More locally, the Grotto is one of many grottos associated with the Missouri Speleological Survey (MSS) and the Illinois Speleological Survey (ISS). Both of these organizations are designed to promote cave and karst awareness of the cave resources and information for their respective states.
The MSS is a not-for profit organization of individuals and groups who are engaged in study and research on caves and karst features in Missouri. The Survey supports research and promotes cave conservation throughout the state. To further these purposes the Survey publishes journals, maps,and catalogues on the cave resources of the state. Funds for operations comes from the memeberships, affiliation fees, publications and from grants and gifts. The most descriptive term to describe the activities of the MSS would be "cooperative" in which many people cooperate with each other for a common goal - the study of caves in Missouri.
Many grotto members are members of the MSS and/or the ISS.
In addition, many Grotto members are members of the Mississippi Valley Ozark Region (MVOR). The MVOR is a regional caving organizion that consists of cavers primarily in the state of Missouri and it's surrounding states, including Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, eastern Oklahoma, northern Arkansas, southern Iowa, eastern Indiana and eastern Kansas. The MVOR holds meetings twice a year, spring and fall. The meetings are rotated with-in the various states and are hosted by the various grottos within the region.
Our grotto membership consists of a wide variety of occupations, including a retired teacher, several mechanics, librarians and a secretary, several full time mom's,
an outdoor recreation programer, an accountant, and numerous college students, both undergraduate and graduate.
Our caving is done mainly in Perry County, Missouri, which is approximately 1 hour from Carbondale.
We have spent more than 30 years developing good land owner relations, in order to ensure the caving resources are maintained.
The most important thing to Little Egypt Grotto members is to enhance and maintain these good working land owner relationships.
If you can not agree with this concept, then we are not the group of you.
Many of our grotto members have families with small children. Our Grotto is a family oriented group and we encourage members to include their children and spouses in our caving outings. For this reason, we encourage grotto members to behave accordingly. Likewise, we also do a limited amount of group education trips for scouts, church groups, and youth groups. Contact a grotto officer for details.
