Geocaching Grant

[Timberline Echoes]

Three area chambers did get a $14,700 grant; Boulder Junction, Rhinelander and St. Germain. According to the newspaper they will be having a geocaching event from March 1 through May 31, 2007 called “The Great North Woods Treasure Hunt”.

We will post info as we find out about it… not sure who is helping them organize it.
Timberline Echoes

[Decrepit]

Here is a link to a newspaper article about it.

http://rhinelanderdailynews.com/articles/2006/10/30/news/news05.txt

[kbraband]

It will be interesting to see what kind of geocache hides they come up with. With some financial backing, maybe there will be more than just nicked-up golf balls and band-aids in a drive-up cache. 😆

[benny7210]

HEY wait a minute here…I use the nicked up golf balls and also the band-aids…… NO just kidding 😆

[elfdoctors]

Is it possible to find out how they were awareded such a grant? Would it be possible to get similar grants for other parts of the state?

[Timberline Echoes]

Quote from the article “The JEM program assists non-profit tourism organizations by providing funds to help advertise events, sales promotions and destination marketing projects. So far…. the program has awarded $448,286 to 19 projects. The state funds up to 75% of the project’s first year of advertising and marketing costs. Additional support may be available for the second and thrid years of the porject.”

Proposals are submitted to WI Dept. of Tourism…. For more info contact Abbie Hill 608-261-6272

[Lostby7]

Has there been any more news on this event? I’m trying to plan some spring / summer activities and really want this to be part of my plans…

[Timberline Echoes]

We received a letter from Trisha at the Rhinelander Chamber a couple weeks ago informing us that the first meeting for doing the planning will be held this Tues. Jan. 9th at 10 a.m. in Boulder Junction at the Community Center. Anyone that wants to help or give them some input is welcome to attend.

The newspaper article said the event would run from March 1-May 31 if that helps in making your plans.

If you want more info on the event itself you could ask at http://www.rhinelanderchamber.com although we doubt if they have any to give yet.

We won’t be attending the first meeting because Cathy’s dad needs to have two heart valves replaced and she is taking him to Wausau for all the pre-op stuff on Tues.

Timberline Echoes

[2_Stand]

My wife and I went to the geocaching meeting at the Boulder Junction Community Center. There were representatives from the Boulder Junction, St. Germain, and Rhinelander Chambers of Commerce, businesses, and geocachers. We met with Lynn from the marketing bureau coordinating the project.
The chamber and business people were curious to learn more about geocaching, and it was fun to share my knowledge with an enthusiastic group.
It seems the goal is to build up the geocaching presence in the Northwoods by placing new caches in these communities; through a coordinated effort, making us an attractive destination for current geocachers, and getting current visitors involved in our sport. We’re looking at creating Travel Bugs and/or coins related to the Northwoods. We’re looking at coordinating an influx of “treasure” (possibly weatherproof coupons for local businesses) through the contributions of chamber member businesses.

[Buy_The_Tie]

A word of caution….

The guidelines for geocaching.com state:

@Geocaching.com Guidelines wrote:

Commercial caches attempt to use the Geocaching.com web site cache reporting tool directly or indirectly (intentionally or non-intentionally) to solicit customers through a Geocaching.com listing. These are NOT permitted. Examples include for-profit locations that require an entrance fee, or locations that sell products or services.

If there are any questions about this, e-mail your local reviewer ([email protected]).

[2_Stand]

Our group’s intent is not to associate the geocaches with commercial enterprises. We intend to promote our area as a quality destination for geocaching, by improving the volume of quality geocaches in our three communities (maybe 5 or 6 each). The caches will be in traditional geocaching locations of various difficulty levels. The geocachers who find caches in our area may be treated to a discount coupon or Northwoods keepsake, along with his or her happy meal toys and nicked-up golf balls.

[Decrepit]

This sounds simlar to the Chippewa Valley event last year. In the 98+ degree weather, it was a welcomed find when there was a coupon for some A&W rootbeer. 😛

[Team Deejay]

re: Tie’s Comment

It is important to realize that virtually ALL geocaching has a tourism component. After all, how many people go to a location to geocache and end up spending money on food, lodging, gas, and other miscellaneous items in the area? I would think virtually everyone who geocaches more than 10 miles from their home. When we place geocaches, we are acting to promote tourism for the area of the hide, intentionally or not.

I don’t see this situation as “a commercial cache”. Its not like they are talking about putting caches in stores and restaurants, or even on the property of local businesses. They are talking about using the presence of Geocaches in the area to promote visits to the region. IMNSHO, this is a perfect way for us to ingratiate ourselves with the local PTBs, so that they percieve geocaching as a net plus for their community. These positive impressions will go a long way toward averting problems (and outright bans) when some knucklehead reports a match holder as a potential bomb or when a hider mistypes the coordinates in their listing and we have a half dozen people searching for caches on private land. For my money, anything we do which makes a positive impression on the local community is a plus for geocaching. If someone sells an extra hamburger or rents an additional motel room in the process, no harm is done.

[Buy_The_Tie]

@2_Stand wrote:

Our group’s intent is not to associate the geocaches with commercial enterprises. We intend to promote our area as a quality destination for geocaching, by improving the volume of quality geocaches in our three communities (maybe 5 or 6 each). The caches will be in traditional geocaching locations of various difficulty levels. The geocachers who find caches in our area may be treated to a discount coupon or Northwoods keepsake, along with his or her happy meal toys and nicked-up golf balls.

No problems there, just wanted to get in front of the problem of the geocache placed inside of the local souvenir store.

[2_Stand]

Thanks for your interest. We’ll keep updating as our plans progress. Any helpful advice is appreciated.

[Author]

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