Our Meetings
Guests are always welcome to the meetings if you would like see what
we're all about. Meetings start at 7:00 pm and usually take place the
first Saturday of the month, unless there is a holiday, then it's on
the second Saturday of the month.
Located at the USF Behavioral Science Room #103.
After the speaker finishes we have a short break. Then we
draw for door prizes and some raffle items as well. We finish with
any final announcements.
Upcoming Meetings and Guest Speakers (2024-2025 season):
NOTE: All meetings are the first Saturday of the month at 7:00 pm
unless otherwise clearly noted.
Sept. 7 - Dr. Bob Sinibaldi
Prehistoric Fishing Technologies
If you’ve been around TBFC for more than a minute, you already
know Dr. Bob. If you’re new to our group, Dr. Bob Sinibaldi routinely
makes at least one presentation at a monthly meeting per season. He shows
up to TBFC meetings each month with a presentation in his pocket,
just in case our scheduled speaker doesn’t show
up. Dr. Bob MC’s every auction we hold and is a past president of
TBFC, a current Director, and author of four books on paleontology.
Because of his status as a “doctor” and his obsession with paleontology
he’s not even a paleontologist as most folks assume. In another world
Dr. Bob did God’s work in his career teaching severely
injured and sometimes terminally ill children.
Dr. Bob specialized in Exceptional Child Education teaching special
needs children how to play. He made it possible for severely handicapped
and ill/injured children to get outside and be able to participate in the
activities and games most children take for granted. Dr.
Bob has authored many papers and articles on Adaptive Education
and invented numerous pieces of equipment and gear that allowed
special needs children to have simple moments of enjoyment on
the playground. He was also selected as National Teacher of the
Year in his field.
Dr. Bob has proven himself as an authority in many areas of the
prehistoric and at the September 7 meeting will make and explain
comparisons of the Archaic Gulf Coast fishing practices to those of
the historic Pacific Northwest and the Walmart Fisherman. The
presentation will take an in-depth look at the similarities of all three
fishing cultures. Although separated by over a thousand years
temporaneously, and over 3,000 miles geographically, there are many
consistent features between these three cultures that continue to
crop up. So often what today's fishermen believe are new fishing
techniques have existed for thousands of years through various
cultures. While the Archaic Gulf Coast cultures disappeared over a
thousand years ago and left only a spotty archaeological record, the
indigenous population on the Pacific Northwest coast survived
through early historic times leaving a fairly complete archaeological
record. The Walmart fisherman still lives next door to you.
Oct. 5 - Mitchell Riegler, University of Florida
Snakes from the South and Alligators from the North:
19 Million Years of Florida's Fossil Reptiles
Mitchell Reigler has been interested in paleontology from a very
young age. He attended the University of Texas at Austin with one
goal in mind: to become a professor in paleontology. While in Austin,
Mitchell developed an interest in the reptile fossil record almost
immediately, leading him to pursue a Masters’ degree at Virginia Tech.
Mitchell’s interests expanded while in Virginia to include
systematic paleo, isotopic geochemistry, and paleoecology. His
project on lizard response to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum has led
him to his current institution, the University of Florida,
to pursue a PhD. At UF, Mitchell has worked on projects looking at
fossil porcupines, fossil alligators, and as always, fossil lizards.
There are several new species to be discussed, and Mitchell would
love people to bring anything they have that might be related to his
presentation! He will be discussing a few “Wanted” fossils that the
museum desires and is hoping somebody might have already collected and needed
specimens that can be studied. So, if you have
any Florida reptile fossils you would like to show off, or share with
the Florida Museum of Natural History, bring them along.
Nov. 2 - Annual Auction
TBFC Scholarship Auction
Dec. 7 - No Meeting
No Meeting
Jan. 4 - Dr. Gregory Shanos
A Guide to Collecting Meteorites
If you’ve never met Dr. Greg Shanos, I can tell you he is one of the
most quiet and reserved personalities you could come across. But,
just say the word comet, shooting star, or meteorite and his
enthusiasm and passion for the subject bursts like a jack in the
box on the
last wind.
Dr. Greg’s presentation is entitled: A Guide to Collecting
Meteorites. Dr. Greg is a pharmacist by profession and fossil a
nd meteorite collector by passion. His interest in astronomy and meteorites
was sparked when Halley’s comet graced our skies back in 1986.
Since then, Greg has written over 35 review articles in Meteorite
and Meteorite-Times magazines regarding organic molecules in
meteorites. If you think you have an odd-looking rock feel free to
bring it in to see if it may possibly be a meteorite.
Feb. 1 - TBD
TBD
Mar. 1 - TBD
TBD
Apr. 5 - TBD
TBD
May 3 - TBD
TBD
June ? - End of Season Dinner, check the May 2024 issue of the Chronicles (TBFC Newsletter) for details.
View Our Past Virtual and In-Person Meetings
COVID-19 had forced us to adapt!
Since in-person meetings were not possible during that time, the club
hosted Virtual Live Meetings on our YouTube channel.
Since COVID, we've tried to record in-person meetings and upload them to the site too. Unfortunately not all meetings are able to be recorded but please check the channel for any new content.
Subscribe to the channel to get notifications when we go live or a new video is uploaded!
All our club live streamed or recorded meetings will be saved and can be re-watched anytime! Not all meetings can be recorded for various reasons.
You can view past virtual or recorded meetings in the playlist below: