This topic contains 10 replies, has 9 voices, and was last updated by 
Walkingadventure 10 years, 6 months ago.
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I live in Merrill, WI. I have been caching on my own for about 2 years, before that, I cached with my dad. Anyways, I find it really sad that the closest events I have been to have been in Mosinee and Shawno. Both at least half an hour away. Would there be enough interest to hold an event in the Merrill/Tomahawk area? I am thinking about early spring, I do have a few locations in mind. I am just wondering if there would be interest. Let me know. Thanks!
Happy Caching!
good question. I am about 70 miles from Merrill and 95 from Tomahawk but I have gone as far as Wausau for a CITO so it is hard to say how far is too far to travel for an event if you have the time and want to go. Putting out feelers here is a good idea and I hope you do have some interest. Best bet would be to make the plan and submit the event. If you get enough interest, move forward, if not, you have the right to cancel the event. It would depend on the magnitude of the event. simple meet and greet events really don’t need that many participants to make it worthwhile.
Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
Not to steal this thread (we have a different thread just for that), but to piggyback it…I was also thinking of hosting a spring event, but didn’t want to conflict with the usual CITO events. I see the highway pickup is 4/25. There is usually one Saturday that there are CITOs all over the state. Has that date been chosen? And if you feel like commenting here, what is the opinion on Sunday afternoon/evening events? I don’t see many on Sundays and wondered if it is typically a family/church/sports day and an event wouldn’t be well-attended.
Depending on the timing, you can expect cachers from Wausau, Tomahawk and even Rhinelander to show up at an event in Merrill.
I have three kids so I often have scheduling conflicts but if there are no baseball games or high school activities, I would happily make the trip! It was nice to meet you yesterday, it would be fun to get together and chat at your event.
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
… and even from Eau Claire. 🙂
The first thing in hosting an event is to think what would work for you. Then you can start to think what would work for others… Daytime? Evening? Outdoors? Indoors? Meet&Greet? Instructional? Games? Long? Short? Lots of food? Just snacks? Bring/buy your own? As far as new caches go, you don’t have to put out any unless you want to; people who come to your event can find ones that are already in the area, or they can find them on their way to/from the event.
We don’t mind traveling distances to events as long as the roads are good and they don’t involve much night driving, unless we plan to stay overnight. Other cachers have other preferences. Smaller events don’t often attract large crowds, so it may be a way to have all of your caching neighbors get to know each other a bit more. Larger established events draw people from all over… but often at the expense of getting the chance to talk to everyone who comes.
Check out the events calendar on the home page (and others) on this WGA website. Choose a day for your event when it appears that not much else is going on, at least in your area. Or put on an event when a lot is going on (like CITOS or souvenir events), but nothing in your area. People will come to those, but they may not stay as long as at a regular event. As for Sundays, Amita17, you would have to know the cachers in your area. Definitely stay away from church time in the morning (and evenings for some), but afternoons might draw some people… unless there is a Packers game and there are no TVs at your event site! 😉
Another thing to do for an event is to see if your area has some kind of festival or other things that people might want to do if they came to your area at a certain time of year, and then have a small event that highlights/complements the town activity. That way cachers can get to know what else there is to do in the area, and they might keep coming back.
Most of all, prepare well, but prepare for any result. If things change for you or there appears to be no interest in your event as the day gets closer (many people wait to make their plans), you can always cancel… but sometimes sitting around chatting with just a handful of people can be just as fun. Non-events are happening all the time when cachers run into each other or make plans to go caching together. One thing nice about geocaching: You always have something to talk about!
Well said Pat!
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
We’ve been hosting get togethers this winter at different area eateries. One for each weekday evening, with a 5:30 start time so most who are working can stop on their way home. We weren’t sure what kind of turn out we’d get when we started, but we’ve been getting between 15-20 folks each time. This week is our fourth such gathering. It takes almost no effort beyond writing up the cache listing and then asking for a head count a few days before to reserve tables. It’s been fun to have dinner with people and believe it or not, share other things about ourselves with each other when we do. We’ve been discovering all kinds of new things about local cachers we thought we knew fairly well, so that’s been a lot of fun.
Sometimes people think they have to go to a lot of effort to create amazing events, and that’s fun, too. Just keep in mind that as others have said, sometimes the most amazing events can be the most relaxing and enjoyable. If you try something fairly simple to start, you can take all the great suggestions already offered here and build on it. One thing to keep in mind is that when listing an event, you can’t indicate that going caching will be part of it. Strange, I know. The reviewers can help work around that if you do want to include something like that. Good luck! It’s always great to see newer cachers becoming involved here!
I for one would like to attend an event which is local for me. Merrill is only like 30 miles away. For me the time and day will determine if I’ll be able to attend. A big or small event each has there pros and cons.
Has that (CITO) date been chosen?
April 25th, 26th weekend is the official Spring CITO weekend.
Following the signals from space.
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