[Jeremy]

@kweejee wrote:

Have you thought of making the GPS files available online the morning of the event so some people can skip that part when they get there?

OK, I brought this up at the last planning meeting on Wednesday. After some discussion, it became obvious that it would be a logistical nightmare to make the file available online exactly at 6:30. (Basically the Chamber of Commerce does not take care of or have direct access to files on the wbchamber.org or westbendcache.com websites.)

However, we will make the raw GPX file available to folks at the event, so if you want to grab it on a memory stick or something and load your GPS units and PDAs the way you normally do with a Pocket Query, that is an option. Also, if you ask me really nice, I can also email it to you around 6:30 (I say around because I’m sure I’ll be pretty busy that morning!).

[Jeremy]

@zuma wrote:

will you be able to upload POI to the nuvi?

Yes, we will support loading the new cache data via the Garmin POI Loader.

The data will be plain vanilla, just waypoint code, cache name, coords. There will be no custom icons, alerts, or extra cache info squirreled in the comment field, unless someone can convince me that there is a way to do these fancy things that everyone would like and that would confuse no one.

[Jeremy]

@Team Hemisphere Dancer wrote:

@Team Hemisphere Dancer wrote:

Now will there be palms available to beam the cache pages to mine?

Is there an answer to this?

Yes, there will be Palm / PDA beaming of CacheMate data for the 50 new caches.

I thought this was stated on the cache page, but it apparently was left off or removed since the last time I looked.

[Jeremy]

If you are still not convinced that it is worth the time/effort/cost/gas to make the trip to West Bend for this event, just watch this TV ad airing on certain local cable TV providers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgeA3p-OriU

If that is not enough, you may also hear commericials about the event on your favorite radio station.

We’ll see how these work and may switch to you will go to the Cache Ba$h subliminal messages the Cache Ba$h is cool if we think we need to boost the attendance a bit more. 🙂

[Jeremy]

@kweejee wrote:

Have you thought of making the GPS files available online the morning of the event so some people can skip that part when they get there?

Good question. I am not in charge of this event (just a tiny cog in a giant event organizing machine), so I don’t know if this would fly, but I will ask.

If the GPX file with the cache information was made available online, I’m sure it would be at 6:30am the day of the event (the same time GPS downloads start), and not a second earlier. Would this help you out? Because there is a raffle associated with finding the new caches, we need to make sure no one can get a “head start”.

[Jeremy]

@cheezehead wrote:

@Jeremy wrote:

1. All regional WGA events need to be approved by a majority vote of the WGA Board of Directors. Approved regional events shall be allowed to use the WGA name and logo in advertising and in the cache page listing. Regional events must include “WGA” or “Wisconsin Geocaching Association” in the event name, with the remainder of the name dependent on the event location and nature of the event. The words “campout” and “picnic” cannot be used in the name of the event.

HUH? 😕 😕
And the reason for this would be……..???

Yes, the reason for this rule was to avoid confusion with our annual statewide events. But on second thought, it may be excessively restrictive.

We always specifically brand the statewide WGA events as Geo-Picnic (tm :D) and Geo-Campout. So I think there would be no confusion if we specifically excluded the use of those, plus required “Regional” to be used if “Picnic” or “Campout” were also in the name.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[Jeremy]

Here is the complete text of the regional events policy. It is long and boring so I wanted to keep it out of my initial post. 🙂 The latest version of the policy will be maintained in the wiki.

WGA Regional Events Policy

Whereas the Wisconsin Geocaching Association is interested serving the interests of geocachers everywhere within the state of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Geocaching Association would like to encourage the development of regional WGA events. Therefore the WGA has developed the following policy to define regional WGA events and outline rules regarding how they are approved and executed.

1. All regional WGA events need to be approved by a majority vote of the WGA Board of Directors. Approved regional events shall be allowed to use the WGA name and logo in advertising and in the cache page listing. Regional events must include “WGA” or “Wisconsin Geocaching Association” in the event name, with the remainder of the name dependent on the event location and nature of the event. The words “campout” and “picnic” cannot be used in the name of the event.

2. WGA regional events can be held any time during the year desired, except during the month of May and the month of September (to avoid conflicts with the existing state-wide WGA events).

3. WGA regional events must include at least one Board of Director member in the planning of the event (a Board member sponsor). The chief planner does not need to be a member of the Board of Directors, but should be an individual trusted by the Board to plan an event in the best interests of the WGA and geocachers in their region.

4. Regional events shall be allowed to use any and all existing WGA equipment for the event, with the event organizers responsible for transport.

5. Regional events will be listed on geocaching.com using the Wisconsin Geocaching Association user account. The Board member sponsor will be responsible for creating the event cache listing and will handle all updates to it. Regional events shall conform to all the guidelines set forth for WGA events by the WGA Board of Directors.

6. Requests for WGA regional events can be made by any WGA member by submitting a written proposal to the Board of Directors. (Submissions can be made electronically via email or private message to any Board member.) Required information in a WGA regional event proposal include:

– Date of event
– Location of event
– Description of event
– Estimated attendance
– Board member sponsor(s)
– Names of other WGA members helping with the event
– Necessary equipment or promotional support (GPS download equipment, online registration system, nametags, mention in email newsletter, etc.)
– A budget of all anticipated expenses for the event (see below)

7. Those planning a WGA regional event will submit a proposed budget for the event as part of the written proposal. The budget should describe any anticipated use of WGA funds in detail. WGA funds may be requested for things like shelter reservations and supplies; however it is not necessary that this be done. Smaller regional events that have no expenses or do not wish to use WGA funds may note this in their proposal in lieu of a formal budget. All funds collected at any WGA regional event will be forwarded to the WGA Treasurer for placement in the general WGA fund.

8. Proposals for WGA regional events must be made at least 4 weeks in advance, and ideally 8 weeks in advance, of the proposed event date. Proposals for events scheduled in less than 4 weeks from the submission date will not be considered for approval. The Board reserves the right to not consider proposals submitted less than 8 weeks prior to the date of the event.

9. Organizers and planners of WGA regional events will be asked to submit a short summary after the event. This post event debriefing should include what went well, what could have gone better, how many people attended, what lessons were learned for next time, and how WGA goals were furthered by the event. The post event debriefing should also include a final accounting of expenses and revenue from all sources if WGA funds were used.

[Jeremy]

@Team Deejay wrote:

By doing the same fuzzy math on both of Cheesehead Dave’s submissions (exactly the same but a different color) had 86 votes and Jacey’s two submissions (exactly the same but a different color) had 84 votes.

Dave, I think you are getting confused by the fact that results for two separate referendums (first round and second round) are reported in the original post above. At no time did people have the ability to choose from two Cheesehead Dave logos or two Jacey logos. However there were some other “similar but different” logo designs to vote on in the first round. I’m sure this somewhat diluted votes for these folks, but it was their choice to submit multiple designs.

[Jeremy]

After some heated discussion, the Board has chosen a “stylized g” logo that we think all Wisconsin geocachers will be satisfied with. As an added bonus, merchandise featuring this logo is readily available in stores and some geocachers may already own it (some people, like green&gold, have more than others :)). And there is a good chance you can pick up something with the new WGA logo (and a French verb starting with F meaning “to waffle”) on clearance or at a garage sale in the near future.

[Jeremy]

@hoppe2findyou wrote:

thanks for the feedback – it looks like I am going to be “hope2findyou” from now on – not a big change, but I think enough to do the trick. I emailed geocaching.com – I haven’t gotten a response yet, but I’m confident they will change the name for me.

Could some people still get the wrong idea from “hope2findyou” (though it is better because it does not include any part of your name). Like you are hoping to find a special someone through geocaching? I believe this is partially why the “Lonesome” was shortened to “L” in LDove?

How about “not_interested”, “buzz_off”, or “take_a_hike_bozo”? 🙂

[Jeremy]

@PassingWind wrote:

Did you really have to post that picture of me hanging out in the WGA server room? ❓ That part of WGA headquarters is supposed to be off-limits… obviously someone did not confiscate your digital camera when you took the tour.

[Jeremy]

Creepy… it does sounds like this guy who approached you was searching for a different type of “find”.

When you get your name changed on geocaching.com (they are open to doing this if your username reveals too much about who you are in real life or if you feel you are being geo-stalked, both of which would apply in this case), shoot me a PM or email so I can change it on the WGA site.

[Jeremy]

Congrats Tami, Wade, and gang on this big milestone. These are some huge numbers… at what point do the geocaching.com servers start smoking and crash when people view the list of found caches in your profile? 😉

They’ve found about 4.3% of the geocaches in the US (assuming no caches have been archived, which is not true). Which seems like a tiny number, but many people here don’t have 4.3% of caches in Wisconsin complete!

[Jeremy]

@Trudy & the beast wrote:

@Jeremy wrote:

You should have grabbed the Badger State Challenge – 72 Counties (GC15WT3) cache on your way back down from the northwoods. 😉

OK..
We can’t resist. We will be there Saturday.. Noonish
😀

Shoot… I’m in the area this weekend but already have plans for Saturday noonish.

As T&B said, definitely check out in the other caches in same park, especially Thanks Kurt & Marg! (GCH1FQ). The new Levis Mound cache would not be too far away either (GC1DC9T). I hope you don’t DNF the Challenge cache after driving all that way. Since you’ve found a variety of difficult caches all across the state, finding an ammobox in the woods should be a breeze, right? 😉 (Just teasing Marc… seriously I hope the cache isn’t MIA.)

[Jeremy]

@EnergySaver wrote:

You are RIGHT … that the cache names are showing by they are not currently “linked” … I think some WGA human has to do that, and has not gotten to it yet.

Ron is right, normally these COTM nominee names are linked to the cache page, but this is a manual process. I should probably make a change to allow the links to be automatically set up if a GC code is provided when a cache is nominated.

The search on the geocaching.com home page is a Google search of the gc.com site and is pretty much useless for finding caches. You are better off using the Keyword search on the Hide & Seek A Cache page. Or the geocaching.com search on the WGA site is great because it is “smart” about what type of search you are doing… it will take keywords, waypoint codes, zip codes, the names of cities, etc.

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