Cache Bash 2009 – suggestions?

[jerrys dad]

@Decrepit wrote:

@LDove wrote:

With an upcoming postbash meeting, I am going to suggest the following and would appreciate your thoughts and comments.

Since there were several e-mails to me personally about the ticket drawing, some complaints from cachers about being pushed out of the way, caches literally thrown on the ground because someone was in too much of a hurry to put it back, etc.. I came up with an idea.

Still shoot for 50 caches but – no more cache tickets. No more stamp cards.

Instead, each ADULT CACHER will receive 1 or 2 tickets at the start of the day when they register at Cache Central or possibly be eligible when they register on time. All prizes, will be eligible for the drawing. Treasure box will be kids prizes only, adult gifts rather than going into the treasure box will go into the main drawing.

This will accomplish several things. No more lines at 4:30 to check cards, no worries about people cheating or racing around causing problems, no concerns about stamps, stickers, code words. If people who are disabled feel they can’t get a more difficult cache, it is not unfair to them to not get a ticket. Everyone has a chance. Get as many caches as you want or don’t want to and set your own personal goals for the day and reward yourself with your own achievement.

I’m all for this!

Me Too! With little children and if my wife comes, somebody with arthritis, there would be less pressure to find all and a better chance of winning. Also she wouldn’t feel bad to quit in the middle and have us take her back to the hotel.

[Cachelovskys]

@Lostby7 wrote:

@thepharmgirl wrote:

Your odds of winning would go up. 1/800 instead of 1/ten-thousands. Plus, we’d add more prizes to the raffle.

What does everyone else think?

My odds would go down…very few folks found 50+ caches…for each team which didn’t, my odds were better. I like winning….I guess I’m shallow like that. But like I said, I’d still come whatever the format would be and I’d guess that would hold true for most folks.

But also consider that I might pop in at registration, go home, and come back later in the day to see if I won….no real incentive for me to hang out in town if I didn’t feel like it….

I have to side with Lostby7 on this one. I enjoy the competition. Why mess with a format that works, that made this event a MEGA?!? Reward those who go out and get all 50 or 51 or 52!! Just my two cents.

[LDove]

@Cachelovskys wrote:

@Lostby7 wrote:

@thepharmgirl wrote:

Your odds of winning would go up. 1/800 instead of 1/ten-thousands. Plus, we’d add more prizes to the raffle.

What does everyone else think?

My odds would go down…very few folks found 50+ caches…for each team which didn’t, my odds were better. I like winning….I guess I’m shallow like that. But like I said, I’d still come whatever the format would be and I’d guess that would hold true for most folks.

But also consider that I might pop in at registration, go home, and come back later in the day to see if I won….no real incentive for me to hang out in town if I didn’t feel like it….

I have to side with Lostby7 on this one. I enjoy the competition. Why mess with a format that works, that made this event a MEGA?!? Reward those who go out and get all 50 or 51 or 52!! Just my two cents.

If your odds of winning are better…wouldn’t that be a better reward? We would not be taking away how many caches you can find so the challenge is still there to see if you can get them all. 😀 Due to some circumstances surrounding the handing out of tickets which I will not go into here, this may have to be discontinued to be sure that this is fair for all. Some people want to cheat, and will find ways to cheat. Luckily, this year, a few people did not destroy this event for a large number of people based on their greed – but we don’t want it to happen either. We want this to be fun and fair for ALL who come.

[Lostby7]

I agree those who are dishonest will always find a way….how bout this:

Set up your 50 new caches (or whatever # you run with) and do not offer tickets for those finds, instead set up a number of check points around the city (probably less than 10…5 might be better). At these check points have a real person stamp a book or hand out a single ticket to each team. This face to face might eliminate some of the potential nonsense that goes on when greed rears it’s ugly head. The other plus to this is that the city is still explored and at a much more casual pace…additional money would likely also be spent in town….

I did the Urban Adventure Race in Madison last year and you needed to ride all over the city by bike and collect beads (given by real people) after performing a task (these were crazy things like swimming into the lake on huge inflatable ducks and bike limbo…but I digress). A couple of these checkpoints were mystery points which you had to figure out on your own…could add a neat twist…or encourage folks to mingle to figure out where these mystery spots are….

[LDove]

😀 😀 Cool idea. I guess I am being a dunderhead here – go ahead and say it. 😛 But… I’m not getting it.

If you want to win prizes, you still get that – even better – you get better odds. If you want to have the challenge of getting 50 caches – you still get that – we will have them. Is it the stamp page you want? I don’t see how having that stamp page enriches the game at all???? You still get to post your finds – they are permanent and you get your 50 smilies for the day, soooo I am not sure how the stamp page itself enriches the game/day/challenge????

[Lostby7]

@LDove wrote:

😀 😀 Cool idea. I guess I am being a dunderhead here – go ahead and say it. 😛 But… I’m not getting it.

If you want to win prizes, you still get that – even better – you get better odds. If you want to have the challenge of getting 50 caches – you still get that – we will have them. Is it the stamp page you want? I don’t see how having that stamp page enriches the game at all???? You still get to post your finds – they are permanent and you get your 50 smilies for the day, soooo I am not sure how the stamp page itself enriches the game/day/challenge????

….I’m not sure what it is about a stamp book, but the wife sure likes em filled with stamps…

But what I meant was no tickets for caches…tickets for visiting a few spots around town. This would encourage travel and spending . Those who chose to travel to these locations would get additional tickets for the drawing…those who don’t wish to do that would get the one or two tickets offered at the beginning of the day….but the whole point from the chambers POV is that people travel the city and spend $….without incentive to do that why would the chamber want to hold the event?

…and like I said I will come out with way more than 50 if there are no additional entries for caches…so for me it’s really a wash as to which way this goes….I do like smiles.

[LDove]

OK GOTTCHA, and not a bad idea! See these forums offer great tips!!! Our friend Pharmgirl always likes to cook up a good mystery…

[labrat_wr]

I’m thinking too, that if everyone recieved equal chances,the tickets should be filled out with Name/phone and have it as a no need to be present to win format. I do think that some people may not be able to stay for the entire day and why penalize them for that. Understandibly, some may register and go home, get the event attendance and a chance for the prizes, but I would hope that would be the exception and not the rule.

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[Decrepit]

And just a side note… I vote for hot pink bags for next year. It would look really nice with the green and yellow ones I already have. 😀 Not that I LIKE pink or anything. 😆

[bugsmasher69]

Why not do a combination of all the suggestions about tickets? Give the two out at the beginning, additional tickets for finding the checkpoints and for those who want the competition of finding all the caches put the stamps in the caches and then have additional prizes for most caches found, the quickest time, etc. etc.

[thepharmgirl]

As geocachers on the committee, we can certainly report back everything we’re reading in this forum. Keep in mind, however, that we are not the ones in charge of the event. We’re just the little helpers who hide the caches and help guide the Chamber in their decisions about what would make a good geocaching event. The Chamber of Commerce is ultimately running the show and all final decisions are theirs.

[thepharmgirl]

I can tell you that the Chamber feels strongly about NOT giving prizes for fastest time, etc, because they don’t want to encourage speeding or anything that could result in injury as a direct result of competition.

[Team Deejay]

I guess I’m not for this change. As someone who found exactly 25 caches, I suppose we were at “average” odds, but what makes this event special is the contest combined with new caches being published. The prizes are not the issue, but the contest itself. I really see no reason to tinker with success here. I didn’t hear of anyone cheating, but I suppose that happens. I’m pretty sure none of the winners were among the cheaters, so who cares? No harm, no foul.

I would say that there is too much time between the turn-in deadline and the drawing. If the deadline is at 4:30, have the drawing at 5.

[The Crippler]

I must agree with some of Lostbys comments. If you do not hand out tickets, or whatever with the new caches there is no reason to hide 50 new caches in my opinion. If I get 1 or 2 tickets at check in what is there to encourage me to go after all the brand new caches spread out over 25 square miles when I can just narrow my search and still bag 50-100? As an out-of-towner, there are plenty of caches within 3 square miles for me to get within a 10 hour period. Hiding the 50 new caches will really only be targeted by many of the locals who have found a great deal of the area caches already. There will be significantly less finds on the 50 new caches this way.

Another suggestion, at MWGB there was a “poker run” done in which the cacher was given coords to 7 different businesses in the area. At each business the cacher was able to pick a random barcoded number which represented a card. (There was NO possibility of cheating this way). Best hand and worst hand won prizes. This would accomplish many things, it would be an alternate activity, it would not take a great deal of time, it would get us visiting local businesses and socializing. The prizes could be GPS units or something larger associated with geocaching. Because it is controlled you could make the seven “finds” each eligible for a ticket to the drawing. At MWGB I made the stops coincide with my cache run for the day AND spent $ at 2 of the 7 places we stopped at. The businesses could each kick in for the big prize for winning the poker run, etc.

[thepharmgirl]

@The Crippler wrote:

I must agree with some of Lostbys comments. If you do not hand out tickets, or whatever with the new caches there is no reason to hide 50 new caches in my opinion. If I get 1 or 2 tickets at check in what is there to encourage me to go after all the brand new caches spread out over 25 square miles when I can just narrow my search and still bag 50-100? As an out-of-towner, there are plenty of caches within 3 square miles for me to get within a 10 hour period. Hiding the 50 new caches will really only be targeted by many of the locals who have found a great deal of the area caches already. There will be significantly less finds on the 50 new caches this way.

Another suggestion, at MWGB there was a “poker run” done in which the cacher was given coords to 7 different businesses in the area. At each business the cacher was able to pick a random barcoded number which represented a card. (There was NO possibility of cheating this way). Best hand and worst hand won prizes. This would accomplish many things, it would be an alternate activity, it would not take a great deal of time, it would get us visiting local businesses and socializing. The prizes could be GPS units or something larger associated with geocaching. Because it is controlled you could make the seven “finds” each eligible for a ticket to the drawing. At MWGB I made the stops coincide with my cache run for the day AND spent $ at 2 of the 7 places we stopped at. The businesses could each kick in for the big prize for winning the poker run, etc.

Cool idea… thanks! I’ve never been to a big event like MWGB or Geo-Woodstock, so it’s very helpful to hear these specific ideas.

[Author]

Posts