The Beauii - Sarasota Shell Club

The BeauiiNewsletter of the Sarasota Shell Clubwww.sarasotashellclub.comApril 2011CorriasShirley Branch)Weaving SeaSilk: Preservingan Ancient ArtBy Angela Corrias(submitted forpublishing by PeggyWilliams, edited byThe byssus is thread-like materialmade by various bivalves to help anchorit to the bottom or to rocks. The byssus ofthe blue mussel is especially strong, since itadheres to intertidal rocks, subject to veryrough sea conditions and storms.— Peggy WilliamsWeaving the silk of theseaThe Bible itself mentions indirectly thebyssus. Remember when it says that KingSolomon appeared “shining” in public?He was wearing byssus-made clothes, thatin the dark appear brown, but once in thePresident’s Column by Ron BoppApril is here andwe have all enjoyed awonderful club year ofshelling and camaraderie.The last shelling tripBopp group came back fromthe SMR Aggregates (Sarasota) with a tonof fossil shells—the weather was perfect andthe shelling was great. We hope to makeanother such trip next year.Several members donated their timeto promoting the Sarasota Shell Club atthe Anna Maria Island Musical Festival onFriday, March 18th. The festival (and bands)performed from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm andthere were crowds around our booth theentire evening. Many friends were madeand even more flower arrangements foundnew homes. Photos of this event are seen onpage two in this issue of “The Beauii.”It is time for election of new officers.Come to our last meeting of the year (April14th) to help with the election of thesemembers. Our meeting will also haveas a guest speaker, the Director ofthe Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum(Sanibel), Dr. Jose Leal, who willtalk on “Seashells of SW Florida”.This will be an interesting talk—come and enjoy.An “extra” for shell club members is theoffer from the South Florida Museum (20110th St. West, Bradenton) to have a privateshowing of the Bill Clendenin collection.Valerie Bell, collections curator, has offeredto show our group the collection as well aslet us wander the museum on Saturday, April9th for a reduced admission of $7.50. Weare to meet at the museum’s entrance at 9:45am where Donna Cassin will collect yourmoney and we will go in as a group. Thereis plenty of parking at the museum, bothin front and at the parking lot on the northside. Try and take advantage of this offeras the comprehensive collection donated byMr. Clendenin (a former Sarasota Shell Clubmember) is worth seeing.Sandy Pillow is arranging for the end-oftheyear picnic/party at Sylvia Thompson’shome on Longboat Key. The date isSaturday, April 23rd and more information isalso available in this newsletter.This issue of “The Beauii” is the lastissue and this is my last message for theyear. Unfortunately I have to work at thetime of the meeting but Vice-President,Jan McSween, will capably handle themembership meeting. Have a great summershelling and I look forward to seeing you inSeptember.Next meeting is Thursday, April 14th at 7:00 p.m., the last meetingfor this season. We will be holding our Annual “End-of-the-Year” party onSaturday, April 23rd. If you need location information or directions, pleasesee article on page six in this newsletter or contact Sandy Pillow for moreinformation.The noble pen shell thatproduces the byssusSee Sea Silk, p.2Saturday in the park with BillBy Bob MorrisonHave you ever foundthat a few bars of musicor a photograph caninstantly send your braininto “rewind”, and then“playback” mode?Morrison During AllanGettlemen’s fascinatingprogram on land snails at our Marchmeeting, he projected a photo of our veryown Homer Rhode using a “lig pole” totease a tree snail out of its happy home.A “lig pole” is a straight length of wood,8 feet or so long, with a small can nailed tothe end. It was invented a few decades agoto collect the Everglades tree snail, Liguusfasciatus Muller, 1774, in the Everglades’hardwood hammocks.That photo of Homer sent my internalvideo apparatus into overdrive, conjuring upa warm reminiscence of what I recall fondlyas my “Saturday in the park with Bill.“In late July 1977, the AmericanMalacological UnionSee Bill, p.3

Page twoSea Silk, from P.1light, they shine like gold.It has also been certifiedthat the controversialSt.Veronica’s Veil, alsoknown as the Sudarium, thatallegedly reproduces the Christ’s face afterbeing used by St. Veronica to comfort himon his way to crucifixion, is, be it miraculousor not, made of this silk.A velvety strand from theMediterranean SeaThe byssus, better known as the silk ofthe sea, [is used today] the same way womenin ancient Mesopotamia used to weave it inDetail of byssus canvasWeaving the byssus in Sardinia.Photos by Angela Corrias.order to make clothes for their kings.The byssus is a fine fabric producedfrom the velvety strand of the noble penshell, or pinna nobilis, an endangered fanshapedspecies of mollusc, native of theMediterranean Sea bed. Originally, the penshell used to be fished in order to pull thebyssus out, but [local artisans] have comeup with a special cut so [they] can take thesecreted material without killing the preciousanimal.The pen shell offers ten centimetersof byssus per year. To gather 200 grams ofbyssus, [weavers] need to go on 300 divings.It doesn’t grow on the bottom of the shell,like many people think, but on the side.After collecting the byssus, the firststep is to leave the raw material to soakin a mixture of eight seaweeds. Once dry,the artisans comb it with a wool card andfinally twist the fine filaments together with aspindle made of oleander, forming the gildedthread. The yarn is spun quite a few timesin order to make it strong enough to beemployed in the loom and woven with theirslender fingers.Due to the scarcity of this type of silk,the difficulty in finding and working it,the byssus has always been too expensiveto be quotable, and in ancient times onlypharaohs, Roman emperors, kings or highpriests could afford such luxury.Editor’s note: Angela Corrias is a freelanceItalian journalist. She specializes in travelwriting with the aim to combine her passionfor travelling with a socially aware writing.She regularly updates her travel blog www.travelcalling.blogspot.com.Island Music Festival - SSC Booth Friday, March 18th, 2011Booth - close-up Booth - day with customers Booth - day with more customersChuck Jones Festival with booth Mary Jo Bopp

Page threeBill from p.1William J.Clench(now the American Malacological Society)held its annual meeting at the Naples BeachClub. What grabbed my attention in themeeting announcement was the chanceto take a field trip to collect “Ligs” in theEverglades with none other than Dr. WilliamJ. Clench.If you don’t know of the impact BillClench had on malacology, Google his nameand read the touching biography compiledby his long-time associate, the late Dr. RuthD. Turner, upon his death at age 87 in 1984.Bill was curator of the mollusk collectionat Harvard’s Museum of ComparativeZoology for 40 years, wrote nearly 500scientific papers and named at least 200taxon.But over and above his academic andcuratorial fame, he was first and foremost afield observer and collector. Tucker Abbottintroduced him to me at the JacksonvilleShell Show in 1975. Bill had been Tucker’sPh.D mentor at Harvard and the two hadremained close friends.The chance to go “ligging” in PinecrestHammock 88, where Bill had first collectedin the 1920s, was too much to resist. Keep inmind that he was just three months shy of his80th birthday on that memorable day.We were advised to wear old clothesand take “something to drink”. I stockedup with a six-pack of iced tea in a plasticcooler that could be slung over my shoulder.Bill had his own ideas about “something todrink“, about which more later. There were20 of us in the group that boarded a bus atthe hotel early on a blazing hot Saturdayafternoon.Bill looked like anything but an IvyLeague academic. He was wearing sturdywork shoes and a pair of bib overalls over aT-shirt. This ensemble was capped off by afloppy old straw hat and a pair of sunglasses.There was a suspicious-looking bulge in hiship pocket.As the bus cruised east on the TamiamiTrail, there was a lot of nervous chit-chat,much of it involving snakes and alligatorsand the possibility/probably of encounteringeither/both. We were, quite obviously, not anEverglades-savvy crew.In something less than an hour, the busTwo of the forms of L. fasciatus that Bill described in the 1920s.pulled off to the side of the Tamiami Trail,right at the “Entering Dade County” sign.Bill assembled his motley crew. We wereeach issued a “lig pole” without the slightestidea what it was or how to use it. Instructionsfollowed.Bill pointed off to the south, where wecould see a slightly-trodden trail through thegrass. “That’s where we’re going,” he said.“Follow me and don’t get lost.”The first part of our hike didn’t lookvery Evergladesy at all. It was more likewalking through a meadow of scraggly grass.There obviously had been some loggingactivity sometime in the distant past as therewere numerous large stumps of oak and slashpine. There were no snakes and no alligators.There was also no shade. It was hot.We walked south, we soon sensed theland starting to rise ever so gently. Then, nottoo far away, we saw a large clump of trees.When we reached the shade, Bill gave us ourfirst Everglades 101 lecture.“This is what we call a hammock,” hesaid. “It’s actually a little island. Before theystarted messing with the Everglades, the landwe just walked over would have been undera few inches of water, all moving very slowlyto the south, toward Florida Bay. Hammocksare high spots where trees and shrubs areable to take root and grow.“There used to be ‘ligs’ in thishammock,” he explained, “but it’s been overcollected.I was first here in 1923,” he added,almost as an afterthought.And so we continued our journeysouthward in the sun, through anotherhammock, then back on the trail (more sun)and then we arrived at Pinecrest Hammock88. It was quite large. The trees were a mixof various palms, oaks and pines.At this point I’d guess we had walkedabout two miles into the Everglades.Everything was completely quiet except forthe whisper of a gentle wind through thetrees. Our noisy chit-chat had died down,replaced by little glances, whispers, “oohs”and “aahs“. We’d all quite suddenly beensmitten by the quiet, almost mysterious,beauty of the Everglades.Bill gathered us around. “Look on theground,” he said. “You’ll often find nicedead specimens near the base of the tree.”And he was right.I never used my “lig pole:. For somereason, it just didn’t seem right. And Inoticed that most of my fellow adventurerswere of a like mind. I poked through thedebris under the trees. Most of the shellswere broken or badly weathered, but Istill managed to gather about a dozen nicespecimensOne of the few who did use her “ligpole” was Gertrude Moller, one of thefounders of the Jacksonville Shell Club andthe only person, other than Bill, that I knewwhen our little expedition boarded the bus atthe Naples Beach Club.Gert removed two lovely specimensfrom their Everglades home and took themback to Jacksonville, where she was able tointroduce them successfully to trees in herback yard. When I next saw her two yearslater she said they wereSee Bill, p.6

Page fourWhat IS a Fossil? by John ColagrandeMany of us haveattended shell club fieldtrips to various 'shell pits' tocollect. But, have you everasked yourself what makes afossil a fossil, and not just a 'regular' shell?Whether or not a shell (or any otheranimal or plant part) is a fossil or not, is asimply a matter of age.Nothing more.Petrification, freezing, mummification,dipping in tar or tree sap are all helpful inpreserving remains, but not necessary in thecreation of a fossil – just time.Fossils we find on our field trips canbe dated because the sand (unconsolidatedrock) layers in which we find them have aknown age.The ages of rock layers and the fossilswithin them can be stated in one of twoways: relative age or absolute age.Relative AgeGeologists have spent many yearsworking out something call The GeologicTime Scale.According to Wikipedia: “The GeologicTime Scale provides a system of chronologicmeasurement relating stratigraphy to timethat is used by geologists, paleontologistsand other earth scientists to describe thetiming and relationships between eventsthat have occurred during the history of theEarth.”This means that younger rocks overlieolder ones and, based on that, geologichappenings (and fossils) can be set in order.Earth's history can be divided intovarious time units similar to (similar to, butmuch larger than, centuries, decades, years,months, weeks and days). The largest, thesupereons are divided into eons. Eons arefurther divided into eras, which are in turndivided into periods, periods into epochs,and epochs into ages.Major time units (supereons and eons)are separated from each other by reallymajor events in Earth's history such as theformation of the Earth's crust or the creationof life as recorded in the rock record. Stilllarge, but relatively lesser units (such as erasand periods) are separated from each otherby correspondingly, relatively less dramatic(but very impressive) geologic events suchas major mass extinction events. Epochsare separated from each other by still lesserextinctions and ages by even smaller ones.Regardless of size, these extinctionevents correspond to changes in theenvironment and are usually associated withmoving continents. Their motion can alterocean currents and therefore planet-wideclimate (sometimes causing the waxing andwaning of ice ages). Continental collisionscan throw different species together,increasing competition (with ensuingextinctions). They also push up mountainranges and/or increase volcanic activity, bothof which can also change climate patterns inthe process. And, let's not forget to mentiona few asteroid impacts now and again, justto spice things up a bit by changing climatealmost literally overnight.The latest of these climate caused massextinctions (albeit a relatively small one)occurred at the end of the most recentIce Age event (represented by the furthestsouthern advance of the continental icesheet). This event ended the PleistoceneEpoch of the Neogene (formerly theQuaternary) Period of the Cenozoic Era andstarted the Holocene (Recent) Epoch.Any evidence of life which occurredbefore the end of the latest Ice Age isconsidered a fossil. Problem – exactly whenwas that?Absolute AgeCertain elements come in radioactiveforms whose atoms decay at a known rate.Enough said.By carefully studyingthe amount of radioactiveelements and their decaybyproducts in a givenrock sample, scientistscan determine the age of Colagrandethe rock sample in years.Problem – not every layer of rock containsradioactive elements and/or their decaybyproducts.So which method is used? Both ofcourse.Scouring the various rock layers onEarth has provide scientists with enoughdata to give the age of many rock layers inyears (absolute age). By carefully matchingthem up to other non-radioactive rocklayers (correlation) in the Geologic TimeScale (relative age) scientists have beenable, through the years, to develop an everincreasingly accurate, ever more detailedgeologic calendar which can place a preciseage value on any rock layer on Earth.This chartshows thenames of thegeologic timeunits called(from left toright) Era,Period andEpoch, insequence asthey wouldoccur if youcould digstraight downin a spotwhere theyall occurred.(There isno suchplace. Thedevelopmentof this chart isanother storyin itself.) Atthe right ofthe chart arethe numberof years eachunit beganand ended, asmeasured fromthe presentin millions ofyears (mya –million yearsago).So, “Any evidence of life which occurredbefore the end of the Pleistocene Epoch (the

Page fivelast ice age, .01 million (10,000) years ago) isconsidered a fossil” is as short and sweet adefinition one could hope for.Most Florida fossils (althoughoccasionally stained by various mineralsor trapped within consolidated rocks) areneither petrified nor frozen, nor mummifiedor preserved in tar pits or amber. They arefossils simply by virtue of their age.Most paleontologists (both professionaland amateur) prefer using the period andepoch names when stating the age of fossils,while 'normal' people are perfectly happywith age stated in years. Most fossils you findin Florida can be anywhere from a few tensof thousands of years old, to a few hundredsof thousands years old, to a few millions ofyears old. (i.e. from the Pleistocene, Pliocene,or Miocene Epochs)Although most collectors of Floridafossils are awed by the fact that their fossilfinds may be several million (1,000,000)years old, fossil shells actually date back tothe early Cambrian Period of the PaleozoicEra and can be as old as 570 million(570,000,000) years.Cyanobacteria (aka bluegreen algae) foundin the Apex Formation of Australia lived3.465 billion years ago.Schroeder-ManateeRanch, Inc.Agregates QuarryFossil Field Trip,March 12thThe Cambrian Helcionellids are fossilshells of very small marine molluscs thatare preserved as shells. They may be theancestors of the modern gastropods,cephalopods and bivalves.Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901,3.465 billion seconds ago.Reconstruction of a fossil Helcionellid.The earliest evidence of life (fossilmicrobes) dates back to the Archean Period,3.465 billion (3,465,000,000) years ago!Although rocks that date before 3.5billion (3,500,000,000) years do not revealfossils (due to reworking and erosion), somecontain high amounts of isotopes (forms)of carbon used by living cells. This couldindicate biological activity as early as 3.85billion (3,850,000,000) years ago, although, itmust be noted that such high amounts couldalso have been produced by non biologicalprocesses.(FYI: Evidently 'life' wasted no time.3,850,000,000 years ago is about ten minutesafter the Earth's crust formed (give or takea few tens of million years or so), and,approximately ONE THOUSAND timesolder than most Florida's fossils!!)More photos next page

Bill from p.3still thriving.Time, I learned, istricky in the Everglades. Ithought we’d probably beencollecting in the hammockfor about a half-hour, but when I looked atmy watch I was shocked to see that morethan two hours had elapsed since we’ddebarked from our bus.Finally, Bill herded his tired, sweaty,dirty but immensely happy band of travelerstogether and said it was time to head backto the bus. For some reason, the trek outseemed to take much longer than the walkin..Four of my cans of iced tea were empty,though I only remembered drinking one ofthem. When we reached the area where thetree stumps were, I sat down on one to havemy fifth can of tea.Bill came along and he, too, sat downon of the stumps. He reached in his hippocket and removed a can of beer, thusexplaining the mysterious bulge. He poppedthe top and we all had a good laugh at thegeyser of beer that spewed forth.Bill held the can up and uttered a fewwords that I still chuckle over. “Well,” hePage sixsaid, casting an appreciative glance at thecascading brew in his hand, “there’s nothinglike a warm beer to quench your thirst on ahot July day in the Everglades.”The trip back to the hotel wasuneventful. Each of us seemed to bereplaying the events of the past few hours.There wasn’t much talk but there was alot of smiles, much passing of collectedtreasures back and forth. Each of us shookhands with Bill, or patted him on theshoulder and thanked him as we got off thebus.No one mentioned snakes or alligators.Schroeder-Manatee Ranch,Inc. Agregates Quarry FieldTrip, March 12thOne of the BEST trips thisseason. There were no problemsfinding lots of specimens. If onlywe could have stayed longer!!!What: Clendenin ShellCollection and museum tour -South Florida MuseumWhen: 10:00 a.m., April 9, 2011Where: 201 10th St. W., Bradenton, FL34205Why: The South Florida museum andcurator Valerie Bell has offered to theSarasota Shell Club a special time to visitthe collection of past SSC member, BillClendenin. The museum’s normal entryfee is $17 but for this special occasion theyhave lowered the entry fee to $7.50 Thisincludes the recently assembled collectionof Bill Clendenin as well as the rest of theMuseum’s holdings. There is a significantshell collection outside of the Clendeninroom as well as a nice fossil shell display onthe first floor.There is ample parking (free) in front ofthe museum or in the parking lot just northof it. Please show up at 9:45 a.m. so thatyou may pay your $7.50 to Donna Cassin(and she, in turn, will pay the museum uponentry).Questions: call Ron Bopp at 918-527-0589 or email at rbopp1@tampabay.rr.com.

Page sevenThe nomination slate forthe 2011-12 yearis as follows:President - Ron BoppVice President - Jan McSweenRecording Secretary -Judy HermanCorresponding Secretary -Shirley BranchTreasurer - VACANT(We need a volunteer please!)Board Positions -3 year positions (Vote for two)Rich CirrintanoBob Horton1 year position (Vote for one)Candy NiziolThe other Board positions remainedfilled by (previously elected) Terry Jones(1-year) and Suzanne Valdez (2-year)and John Colegrande (2-year). PeggyWilliams had to decline as treasurer dueto personal reasons. A write-in candidatefor Treasurer will be suggested at theApril general meeting. Be sure to cometo our April meeting and vote!Wanted!Member to serve as“Field Trip Chairman”Duties:· Organizes trips· Collects sign-upsheets & monies· Does “head counts”at field trips· Pays for tripsContact President Ron Boppat bopp@peoplepc.com formore information.Sarasota Shell Club Minutes, March 10, 2011By Judy Herman, Recording SecretaryPresident Ron Bopp welcomed everyoneand called the meeting to order at 7:10 pmIn attendance were 39 members and 6 guests.Two couples, in attendance, had joined at theShell Show.Our membership now stands at 160: wegained 14 new members at the Shell Show.Mary Jo Bopp thanked all the members whomanned the membership table during theshow.Jan McSween, VP/Program Chairintroduced Allen Gettleman who spoke to uson “Land Snails.”After a short break, a brief recap of theminutes from the February meeting (whichhad been sent with the newsletter) was readby Jan. Peggy Williams, Treasurer, reportsthat all of the income and expenses for theShell Show are not in yet, but estimates ourprofit at $5491.00. As we are now a 501 (c)(3) we may be due a refund on the rental(sales) tax we paid to the convention center.Sandy Pillow, Shell Show Co-Chair,reports that our attendance was down byabout 20% from last year’s show. She read athank-you note received from Turtle Watch,who had enclosed a donation of $50.00 whichwas applied toward the cost of the lunches.She notes that we served 250 breakfasts and375 lunches to vendors and volunteer workers.Next year tickets may be distributed tovendors and volunteers as the cost of the foodwas too high in comparison to those numberof people who actually worked at the show.Next year’s show will be the 3rd weekend ofFebruary and will coincide with the AntiqueShow which may draw in more attendees.It was announced that the program forApril will be given by Jose Leal, the directorfrom the Bailey Matthews Shell Museum inSanibel.Ron announced that an audit of theTreasurer’s books would be done soon: theauditing committee will consist of MikeJohnson and Tom Cassin, and they shouldhave a report by the April meeting.Candy Niziol thanked everyone whodistributed flyers, and especially to those whoconducted interviews. Candy will continue asPublicity Chair for the coming year.Peggy, as Librarian, advises that thelibrary has two new additions: Ed Petuch’sCompendium of Fossil Shells (in disk format)and Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells,The Nominating Committee hasproposed the following slate: Ron Bopp, JanMcSween, Judy Herman, and Peggy Williamsto continue in their presentoffices. Three year boardpositions: Rich Cirrintanoand Bob Horton. Two yearboard positions: Suzanne Valdez and JohnColagrande. One year positions: Terry Jonesand Candy Niziol. Voting will take place atthe April meeting.The S Florida Museum has invited usfor April 9th to visit the exhibit of formermember Bill Clendenin. The cost will be$7.50 and will also allow access to the entiremuseum. A sign up sheet was passed.The Educational talk this month was onthe Cerithium nodulosum by Carol Mann.Mary Jo has purchased a book on Latinpronunciation and will loan it to members fortheir presentations.Lou Cirrintano, Rachael Mann, RonBopp and Jan McSween have found analternative meeting site: It is a fire station onWaldemere and Rt. 41. The space is on thesecond floor, with elevator access. There isenough space for chairs and tables as wellas adequate parking. The fire station has norestrictions on food. Ron showed photos ofthe site. The most outstanding feature is thatthere will be no meeting charge for SarasotaShell Club. Bob Morrison tells us that thisparticular fire station was designed by DennisSargent. Peggy made a motion, secondby Dan Block, that we move our meetinglocation (starting next fall) to the fire station.The motion passed.The April year-end party, scheduled forApril 23rd, will not “happen” unless someonesteps forward to chair the event. Sandy Pillowvolunteered to chair.The board proposed set contributionamounts for the groups we as a club support.After several motions, and much discussion, itwas decided that we will donate $2,400 to theCarefree Learner, $500 to the Bailey MatthewsMuseum, $1,000 to the New College ofFlorida, $100 to the Delaware Museum, and$600 to the S. Florida Museum.Sarasota Shell Club will have amembership table at the Island Music Festivalto be held March 18th on Anna MariaIsland. The crafters will sell their flowerarrangements.There was a brief discussion on Sarasotahosting the COA convention in 2013. Thisdiscussion will be continued at next month’smeeting.There being no further business, themeeting was adjourned at 9:46 pm.

Page sixClassified AdSmall antiquities for sale, Egyptian and Persian clay necklacescirca 600 B.C., Roman glass bracelets, 10 B.C. to 100 A.D., four clayfigurines and clay vessel dating from 1200 B.C to 1200 A.D. Interestedparties can contact Shirley at 941.906.1616End of Year PartyThe Sarasota Shell Club end-of-yearparty will again be held at the home ofSylvia Thompson.She has graciously opened herbeautiful home to us on Saturday, April23rd beginning about 2:00 p.m. withsun, beach and pool time and goodfellowship. Appetizers and dessertswill be furnished by club members. Acatered picnic-type dinner will be servedabout 5:00 p.m. Iced tea and soft drinkswill be provided. Otherwise, it’s BYOB.Club members will fill out a headcount and sign up sheet at the nextmeeting on April 14th.If you plan on attending theparty but you won’t be at thatmeeting, you must call yourreservation to Sandy Pillow at941-567-5982 by April 16th to beincluded in the food count.Everyone always has a great time atthese parties. See you there!— Sandy PillowThe Shell Club's booth at the Bridge Street Market March 27th.Sarasota Shell ClubPO Box 19933Sarasota, FL 34276Meetings are on the second Thursdayof months September through April, at 7:00p.m., at the Mote Marine Laboratory inSarasota.“Pre-meeting” gatherings are at theBroadway Bar and Grill on the corner of10th and Cocoanut Avenue at 5:00 p.m.The Annual Shell Show is the THIRDfull weekend of February at the ManateeCivic Center in Palmetto.Dues:New members $21.50New Family members (two+) $33.00.Renewals:$15.00 for Single$20.00 for Family (two+)If you want your newsletter printed andmailed add $7.00.