[zeeman_clan]

This is the WGA Board of directors, not the federal government.

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 first thing I did when I read this question was jump on my geocaching profile and look at my favorite list.  I got about halfway through the 350+ caches on that list, and I realized that there isn’t just one cache I can say is my absolute favorite. It sort of felt like deciding on one in particular was ignoring the dozen or so other caches that are truly memorable to me.  There in fact are a lot of caches on that list that I can say are my absolute favorites, but for different reasons.

The first one that caught my eye was The Old Man | Takes Shelter (GC12FFY).  I can’t tell you how many times we wandered around looking and cursing S|S.  It took a little nudge from our caching mentors, but we made the find.  I have to say it made the favorite list because not only did it make us think outside of the box for the first time caching, it also showed us that sometimes we are going to have to step outside our comfort zone to make a find.

Another that made me want to name it as a favorite was Holly Shrine (GC6780).  I don’t want to say too much about this one, since I think it is a cache that everyone should visit if they have the opportunity.  I know you can just check our the cache page gallery, but standing on that spot is a completely different experience.  I would never have thought standing in the middle of a corn field could make me feel all the emotions I did.

Finally, as to not make this a terribly long post, my favorite for its amazing scenery and the fact that hundreds if not thousands of people a day pass by and don’t even know this is there, is Cut River Cantilever (GCA89C).  I have to admit, I drove over this bridge at least a dozen times before geocaching, and I never knew the truth.  It made me see that some of the most beautiful things in this world can be hidden in plain sight, we just have to look for them.

I could go on and on about the caches that are my true favorites, but as you can see, they all have different reasons for being favorites.  That is one of the greatest thing about geocaching, no matter what, if you look hard enough, you can find so many amazing caches that it is impossible to pick just one favorite.

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]

Accepting that things aren’t always going to go my way is just a part of life. I can be very passionate about things that I get involved in, and at times can be very stubborn when it comes to some of my thoughts and ideas.  However, I also understand that there are others who are passionate about their thoughts and ideas, and sometimes their ideas might be better than mine.  If I have an idea that I present to the board and someone else has a different idea that they counter with, there are seven other people on that board who are going to make that decision. If they don’t decide to go my way, that tells me that, as a group, we decided that the other idea was best. Maybe at a later time, my idea may seem to fit a bit better.  Getting mad, dwelling on the outcome of the vote, and distancing myself from getting involved again, are not going to happen.  It’s only natural to feel upset that the rest of the group didn’t think you had the best idea, but in the end, it’s about coming up with the best ideas for the group.

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]

Failure happens a lot more than we would like to admit.  I’ve failed at relationships.  Who hasn’t? I’ve failed at grocery shopping, just ask my wife.  But everyone forgets to pick up eggs or bread on occasion.

The biggest failure, in my opinion, is not learning from these little failures.  I work electrical maintenance, and every now and again, I fail at properly diagnosing a problem.  This results in me having to return to a machine and fix it again.  If I don’t learn from this first failure, and fix the machine in the same way, I failed to learn, and failed at doing my job well.

As long as I learn, I would say have haven’t truly failed.  I’ve learned how to fix many different electrical problems in industrial machinery.  I’ve learned to not go grocery shopping without a list from the wife.  And of course I’ve learned what kind of person I want to spend the rest of my life with.  (As long as I remember the grocery list.)  Above all, I will have more failures in my life, but I will learn from them as well, and I will not truly fail.

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 am definitely not in a position to say I would change anything about the WGA. The organization’s main goal is to promote geocaching throughout the state by acting in the best interests of the membership to ensure that geocachers are allowed to play this sport. This may require working with the WDNR to make sure that state lands are accessible to us and communicating with local governments to make sure that we are within their rules and they are not being unreasonabe when it comes to geocaching.  If the WGA seems to be straying from the goal of promoting and preserving geocaching in the state of Wisconsin, I would work to bring it back on track.  These are the only times where I could see changes being made to the WGA. Growth of the WGA, is more of what I would like to see.  Are we changing with the times and the demographics of our membership?  Maybe we should look and see if there are old policies that can be modified to better fit this organization after 15 years of growth.

As for contributions that I would like to make, I will work to the best of my ability to make sure that we involve as much of the membership in as many ways as they can.  If it means I have to take it upon myself to work with a member from another corner of the state to make sure an event many miles from home satisfies the needs of the cachers that attend that event, then so be it.  I would like to say that I will contribute anything that I am asked to, and anything that I feel would benefit the WGA, even if I am not asked.

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 don’t tend to eat ice cream a lot, and I don’t really have a go to flavor.  I would have to say that anything from Cold Stone Creamery works.  If I can’t make up my mind when the Mrs. wants to go out for ice cream, I would typically go with there birthday cake remix.  Cake ice seems to do it for me.

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 think the biggest change I would like to see made to geocaching is to bring back virtual caches.  I can understand the reason why they went away, but some places would be a very neat place for a cache, but a physical container would be impossible and there is nothing that would make it an earthcache. An example of this would be a medicine wheel we visited in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. This ancient place is somewhere that a physical container would be forbidden, and it isn’t something built by nature.  This is also a place we felt would be inspirational to a lot of geocachers, but because of the moratorium on virtuals, there is no way for us to bring cachers here.  Other than that, I enjoy the way geocaching is running aside from a few tweeks to the website, but that is just little things that can be worked around.

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]

My goal is to make it to all the WGA events, but that’s not the reality of life.  I already know I won’t be making it to the spring campout. Of course this was planned without me being a board member, so I had no say in what weekend it took place.  The chili feed/LCG event however, I have that scheduled with no conflicts. For the rest of the events this year, I of course will work with everyone else to make sure we can plan around everyone’s schedule.  I know this isn’t always possible, but we should make sure to be as accommodating as we can to get the best attendance, not only of the board, but the general membership as well.  The board meeting should make sure to include everyone, especially the new members, as they will need to find out what their next two years of WGA life will be like.  After the planning, as long as there aren’t any life altering changes, I should make six of the seven spoken of events.

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]

It’s really hard to say what my favorite type of cache is. There are different caches that satisfy different aspects of geocaching for me.  I’m not a fan of some of the more obscure puzzles, but I give them a shot every now and then when I feel like stretching my brain.  Long multi caches make for a fun adventure where success depends on making consecutive finds.  A long hike down a power trail in the crunchy leaves of fall gives you a sense of accomplishment when you haven’t had the finds you were hoping for in the rest of the year.  Cemetery caches bring us to some neat places that put us in touch with history.  And probably my favorite of all would be earthcaches that bring us to some amazing sites where we see what this earth is capable of.  Science has always been a favorite subject of mine, so adding that to our yearly trips out west makes me a happy cacher.

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 never attend events to cache, I cache at events because they are there and available. If being on the board means that I am unable to cache with my friends, then so be it.  The caches will be there at a later date.  On the other hand, if socializing with the membership means going out and caching with a new group that I haven’t cached with before, I’m up for that.  To me, the events should be more about meeting up fellow WGA members, regardless of whether you are on the board or not.  Numbers are secondary to the event.

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]

Our WGA event journey started back in the spring of 2011.  We had been caching for about a year, and had no idea what the WGA even was.  We met this cool guy named cheeto, who was hosting a CITO.  Now this cache in, trash out concept sounded like a amazing way to give back to the community, and cheeto couldn’t have been cooler if he had black sunglasses, orange fingers, and a real name of Chester Cheetah.  (We didn’t know the origin of his caching name at the time, and honestly, I still don’t.)  We were drawn in by the way we were welcomed by everyone involved, thanked by the people who just thought we were there picking up trash in the park, and able to talk geocaching without getting puzzled looks from those around us.  We felt accepted by the WGA. We followed up our first event with some pancakes after the Ca$h Bash and had a great time, even with someone who wasn’t quite president yet giving us the stink eye for winning $500 the night before on our first time to the event.

These by far are my most memorable events, but seven years later, every WGA event that we are able to attend is one we look forward to.  We have made it to every pancake breakfast since except for the year we didn’t spend the night.  (This would be because we had some newbie cachers by the name of rawevil in tow, and didn’t want to overwhelm them with the entire weekend.)  We have made it to every Appleton CITO that didn’t happen on a bad weekend for us.  (A couple of times the CITO has fallen on a weekend where we attend an event on Mackinac Island, and we just can’t miss that one.) We got one HWY 10 cleanup in before the interest in that started to fade.  (That by the way was quite memorable as we got to ride in the mercmobile and may or may not have discovered a few unplaced cache containers.)  Recently, we have had more free weekends, and some great caching partners who enjoy traveling to these events, so we have been able to make it to a couple of picnics and a LCG kickoff event.

In all, we have attended 13 WGA sponsored events in the six years since our first.  We are looking forward to attending as many WGA events this year as our schedule allows, starting with some chili and lonely caches.  The best part of these events has always been the connection with others who share the same interests.  Spending time with friends, catching up with those we don’t see very often, and meeting new people has always been a highlight of being involved in the WGA.

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 am from Oshkosh and understand the feeling that the events aren’t spread across the state.  Seeing this year’s chili feed in Fond du Lac made me happy that I might get a chance to attend. In recent years, I’ve had to work quite a few weekends and haven’t been able to travel the distance to enjoy a lot of the WGA sponsored events.

That being said, my weekends have started to free up, and I would like to explore more of the state, and I think this is where the WGA can help.  If you look at the map of WGA members, most are located in Southeast Wisconsin, therefore it seems logical to hold events near the most memebers.  On the other hand, if the goal of the WGA is to get people to cache throughout the state, maybe holding events away from where the majority lives would get them exploring new places.

Now onto logistics.  You don’t want a winter event being held somewhere without an enclosed shelter, and I don’t think a chili feed would work if you don’t have electricity for the crock pots.  Some places naturally lend themselves to great events, and others offer difficulties that have to be overcome. I think a good place to start would be to start working on a database of the state parks and their amenities. Once great event hosting places are noted around the state, the WGA should reach out to members nearby these promising locations and see if anyone is interested in hosting events there with WGA support.  If someone truly wants an event in their neck of the woods, I would expect them to help be part of that solution.  Member participation would be the biggest part of making an event in the far reaches of the state successful.

Another idea that I have noticed was brought up in the forums seveal years ago, and resurfaced recently.  The idea of dividing the state up into quadrants and having representation from each on the board.  The board member from each quadrant would be assigned an event to host.  Every year would be a different event so that all areas of the state could be experiences in the different seasons.  This seems like a long shot, since there seems to be a lot of resistance to dividing the state, but it does lend itself to equal division of events.

Obviously the pancake breakfast is not going to leave West Bend unless the Ca$h Bash ends.  This should be a flagship event that all members should want to make great, since it shows people from around the world the WGA.  As far as events around the state are concerned, we should strive to make them just as great, no matter where they are held.

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]

When I saw this question, I opened up my response page on the laptop before anyone else had posted, so I wouldn’t feel that I was influenced by any of the other candidates responses.  I wanted to answer this question with honesty and not feel like I was copying anyone’s answers, or dissing the other candidates.  I didn’t want to say, “Oh, I will be better than so and so at doing that.”  I want to say straight up, that I cannot tell you why I would be the best candidate in just this answer.  I’ll be as dedicated as time and outside forces, i.e. work, will allow.  I’ll give ideas and listen to others during discussions.  As people who already know me will tell you, I will be passionate about things that really matter to me.  All in all, I will work diligently to improve the WGA.

This being said, the reason I don’t think its possible for me to tell you that I am the best candidate in this response alone, is that all of my answers to all of the questions put before me should be used to decided if I am the best candidate.  Every question posted is about something that concerns that member.  The answers I give should be looked at to see if that is the best way to address that concern.  Something like electing a person to represent our organization for two years is not something that should be taken lightly.  Gathering all the facts on the candidates, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, in order to assemble the best team to lead should be the primary goal of this election.

Don’t look to my opinions of why I should be the best candidate.  Read my answers, and determine for yourself if I would be addressing the needs of the WGA in a way that would benefit the entire membership.

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 think an event outside of the usual ones held by the WGA would have more meaning.  Perhaps Pike Lake to honor the first event.  Maybe trivia contests on the website throughout the year with prizes awarded in a raffle for people with the right answers.  Merchandise with a special 15th anniversary theme seems appropriate.

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]

After overthinking this question for a while, I’ve come to what I believe is my mission statement.  I’ve never considered having a mission statement, or if I even needed one. I looked at my company’s mission statement posted all over the factory and realized that I don’t need to make a great product to make my customers happy. I am selling myself here, but that’s not what I want in life. I thought about how I could have some really wishy washy idea of life in general, or a rigid standard to hold myself to.  In the end I came to realize that I needed a fluid mission statement that can change as my life changes.

“Keep things in perspective.”

I realize that no matter what, life is about keeping the small things small, and the big things big.  Getting cut off in traffic, kind of small potatoes. Getting married, having children, probably want to keep those as big things.

How does this pertain to a board member of the WGA? Keeping things in perspective helps to keep focus on the things that really matter to the WGA and it’s members, and less on trivial things that might just be a stumbling block that can be easily overcome. Did we not have a t-shirt in a particular color and size and miss out on a sale?  Not a huge deal if this missed sale happens at an event that we put enough time and energy into that the “missed sale” returns to the next event we host.  Making the event great was a big thing, the missed sale wasn’t. We take note and move on.  That event that we put our focus on may just have introduced a kid that used to spend his days on the couch playing video games to a new technology that gets him into the woods enjoying life.  I would feel that would be a big thing in the world of the WGA.

The biggest thing I’m going to keep in perspective is that this is just an election to the board of directors for the WGA.  Do I want to serve on the board? Yes, or I wouldn’t be running.  Is it the end if the world if I don’t make it?  No, the WGA will be just fine as it alwats has been.  The board members will do just a good of job with or without me.

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.

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