[Barry Butrymowicz]

The price of coins is varried, lots of variables Size Thickness, number of colors die cut, cut out holes, number of metals made, quanity produced, etc.

Our coin was 2″ round 4mm thick, 10 colors on front, 6 on back, cut out in the middle, had 3 metals made a total of 250 run

its been 3 or 4 years since we made them, but it was around $1,800 for what we made then.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Chris,

We had our coin made at http://www.personalgeocoins.com/

They were not the cheapest, but service was very good. Owner is actually a geocacher in Michigan (And a reviewer) Rusty of Rusty and Libby.

There is a new company that is associated with Geocoin Club that you might want to try http://www.directmint.com/

Also check the national forums on GC. there is a thread there

Send some kind of idea or artwork to a couple of companies, and get quotes, shop around. there is a complete list of coin companies that make geocoins here

* http://www.coinsandpins.com
* http://www.personalgeocoins.com
* http://www.oakcoins.com
* http://www.thecachingplace.com
* http://www.geocoinstore.com
* http://www.chqualitycoins.com
* http://www.landsharkz.ca
* http://www.k2coins.nl
* http://www.geocoinshop.de
* http://www.hogwildstuff.org
* http://www.geocachingshop.de
* http://www.geocachingshop.com
* http://www.cachezone.de
* http://www.3geeks.ca
* http://www.dorkfishcoins.com
* http://www.cacheaddict.com
* http://www.tsunrisebey.com
* http://www.compasscoins.com
* http://www.sillyscachingsupplies.com
* http://www.geocachingshop.nl
* http://www.geocoins.ca
* http://www.usageocoins.com
* http://www.geocoinshop.com
* http://www.dwprods.com
* http://www.ukgeocachers.co.uk
* http://www.geocachingshop.cz
* http://www.worldcaching.com
* http://www.polardesign.se
* http://www.montereycompany.com
* http://www.geocoins.net
* http://www.mygeocoin.de
* http://www.lillysue.com
* http://www.geocoin.no
* http://www.geoswag.com
* http://www.crakeproductions.com
* http://www.geocoins.biz
* http://www.socalgeocoins.com
* http://www.we-belong.com
* phdcoins.ca
* http://www.wbcoins.de
* http://www.directmint.com
* http://www.milcoins.com

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Another great idea.

How about everyone who attends gets one ticket. NO BONUSES for anyone

Completely level playing field.

Then see how many actually go and find the temps as there is no bonus or reason to. Maybe this would be a good way to phase out the placement of temps at a WGA event completely.

I can see placing ones for the kids. or one or two as examples for new cachers (like a training field) but beyond that how about at the next event, there are no temps placed???

It should be tried once and see what happens.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

communication can be the best part of a organization or its downfall.

1. In regards to the forums, there maybe should be a better monitoring system in place, like the GC Forums, when something gets to a certain point, maybe a thread should get shut down or locked, before it gets out of hand and people get fed up and leave.

2. Newsletters should not be a opt in/out option. They should go out to all members, and possibly any members who have not renewed in the past 6 months. maybe this could renew interest in the association.

3. Having our name out there on as many cache pages as possible (I myself am lacking on this as the link in not on all my pages) to get people to join the WGA.

there has been many times in the past that I too have thought of leaving the WGA but instead of trying to start a new organization for the Northern part of Wisconsin, I will try as a board member from the Northern part of the state to make this a statewide organization.

Bad feelings and ill will, are hard to forget, but even a “hey we miss you” email when a membership expires, might bring people back.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

With my wife and I not having kids, this is a little harder for me to answer, we have cached with Val’s Niece “littlefinn” and have taken her on a 6 state week long geocaching trip when she was 8. I understand that keeping a child’s interest can be hard. but do not have much first hand knowledge with this. Some events that we have attended have had kids games, or arts and crafts areas to keep some interest, but this ultimately should fall in the parents hands, as each child is different, and a event holder should not have to provide a baby sitter so the parents can enjoy themselves.

For the older “teens” there can be things set up a scholarship;

Maybe in the memory of one of its past members a scholarship aimed at assisting our next generation of youth in their studies of outdoor recreational activities, or environmental sciences in hopes of helping them gain an appreciation of the outdoors while learning to be good stewards of land conservation and the environment in general.

Any WGA member, their spouse or their child or grandchild, who will be attending a college or university, could be eligible to apply for this scholarship

[Barry Butrymowicz]

I have been one of the members in the past that has been very vocal on this topic.

I can not say where geographically the membership is, but just looking at where the larger population centers of the state are South Central and South East, and East side, I would say that is where the major part of our membership comes from. But there are members that are from all parts of the state. So in membership I would say that the state is well represented.

Now hearing that the quadrant system for events has been put in place, maybe this will help spread the events across the state. just depends where the dividing lines are set, quadrants could still be skewed and keep the events in the “southern” part of the state this could be done easily say using Highway 10 as the east/west dividing line instead of Highway 29 or Highway 64.

So my answer is on this the membership is adquately represented state wide, but the BOD and events held by WGA is lacking, but should get better with the new Quad system.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Ive seen on other state association websites, where they have had individual county regulations posted, only problem with this is the new cacher that is not yet a part of the origination, but a email from the reviewer, with a link to the info, could get new members to join the WGA

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Sending out the list monthly is what Michigan does, I will contact the manager of that list and see more on how he does it. I’m on the list and get a PDF, Excel, and a file to load to a Palm Pilot.

Ill see what info i get

Barry

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Easy answer to solve this problem

Every one who attends the event gets a ticket for the general raffle prizes.

Have a seperate raffle with prizes that are only for those who looked for the temps. Not extra chances in the general raffle.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Great Question Lostboy7,

And thanks cheeto for posting the results from the referendum

My answer on temp caches is a definite NO, the referendum that we voted on should stay as is.

I also think that it is up to each individual event host if they allow this practice, but how can you “attend” something multiple times???

For events that are not sponsored by the WGA if they are using the WGA logo on their page, then temps at their event should not be logged. It should not matter if the event is “sponsored” by the WGA or not. It should be like using any other logo, the use of it should come with some rules.

I also do not agree with the practice of multiple logging on cache pages to “hide” your logs for temporary hides, but this is an entirely different matter that GC.com would have to change.

A long answer to a simple question

[Barry Butrymowicz]

I could see where this is beneficial to geocaching in general. As long as the WGA would have materials available for these “outreach” members to help explain geocaching.

I know from experience that working with local governments can be overwhelming. A boost in the right direction can go along way

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Don’t hold your breath

[Barry Butrymowicz]

We would be interested in going but do the hotels have WI Fi???

Val would not be able to do the hike, but would not want to leave her behind with out internet access.

we would stay for the weekend, and would be up for the meet and greet.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

With only the bad parts of geocaching (Bomb Scares) being touched on by the mass media market (Television, Newspapers) maybe a article written by the WGA could be sent out.

I used to work at a small weekly newspaper and they are always looking for articles to publish. Papers like the Green Bay Press Gazette, and the Journal Sentinel might charge for placement in their papers, but small weekly ones like the Peshtigo Times or Oconto Reporter for example would be a good place for a article about the sport of geocaching. Also most of these papers also send out a “shopper paper” on the weekends and it could be put in there also.

This would be a easy way to get information to the masses at a relatively low cost. This info could in turn be published before a event in a local area and might draw more interest from new geocachers.

All in all I think the WGA has done a great job promoting it self in the past and there is still more to do in the future.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

cheeto, the old logo mysteriously disappeared last night around 9 pm

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