Does the WGA adequately represent the entire state?

[gotta run]

Feel free to elaborate on this yes/no question, or not. Or just feel free!

On the Left Side of the Road...

[K0rpl]

In general, yes, I do think the WGA does represent the entire state of Wisconsin. Yes, Alot of our events are in the southern regions due to population density. We have had events further north, and they were less attended because people do not want to travel that far from home. We voted at board meeting, to move the Two main Events around to the Four quadrants of the state, and this will help to get more people involved from the four corners of our state.

We are always looking for members to help out with the Events that the WGA Puts on.

[labrat_wr]

Does the WGA adequately represent the entire state?

Clarification may be necessary…
Does the WGA BOD adequately represent the entire state? That is a bit difficult to say exactly. Geographically, the current BOD is a bit concentrated in the southeast where perhaps the number of WGA registered cachers is higher anyway, while up nort’ is lacking on BOD representation as well as numbers of WGA registered cachers (please correct me if I am mistaken on the number of cachers).

Does the WGA General Membership adequately represent the entire state? Well, there are 983 active members and 4127 registered users. While I don’t know what constitutes an active member, there are a lot of us out there and the number is growing.
In the next year, I would work with the Membership committee to encourage those who are not involved in the WGA to become involved. That can only make the organization stronger. Thus far, the WGA has been able to sustain its operation through donation, therefore eliminating the need for dues. through increased membership, a little from many can help continue that there are no dues to pay. The WGA has recognized the need to spread out the WGA sponsored events throughout the state and hope that this vision will continue.

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[Team Deejay]

I guess my answer would be the WGA represents the entire state as well as possible. The reality is that our membership seems to be concentrated in SE part of the state, so naturally there will be more interest in activities in that region. That said, the board seems to make significant effort to have events in a wide variety of locations, and, of course, the website is available to all, regardless of location. I’m not really sure what else can be done to improve on this.

[thepharmgirl]

Q: Does the WGA adequately represent the entire state?

A: I think the WGA does its best to attempt this, especially with the new “quadrant” formula to spread its events to four different areas of the state. Unfortunately, some regions have not seen a strong WGA presence for various reasons. When planning events, I would assume the board has to factor in such things as suitable facilities and more importantly, a strong showing of local volunteers. To rally more volunteering individuals in these areas, we really need to recruit them to the WGA and get them active and excited about this association.

Q: Does the WGA BOD adequately represent the entire state?

A: Geographically? No. Does it need to? It would be nice (says the girl from the overabundant southeast region). But I’d also argue that Board representation is more than location. It’s how you represent all members in general, and how you listen and respond to the concerns of the members in each region, and how you can contribute to the organization and geocaching in general, and the amount of time and effort you will put into your responsibilities.

[-cheeto-]

There are some vocal members that remind us that they feel the WGA does not represent the entire state of Wisconsin. Personally, I cannot answer this question with facts because I don’t live in all parts of the state.

As a Board Member, I would like to work with some of those members (if they’re willing to help) to better determine what they feel the issues are and how we could, as a group, improve this perception.

I agree, our current BOD’s decision to move around the primary events will help this in the long run, but is there more to this??

I still believe the BOD should have representatives from each of the regions of the state as outlined in our regional forums. I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before on a forum thread. However, have members from all regions stepped forward to run for the BOD? If not, how do we expect all regions to be well-represented if it were forced? It may be perceived to be an impossible mission for a member to be elected from the “minority regions” but you can’t win if no one hears you and your concerns in the first place.

Thanks again gotta run for the great questions you’ve posted.

[Averith]

I know that some members feel that the WGA is skewed toward SE Wisconsin, and in some ways I can see their point. The majority of our members live in the SE of the state so do many of the current BOD. Past events have been for the most part located more south and east then anywhere else in the state. I feel that the BOD has done the best it can in this area, only so much can be done when most of the members live in the SE quarter of the state.

[Team Black-Cat]

Being from central Wisconsin and not from the more populated East/South-East part of the state, I’ve not felt that we (cachers in Central Wisconsin) have been under represented by the WGA.
A lot of what the WGA does is “virtual”, so geography isn’t the big issue. As others have already said, we could do more regional events. These could be in any corner of the state, but would need to be planned primarily by local cachers.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

I have been one of the members in the past that has been very vocal on this topic.

I can not say where geographically the membership is, but just looking at where the larger population centers of the state are South Central and South East, and East side, I would say that is where the major part of our membership comes from. But there are members that are from all parts of the state. So in membership I would say that the state is well represented.

Now hearing that the quadrant system for events has been put in place, maybe this will help spread the events across the state. just depends where the dividing lines are set, quadrants could still be skewed and keep the events in the “southern” part of the state this could be done easily say using Highway 10 as the east/west dividing line instead of Highway 29 or Highway 64.

So my answer is on this the membership is adquately represented state wide, but the BOD and events held by WGA is lacking, but should get better with the new Quad system.

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