Advocacy / Outreach

[gotta run]

The Board has done a good job of setting up numerous events over the years, which WGA members all enjoy.

However, there have been opportunities brought up to promote geocaching in the community and work with interested parties/organizations that, in my opinion, the WGA as an organization has not taken an up-front and active role in.

I would like to hear from the various candidates about what they feel the role of the WGA should be outside the association’s own events and interal proceedings. If said candidate believes the WGA should be more active than it currently is, I would like to hear the candidate’s thoughts on how that might be accomplished.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[-cheeto-]

Thanks Michael for the question. It’s one that I am sure many of the WGA members are interested in.

Of particular note is a recent request for help on one of our regional forums. Unfortunately as general members we may never know what assistance was offered in this specific example. (or even what assistance was even given!) Mostly in part because the party requesting help continued to ask for private email communication rather than interacting on that forum thread.

Let me just touch on “what we do well”. Outside of the primary WGA events which have a longstanding history of success and keep us going financially, I believe that the WGA’s presence at the West Bend Cache Bash in 2009 was a huge win. Having a persistent “booth” at the event, the educational class, and sponsoring an activity were great successes. The reason why I say this is because we need to reach out to our geocaching community in Wisconsin to make sure that our member population continues. We are a “hobbyist group” and we all know that many people’s hobbies do come and go as does membership in our group. We need to “keep them coming in the door”. What better way to let people know of our group than to just have a table with our banner and some volunteers there?

As for reaching out via community events such as the one you reference, looking back this was certainly an opportunity lost. This particular event did not need monetary help. It simply needed manpower. Volunteers. Any member could have stepped forward in this request. However, it sounds like many were waiting for an “official” WGA group or board response. As this one was nearly in my “backyard”, if I was on the board I would have gone back to the rest of the board to find out what our group could do to assist. I would have also made sure that a public response was given on the public request thread in addition to whatever private response was given so that other members understood what was being done or not done “officially”.

Sometimes it’s tough or overwhelming for a single individual to take charge of something like this. That is where I feel having the assistance of the board and the WGA would really help out. Even if we simply stepped in to look for volunteers to assist.

It’s unfortunate that we have threads on the forums with 4 or 5 plus pages organizing a winter snow-showing outing but we only see a few posts on a community event organization thread. It’s up to us as a group to assist and as a board member I will do everything I can to increase our group’s interest in community events like this one.

[One Paddle Short]

[-cheeto-]

No disrespect towards any particular thread or person was meant by this statement. My apologies if you took offense or misunderstood my intent.

It was a general comment contrasting general member interest between a thread organizing a caching outing with one organizing a community event. ‘Unfortunate’ was the word I chose to describe the lack of interest in coordinating a community outreach event and was not meant to describe a specific thread about coordinating a group cache snow shoeing outing.

Thanks for the feedback and I hope your snowshoeing outing in March is a blast.

-cheeto-

[labrat_wr]

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[Team Black-Cat]

While I agree that some of these opportunities languished, I can’t fault the BOD. The requests, as mentioned previously, were posted to the WGA members.

I would like to see more resources available to geocachers that would enable them to more easily approach city and county officials. For example, the Marathon County Parks and Rec. department are aware of geocaching, but currently has no policy. They have mentioned that it would be nice to know where they are placed to avoid them being accidentally CITOed. I am somewhat reluctant to simply walk in to the Parks and Rec. department and open a dialog. While this isn’t an issue for some people, most people, including myself, are more timid. It would be nice to have more guidance on how to “break the ice”. The WGA has materials available for presentations, but we need to empower and embolden interested members for that initial contact.

[gotta run]

Looking at the responses thus far (thank you), my original question was poorly worded. We all have our own opinions about how things should or should not be done but looking backward is not really germane to the issue and I should not have brought it up.

I also don’t want to put candidates, whether currently on the board or not, in the awkward position of having to go on defense just to answer a position question.

Therefore, and my apologies to those who have already answered, let me rephrase this more simply:

“I would like to hear from the various candidates about what they feel the role of the WGA should be outside the association’s own events and interal proceedings. Does the candidate believe the WGA should be more active than it currently is and, if so, I would like to hear the candidate’s thoughts on how that might be accomplished.”

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Averith]

Thank you for the excellent question, gotta run. In my opinion community outreach is a very important part of what the BOD needs to be addressing going forward. The more knowledge the general public has about geocaching the fewer instances of bomb scares related to caches we may see in the future.

Community outreach could take many forms perhaps WGA sponsored introduction to geocaching classes, or reaching out to local new outlets about running stories involving geocaching would be two possible ideas.

More important then what the BOD can do however is what the general membership can do. The BOD can and should take on a leadership role when it comes to community outreach, but without support and input of the general membership anything the BOD could do would be far less affective.

If elected to the BOD I would work to find opportunities to increase community outreach.

[K0rpl]

It is my position, that community outreach is very important to the WGA. It helps to get our name out there to many more people, and to bring many more people into the Hobby. This past year Marc_54140, and myself setup a WGA Booth at Buboltz during there Halloween Event. Of the aproximately 300 folks that came through, about 60% had heard of Geocaching, and of those about 45% had heard of the WGA Events like this help to get others interested, and directs them to our site.

Other WGA Board members also gave presentations throughout the year.

again, I do believe that community outreach is a great positive thing for our association.

[Team Black-Cat]

I think it goes without saying that community involvement is important. How can the WGA be more active in community events? All the tools needed to make this happen are already in place. The forums are open to anyone who would like to make such a request. WGA members are free to help or not.

One thing the WGA could do it to give credit where credit is due. A nice article on the results of the work done by an individual or group of cachers would go a long way towards encouraging others to chip in a little the next time the opportunity arises.

[labrat_wr]

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[-cheeto-]

@gotta run wrote:

what they feel the role of the WGA should be outside the association’s own events and interal proceedings. Does the candidate believe the WGA should be more active than it currently is and, if so, I would like to hear the candidate’s thoughts on how that might be accomplished.

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

All the tools needed to make this happen are already in place.

Brian – while I agree all of the tools needed are already available, I think the tools could be improved upon. We could organize a forum thread specifically for those seeking help with local community events/projects/working with land managers etc to come for getting help. There are local regional areas which do (sort of) serve this purpose today but I think a more organized method of requesting for volunteers or assistance publicly might help.

Michael – Now turning to whether the WGA as a group should be more active than it already is in non-group events.

The WGA is a pretty active group of people as other candidates have touched on. There are many members doing many great things across the state. I don’t think anyone will argue that more community involvement is a “bad thing” but I would like to recognize that we are pretty involved as a group already.

I think that we all should continue to do the great things we do and everyone should attempt to volunteer when and if they can to help out fellow WGA members.

@K0rpl wrote:

This past year Marc_54140, and myself setup a WGA Booth at Buboltz during there Halloween Event. Of the aproximately 300 folks that came through, about 60% had heard of Geocaching, and of those about 45% had heard of the WGA Events like this help to get others interested, and directs them to our site.

This is amazing Justin. This is the type of thing our members (not just board members) do a great job of and should continue to keep doing!

Thanks gotta run for the follow-up (clarified) question.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

With only the bad parts of geocaching (Bomb Scares) being touched on by the mass media market (Television, Newspapers) maybe a article written by the WGA could be sent out.

I used to work at a small weekly newspaper and they are always looking for articles to publish. Papers like the Green Bay Press Gazette, and the Journal Sentinel might charge for placement in their papers, but small weekly ones like the Peshtigo Times or Oconto Reporter for example would be a good place for a article about the sport of geocaching. Also most of these papers also send out a “shopper paper” on the weekends and it could be put in there also.

This would be a easy way to get information to the masses at a relatively low cost. This info could in turn be published before a event in a local area and might draw more interest from new geocachers.

All in all I think the WGA has done a great job promoting it self in the past and there is still more to do in the future.

[Mathman]

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

I think it goes without saying that community involvement is important. How can the WGA be more active in community events? All the tools needed to make this happen are already in place. The forums are open to anyone who would like to make such a request. WGA members are free to help or not.

One thing the WGA could do it to give credit where credit is due. A nice article on the results of the work done by an individual or group of cachers would go a long way towards encouraging others to chip in a little the next time the opportunity arises.

Good points.

I will say that I have helped out several years now with the Boy Scout District event where I have presented on Geocaching and GPSr use. The next one will occur in 3 weeks. Is it a requirement to say it was presented by WGA members?? I guess the recognition for the organization would be good but how would the WGA fit into my presentation??

[Team Black-Cat]

@Mathman wrote:

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

I think it goes without saying that community involvement is important. How can the WGA be more active in community events? All the tools needed to make this happen are already in place. The forums are open to anyone who would like to make such a request. WGA members are free to help or not.

One thing the WGA could do it to give credit where credit is due. A nice article on the results of the work done by an individual or group of cachers would go a long way towards encouraging others to chip in a little the next time the opportunity arises.

Good points.

I will say that I have helped out several years now with the Boy Scout District event where I have presented on Geocaching and GPSr use. The next one will occur in 3 weeks. Is it a requirement to say it was presented by WGA members?? I guess the recognition for the organization would be good but how would the WGA fit into my presentation??

Matt,
I don’t think that the WGA needs recognition. This sounds like something that you do on your own without the assistance of the WGA. It would certainly be nice if a mention was made of the WGA as a good resource for interested individuals. If WGA resources are used, then it would be reasonable to expect a little recognition.

In the vein of GR’s question, presentation materials are available, but are very hard to find. I would like to see an easily accessible Resources link on the main menu. The resources page should have the above mentioned presentation files as well as downloadable brochures and articles or tutorials on how to present geocaching information to different types of audiences. If there are physical resources available, WGA owned or otherwise, these should be listed as well.

I’m not sure of the practicality, but having an updated list of WGA members that are willing to do local presentations might be an idea worth pursuing. Since you already have experience, we can put Mathman on the top of the list for the Wausau area.

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