der Aufschluss appears every two months with a circulation of over 1,500 copies. The articles are written by members of the association as well as by other geoscientific authors and cover topics in the earth sciences, primarily mineralogy, petrography, geology and paleontology. Related areas such as the history of mining and science are also represented. The geographical focus of the articles is in Germany, but topics with foreign references are also regularly described. If individual areas of knowledge are particularly extensive, corresponding themed issues or double issues can appear. The magazine has set itself the goal of publishing from the collector for the collector. Nevertheless, a certain level is reached, so that The Aufschluss as well as the special volumes and themed booklets are also available in university libraries and other institutions.
Up until the 1980s, special volumes were published in addition to the normal issues, mostly in the run-up to the summer conferences. This is currently being achieved by issuing themed booklets before the conference.
The Aktuell will appear as an attachment to the breakdown . In addition to information and reports from club life, short news from the geosciences as well as information on exhibitions and other events are published here.
District Groups
Within the VFMG, VFMG members can join together to form district groups. These are independent groups that do the club work in the regional area.
Their activities can include
- Excursions to mineral and fossil sites as well as geologically significant outcrops
- Museum visits
- Organization of exhibitions
- Organization of mineral fairs and exchange days or operation of information stands on mineral fairs
- Lecture evenings
- Determination of minerals and fossils
- Youth and beginner groups, in which the basics of geosciences as well as mineral and fossil collecting are learned
There are currently over 40 district groups in many federal states.
literature
- The Exposure , ed. from the Association of Friends of Mineralogy and Geology eV, ISSN 0004-7856
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Association of Friends of Mineralogy and Geology (VFMG). Retrieved January 7, 2020 .
- ^ Statutes of the VFMG eV
- ^ Association of Friends of Mineralogy and Geology (VFMG) eV, Heidelberg - company information. Retrieved January 7, 2020 .
- ↑ ZDB catalog - detailed information: Der Aufschluss: Zeitschrift ... Retrieved on January 7, 2020 .
- ↑ 40th Freiburg Mineral & Fossil Days 2017 on October 14 and 15, 2017. Accessed on January 7, 2020 .