You can put me in with RJ McKenzie at the WGA booth Saturday 4-6pm

I’ll help the “noobs” at the Saturday caching class.

Just a question… is everything happening at the park this year? Last year it was at that place on the hill? I just don’t want to start the event off by going to the wrong place. 😳

It is all taking place at Regner this year due to the great turnout! Don’t forget your chairs, stuff to trade, a large gallon size baggie for your game card, a few extra logs in case you run into a NONBASH log that is full, plenty of skeeter spray, water and your swimsuits if you want to use your free swim passes. The goodie bags are great, got mine today (benefit of being on the committee!) Lots of good stuff in there! The pavilions are now under cover so if there is rain, we still have a place to sit covered. 😀

Regner is a large park so I am sure you could find room for it somewhere and you might be glad you have it if it gets hot! I would toss it in the trunk just in case! Great idea! 😀

First of all, thanks to all those volunteers who helped run this event! Awesome job everyone.

After running the pancake toss at the event, I’ll provide my feedback here. As good of a place as any!

Our family showed up around 8:15 thinking we had plenty of time to eat before our 8:45 “shift start” and found out no one else was running the game before us so we had to start it out. With a small amount of direction we had to adjust the distance and apply some “replay” rules to keep it fun. For instance, everyone could throw the 3 discs twice and could get in line to try again for a prize but once you won you couldn’t win again.

What went well:
– The game board and setup of the point values was done very well! There were complaints about the design but seeing every single throw we could see it was designed very well. People were able to hit all of the point holes.
– The pathtags and t-shirts went over really well as prizes.

What went not so well:
– Complaints abounded from many. We would estimate probably between 20 and 30 people had at least one complaint or another.
– Some people sent their children to play because they got to throw from a closer spot and wanted them to “win them a shirt”.
– Some played over and over even after they won and parents wanted them to continue to be able to play “for fun” which made the line longer for those walking up who hadn’t played yet
– I could list a list of complaints a mile long. Some examples: We expected pancakes not frisbees, All the pathtags are brown, No t-shirts in my size, My daughter won a prize and people felt that wasn’t “fair”, lots of complaints about “fairness” and how the game was run, my son moved a prize from one point value to another as we were running out and someone complained about that. We listened and tried our best for an hour and a half.
– We ran out of lower point value prizes and that caused issues with later players.

My advice for future geocaching event “carnival games” like the pancake toss:
– Publish all the RULES on a board next to the game so players can read them all before the game starts.
– Hand out a single ticket or maybe 2 tickets and each attendee can play with a ticket so we can limit the number of times someone can play.
– Never ever change the “value” of a prize as that causes issues as well
– Don’t think every prize has to be given away. They can be used at future events.
– Bring many more lower point value prizes.
– Separate prize tables for kids vs adults.
– Pathtags and T-shirts make great game prizes as they were desired by many.

Overall we let the complaints roll off our back but it really did spoil the fun. There were so many opinionated people who felt the need to speak their peace. It was a game for crying out loud! We had an interesting ride back home discussing with my children how they should behave in a situation like this carnival game.

We did our best to help run this game but we will not be volunteering to run any game like this at any future geocaching events. It was a learning experience for my family to say the least.

@geolivestrong wrote:

Shane — I wasn’t there to see the happenings of that event, but I am really sorry that you and your family had to deal with that. I personally feel that the games we provide in today’s culture are just a free chance for people to act like crybabies when they don’t get their way. The part that is even worse is that most of the parents are just as bad as the kids. I personally think that geocaching events should include three primary things….caching, working with new cachers, and socializing. Trying to mix anything else in there, especially something competitive, is asking for problems. If something needs to be done to help keep kids occupied then perhaps giving a participation prize is the ticket as it removes the competition from the equation. Just some random thoughts and rambling on my part. Have a great week!

This is a fair statement given what we experienced. With my family active in trying to provide/promote family orientated activities for the other WGA events (we simply volunteered to help with this pancake toss as it was not our invention — which many who complained thought it was) we have learned a valuable lesson in helping with this activity.

This didn’t dissuade me from my goal of bringing family oriented activities to the WGA events but it did sway me away from any sort of competitive activity.

People are happiest when everyone can participate, everyone can enjoy, and everyone “gets stuff for free”. Step away from that equation and it just doesn’t please enough of the crowd to make it worthwhile.

We hope at least someone out there had fun and enjoyed the “toss” game. For those of you who took issue with anything, we’re very very sorry for your disappointment and it certainly wasn’t done on purpose.

Chalk it up as another life experience, Shane. Sorry you got caught up in it.

I like keeping score. I like winning. But… I would rather have fun competing and not win than win because I complained louder than anyone else. Some people just aren’t wired right. Sometimes, you don’t win. Life goes on.