[Jeremy]

I would go along with any efforts to change the logo.

When I proposed the logo eons ago, I figured eventually someone would come up with something better and I am kind of surprised it has lasted this long. Though I don’t quite get the arguments about the current logo looking dated or childish… I intentionally tried to make it as generic as possible, thinking that GPS devices and ammo cans would always be a part of the sport.

I would rather see an enhancement or “freshening” of what we have now rather than a completely new design. If a radical change is made, we need to think about purging the old logo from many places… replacing 100s of laminated name tags, buying a new banner and fixing other signs we use at events, making sure no old versions exist on the website, etc. So there is a cost to making a logo change.

[Jeremy]

Yes to a 2008 Wisconsin geocoin… it should be an annual thing.

Yes, the coin selection process employed in the past where everyone voted for the design should continue to be used… maybe with the addition of a runoff election between the 2 or 3 designs with the highest votes if there are many designs to choose from and no clear winner. We want the people who are going to buy our coins (the members) involved in choosing the design.

It would be nice but not absolutely essential to have the coins done so that we could hand them out at the picnic and sell any extras that we might order.

But (and this is a big but) I would be hesitant to eliminate the presale aspect of the geocoin sale. What if the WGA ordered 500 coins ahead of time and only 300 sold? This is supposed to be a fund raiser for the organization, not a money loser. The WGA shouldn’t be trying to “invest” its money in the geocoin market. You don’t get your cookies immediately when you order from a girl scout, you don’t get your popcorn right away when you order from a boy scout, you don’t get your pizza right away when you order from someone going to band camp, and you don’t get your coins right away when you order from the WGA (though we will take your money right away!). 😀

[Jeremy]

As I outlined in my position statement, I think a WGA “Welcome Wagon” would be an effective way to raise awareness of the existence of the WGA among active geocachers who are not yet members. Welcome Wagon volunteers would contact geocachers in their area who are not WGA members or are new to the sport.

I’m pretty sure personal contact and/or a prod from a local geocacher will turn out to drive more non-member visits to the website. Though I have to say that putting the little WGA logo on cache pages via our “Spread The Word” campaign has produced good results… last month several thousand hits to the WGA site came from people clicking on that logo image.

As far as increasing participation in the forums, that is a personal call. Some people have a desire to communicate with other geocachers in the forums, and others don’t. All the organization can do is to make sure the forums remain “clean” and welcome/open to newcomers… no name calling, bickering, or “flame wars” like those sometimes found on the geocaching.com forums.

Regarding getting more people to WGA events, having more events in different parts of the state would certainly help with this. Some geocachers are unwilling to drive multiple hours to attend an event (and with gas prices so high, who can blame them?). But if there is an event that is “just around the corner” from them they are likely to show up. It may be worth experimenting with publishing information for some WGA events to a wider audience, via community bulletin boards, free newspaper and radio announcements, etc. in an attempt to lure complete newcomers to the sport.

[Jeremy]

[Jeremy]

I’m not going to go back and list all the things I’ve done for WGA events over the past 6 years. Suffice it to say that I’ve spent a significant chunk of time working on these events… but in the end, seeing geocachers enjoying themselves and connecting with others that share similar interests, always makes me feel that the time I invested was well worth it. Some of my recent contributions (for 2007) to WGA events include:

– Hiding temporary caches
– Print out and assembly of temporary cache booklets
– Print out of laminated name tags
– Creation of park maps showing temporary cache locations
– Helping organize temporary cache hiding day (picnic only)
– Coordinating GPS and PDA downloads
– Setting up online event registration system, sending event update emails
– Helped create initial version of Wisconsin Geocacher Bingo
– …

While the picnic and campout are always well attended and a fun time for the attendees, it is important that we continue to try new things and mix things up a bit at these events. If they become “stale”, attendance and the fun factor will suffer. For the 2007 picnic, I suggested we try some new event activities that were discussed on the geocaching.com forums. Two of these were actually implemented and well received: Geocacher Bingo and the Turkey Shoot.

And as I stated in my position post, the WGA needs to have more events throughout the state and throughout the year. There has only been one official WGA event that did not feature the hunting of temporary geocaches as its primary activity. I would like to see CITO only and meet-and-greet only WGA events.

[Jeremy]

The WGA should be opposed to government entities charging any fee to hide (or hunt) geocaches in the state. This opposition should take the form of a letter from the Board sent to all the officials involved in deciding on the fate of such a fee, making sure local members are aware of the situation and are in contact with the appropriate officials, and if warranted (in the case of a law/rule that would cause a large disturbance or when no local geocacher expresses interest in fighting it), in person representation at government meetings by the Board or members from other parts of the state.

Note that this opposition should be voiced before any official decisions are made… it is much harder to get something repealed or rescinded than nipping it in the bud at the first opportunity.

[Jeremy]

I feel that “urban spew” caches should be allowed so long as they conform to the geocaching.com guidelines. It is up to those seeking geocaches to determine if they want to hunt a particular type of cache. People should be free to play the game (it is a game! ;)) any way they want.

Personally, I would rather find a cache involving a longer hike than pulling my vehicle to within 50 feet of one. However, my personal opinions count for squat in this case, and I’m not sure this is something the WGA should concern itself with either. Short of petitioning geocaching.com to tighten its guidelines, organizing a boycott of certain caches found to be without merit, or publishing propaganda pushing for the creation of “quality” caches, there is little the organization could do to have an impact on the placement of “urban spew” caches.

[Jeremy]

[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.

[Jeremy]

@Cachelovskys wrote:

What is the policy with submitting Event Caches on this website?

Wow, it looks like there was an explosion of new Wisconsin geocaching events in the past few days! 🙂

Anyone can submit events using the form in the Events module (click on the Submit Event module). It would make sense for the event organizer to do this, but if that person rarely visits the WGA site, any WGA member is allowed to do it. After one is submitted, the event admin (that’s me for now), gets an email and approves it. I also watch for new events in the weekly geocaching.com update email and add them myself if they haven’t already been submitted.

[Jeremy]

I’d love to, but there is no way I could drag myself out of bed at that hour (especially when the forecast calls for a low temp of 1 degree Friday night!). Wait, if I slept in the car while you found the caches, could I still log a smiley? 😀

But if anyone wants to do some caching AFTER the lunch at the Janboree, I’d be game.

[Jeremy]

Way to go Justin! Keep on trucking up to 3K… and keep your find count higher than your post count! 🙂

[Jeremy]

For the folks that have seen the paperless caching features of the Colorado or know more about them…

Is the paperless information you get for caches as full featured as what you get via CacheMate? If someone switched from using a Palm to a Colorado, would they be annoyed because some things they used to have in their Palm would not be available?

For example, are the following features available?

– Easily view hints (important :))
– Multiple views/pages of cache information rather than a single “flat” view
– Ability to view past logs
– View travel bug information (what bugs are supposed to be in a cache)
– Ability to mark caches found and record notes

[Jeremy]

You’re kidding… guess everyone has got to start over now. 😀 Actually according to the DeLorme site, the number of map pages and the scale HAS changed a bit in the 2008 edition:

http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtdItemDetail.jsp?item=350&section=10096

Scale changed from 1:150,000 to 1:160,000, meaning everything was shrunk down a bit. I guess this is progress… kind of like how they keep shrinking down candy bars, resulting in today’s bite size “fun size”. 🙂

It may be a good time to start a new 2008 version of the DeLorme Challenge using the new Atlas pages and only counting finds starting in 2008. I know some people were chomping at the bit for “clean slate” versions of the DeLorme and Wisconsin county challenges that didn’t count past logs.

[Jeremy]

@marc_54140 wrote:

I see Zuma posted a number of reports from December 1969!

Talk about time warping! Or in his case, perhaps it’s time walking?

I think it is just zuma being lazy. 🙂 His reports have been edited to have a valid date, and we’ve closed the “loophole” that let him get away with entering no date.

I also fixed a couple of sorting issues on the scoreboard and score sheets that were reported by some folks. If you experience any technical problems or have some ideas on how to improve the system, don’t hesitate to contact me.

[Author]

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