WGA Letter from the President Winter 2015/2016

Happy New Year and I hope 2016 is off to a great start for you!

As you may have seen, nominations have opened for 5 position on the WGA Board of Directors. Do you know of someone that would be a good candidate for position? I thought it might be a good idea to share what is involved.

What does it take to be a good candidate for a board member?

If you are going to be on the BOD, it requires a little bit of work all of the time. The main way the BOD members communicate is with a private forum on the WGA site and through Facebook Messenger. An effective BOD member will read all new posts on that BOD forum, at least 5 to 7 times a week. Occasionally as a BOD member you will be forced to have an opinion on things maybe you don’t care about and never even thought about. You will need to stand up for what you think is best for our members and the organization, even if the eight other people involved disagree. You also may have to take criticism for decisions the BOD makes, even if you didn’t agree in the first place.

Sometimes, being on the BOD is a LOT of work and a substantial time commitment, especially before/during/after WGA events. All BOD members are expected to be in attendance for WGA events. As a BOD member, you are expected to work at least for part of those events. Will you be happy with getting only 3 hours of caching time for the entire campout weekend? Will you be happy with only being able to see just a small part of the event location? Do you mind loading full, sopping wet garbage bags in the back of your van to take them out of the park? Every single nit-picky detail of a WGA event needs to be taken care of, and believe me, you will be surprised as to how many little (and big) tasks there actually are.
Do you have some good ideas for the WGA? Are you too shy to bring them up? Will you get discouraged quickly if you don’t get immediate buy-in from the other BOD members? Do you have the desire to champion an idea and work it all the way through to the end? I can personally tell you from my years with the BOD that if an idea doesn’t have someone wanting to run with it, it will fall through the cracks only to be lost.
We all have “real” jobs and family and we understand they all take priority over geocaching and being a board member and that is a good thing we do, helping out and working together. However, do you have enough time left over in your life to dedicate to this organization? Does your job frequently take you out of town, or does it consume most of your weekends?

 

Do you have some disposable income money? No, really, this is a serious question. Some of the WGA events WILL be quite a drive from where you live. We try to spread out the events and rotate the big ones (Campout and Picnic) annually to different quadrants of the state. You will also need to pay for your camping/hotel/park admission at the WGA events too. BOD members do NOT get to stay free, sorry. There are times when you may need to purchase something on behalf of the WGA but repayment is always done promptly (receipts required) as possible.

For me, being on the BOD gives the chance to give back to the geocaching community in a real and lasting way. You will have the opportunity to guide the direction of this organization. You get to work with various community groups (scouts, libraries, senior groups) and government offices (such as the WDNR). You will get to meet more of our membership than you ever have in the past, which is just pretty darn cool.

All in all, we are a pretty laid back group that are a group of people that like to give. Give our time, give our efforts, and give our ideas and our smiles.

The best part of doing this is that you are never in it alone.

Thanks to various former and current Board members that have shared their thoughts over the years to come up with outline.

Chris Walker, Walking Adventure

WGA President