bnb – Ruth Holliday

[bnb]

The bio post…..

I’ve been geocaching since 3/3/02. I friend of mine in California had sent me a link to geocaching.com to see if I knew about it. I thought it was interesting so I took advantage of a school event trip to Tomah with my son as my excuse to buy a GPSr and try it out. I had planned to hit Officer’s Scenic Cache (GCE67) on my way back from Tomah the afternoon of 3/2, but a snowstorm kept us in Tomah overnight. Our first geocache find was in six (or more) inches of fresh snow the next day. This one taught me to always carry a compass. We found another close to home in Eau Claire (GC342) and, at my son’s insistence, one more on a very cold uphill walk even closer to home (GCFDB).

I started geocaching because I thought it would be a great way to enjoy the outdoors with my kids. Going for a hike is much more inviting when there is something to find along the way.

I live outside of Colfax and work in Eau Claire. I am a non-geek, geek. I design ASICs (chips) for a living but don’t immerse myself in technology. I’m just starting to do paperless geocaching, we have a dial-up connection to the internet, no cable/satellite TV, and old cell phones.

My interest in geocaching has extended to my husband of almost 20 years, Chuck (geocaching name – Chiot) and my kids Ben (geoname – swlumkin) and Becca – current ages 13 and 8, respectively. My geocaching name, bnb, came from my kids – Ben n’ Becca.

I’ve been to two WGA events – the 2003 picnic and the 2004 campout. My son and I made the advance trip for temp hides for the picnic, too.

So far, the best part of geocaching for me has been the 2004 campout. I attended it with my son. He was obsessed with getting every single geocache hidden for that event. He wouldn’t let me stop to make a meal until 11 PM both nights. We finished up by bringing in some of the temp hides on Sunday morning. It was a great weekend for both of us.

Second best part of geocaching is all the great people I’ve met along the way. I really wish I had more free time for travel because there are quite a few I’d like to geocache with more often.

I don’t have a website, but you can check out my
geocaching.com gallery to see a few of the pictures I’ve taken geocaching. I like to play with Travel Bugs.

I can be contacted at rutholliday at netscape dot net.

[bnb]

The campaign speech….

First of all I’d like to point out to Ken Braband that I try really hard not to use the word “cache” as a verb, even though I’d like to. 🙂

I think the WGA’s purpose should be to promote the positive aspects of the sport of geocaching. We can help accomplish this through our events, CITO, and community service. Also, I would really like to see us reach a statewide agreement with the DNR regarding geocaching on state-controlled properties.

What have I done toward these goals? Well, nothing toward the DNR agreement goal, but I would like to work on that as a board member. As to the others, I try to CITO wherever practical, I try to educate others about the sport (I can claim a few geo-children in my geo-family tree), I was interviewed for a local newspaper article on geocaching and I do my best to promote geocaching to my own local officials. I am also leading a geocaching project in 4-H for my son.

Admittedly, I do not devote all my waking hours to geocaching. I have a full-time job, two children and I’m a 4-H club leader. I’d love an excuse to spend more time on geocaching.

Thanks for the nomination!

[bnb]

wzbt03’s questions…

1- Since the main board function is the two WGA events, campout and picnic, what do you intend to offer as a board member over the next 2 years to these events?

I guess I don’t consider the WGA events to be the *main* board function, just one of them. I think the enthusiasm that exists for geocaching within this state would ensure the occurrence of events even without the existence of a board. However, the Board of Directors provides the management that allows some events to be WGA sponsored. This sponsorship provides the infrastructure necessary for a larger, more elaborate gathering than otherwise might be possible with individually sponsored events. In other words, with the backing of the WGA Board of Directors, we are taken more seriously by park managers and businesses. Additionally, with the focus provided by the board, the WGA membership becomes more involved in WGA sponsored events. After all, the success of the WGA events still relies on the volunteer efforts of more than just the Board of Directors.

That said, the WGA does currently sponsor two events per year and I believe as a board member it would be my responsibility to be very actively involved in the planning and execution of those events. I cannot say explicitly what my contributions would be for those events because, up until now, I have not been involved in all the behind-the-scenes activities so I do not know where I could be of the most use. I’m not trying to weasel out of an answer, but the two WGA events I have attended have been so well planned that I could not possibly imagine something I could have done that would have made them better. What I would offer for future events would be to be as useful as possible with the guidance of the experienced board members. I would do preliminary site evaluations and work personally with park managers when I’m the nearest board member to the site. I could provide phone and email contact with farther sites. I helped place a few temporary caches for the 2003 Picnic and I would like to be involved in that at future events – although I will admit to not being nearly as creative as most of the temp cache hiders. Finally, I would make a commitment to attend and help run the event, assuming the dates did not interfere with my *real* job commitments.

2- How do you intend to help mentor the other cachers in the state who might struggle with the accepted ethics of geocaching?

By “ethics of geocaching” I will take this to mean respecting property owners, our natural resources, and any guidelines/agreements/restrictions that public property managers have given us. In cases where I saw a violation of this respect I would make a private contact with that geocacher. If that was ignored, or was not possible, I would make a gentle, but direct, comment on the geocache page. I would also get the other board members involved. Since I think that the WGA should be actively involved in the promotion of our sport with governmental agencies I would be most concerned about geocaching activity that interferes with a positive view of our sport.

For mentoring, I try to welcome new geocachers to my area when I see their logs appear. If I notice behavior that is somewhat different from what I’ve come to accept as “standard”, I send a polite email assuming they may not know the accepted “rules”. But, I still see this as a mostly unregulated sport. As long as a geocacher is not destroying property (personal or governmental) they can play the game the way they want to. I may be irritated by their behavior, but I can’t really tell them how to play the game.

3- Since it is the caches in Wisconsin that make us what we are, what caches do you currently have out there that would be considered assets to Wisconsin (including past events you have hosted)?

I haven’t officially hosted any events. A few of us organized a quick event with a visiting geocacher in 2003. I guess it could have been considered an asset to Wisconsin in that it drew in a few Minnesota geocachers to the Eau Claire area, but I suspect they would eventually have come here when more caches were placed. Probably the best thing that event did for our immediate area was to introduce us locals to ourselves.

I have four geocaches. I’d like to think that all four of them bring people to a nice area. I try to make my geocaches include a short walk, some history, or both. Some of my favorite geocache searches brought me to an area I wouldn’t otherwise have found and I like to do the same for others with my geocaches.

[bnb]

Response to GrouseTales:

Contributions to WGA:
Due to distance and schedules, I have only attended two WGA events. For the 2003 Picnic at Devil’s Lake, I traveled to the park two weeks before to help place the temporary caches. For the 2004 Campout, my schedule kept me from placing temporary caches, so I brought a load of firewood instead. I also helped set up for the pancake breakfast.

Special skills/abilities:
None in particular. I’m a logic designer by trade and I don’t think that is very useful in everyday life. Through volunteer activites at schools and 4-H I have experience in working with teams to plan and execute events.

I organized and ran the football pool at work a number of years ago, if that’s worth anything. It’s not a special skill, but it was appreciated by the winners. 😉

(I just remembered…)
I’ve been secretary of the local t-ball organization for the past four years. This means I get to type up schedules and rosters, run concessions (with the VP) and organize/run the t-ball tournament at the end of the season (with the other two officers.) I also get to take abuse from lots of people that don’t seem to understand the concept of a volunteer organization. I have managed to bite my tongue while being aggressively verbally abused, in front of my children, by an angry father that didn’t want to work his shift in the concession stand. Now that is a special skill.

[Edited to include the above and for spelling.]

[This message has been edited by bnb (edited 01-21-2005).]

[bnb]

Response to Ms. WISearcher:

DNR Support for the sport:
I believe the WGA has already done quite a bit toward getting a policy in place with the DNR. Without knowing the complete details it is hard for me to know what the next specific step should be. It could be that it is in the hands of the DNR and all that we can do is continue to keep the issue visible. In that case, I believe I could help by talking to our local DNR officials. I also believe that organizing community service projects would increase visibility.

Community Service:
I’d like to see geocacher-involved community service activities in my area. I think that it would be more likely and have greater visibility with WGA backing. My husband helped out with a cemetary cleanup in Minnesota last year (GC28A4, June 26 logs). I’d like to see more activites like this that help out the areas we use as geocachers. I’d like to keep these activities visible to promote the sport of geocaching. I can specifically help with this goal by organizing the events.

Expand WGA membership and involvement:
I believe a lot of the reason that most of the active WGA membership is in the southeastern part of the state is because most of the WGA activities take place there. I think it is time for the WGA to have more region-specific activities.

• I’d like to see an area of the forums dedicated to region-specific threads. I’d like to have an easy way to contact the geocachers in my general area. People might be more likely to read the forums if they can more easily focus on the subjects that pertain to them. I’m not a website guru so I can’t change our forums to address this, but I can be the geocacher that would be the main contact in my area.
• I think if there were WGA sponsored activities in the different regions it would lead to more active membership in those regions. In order to have successful activities in the different regions, I believe it would help to have board members in those regions. I would take an active role in organizing WGA activites.

[bnb]

Response to Trudy and the beast:

Expired memberships:
[*]Main reason: We don’t know they’re expired until we try to do something that requires the membership.
[*]Solution 1: Email reminder.

[*]Possible reason: The organization didn’t offer them anything. They never went to an event, they don’t know the people running for the board and they don’t have anything to say in the forums.
[*]Solution 2: Try to undo the impression that the WGA is actually the Southeastern Wisconsin Geocaching Association.

New geocachers not joining:
[*]Reason: No reason to join unless they want to post in the forums, vote or attend a WGA event.
[*]Solution: Welcome new geocachers by email, invite them to local events, point them to the website.

Silent membership:
[*]Reason 1: Some people are lurkers. I’m not a “me too” kind of poster and often someone has already said what I would have said. I’ve been on an email list for 9 years with the same people, have met many of them, but I still seldom post anything. I’m sure there are other people like me. (In person, however, you can’t shut me up or, if you give me something specific to talk/write about.)
[*]Solution 1: None.

[*]Reason 2: I would guess that many geocachers don’t feel part of the group. There is a very active core group of people that know each other and even often geocache together. It’s easier to post to a list where no one knows anyone than to one where the most vocal members all know each other. There is nothing wrong with these posts and I am certainly not trying to discourage them, I’m just trying to explain why some people may not be interested in participating in the forums.
[*]Solution 2: Same as my solution #2 for expired memberships.

In general, if we want the membership to expand, there has to be some reason for people to want to belong.

[This message has been edited by bnb (edited 01-21-2005).]

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