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knowing that about half of the board can potentially change each year, there are obviously areas of attention that receive less attention than others depending on where the group focus is for that period.
What areas of the association and of geocaching should the BOD focus on for the following year?
Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
Good question!
Since I am biased on outdoor ethics with my activities with Leave No Trace, I feel education should be a top priority. I feel that we should offer some sort of outdoor ethic education at various events, esp at geo101’s, CITO’s, and the Spring Campout. Outdoor ethics education can be threefold: 1. It will aid to appreciation for preserving our lands that we cache on, 2. it can help prevent future negative impacts that we cause, and 3. It can better our impressions that the public have on us.
Geocaching is a hobby that has exploded these past 5 years and is continuing to expand. Each year, our membership grows, the amount of new caches grows, and the impacts that we cause grows as well. I know most cachers on WGA is conservation minded on how we cache, but we all, including myself, can improve. Also, reaching out to new cachers and educating them on outdoor ethics can and will go a long way!
Education!
Over the years we have seen more and more restrictions on where we can place caches, (City restrictions, park restrictions, etc) I think more time should be spent on working with communities to lessen restrictions on cache placements. Communities need to realize that geocaching is a activity that brings people and $$$ to the area and restrictions just sends us elsewhere to caching.
Overall we need to get some statewide exposure for our sport and group in general.sweetlife,
In addressing the Parks & Recreation Depts,
I have led a conference session, a pre-conference seminar (see GC1H8TT) and a workshop for Park Directors about geocaching in the past.It is early enough this year that I could apply to do the same at the 2013 Wisconsin Park & Recreation Association’s conference which will be held in Green Bay in November.
Looking at previous posts, I’d have to agree with sweetlife. I think an area that deserves a lot of attention from the board would have to be education. Not only for our new and current WGA members and local geocachers, but for our communities as well. Working to educate the Parks & Rec Dept. and fellow everyday ordinary people. Well out geocaching I almost always come across someone inquiring on what it is I’m doing wondering around with a GPS in hand. They usually always respond with “Oh that’s pretty cool, I’ve never heard of it”. It’s those experiences that really make me think that education has to be a top priority.
Education should be priority; however public education, I feel, is a must. Being that our sport can have negative publicity, we need to try to counter that with knowledge through media outlets, such as TV and printed media. This can further help us show professionals in law enforcement, land management, and environmental fields what a geocache is and is not.
I always thought education and awareness for public and internal. Letting people know what we are doing makes for a less creepy aspect for them. Working on our own manners stops us from causing PR and other problems that would lead to the disruption of our game. Judging from the previous responses, I think that’s where we’ll focus no matter which of us you choose. Good question and I’m rather glad the candidates agree on this aspect.
I’m going to join in with the others and say Education!
Being a broad topic, you can’t go wrong.
Education (in my order of importance) with the communities. After first starting playing the game in “Stealth” mode, I now think it’s better for geocching if we let others know what we are doing. Clueing them into might lead them to still think we are weird but better than making them think we are dangerous.
This plays into working/educating local authorities on our sport to guarantee we can continue to play this outdoors adventure game without losing out on parks, forests, etc due to the misinterpretation on what we are doing.
Lastly, we need to offer guidance to new players on etiquette so they don’t find themselves in awkward predicaments (police situations, perceived damage to property,etc.). The better everyone understands geocaching, the better off we all will be while we are out playing.
Following the signals from space.
Education if fine but the thing that I feel is needed is promotion through the print and TV media…especially large events where people could come to just learn about Geocaching.
The Commander
labrat_wr
I think our first step needs to be a revisit of the organizational by-laws. Are we as an organization following what we are saying we are doing?
I have always been a huge advocate for geo education. I started with my Geo 101 classes and am now also working with local geocachers to put on Geo 201 classes as well.
AuntieNae
I would also say education, I have been stopped by the police, sherrif, DNR, security gaurds while I’m out and about geocaching, and many of them have no idea what geocaching is…I almost always have a WGA T-shirt on while caching and keep some printouts to show to LEOs to help explain about geocaching to them, after that I usaually don’t have a problem then, Heck Ive even had a few of them turn on their spot lights to help look for and see what it is I’m looking for.
Thank you,
Tim Saavedra
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