Help in Green Bay area

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:32 pm

Would anyone be interested in educating the public on caching at the 2010 Science Expo? The Einstein Project puts on the science expo to inform kids/adults on a variety of topics. They range from being green, careers, to why aged cheese tastes better.
They would really like someone or a group to talk with kids about caching. My mom works for this non profit hands on science company. we took her caching and she told the office about it. Everyone wanted to know more about caching and are very excited about it.

this is a link to the expo page http://www.einsteinproject.org/einstein/eventsnews/science+expo/default.asp

The expo in on March !3 at Shopko hall.

If you would like to contact them email einstein@einsteinproject.org
or you can contact me and i will connect.

Thank you for your help. i would help but we live 5 hrs away. sorry for the repeat i thought it could do better here then its first post.

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:56 pm

is this just setting up and manning a booth or are we talking about some kind of presentation?

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3258

I looked at the site and, like Lone Gunman, I'm not quite sure what's being asked here. Could you provide more detail?

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:58 pm

Demonstration/information at a booth is what they are looking for. There is a stage where you could talk to a large group. At the booth you could have different cache types, list of the lingo, talk about gps, and leaving caches exactly where they find them, and logging TBs. They provide tables and you don't have to hand anything out if you don't want to. We feel the Einstein Project and Geocaching would be a great fit. They deal with Science and Math based education, and this Science Expo would be a cool place to educate some people about Geocaching. If you can help at all it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the replies!! Smile

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3258

Are they looking for a short, scheduled presentation? Or being there all day at the expo? It sounds like they are looking for someone to be a part of a booth that's already going to be there?

I personally don't know where to begin with this having never been involved in any sort of geocaching presentation. Does someone in a more official capacity want to get involved so that we can see if this is an appropriate thing for the WGA to be involved in and that it is handled appropriately?

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:41 am

Sounds like an ideal situation for the WGA to start passing out official pencils. (Ah, they have been ordered and received, correct?)

Justin and I manned a station at the Bubolz swamp thing this past fall. We just talked to people as they can up - intro to caching, gps types, what to do, web sites, etc. Had a nice handout as well, from Jeremy.

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:28 am

There is no booth set up already i was just throwing out ideas. It is a day long event. you wouldn't have to do the large group talk if you didn't want too. it would be talking to kids that come up to you. it would be an education kind of thing. If you want you can give me a phone number or email and i will have the project get ahold of you or you can contact them at the email listed in the first note.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3258

PM sent.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3258

The org has my contact info, and I'll let you know what additional details I'm given.

If we (the WGA) want to be a part of this, I'm sure there are many additional members in the GB area who can contribute, and one of our Board members is also from GB.

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

Hm...how did my original post get deleted?

So who's going to pick up the cost? I know a non-profit organization has a fee of $50 for one table two chairs and a 10x10 area to be part of this event.....

We were asked if we would be intersted in doing a geocaching thing a few days ago, but had to decline as we are way busy with our group during the Expo. Truthfully, I'm not sure how well geocaching can be promoted as this is expo and the exhibitors are supposed to be geared towards "hand-on" learning, and last I looked GPSrs don't work too well indoors. Laughing

For those who may have interest, I encourage you to go for it if you have the time. Last year's attendance to the Expo was over 4,000 people (Mostly middle shool/high school). You work your butt off (well, we did), but it is a lot of fun!

It would be great to see some WGA presence this year as long as the activity/display is well thought out and not just thrown together last minute. This event does happen every year in Green Bay, so something to think about for 2011....if it can't happen for 2010.

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:28 pm

I would be interested in helping, but we definetely need some more information. I don't think Paying to set up a Booth is such a great deal fro us to get involved in.

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

K0rpl wrote:

I would be interested in helping, but we definetely need some more information. I don't think Paying to set up a Booth is such a great deal fro us to get involved in.

All groups that participate pay for a booth or to sponsor an area. THe money goes to help fund the Einstein Project. I shouldn't be disappointed to see such a negative response and lack of reason to educate and promote geocaching because of a "fee", but I am. I'm sure I could find the WGA has spent far more money for far less/worse.

If you want to inform and educate a lot of people (and I mean A LOT) of people, there is no better one-day avenue to do just that. Especially when the audience is most likely made of non-cachers. Isn't this the type of venue the WGA should be focusing their education/information/promotion on? Or is WGA education/information/promotion only for DNR or city park seminars abd picnics, camp-outs and mega events sponsored by Chamber of Commerces?

As I mentioned, it's a lot of prep work (at least for our club) and the trick is to come up with hands-on activities versus all static displays. It may be to late for 2010, but 2011 is right around the corner........

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:04 pm

Quote:

So who's going to pick up the cost? I know a non-profit organization has a fee of $50 for one table two chairs and a 10x10 area to be part of this event.....

Quote:

I shouldn't be disappointed to see such a negative response and lack of reason to educate and promote geocaching because of a "fee", but I am.

At first appearance, it seems that the first post makes the paying of the $50 a negative so I cannot fault Justin for his comment.
The second post seems to be a suprise that the fee response was recieved negatively.

maybe if the statement was made, "a 10' x 10' booth w/two chairs costs $50, would the WGA be willing to cover that cost?" it may not have been viewed as a negative. Also mentioning that if it wasn't a non-profit group, the cost would be $150, $50 might have been seen as a bargain to get the word out.

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

labrat_wr wrote:

Quote:

So who's going to pick up the cost? I know a non-profit organization has a fee of $50 for one table two chairs and a 10x10 area to be part of this event.....

Quote:

I shouldn't be disappointed to see such a negative response and lack of reason to educate and promote geocaching because of a "fee", but I am.

At first appearance, it seems that the first post makes the paying of the $50 a negative so I cannot fault Justin for his comment.
The second post seems to be a suprise that the fee response was recieved negatively.

maybe if the statement was made, "a 10' x 10' booth w/two chairs costs $50, would the WGA be willing to cover that cost?" it may not have been viewed as a negative. Also mentioning that if it wasn't a non-profit group, the cost would be $150, $50 might have been seen as a bargain to get the word out.

Excuse me for not clarifying/defining myself well enough and giving me proper discourse on how I should have properly addressed my comments so there is no misunderstanding. Rolling Eyes

I'll be sure to consult you first before I reply in the future.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3258

I received some additional information on this. Here is the information:

Hi AKA Michael Gotta Run: Your message was forwarded to us from one of our friends who posted our interest/need for someone to do Geocaching at our annual Science Expo coming up on March 13th. The Science Expo is a day of hands-on exploration in science and is geared toward Kindergarten to 8th grade students. Our interest would be for someone to have a “hands-on” booth to showcase geocaching. We are complete novices, but think it would be a great addition to the Expo. Booths are $50 for non-profits and do get you a 10X10 booth with an 8 foot table, 2 chairs and electrical if you let us know in advance.

From the discussion on the web it sounds like perhaps this might be a better idea next year, but yes, it’s the perfect place to hand out pencils and educate the public. It might be fun to have kids who wander by your table to see if they can find the cache that is right outside Shopko Hall. Not sure if that would work well or not. The people don’t all come at once, it’s throughout the day from 9 to 4 p.m. but we get around 3500 or so.

My response was:

You are correct that the general feeling on the forum is that this is a pretty big endeavor to pick up particularly in a short period of time. There is also some concern regarding how “hands on” a presentation could be because geocaching is an outdoor activity. While finding the cache outside the hall would accomplish this, it would not be a good idea for that particular cache because doing so would expose its location to a large public audience, which generally leads to caches going missing. Perhaps some “temporary” caches with an occasional “guided tour” using a GPS would be appropriate.

At this point, I’ll provide the additional information back to the WGA community and see what develops.

So, they are looking for a booth purchase, and a day-long presence at the event.

This is something that I personally am not in the position to pick up and run with, so I'm tossing the ball back in the court.