The 56th Annual Institute on Lake Superior Geology on May 19-22, 2010 was a cross-border meeting with an international team of co-chairs. The meeting in International Falls was chaired by Mark Jirsa, Terry Boerboom, Mark Smyk, Peter Hinz and Pete Hollings. Despite this the meeting was a great success with a total of 171 registrants, including 30 students.

The two-day technical session held at the Holiday Inn on Thursday and Friday included 23 talks and 17 posters presentations, including 11 oral and 5 poster presentations by students. This year’s Goldich Medal recipients were Bill Addison and Greg Brumpton whose tireless work in the Thunder Bay area led to the first recognition of the ejecta layer from the Sudbury impact.  Bill and Greg were presented their medals at the annual banquet by another Goldich Medalist, Bill Cannon from the USGS.  Fittingly, the evening banquet talk was presented by Dr. Bevan M. French of the Smithsonian Institution who discussed his work on meteor impacts.

The meeting offered eight field trips that highlighted various aspects of the geology and ore deposits of two countries. Pre-meeting field trips included Mineral deposits of the Rainy River area led by Wally Rayner and C.J. Baker (Rainy River Resources), and Craig Ravnaas (Ontario Geological Survey), a one-day trip on Geology of the Archean succession at Atikokan led by Phil Fralick (Lakehead University) and Denver Stone (OGS)and Structural geology along the Quetico fault led byHoward Poulsen (Consultant) and Dyanna Czeck (UW-Milwaukee).  On Friday afternoon following the completion of the technical session, two field trips were offered.  The first took participants on a boat trip through the Archean geology of Voyageurs National Park and Little America gold mineled by Chris Hemstad (Boreal Explorations) while Mark Jirsa (MGS) led a group to the Ash River neutrino detector laboratory and the Archean Vermilion Granitic Complex. Post-meeting trips included a Transect through the Quetico-Wabigoon subprovince boundary led by Mark Jirsa (Minnesota Geological Survey) and Chris Hemstad (Boreal Exploration), Mineral deposits of the Mine Centre – Rainy Lake area led by Peter Hinz (OGS) and last, but not least, Geology and environmental issues of the Steep Rock mineled by Andrew Conly (Lakehead University) and Rob Purdon (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources). Please enjoy some photos of the meeting in our photo gallery.

The Institute’s Board of Directors met on May 20, 2010. The meeting was called to order by Chair Peter Hinz. The meeting was attended by George Hudak, Ted Bornhorst, Jim Miller, Mark A. Jirsa - Treasurer (2011), Pete Hollings, Terry Boerboom and Mark Smyk.
Secretary Hollings took the minutes of the Board meeting that are as follows:

1. Accepted report of the Chairs for the 55th ILSG, Ely, Minnesota; as printed in the Proceeding Volume (Miller), and minutes of last Board meeting, May 7, 2009 (Hollings)
2. Received, discussed, and accepted 2009-2010 ILSG Financial Summary (Jirsa).
3. Received, discussed, and accepted 2009-2010 report of the Secretary (Hollings).
4. Approved Hollings to continue as Institute Secretary (this was later presented to the membership and approved)
5. Approved Peter Hinz as on-going ILSG Board member
6. Discussed application process for ILSG Student Research Awards. Hollings to revise the application to be a two-page form, not including references, figures or tables. Application dates to remain unchanged
7. Approved Ashland, Wisconsin at the site for the 57th annual ILSG meeting. The meeting will be hosted by Tom Fitz with help from Jim Miller, Laurel Woodruff and Bill Cannon.
8. Discussed and approved replacing Terry Boerboom as the “member from government” on Goldich Committee (end of term 2010) with Laurel Woodruff
9. It was agreed that the Institute would adopt the following policy “The Institute will not distribute email advertisements for ‘for-profit’ organizations or individuals. The institute will post links for such organizations on the Institute web site and will include a logo and brief notice in the annual proceedings in return for a donation”. Hollings to prepare a new page on the web site highlighting institute sponsors and donors.

The co-chairs would like to thank all the sponsors for their support of the meeting, all those who helped us organize and run the meeting, the Backus Community Center who put together a magnificent banquet on very short notice using community volunteers, and to all presenters and participants without whom the meeting could not have happened. We never cease to be amazed by the patience, enthusiasm, and passion of the membership of the ILSG.

Respectfully submitted,

Pete Hollings, Mark Smyk, Peter Hinz, Terry Boerboom and Mark Jirsa
Co-Chairs, 56th Institute on Lake Superior Geology