Question #1: Midwest Geobash

[zuma]

Since I, and all the other candidates running last year, had to answer a plethora of questions, I dont want this year’s candidates to miss the fun, so will start with a few questions for the candidates.

Question 1. What is your position on Midwest Geobash and trying to bring it to Wisconsin? What are you willing to do personally to bring Midwest Geobash, or another mega-event to Wisconsin?

[greyhounder]

Not sure if you wanted answers here or with our little blurbs, but I’ll put mine here:

I think Wisconsin would be a great place for Midwest Geobash! In fact, I have had a conversation with one of the organizers of the event about this. While at this time they are very happy with keeping MWGB in Ohio, moving it in the future is not out of the question. I would like to keep in contact with these folks, in case they do decide to move.

I also think having our own mega event is a great idea! I was just toying with the idea a little bit ago as I was recently contacted by a large venue in Wisconsin (a raceway many of you might know of) that would be interested in hosting us for an event. I would like to continue to pursue this venue as a possible mega event location. Personally, I am more than willing to continue to talk to this (or other) locations to bring such an event to fruition.

Bec

Whoops! I said the MWGB was in Ohio, but I meant Indiana (Kendallville). Thank goodness I knew where I was going when I went there last year!

[K0rpl]

I have to agree with Bec. I feel that Wisconsin, has plenty enough active cachers to pull off a mega event. I alos think having a mega event here would be great for the States Economy. I do know that there had been some talk about Bringing MWGB to Wisconsin, and I think this is a Great Idea. It will bring other cachers to our great state to visit some of our great caches.

Personally, I would help out in anyway that I am able to to see an event like this brough here.

Justin

[Lostby7]

Question 1. What is your position on Midwest Geobash and trying to bring it to Wisconsin? What are you willing to do personally to bring Midwest Geobash, or another mega-event to Wisconsin?
Well I’m sure this will stand as a dissenting opinion on this subject, but I’m not a huge fan of bringing it to Wisconsin. If the membership at large wants it to be brought here I would help with the planning in whatever way was asked of me but I will not make any attempts to bring it here outside of such a request.

Here’s why, and perhaps this is an unfounded concern. Like several of the BOD election candidates I too was at Geobash last year. What I saw first hand was a line of people streaming to all the local geocaches. For miles around from the event many caches had what can only be called a phenomenal number of finds. For example, GCYZVR had 145 finds on the 21st alone and 265 finds over the Geobash weekend. Personally I’m not so sure that the extra traffic to caches within say 20 miles of the event would be such a good thing. The extra traffic would no doubt cause damage and volunteer trails in wooded areas and at the very least raise the eyebrows of the neighbors for city hides. In either case I think this event actually poses a threat to local permissions due to the potential damage to parks.

The chance of local caches getting muggled increases greatly as Mr. and Mrs. Joe Public will see say 100 people walk over to a certain bush or lamp post. While I did not see any caches archived for this reason from my list of 100+ finds while at Geobash, it is a concern I have.

If I am elected to the board and it is decided that we need a mega-event I will help in the planning AND I will also work to see that caches in sensitive areas are closed for the weekend as well, but I will not actively attempt to bring such an event here without overwhelming support from the membership.

[Team Deejay]

I guess I am kind of ambivalent about this. I do think it would be fun, but it would take a huge volunteer effort to pull it off. Between organizing, operating and cleaning up after the event, you are probably talking about several thousand volunteer hours. Are there enough people interested to pull this off? I would suggest that we need to confirm this before anyone would commit to hosting a megaevent.

Additionally, I do share Gary’s concerns, depending on where the event would be held. Most non-urban hides and many urban hides are not suitable places to have 200-300 people visit on the same day. Think about some of the “cache meccas” in SE Wisconsin, such as Whitnall Park, Bong, Petrifying Springs/Parkside, etc. I think any of these would suffer significant trampling damage if we had that sort of volume in visits over a day or two. Again, I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it, but only that the location would need to be considered very carefully. The last thing we want to do is alienate our DNR/Parks Department partners.

[Jeremy]

As I stated in my position statement, I think the WGA should try to get the Midwest Geobash or another mega event held in the state. The “bait” we could use to attract such an event would be excellent locations and accommodations (big, beautiful state parks and many great private campgrounds), the promise of volunteer help from WGA members, and even some financial support/sponsorship.

If a mega event won’t come to us, then another option would be to create a mega event ourselves. But this can’t be just a WGA thing… if we held an event billed as a super mega regional event, it is likely it would NOT get many more attendees than a normal WGA campout or picnic.

However, with the help of neighboring geocaching organizations like GONIL, MnGCA, MiGO, and IGO, a decent mega event could be created. Maybe the first mega event wouldn’t be in Wisconsin, but there would be an agreement with the alliance to host one here in a future year. In my book, this is the way a mega regional event should be held anyway… geocachers from across the region should be involved in its planning and execution, and the location should move to different areas each year.

And yes, any mega event has the potential to cause damage to local caches and even to the reputation of local geocachers, but I believe this is something that we could work to mitigate. Therefore I don’t think this is large enough of a concern that it should cause us to keep mega events OUT of the state.

[AuntieNae]

[Buy_The_Tie]

I have not attended a mega-event.

That being said, I’m not so sure that holding a mega-event here would benefit the WGA or geocachers in Wisconsin. As Lostby7 has so eloquently brought to the discussion, it could present us with some more serious issues.

Although I probably wouldn’t vote against it, I would have a tough time fully supporting it.

[Author]

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