[zeeman_clan]

To calm any fears of the WGA Pancake breakfast not happening in West Bend, last year was the first year of the event stacking rules, and after much back and forth with Groundspeak we were able to continue to host the breakfast as its own event. It is our hope that there will not be any need to renegotiate our position with Groundspeak again this year, and we will continue to serve up some super sausages and fantastic pancakes for our members.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

In response to the observations from Hack, the VP was given responsibility over the event committees that were already in place in the board to help ensure planning stayed on track. The secretary had the duty of posting to the website added because the board had decided that there needed to be a place in the board forums for monthly meeting minutes about a year ago, and this clarified that duty. The final part of the secretary duty is a carryover, but each board has had a slightly different interpretation of the “file” so there is a lot of scattered information. It would be nice to bring it all together, but that could end up being a monumental task.

Again, thanks to WA and Hack for organizing the information so that the members have all the information they need.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

Well you guys were on top of that a lot faster than I was. I appreciate the help. I was just posting the new duties for simplicity, but all the information is available now.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

I’m going to throw my two cents in on a couple of these topics in hope of generating some discussion and hopefully action. These are very interesting topics, and both have weight that has been discussed at length, not only at the annual board meeting, but also at just about every monthly meeting.

First, I would like to address the idea of the pathtags as a fundraising tool. Funds are critical to successful operation of our organization, and as we saw several years ago, when things get tight we need to get creative. Pathtags are a quick and easy way to garner attention and funds, but can be problematic if you aren’t careful. Too many or a bad design can result in the WGA sitting on tags that don’t move. The WGA currently offers a small number of tags for sale year round, and we offer a limited edition pancake tag for West Bend. 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.

On to committees. I am in favor of general members being on the committees with the support of the board members. I would be excited to work together in larger groups to help make our events even better. With the involvement of the membership, it would make the events more theirs and less belonging to the board of directors. My only hope would be that we can get enough involvement to make the committees a success and not just return to the board being the only participants in organizing the events.

Keep the great discussion going here, we need feedback from the members to help us do a better job in making your Wisconsin Geocaching Association the best it can be.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

Walkingadventure wrote:

My experience with committees will be given if asked for otherwise I’ll sit back a bit.

I speak only for myself, but I would appreciate your insight on both of these topics. I’m curious how our opinions align on fundraising and committees.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

Everything we do involves time. It is the most valuable thing that we posses that we can offer to others. It is the only thing that once we give it away, we cannot take it back. I have recently been giving more of my time to others. In the last two years, I have given to the WGA what time I have needed to in order to make the organization successful. I have begun to participate more in my union local as a member of the executive board, legislative committee chair, and civil rights committee co-chair. Recently I offered my technical knowledge to the Ripon High School FIRST robotics team sponsored by my company.

Having spent the last two years finding out what is involved in the WGA BOD, I do feel I could have given more of my time. I also I could have offered less time and gotten similar results. I know that I invested myself in our organization, and I intend to continue to invest as much time if not more in the coming years.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

The WGA’s mission promotes geocaching, protects the environment, and builds strong relationships among its members. All three of these things are meaningful to me in some way.

Since we are a geocaching organization, the game is at the forefront of my reasoning for being involved. I want to help promote and protect geocaching in Wisconsin. We have so many great places to explore, I want to make sure that geocaching is an avenue to these great places.

The environment is our playground and we only get one chance with it. This is a very important aspect to me because I want to see these great places around the state protected for future geocachers to explore. Our organization needs to be strong in promoting responsible caching to take care of all the beautiful places Wisconsin has to offer.

The social connections that I have made through the WGA are priceless. I have met such a diverse group of people through the WGA that I feel it has greatly enhanced my life. People who have introduced me to new caching styles. People who have skills or job experiences that I can combine with my own to make changes for the better, not only in geocaching, but in the world we live in. My life holds more value for me when I can work together with others.

The WGA does so much for the caching community of Wisconsin, whether it is behind the scenes working with other organizations, or putting on a great pancake breakfast every year. I want to be a part of this organization so that hopefully I can make the mission of the WGA meaningful to others.

 

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

I believe that one of the best assets I bring to the Board of Directors is my troubleshooting skills. My job requires me to troubleshoot on a daily basis, and I feel that I am quite good at it. Looking at a situation analytically and deciding the best course of action to realize the desired result has always come easily to me. Early in my first term on the board, we were presented with a very difficult situation that required quick action. There was not very much past precedent to work from, and the WGA bylaws did not provide us with any guidance. The board came to a decision that an amendment was necessary to properly handle the situation, and I challenged myself to quickly draft an appropriate amendment that would clarify the proper course of action for future boards.

I want to continue to serve the Wisconsin Geocaching Association because I feel that there is so much I can do. I know I have just scratched the surface of what I can contribute to the WGA. As a member of the executive board of my local union, I am developing my leadership and organizing skills through conferences and training that I feel I can use to benefit the WGA. I am strengthening my skills in html code to help better design our cache pages. I am forming new connections that I feel could benefit our organization.

I enjoy so many aspects of being on the Board of Directors. I am fond of the friendships I have made. There are so many people that have made an impression on me during my work on the BOD. I appreciate the skills I am building. Being presented with a challenge and discovering new ways to overcome has helped strengthen my abilities. I am humbled by the lessons that I have been taught. Even though things may not have gone as planed at times, I have grown from these experiences. I want to continue to grow not only myself, but our organization.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

I could argue what reasons I have for liking each and every cache, but I would have to say that my favorite type of cache would be Earthcaches or puzzle caches that involve research. Both give me an opportunity to learn. Science and history have always been my favorite subjects and marrying the adventure of geocaching with learning makes the quest all the better.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

I’ve been putting off these questions recently as I try to get caught up from a trip out of town, but this question spoke to me as soon as I read it. My trip out of town was for a civil rights conference in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If you want to see cultural division, drop a Polish guy from the Midwest into Washington, DC among activists from all around the country who live their lives in dedication of Dr. King’s legacy. I’m not saying that they are completely different from me. We were all there to learn, grow, and educate. We all had a common goal. They just did it in a way that was a lot different than I do.

That being said, we as geocachers are diverse. It’s not just the newbies and the veterans, its the quality cachers versus the number cachers. It’s not just the team cachers and the individuals, its the smartphone versus the GPSr. Everyone caches differently, but we are all after the same thing, geocaches. What we have to accept is that no matter what we believe is the right way to cache, someone else is going to believe the way they cache is right.

Everyone is different. We may look different, believe different, love different, and cache different. As a representative of the Wisconsin Geocaching Association, I strive to make sure that we are inclusive to everyone. The only reason I can see that would require any form of intervention, whether it be personally or as an organization, would be if the cacher was being detrimental to the game of geocaching. Diversity should not separate, instead it should bring outside ideas that we should embrace to broaden our appreciation of the game. I welcome both new and veteran cachers for what each individual has to offer.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

The WGA website is a wealth of information for new members and the Board of Directors. There isn’t much content that applies to the everyday member, unless they enjoy the banter of the forums. Most of our membership has established the way they cache and don’t look to the website for insight or help. Unfortunately, this also does not help to share the knowledge that they may be able to provide to members who may have questions, or are undecided on what part of the game they enjoy most. This would be the most important reason I can see for directing our membership to the website.

While we need to maintain the website as our archives and permanent source of information to our members, communicating with our membership needs to take place on the platforms they decide. Social media has taken the world by storm and has become one of the most efficient ways of communicating. Whatever method the membership interacts with the most, that is the platform we need to embrace. As I’m typing this, I am watching the Shawshank Redemption. There is a line in the movie that makes perfect sense in this instance. “You get busy living, or you get busy dying.” If we don’t make an effort to change with the times, we will never progress into the future. At the time the WGA was founded, we needed the website to communicate easily. With the changing times, we have been presented with new opportunities to more easily spread our message.

I will always strive to direct members to the website with questions and concerns directly related to our organization, but I believe day to day communication is most efficiently done through social media. Followers of our Facebook page get notifications when we make announcements, post event updates, and encourage participation in the organization. With little effort, we communicate with our entire membership. If we were to work strictly through the website, we would have to guide everyone to the page in order to deliver our message.

Our organization is one of people and technology, and I would hope that the WGA, with or without my presence on the Board of Directors, will always embrace the ever changing world we live in. The changes in the technology, and the changes of the people who use it.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

I’m going to try my best to interpret what a “quality cache” might be. To me, a quality cache is one that the hider put time, effort, and above all their love of the game into it. It might be one that takes a cacher to a spot that is special to the hider. A landmark that they are proud of, maybe a secluded spot that holds a special meaning to them. The hider may have a passion for spectacular containers and they enjoy the accolades received from their creativity, whether its from the artistic side, or maybe technical side of a gadget cache. Above all, I feel a hider who has put their passion into a cache is willing to maintain it so that it doesn’t become a cracked piece of tupperware, half filled with water, and a black log sheet that doesn’t preserve the history of the hide.

For as long as I have been a member, the WGA has had the Cache of the Month. This program was designed to highlight the caches that the membership felt were of superior quality that they would like to share with others, even if they weren’t WGA members. Caches that win the designation of COTM are given the privilege of a banner telling everyone who visits the cache page that the members of the WGA believed it was a quality cache.

This seems like a very good way to promote quality caches to others, but it leaves some very large holes in my opinion. The first is that it relies on the membership to not only nominate caches, but they also have to vote. With limited member involvement in the website, it is very hard to even post a single nominee for each region, much less get votes that represents the membership. The second issue I see is that the program rewards the cache more than the hider. There is a banner for the cache page that may result in more finders and favorite points. This would reward a hider that is interested in statistics, but not the hider that is just doing it from their love of the game. It sounds contradictory, but I believe there should be some reward for someone who has put in the effort to better our game.

Quality caches are going to be dependent on how much effort hiders want to put into their hides. The WGA can only help to facilitate the recognition of those quality caches and the hiders, but its up to our membership to take on the challenge of making our state a great place to cache as well as a place of great caches.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

Being on the board currently, I know that we are working hard to find more activities that involve and engage the youth members of our organization. I don’t want to step on any toes of the board members who are diligently trying to make some of these ideas reality, but I can say there are some things that I would like to see added to the agendas of our yearly events. I’m a big fan of the WDNR’s kids activities, and I think we can take a literal page from their book. For anyone that has not discovered the WDNR kids club, it is an age based activity book that brings children out into nature. Scavenger hunts and other learning activities based on botany, geology, astronomy, and the wildlife of Wisconsin. I would like to expand on that even to include the history and culture of our state to appeal to the interests of more of our young members. The biggest help in this endeavor would be engagement from the parents. They are the best source of information on what kinds of activities their children would enjoy. This way we would be able to better serve our young constituents.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

Who wouldn’t want to be a 5/5? Tough and rugged. A challenge and an adventure. But what fun would that be in life? Not everyone searches out the toughest most challenging caches, and the same goes for people. Tough and challenging can be scary to some, and just plain absurd to others. Now, what about a 1/1? Available to everyone. . . that’s a great thing. Quite visible. . . still not a bad thing. Not so interesting at first glance. . . that’s not so good. Seeing something so easy may not catch a lot of people’s eye. I would like to think of myself as a 3/1. Not so complicated that I scare people off or make them think that I’m over the top, but still interesting enough to draw people in. Of course, my terrain is a one. I would like to think that I am available to everyone who wants to get to know me. As a side note, I would like to think of myself as an Earthcache. I believe challenging myself and others to learn is a very important part of life, and Earthcaches have never failed to help me learn.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[zeeman_clan]

Someone who has already been into Geocaching already knows the ins and outs of the game, so there isn’t much use in explaining it to them. As someone who promotes the game to anyone who shows interest, I would first try to find out what caused them to leave in the first place. Was it local cachers who made the game not fun? Were the quality or quantity in their area lacking? Did they not have a means of transportation to go caching? After figuring out why they left the game, I could begin to figure out a solution that would help them to enjoy the game more. If local cachers were sucking the fun out of the game, I would explain that everyone plays the game differently, and not all cachers interpret the rules/guidelines the same. Enjoy your game and let others enjoy theirs. If the quantity or quality were lacking, maybe there are others out there that would enjoy the game but aren’t playing yet. Getting them involved may get more caches out in the wild, and bring some new ideas and creativity to the area. If they can’t find a way to the caches in the area, maybe there are other cachers looking for someone to search with. Some things are better with a friend, especially new friends. Whatever the reason they may have left, encouraging them to find a way to enjoy the game is the best way to get them back.

My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.

[Author]

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