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Our tags are getting rather beat up but are still intact. However, getting a Raslas-made one-of-a-kind new nametag is too good to pass up!
Hack1of2 – John – Hack1of2
Hack1of2 – Kim – Hack1of2
Thanks Lois!
I’m not sure if there has been any significant decline in SE Wisconsin. Sure there are some people that slow down or fall off the grid (a bunch of them it seems lately), but I’m regularly seeing newer geocachers appear each year. One can only hope that those newer to the game will step up to become quality cache hiders, good log writers, environmentally aware, and WGA-involved. Time will tell.
There are a few things that I believe help sustain geocaching activity in our area.
First are the regularly-occurring BIG events that are on the calendar every year. They bring people together. They create excitement. Not only are there the WGA events that rotate locations throughout the state, but every January we have an excellent Waukesha Janboree geocaching event (15 years and counting), which features 30 to 66 fairly winter-friendly creative caches each year. There is also the annual West Bend Cache Ba$h mega-event each August (50 to 66 caches) in our neck of the woods. Every two years is the summer Waukesha County geocaching Road Rally with creative “tasks” and 20 to 30 caches for teams of 4 to 6 people.
Second, in addition to those anchor events, almost every year there is an epic team-building competition/geocache series, which brings people together and helps form friendships. Or a high-quality series of 20 to 40 caches with props and gimmicks. It generates a lot of buzz and a lot of FaceBook posts too. Some of those “competitions” in the past (which can last up to a year) have included a geo-hunger games, geo-survivor, geo-amazing race, etc. They afford opportunities for not only finding caches but getting to know others who share the same interest.
Third, living in a heavily populated area can lead to a greater amount of people learning about the game. Plus scouting and school groups in our area seem to find out about geocaching and introduce a whole new generation to the game.
I am convinced that one of the most important variables in the sustainability of long-term geocachers is relationships. Those who have a geocaching buddy or buddies to share the adventures with will more likely continue to enjoy geocaching. That’s not necessarily as easy for those who live in less populated areas or those who are introverts. To that extent I think that FaceBook and the WGA have been very helpful for many in that area. Of course it helps to have quality caches too (whether it’s the container or location or both), and Gwyn we LOVE finding your caches when we’re in your area!
Pretty sure it has to do with the BOD becoming familiar with one another and being able to discuss the year’s agenda without having any other distractions so it has been carried forth as such. The meeting is very, very long and there’s barely enough time to get through the agenda and member suggestions.
It’s at an undisclosed location that is safe and secure. Dawn have you chosen a designated survivor? 😉
I was happy today to come across a rare 2007 LosrzWeeprz pathtag. I’ve had for quite a while the 2007 pathtag from FindrzKeeprz, a local geocacher here in Wisconsin who became inactive four years ago. However, his twin brother on the east coast, LosrzWeeprz, rarely went geocaching, stopped geocaching in 2012, and only had 19 finds total. Not too many have the pathtag from both brothers!
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.OK let’s try this again. I tried to edit my post a few seconds after I posted it and now it’s gone! Two topics I’ve been pondering, here goes.
In the WGA’s current state, additional fundraising is not necessary, and could compromise future fundraising activities if the need arises. If the membership demands change in a way that the WGA finds a need to spend more money, then more money will have to be raised to support these activities. Keeping unique sources of revenue in our back pocket for times of need is a good idea.
My reservation is; what kind of funds will they bring in if they are offered along side all other memorabilia at the events? Attendees will be purchasing shirts and hats, geocoins and bison tubes; which could surely add up to one’s budgeted event expenditures very quickly. Where will the purchase of the pathtags fit in there? Maybe it would be best to offer these as an online sale during a certain time period, other than to compete for sales along with all the other goodies at the events?
Perhaps I’m thinking in a slightly different way than others regarding pathtags (and geocoins) as a fundraiser. The WGA creates a new pathtag almost every year anyway. This is nothing new. I’m suggesting that in the future, when creating a pathtag, MARKET IT as a both a fundraiser and as a memento (on the FB page, on the WGA website, on the pathtag page). Currently we’re pretty much marketing pathtags as simply a token for whatever year or event it is commemorating. As shown in the examples from previous posts, simply communicate that one of the reasons for the pathtags is to raise funds to support the organization. Perhaps even offer a quantity discount. It could be $3 each, 10 for $25, 20 for $40, or whatever. If communicated as a way of raising funds, I bet a bunch would pony up the money and buy a batch of them, and in turn drop them into caches to help do their part to promote the WGA. It would be a unique way for those especially not on the board to do what they can do to support the WGA. Have you ever bought a fundraiser raffle ticket to support an event or cause? Often they’re sold as $x each or 5 for $x. You buy more that way. And when the raffle is over you discard the tickets, but with extra pathtags that people buy they could be used as swag to put into caches; they even fit into film containers. :-). So I’m not proposing we go out of our way to produce extra pathtags as a fundraiser, instead what I am suggesting is that when we do produce the next pathtag, put on our marketing hats like so many other geocaching associations have done to increase sales and awareness of their organizations, by mentioning it is a way to raise funds for the organization.
Topic #2: Facebook
Social media has been brought up before, even in this year’s Candidates Corner discussions, but not quite focused on the issue of Facebook PAGE versus Facebook GROUP. I’m just throwing it out there for discussion. The WGA currently has a Facebook PAGE, meaning that only the WGA moderators can post a new message. It’s one-way communication, like what a business would have to advertise sales and product information. Others can then respond to the messages, but they cannot start a message or create a photo album at the site. On the other hand, there are Facebook GROUPS, such as Coulee Region Geocachers, Wild Bunch Geocachers, Geocachers Guild, Geocachers in Wisconsin, Fox Valley Geocachers, NE Wisconsin Geocachers, etc. (I might not have their exact names listed). Facebook GROUPS allow members to post and initiate messages. Two-way communication. If the WGA were to have a Facebook group rather than a Facebook page, it could lead to a much higher participation rate. Instead many go to the smaller FB groups where their messages are posted instantly. I wonder if those groups would have ever even come into existence if the WGA had set up a GROUP rather than a PAGE. Just a topic for your consideration.
This is one of the few weekends in which we don’t have anything planned during the day and DON’T plan on finding any geocaches. Unless of course an FTF opportunity arises…
Anyone else use the USPS Informed Delivery? Email shows scanned mail so you know what’s coming.
I started using USPS informed delivery several months ago, great idea! I order a lot of things from online stores and trade a lot of pathtags via the mail, so I like the fact that I get a daily email from the U.S. postal service with a scanned image of each piece of mail that is getting delivered. I did have one pathtag that did not get delivered even though the sender claimed they sent it, but that was a few weeks before I started getting informed delivery. It probably got put in the wrong mailbox or less likely a USPS employee could have stolen it. The sender had thousands of trades and has high credibility. Almost every week we get mail erroneously delivered to us that belongs to a neighbor. Informed delivery would alert us if something was not delivered to us that should have been.
More suggestions:
Geocache Log Photo of the Year – Picture must be from an online geocache log; it makes it more closely tied to geocaching (but no spoilers?)
Geocache Log of the Year – It could make for some fun and interesting reading, and might inspire people to write more creative logsCOMMITTEES I had no idea that these committees existed. I’ve heard talk of committees being formed for purposes such as those listed above. The post above provides a link to a cache which focuses on the committees set forth in the Bylaws. I then looked through the Bylaws which are provided on this website and found nothing referencing those committees. Maybe I overlooked them somewhere??? Getting more involvement from the members in such things as committees, would be great, but if they have no idea where to find the information the rate of volunteering will remain low.
If you look in the ANNOUNCEMENTS forum topic, it contains all of the WGA announcements and board minutes going all the way back to the WGA beginnings in 2002. Those WGA board minutes, even from year 2002, are still there. Every February they are/were posted. The 2/22/2009 board minutes have the complete text of all committees. This illustrates why having long-term members on the board can be so important. If every board member serves two years and is then done, I think the WGA can lose touch with its history and experiences with member turnover (even though the history is buried in the board forums). Thank you to all board members that are serving even just one term – I’m thankful for all of you – and I recognize that those that serve multiple terms of office provide a continuity that is valued (at least by me) by me in a unique way!
Create a topic on the WGA website for people to post their 2019 geocaching goals, with a drawing for one lucky winner to receive a one-year premium membership to geocaching (or something else, but a premium membership would be optimal). Not only would it be fascinating reading, but would drive traffic to the WGA website. It could also be posted on FB with a link to the WGA website.
This isn’t a comment on trends but rather a comment addressing disappearing caches. Living in Milwaukee County, there are over 1 million
peoplemuggles that live here, and the likelihood of a cache being found by muggles increases. If it’s true that a number of them disappear because muggles find them and don’t know or understand what they are, one really should have a label on the outside of the cache clearly identifying it as a geocache, and a note of explanation inside the cache explaining what geocaching is all about. We’ve had many instances in which muggles found our caches and signed the log book because they read our explanation card and put the cache back. In one case, the DNR called us to pick up our cache because someone found it and turned it in – the ranger read the explanation inside, called us because we had our contact info inside (plus they had a permission application from us on file), so we could return it back to the field.
That’s odd, my post disappeared.
January 2019 update. We’re now up to 103 known Wisconsin-based geocachers that have created a pathtag, past and present. Shown here is one from each of them. Can you think of any other Wisconsin geocachers or geocaching teams missing from the list?
How did I miss page 1,000?
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