GEO936

Hi Everyone We are indeed working on the First MEGA Event for South Africa. We really believe it will be possible. A Mega Event is not restricted to just the geocachers within the country, but to all geocachers from around the world. The minimum number of attendees of people (geocacher or not) is 500. So if the average geocaching team consits of 2 people, you would need at least 250 teams attending. We think it is very doable. A lot of marketing and begging may be required, but it is possible. In terms of the rules from Groundspeak, an Event is not given "MEGA" status until it has at least met the first requirement of a minimum of 500 people. Then they also have a rule that they don't give Mega status to the first Event which has over 500 people attending. The usually only give Mega status to the second 500+ people event. However, they did say that if it was the first Event to reach more than 50o people, they would consider to give Mega status if specially requested to reconsider the rules. We motivated this by telling them that we do not have a large geocaching community and it would be a huge effort to get one done, and they said they would look into it. So there is no guarantee. We had a long chats to Tricky Vicky & Mickey who attended the Mega in Scotland this year. They gave us lots of advice. The most important piece of advice was that it will take at least two years to arrange and plan a Mega Event. So mid 2011 is out of the question. We need time in order to get some fundraising done, as a Mega costs money and we cannot ask people to pay for it upfront. We can give people the option of paying something, but they would need to get a geocoin or something for it. Getting geocoins requires money upfront, as well as Venue hire, etc. In terms of location. That will be a tricky one to decide. I think it is unfair to say that some geocachers won't travel further than 100Km for a Mega Event. Guys this will be the FIRST and maybe ONLY Mega in South Africa and 1time has cheap flights, so there is NO reason to say that you can't fly up to Gauteng, or Mpumulanga or wherever the venue is decided. It will be a ONCE IN A LIFETIME experience, so if you know about it two years in advance, start saving and make a plan to attend. As part of our preparation and planning, we will be going to two Mega Events in Europe next year August 2011. Yep, us little South Africans will be travelling the globe to attend two Megas so please don't tell me that a Capetonion won't cross the Vaal river for a Mega in SA!! The first Mega will be in Finland, and that will be their first Mega too. They were awarded Mega status when after a week they had over 400 Will Attend Logs. That is all it took for them, and now they have over 700 Will Attend logs. There are cachers coming from all over the world - not just Finland. The second Mega will be in Germany two weeks later. We will learn a lot from these guys. When we started researching this Mega idea last year already, I was in contact with the team that did their first Mega in Austria. The important thing is to have a venue that offers all sorts of accommodation and is easily accessible. Remember, it is not only locals that would be attending. Then there are the "sub Events" which are little Events part of the Mega and then the invitation for all the businesses to come and sell their wares, including gps companies, geocoin companies, etc. The planning and organisation is paramount, and we would need to set up a committee with representatives from each Province, as each rep would need to rally his/her geocaching community to attend. Some Megas involved the ENTIRE community/suburb/village, such as Finland's one. That would make it work. This is not an overnight thing, it is a future thing that will take time, money and loads of effort. The MOST IMPORTANT aspect though, is to be passionate about geocaching and to want to attend the Mega. Without that the Mega will not be possible. So if we do not have at least 250 committed teams to attend, it won't work. I would like to believe that we do have this, or at least the few passionate teams that we do have could do some convincing in their area. Thanks Team vdlo for opening this thread. I've been meaning to do it for months now, but never got round to it due to work commitments. Thanks to Tricky Vicky & Mickey, we got a lot of guidance of what to do for SA and in time (after Aug next year) we'll be much more wiser. The Mega would need to happen in 2012 or 2013 depending when we decide to have it. September has been put forward as an option, and the requirement for it to be during school holidays. Winter is not the ideal time unless you're at the Natal coast, but this is just the start of great things to happen! Warm regards GEO936

We will enter one Racer at the Event tomorrow and then the other two we have at the Event at Scrooge. We are struggling to get the TB tags we have activated. We purchased them over a year ago, and now the activation codes don't work. We tried emailing the place where we bought them from, but with Thanksgiving on Thurs, seems like the entire States has taken a long weekend off! We really hope to get this sorted asap.

Hi Grant....I don't mind to pop round to Orange Grove or Linden. Send me the details and let me know when I should go round. I am very familiar with Orange Grove having had family live there for years and Linden is just up the road from where we live. Best regards Silvia

Ooops! We have not been on the forum lately due to work commitments, but when we saw the paragraph about 10-10-10 in the newsletter and with Rolf's pending trip to the States in October, we saw loads of 10-10-10 Events. So we thought to go ahead and do one on our side. But we forgot to check the forum and didn't see that Wormgeocache also organised such an Event. Although his is a lot different to ours, we are sorry that we won't be able to attend his Event. We just hope that as many teams attend either or both Events (which is possible as our Event goes on for a few hours while Worm's is a quickie), so that we can create a new record!

Sounds fantastic! Count us in with at least two entrants. A geocoin and a TB, maybe a third TB or fourth just for fun. We are willing to help where we can, so please let us know when the burden gets too much! Thanks Bruce for all the work thus far!

Endurance Leader Obstacle?

Okay, ratings for things to do with ??? I have no idea. If not the environment, how about industry?

I know this is not a geocaching Milestone, but CONGRATULATIONS to Andrew Myers and Heidi Crocker (aka Crystal Fairy) on the birth of their first child on 06 July 2010. A healthy baby boy weighing in at 3.6Kg!!! named Ayden Reece Myers! Congrats guys.....now your geocaching will take a back seat for a while .

It must have something to do with the Environment.....Environmental Listing O.....

Hi guys! We just wanted to let all cachers know that the Chequered Flag Event that will be held on Saturday, 31st July 2010 is for ALL interested cachers! It is a normal Event like any other - an opportunity for geocachers to socialise. You do not have to have a Racer to attend this Event. We are a bit concerned that no cachers want to attend this Event because they think it is aimed at only those who have entered a TB racer. But this is not so! We have arranged to have some fun things for the kids to do and you can braai or bring along your potjie. We thought that because it was still Winter, that a potjie would be something different. Something that you can get going and then leave it to simmer gently while you chat with fellow geocachers. We will also be making a HUGE pot of delicious gluwein. So PLEASE do come along and join us for some fun and enjoyment! There is a cache at the Event site, and if we manage to time things right, there may be a few new caches in the area to find .... Hope you will be able to come along!

Photo Nominations for June: WOW!! Good shot all the way from Czech Republic!! Photo taken by Tatouch of the Flags of the World Postcard

Photo nominations for June 2010: A lovely view with the sunset/sunrise! Photo taken by Wazat of the Love Bug

Photo nominations for June: A lovely photo of Megan with the Jabulani ball and the racer! Photo taken by MeganZA of the Racing Ferrari which belongs to JPMZA We thought this was a cool shot with a LARGE Zakumi! Photo taken by GEO936 of the Capital TB which belongs to Carbon Hunter

Photo nominations for June 2010: We just love this pic of Phoenix the two year old horse! Capital TB of Carbon Hunter Photo taken by GEO936

Photo nomination for June 2010: Photo taken by : studiolucca We loved this shot - great view and it brought back fond memories of us doing this cache a while ago!

Hey CH...we retrieved your racing TB this past weekend. We've had trouble trying to log our finds and things, but will update everything asap. Cheers GEO936

Ooops...posted a reply to the quiz on the tb race thread! sorry!

Hi cincol....have you been able to look at the photo nominations for April and May as yet? I know you have a lot on your plate, but was just wondering which TB had won for each month? Best regards GEO936

Does it have something to do with "apartheid"?

Has it something to do with a Baumann's family member getting married to a Baker? Not really sure? Did the Baker's take over the Baumann business?

Thought the idea about the Weddings sounded nice, but I suppose it would be difficult to achieve that in one month, when not even the World Cup soccer bonus points had much of an impact this month. Historical sites is a good one - we have loads of those, even nearby in the city. How about visiting a Museum or a Botanical Garden? We have these in all our provinces and they are easily accessible, especially Museums. There is at least one in every town or city. Perhaps also a bit of info. about the Museum would be nice or whether there is a cache nearby so that we can learn from it? Or how about the coin needs to be photographed at a Multi or Mystery cache which is found during the month of June?

Late entry Photo nomination for April: We really liked this photo. It is taken in New Zealand, but if you didn't know any better you would think it was in the foothills of the Drakensberg in South Africa!! Photo of Welsh Rugby Union TB taken by W.E.K.A.

Back to May Photo Nominations: Liked this one with the matching colours! Travel in Style - Photo taken by Wildbirds

A late photo nomination for April 2010: Thought this one was quite sweet with "Franklin" the turtle pet!! Besem's Purple Dragon taken by cobri30165 in the USA

Photo nominations for May: Aren't these little guys so cute! Nice one! Eager Beaver TB - Photo taken by Red Kite in the UK Now this is something you don't see everyday - a black swan with her cute baby! Whoever said that a cygnet was ugly?? Eager Beaver TB - Photo taken by Red Kite in the UK