How long have you been geocaching?

My husband, John and I have been geocaching for 15 1/2 years.

How many finds and hides do you have?

We have found 17,625 geocaches. We have hidden 288 Geocaches . My husband John does most of the computer work behind the placement of the caches. I help with the containers getting them ready and finding locations and giving the ideas of what to do as far as theme and hiding them.

Which WGA events have you attended or volunteered for in the past?

As a team we have helped hide caches for several of the events that have taken place over the past 15 years. We have hidden caches and some of the locations that were more than an hour from our home location as well. I have been helping with all of those cache placements and ideas. One year I helped with the children’s games organizing the games and helping the kids play games at a camp out. There were a couple of years where there were night caches for the camp out and John and I participated in that as well. Both John and I have attended Most of the camp outs and picnics for the past 15 years.

What skills do you possess that would benefit the WGA?

The areas where I think I will be the most helpful is in public speaking as well as in event planning. I have done a number of event planning events for things through our church and through our neighborhood. Our neighborhood does Block parties for the past 25 years and I create the brochure information packet and sit on the committee to plan our theme ,actives and menu. When our children were younger, we planned neighborhood Bible clubs for our neighbors and we did this for probably 15 years. Sometimes I used curriculum that was already in existence at other times I created the curriculum for us to use. I have also done public speaking through our church and in the community. I work well with Children especially and I could help with children’s activities and ideas of things to engage the children at the camp out and picnic. I have gifts of leader ship, as well as ability to follow and be a worker to do tasks that are assigned. I very much enjoy hiking the Ice Age Trail and this is one of my hobbies. I could go out and help with checking on the WGA ice age trail series cashes, as well as the state park series cashes. I am able to get out hiking and about to help with these types of things. We are pretty well-connected with the Geocaching community and I believe I have people that I can engage to help with different projects and activities. I am able to lead and I am also able to follow others and do the required work needed to be done. I have gifts in teaching and leadership. I work well with others and am not afraid to interact with the public and people I don’t know. 

The WGA’s mission is to promote and protect geocaching in Wisconsin.

Which part of that mission (Education, Landowner Relations, Events, or Community) are you most passionate about, and why?

As far as the mission of Geocaching goes I certainly am interested in educating others about Geocaching throughout our community. I certainly can help with education through the community and events that we have. I would not be so good at doing this through social media as I do not participate in social media platforms. My husband, John, Mr. Hack does do quite a bit of promotion of the WGA through his connection with social media and the website for the Geocaching site in Wisconsin. As we live in the same household, I certainly can give him updated information that would be helpful to share with the community through that social media platforms.

If elected, what is one specific goal or project you would like to see the WGA accomplish during your term?

I’m specifically interested in helping with the events that we have and encouraging more activities to take place at these events. Particularly the camp out which does go Friday Saturday and Sunday. In recent years it seems there has been less activity going on other than the daytime on Saturday for this event. When we first begin geocaching the camp out had a lot of organized activities going on Friday night as well as the evening on afraid to interact with the public. with. I do think it is valuable also to have activities for the children at these events to encourage families to come. I would be interesting in helping an organize planned activities for the children at the events.

Board members often must work through disagreements. Describe your approach to working with a team where there are differing opinions.

As far as conflict resolution on the board I tend to work well with other people in community and in groups. I have done quite a bit of group work through my church as well as through my job for 43 years . I served on a number of boards where there was not always agreement. I feel that I am a good listener and I try to look at both sides of the story and see the pros and cons of both opinions. I do not struggle with anger management and like to maintain a level of peace with others. I also do not feel that I need to have my way in what we do and I am always open to other peoples input and opinions I like to think of myself as a peacemaker. Among our family and our neighbors there has been a lot of disharmony over the past five years related to political views as well as how to handle the Covid epidemic. I feel that I was very instrumental in keeping our family on speaking terms with one another as I have being very understanding of both points of view. I do not see myself as a highly controlling person, and I can take instruction from others. I am also not afraid to confront people who are saying things that may be out of line or inappropriate, in a gentle and kind way.

How do you think the WGA can better reach out to new geocachers or those living in underrepresented parts of the state?

As far as member engagement that is a little bit tricky. I do think the way the WGA rotates their events throughout the state is very helpful. When we have an event in these under represented areas we certainly can reach out to people in the community to invite them to hide caches for us. Also, by having some of the state wide initiatives of the series that we have of the state trails, the state parks and the Ice Age Trail, this is a way to engage people in the WGA, by hiding cashes that are part of a series in different parts of the state. I do think it’s important to have members of the board representing different areas of the state as well.

Being on the Board requires attending meetings (online and in-person) and helping run events. Are you able to commit the necessary time to fulfill these duties for the duration of your term?

As I have been retired now for three years and my mother has passed, I do have the appropriate amount of time available to be on the board and serve the required commitments.  We go to the events anyways and we are able to stay the extra time needed to help for the events.

Are you comfortable asking for help and delegating tasks to other volunteers, or do you prefer to handle projects solo?

Far as delegation goes I am certainly not afraid to ask people for help and I do so regularly on projects that I work on. As a registered nurse at the hospital I had to depend on my nurses aides to delegate tasks to them and I have no trouble doing this. I will say though that in the absence of appropriate help I will complete the work if it’s not being done . I am also willing to work on projects alone, if it’s within my scope of ability. I Also, regularly served as a relief charge nurse in my job at the hospital where I had to delegate all the new admissions that were coming throughout the day to my staff.

What’s your favorite style or type of geocache to find and why does it appeal to you?

For our favorite types of geocaches. We definitely like to find geocaches that are in green spaces. We like to have some kind of a hike to go on and to find a very scenic location. To me geocaching is about the places it brings me and the adventure that I have when I go there. I am not a big fan of real tricky hard caches finds, particularly micros in the woods. I like to be able to find the cache that I’m looking for and if it’s a little bit tricky that’s OK and makes it fun but not something that’s nearly impossible to find. I also like to find caches by hiders that we know do a really good job. So often times we actually look for who is the person that hid the cache and that makes us more interested in finding it. We also like to look at caches that have a lot of favorite points especially when we’re traveling. When we’re traveling, we do enjoy the adventure Labs if they’re bringing us to a very interesting historical locations or scenic overviews.

Do you have a passion for hiding geocaches? What types of geocaches do you like to hide and why?

We really do have a passion for hiding geocaches particularly for special events. I do like to hide themed caches for events that have a theme to such as the cache bash in West Bend as well as the janboree in Waukesha. Probably our favorite type of cache to hide is a letter box hybrid.