Hello, I am Karen Soley, one half of jks1033 along with my husband Jim.  We have been geocaching since 2006 with over 4,400 finds so far.  We usually find a few hundred caches each year with geocaching being part of almost all of our trips we take.  On our very first geocache outing, we were searching for the cache when another person arrived.  It was Natloh2.  The exchange went something like this: He asked, “How long have you been caching?” We responded, “About 20 minutes.” “No, how long have you been geocaching?” “Really, only 20 minutes.  This is our first time.”  We all continued searching and finally found it.  After signing the log, he gave us a trackable and explained what to do with it, then parted ways.  We continued on with some additional caching that day and dropped the travel bug in another cache later that day.  After that experience, how could we not be hooked?  We have had many adventures, seen some awesome views and parks, encountered wildlife, met lots of people, and learned about places we would have never visited if it wasn’t for geocaching.

Over the years, we have introduced others to geocaching (usually people we work with or friends) by taking them out to make their first finds.  Some have continued on geocaching, while others concluded it wasn’t for them.  We are always happy to help someone learn about geocaching and have a successful first outing.  We currently have 22 active caches, have two Adventure Labs (Madison and Fitchburg) and have hosted three events, including a 2021 GIFF event.  We enjoy the geocaching challenges, and we are usually working on completing some challenges since we completed our first one several years ago – finding a cache on all 366 days of the year.  We have cached all 72 counties in Wisconsin and have found the oldest cache in ten states.  The best one was GC23 in Hawaii on the Aiea Loop.  If you are ever there, do the full hike – the views are amazing.

I have worked at UW-Madison for 28 years and am retiring.  I was a manager and leader for 22 of those years.  Over the years, I served on or led various committees including committees with a wide-cross section of people from campus such as the Engagement, Inclusion and Diversity committee where I served on the committee for three years, including one year as the committee chair.  Problem solving, planning and working with others to complete projects is where I excelled at work.  It is these skills that I can bring the WGA if I am elected to the board.

Thank you for considering me for the board.