[The Crippler]

Hey, do you think I will be able to ask for a refund of the portion of money I spend at most businesses that goes to their corporate lobbying efforts? Just following the logic here and it makes sense…

Oh wait, I am sure there is no corporate money going toward lobbying, none of the passed tax breaks will ever mean that there is more to spend for their causes…What was I thinking, sorry for the post.

[The Crippler]

As a true Walker fan you only saw what you wanted to see. I was extremely respectful of your wife and her chosen career path. I pray she does not have to chose a different career path when her contract is up in 2012. My fear is that she will and all that experience and wisdom will be replaced by someone forced to take far less. What a loss for all involved. You two are a few of the lucky ones. With the contracts MPS already has in place you won’t feel these effects for a few years yet.

[The Crippler]

Here is the detailed insight that JC has provided. Given his own information provided (Currently MPS is pumping $470.65/check into my wifes WRS plan (Close to $10k/yr), $28K/yr for our families health insurance, $1k for dental insurance, $126.21 for vision with a salary of $73k), under this bill, his wife will now need to contribute the following:

His wife will now need to pay $235.32 per paycheck for retirement. This is her 5.8% share of her salary toward the 11.6% retirement contribution.

She will also need to pay 12% of her health insurance. Based on the provided figures this would be $3360 per year or $140 per check, if paid 2x per month, or $129.23 per check if paid 26 times per year.

What this means for JC is that each check of his wife would be reduced between $375.32 to $464.55 depending on her pay cycle of either 24 checks per year or 26 checks per year.

I would like to thank JC and his wife for willing to kick in their fair share but it leaves me to wonder how they are going to handle the loss of $750 to $900 per month in discretionary income. I would imagine they will scale back purchasing considerably.

I would also like to point out the most important part of this budget fix that will impact Mrs. JC. This is simple economics. Currently, from information provided, Mrs, JC earns $73,000 per year as an educator in MPS. I am sure she has worked very hard to reach this status and has advanced degrees to prove it. I commend her dedication to her career.

However, this is what the stark reality will be. MPS has a huge budget gap, lets say that gap is around $5,000,000. All it would take for MPS to close that gap would be to fire MRs. JC and her $73.000 per year salary + benefits, and hire a new teacher starting at $30,000 per year. Guess what? MPS didn’t actually reduce class sizes or downsized, they just got rid of the highest cost goods for a cheaper alternative. Its like 2 stores offering milk for sale but one store offers it for 1/2 the cost of the other. Where do you go by your milk?

Lets do the math: 73,000 minus 30,000 = 43,000. Take the $5,000,000 dollars MPS needs and divide that by 43,000 and you only need to locate and replace about 100 teachers (with benefits) in MPS making Mrs. JC’s salary. I would think that would not be a difficult task giving the sheer numbers of MPS educators.

Too bad Mrs JC doesn’t have seniority left as an argument for not letting her go, but as it was stated earlier, this is the way business operates.

Thank you for doing your part, as I stated before, we are willing to make that sacrifice too, but adding the insult of losing the position on top the huge reduction is something that does not seem right. Good thing Mrs JC doesn’t have to worry about this scenario until 2013. Start saving, oh wait, that might be a little difficult to do…

[The Crippler]

Sorry guys, my wife came home with a worksheet indicating the changes in benefits would translate to a $528 dollar reduction in her pay per month. She also came home with a letter of non-renewal indicating even with these changes they still expect to lay-off 30-60 teachers. I don’t know about you but that loss of $528 per month is a little more than $50 per month and will mean some major belt tightening. Nobody, Republican or Democrat, teacher or Wal-mart cashier, will find it easy to adjust to that much of a loss. PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY: Despite this unpleasant news, we are willing to do our part but feel very concerned about the young teachers, many of them single mothers who will not be able to manage such a loss. I guess it will be their choice to continue in this profession.

What is interesting is that nobody has brought up the real reason this bill is being pushed through. Its not about the money, most realize they have to pay and the unions have conceded this fact. The real issue is about busting the unions who are the only organized political group that opposes the Republicans in multiple print and media adds each election cycle. With the major Democratic PAC out of the way it will be much smoother sailing for the Republicans and their PACs to spread their messages of doom and gloom. If you really think it is about anything else then you really do not understand today’s politics and how Walker and his associates are already crafting their re-elections. Every politician, Democrat or Republican makes just about every decision based on whether this will help them or cost them in the next election. It really is not about the people, it is about them.

Please re-read this post before commenting and realize that I said it is not about the benefits for us, or a majority of the people, this is simply about politics, and we all know it.

[The Crippler]

Thank you to those that nominated and voted for me. I appreciate your confidence. Way to go for those of you that were elected, it certainly is a good group of individuals. See you on the trails.

[The Crippler]

Enthusiasm matters. Who is going to really get out and shake those hands to bring in those on the outside looking in? Who is willing to look at the big picture and put their personal beliefs and feelings aside for the betterment of the WGA. Who has the desire to succeed and who has worked with large groups and organizations before?

My votes are being spread amongst the old and new, stability and freshness, eagerness and dedication. Its a great slate of candidates and everyone will serve the board well but, based on personal bias, I would have to think some new faces would bring in some fresh perspectives and match well with experienced members too.

[The Crippler]

As a season ticket holder, I would have to say the Packers. Hate to be run out of town with any other answer.

[The Crippler]

Thanks for the great question BQ!

Yes, I see your statement as being accurate. The last opportunity I had to attend a membership meeting at Bong I did not go because of the timing of it. I brought my family, who are not big geocachers, and I schlepped them throughout Bong from top to bottom. They were tired and so was I. If I recall correctly, the general membership meeting was scheduled something like an hour after the group photo, I simply was not going to wait around.
My first membership meeting was at the campout at Governor Dodge State Park. I can recall that occurring much earlier in the day and there were door prizes that peaked everyone’s interest.

I would encourage more participation and interest as a board member by simply getting out there to spread the word. At the past events I have gone too I rarely see BOD members on the trails. I assume that they were all just too busy with the event and all but now that we have these empowered committees there should be more time to get out and mingle. As an executive with a large not for profit agency I can assure you that personal contact goes a long, long way.

The only suggestion I can make at this time is to hold the membership meetings at the time of greatest attendance, which I will assume is lunch. The door prizes might be a good option and giving away a few free campsites to the following year’s campout or a GPS or two might be a big enough draw to keep membership around for a little while longer. In another post by a board member on this website I seem to recall the individual mentioning that the WGA seems to be making more money than they know what to do with so they were offering funds to hold a regional event. A final thought: MWGB is very successful in getting campers to their venue due to campsite decorating contests and there is more and more participation in that every year.

[The Crippler]

I have been thinking for several hours on how to answer this question delicately and have decided that it just can not be done, so here goes:

Ralph, you have mentioned, or strongly suggested, on more than one occasion now that you believe that participation on a standing committee should be a requirement, or STRONG consideration, for BOD candidacy. I would need to respectfully disagree.

As a current board member you and your eight fellow board members have quite a bit of control on who serves on those committees. You are able to limit the amount of non-board members serving on the standing and empowered committees and you are able to personally invite non-board members to serve on committees. Therefore, if it where a requirement, or a strong suggestion that BOD candidacy or qualification be based on committee work, the current board could and would have considerable input and influence on who they would like to see run for BOD in upcoming elections. This type of thinking is harmful and leads to further alienation and potential classism with in the WGA. I think we can agree that one of the concerns we hear about membership is isolation and insinuating that qualification for BOD be based on past work for the WGA only furthers that isolation.

I agree that having committee work on your resume is an indication that an individual is committed to the WGA but there are also many other factors to consider. Enthusiasm, and the willingness to better the sport is a prime factor in my opinion.

In the past, I have offered my services to the WGA only to be ignored. I have seen others offer their services only to eventually be told that their PM did not make it to the email of the requestor or that there were already enough members on that committee. I came to the conclusion that my offers of assistance were ignored because they either had too much help or that I was not to be a part of the club because I was not particularly popular amongst those that made the decisions.

I have offered in the past to assist with the spring campout and to take whatever signage and material needed to Geowoodstock or Midwest GeoBash. I got absolutely no response. Finally, one of the individuals associated with the spring campout asked me to hide a few permanent caches beforehand. Even though I have had some serious disagreements with this individual in the past I agreed because it wasn’t about me and him, it was about the membership in general.

I hope I have answered your questions here. Committee work is important if it is not used as the fault excuse for leadership when something goes wrong. As I have mentioned before, my commitment to accepting the nomination means that I understand that my commitment to the WGA will increase considerably. I understand that I will be involved in one or more committees or projects. I accept that premise otherwise I would not have accepted the nomination.

[The Crippler]

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Greenthumb for your question.

When I was first nominated for the BOD I was asked if I accept the nomination. I took a day to fully consider all aspects of what serving on the BOD would and could mean. One of the duties I feel is important is to be visible and approachable. I am committed to attend the picnic and camp-out barring, as you stated, life’s major events.

I have been in a leadership position within my profession for the last 14 years and one thing that has always helped me succeed is being available and having the proverbial “open door policy.” I see this opportunity as being no different and plan to be at the camp-out, picnic and winter event.

[The Crippler]

I agree with Rob that community education would be my pet project. I am in strong agreement with the local official’s education but I also find great value in general community education both in and out of schools as well. I also agree that great strides have recently been made here with the committee but I would make sure those efforts were enhanced and continued.

[The Crippler]

I am going to take the cheap way out on this question and support Barry’s statement. I agree that if you enjoy the sport and want to help to promote and support it in our state that should be more than enough to qualify you for the BOD.

[The Crippler]

Thank you Amita17 for your question.

I believe the WGA Board of Directors is currently on the right track. I believe the initiatives are strong and vital to our membership and certainly should be continued. There are three areas that I would like to see more emphasis in or changes to:

1. We certainly need to develop much stronger community education tools. Generally, when there is bad press associated around geocaching it can be related directly to poor community education.

2. We need to focus more on a statewide resurrection of the WGA. There is a clear divide, that at times has been hurtful, between groups of cachers in different geographical areas. The WGA needs a clear plan of action to address this. One of the things that can be done is to plan more quality activities in the Northern part of the state. Which brings me to my third point…

3. The WGA seems to be leaning towards niche group activities which concerns me. I think this could further create the feeling of isolation amongst cachers and also create the image that the WGA is only about certain aspects of the sport. Obviously, due to the sensitivity of this subject I will not elaborate at this time.

[The Crippler]

Thank you for your question Cheeto.

As I have stated a few times before, I believe that people should play this game the way they choose to play this game. Having said that, I believe challenge caches are an important part of the geocaching experience. I am aware that there are geocachers that do only challenge caches and that is just fine by me.

I have personally not completed any challenge caches that I am aware of. I think I probably have met the qualifications for a couple of them but I have never really checked or followed up on it. This is simply because of how I choose to play my game.

Recently, I became aware of discussions surrounding certain cachers not feeling that some challenges were of a quality that qualifies them for “official” challenge status. All I can say is here we go again, now we have the challenge police which we will add to the puzzle police, the multi police, the rules police, etc etc etc. These types of things make me want to avoid anything to do with a formal assault on a potential challenge for fear of the public scrutiny associated with it. 😆

Funny thing is that the other day I was thinking about all the challenges and thought about designing my own challenge. I would call it “The Challenge of all Challenges” and the requirements would be that you would have to finish 90% of all the published Wisconsin challenges out there in order to qualify. I couldn’t figure out how to search for a listing of all those challenges to see what that would look like…

[The Crippler]

Either way I am a hero and on the 10pm news!

[Author]

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