First off, thank you very much to those who nominated me for the board election. Whatever the results of the election, it is trully an honor to be nominated.

As to who I am: I am Becky Waldmann, geocaching under the name greyhounder. Many of you will also know me by the name Bec. I’ve been geocaching 2 years (today!) and really have enjoyed everything geocaching has shown me.

Most of my personal information can be found on my geocaching profile. You can find that by going to the board election page and clicking on my name. But the short version is that I live in Fort Atkinson with my 2 greyhounds and JackRat terrier, and two kitties. I work in the field of disabilities, as a job coach. I’ve been doing this for almost 12 years now. I have undergrad degrees in Psychology and Writing, and a Master’s Degree in Occupational Safety and Health. In addition to geocaching, my hobbies include camping, attending greyhound events around the US, reading, surfing the internet…that type of stuff.

As a member of the board I would continue to support what makes the Wisconsin Geocaching Association a great organization: QUALITY GEOCACHES and QUALITY GEOCACHERS!

I will listen and respond to all members’ suggestions, criticisms and kudos, and make sure the board is aware of the opinions out there. I want to be available to everyone and have you feel comfortable coming to me with anything you have to say.

I think the clean up of inactive and unmaintained geocaches is a great idea. My ideas on this are similar to many of the others here. I think a certain number of months should be established for inactive caches, and SBA notes (say 3-6 months). The owner should be contacted via a form letter/email asking for repair or removal — the ultimate responsibility of maintainance or removal should fall upon the cache owner. Adoption should be available to any intersted geocacher through a listing on the forums. If the owner does not respond, or the cache is archived and not removed, a removal team may be utilized. The state could be divided into sections, and 2 or 3 geocachers could volunteer their time to clean up the geo-litter.

I think that CITO (Cache In Trash Out) should be a WGA sponsored event. I think it’s great that individuals have taken charge of this! But I also feel that the WGA as an organization should have significant involvement as well. It also makes for good publicity!

At the Picnic and Campout I would like to see education-type seminars as an addition or alternative to temporary caches. There’s a lot of knowledge in our group, and there’s lots of us who would like to learn some more. I’m sure we all could come up with some great suggestions. Some off the top of my head might include: using a compass, waypoint projection, first aid, paperless caching, animals/plants/dangers in the woods of WI….

I like what we’ve done in regards to relationship building with the DNR and City of Madison. I think our next target should be DOT-RAM (Department of Transportation — Rest Area Maintenance). I have a few contacts already. Let’s make all of our questionably placed geocaches (such as those in rest areas) “legal”.

For me, I think it’s very important that we continue to spread the word about geocaching around Wisconsin. This is a very positive, family friendly, healthy activity and we need to let everyone know! Some states have a sort of negative stigma attached to geocaching. I don’t want that to happen to us. This can be achieved by starting in our own communities. Media should be invited to our local events. We should be doing presentations to local Chamber of Commerce organizations. Geocaching can be a nice supplement to tourism.

I also think that we should be volunteering our time and such for various activites. We have been really helpful for some scouting outings and the like. Why not try a group event of picking up trash along a roadside? How about adopting a highway even?

As a board member I want to encourage everyone to be active — proactive even! I can promise you that I will try to do the best job that I can.

I’ve taken enough of your time here. Please feel free to contact me here or by email if you need any more information or have other questions!

Bec