konopapw

Thank you, very much! We are putting the finishing touches on a document about SLAGA history; How the St. Louis organization started from an ad-hoc picnic in 2001 - and all our trials and tribulations up to this point in time. Boring to many, but worth capturing the details while we still haven't lost those memories. To be published on the SLAGA web site, soon. If you happen to meet up with FrodoB and SleuthHounds from Seattle, tell them Paul says hello. konopapw - SLAGA webmaster

You just made my whole day. We should bend the guideline that suggests "placing the cache back in the exact location you found it". Otherwise the terrain should be changed to *****. (I left my crane in my other pants)

Awesome story! Floodwaters Bring KC Cache to St. Louis

The MDC employee, partly responsible for creating and implementing the new policy, went on her first geocache hunt with RGS and I on March 20, 2009. Read the details and more about the policy here: Article on SLAGA web site about the new Missouri Dept. of Conservation geocaching policy

I have a meeting scheduled with John Vogel and Teresa Kight at the Busch Wildlife headquarters this month to record a podcast about the new geocaching policy. I asked John for a podcast interview over a year ago, but he didn't want to talk about geocaching until the policy was approved. Officially it will be in effect April 3th. Teresa had a lot to do with implementing the policy. Unfortunately, I ended the SLAGA Geocaching Podcast in July, 2008 after 3 years and 100 episodes. But I will dust off my recording equipment to get some important sound bites. I've had email correspondence with a geocacher in St. Charles County who is not pleased with the new policy because he has many existing geocaches that will have to be pulled as a result. I've had personal experience with the hit-and-miss geocaching attitude from the Missouri Department of Conservation over the years. There are quite a few C.A. near where I live that are wonderful areas to place caches. Here is a link to one of my experiences: What is the Missouri Dept. of Conservation Geocaching Policy?

The recent forced archiving of a geocache prompted me to send the cache owner a note about my own experience with the Missouri Dept. of Conservation. Here is a published link to my email exchange. It is focused on getting permission to place a geocache at Valley View Conservation Area near where I live.

Went last year and all I can say is that it is a great event. SLAGA Geocaching Podcast episode #83 On Fri Oct 12, 2007, Elaine and I drive 160 miles from Eureka, Missouri to Sumner, Illinois. Our plan was to cache along the way and them meet up with the Cache Slash Crew around 6:30pm that evening. In the first part of this 2 episode podcast, you will hear a group interview in Gary Ianyart's backyard. We talk about halloween, geocaching and the Cache Slash Fest that will occur the weekend after our interview. Link to podcast MP3 file: http://www.geostl.com/SLAGA/SLAGA_Podcast/...83_20071012.mp3 (Part 2 of 2 to be published in 7 days) Your source of all SLAGA Geocaching Podcast info: http://www.podcast.geostl.com NOTE: This geocaching podcast to be retired after episode #100, which will be sometime in summer or fall of 2008).

Promo (mp3, 4.4 MB, 7:26 minutes) http://www.geostl.com/SLAGA/SLAGA_Podcast/...hFest_Promo.mp3 This is a short promo for the upcoming halloween/geocaching event to be hold in Sumner, Illinois on October 20, 2007 at the house of Gary, the King Of Halloween. This promo gives you an idea of what to expect at the event, what has happened at previous events and is also a sneak peek at the full-length podcast episodes to be published later in 2007 for the SLAGA Geocaching Podcast (http://www.podcast.geostl.com) 2007 Cache Slash Fest cache page (GC14X2C)

My SLAGA Geocaching Podcast with Tracy and Harley on June 28, 2007 (14.2MB, 31 minutes): http://www.geostl.com/SLAGA/SLAGA_Podcast/...66_20070628.mp3 They were gracious enough to drive all the way to Eureka, Missouri to record an interview with me. Their find count was about 1300 at the time.

'MOGA Time' is a video promo I submitted to Sheldon (Icenrye) for his Geocaching Videozine. It was meant to promote the annual geocaching competition and social event held in the midwest U.S. the past 3 years. MOGA 2008 will be held next March at Mark Twain Lake, Missouri. This is a link to images, video and audio from the previous 3 events. http://www.geostl.com/SLAGAPostNuke/module...cle&sid=292

How about that^? I think that looks better. The SLAGA group is revisiting the idea of creating their own geocoin. The idea has been smoldering for quite a while. A few people have been trying to resurrect it. Nothing officially announced, yet. Rumor is there will be a design contest for one side of the coin.

I SO wanted to find a way to get there! Almost had myself convinced that I could buck the deadlines, cache my way over from St. Louis, sleep in the back of my truck and participate in the Cache-A-Maniac / Podcacher podcast 'show'. Then I woke up and realized that I'm not 20 years old any more, I need to be at the SLAGA summer picnic on 7/21/07 and spend more time looking for a paying job. Then again ...

See the entries under 2005/12/31 for images and videos of the hunt and celebration at this link: http://www.geostl.com/SLAGAPostNuke/index....=article&sid=10 (A podcast of the day is forth coming, but that will take a few more days to publish)

Details can be found on the SLAGA Event Calendar

http://www.podcacher.com Sonny and Sandy do a good job of creating regular geocaching podcasts and maintaining a related web site. But they don't want to host podcasts created by others. http://www.cachecaster.com An individual creating his own geocaching podcast, not produced as regularly as podcacher.com. Doubt he would want to host other's podcasts either. http://www.georadio.org Had potential, but this boat sunk. Would have been a great place for free-lance geocaching podcasts (the type I have created and want to continue creating). www.archive.org currently allows podcasts to be published to it. I think you can create your own RSS feed referencing files on their site. I plan to see if that is a good place for me to host my free-lance geocaching podcasts. I have been considering creating a replacement for georadio.org so I and others like me can consolidate our geocaching podcasts. The concept isn't dead. I just haven't taken enough time to test the water to see if anyone wants to go in on the venture with me. (and spend next to nothing in the process!)

I emailed you from two different email addresses; from one address on 8/26/05 and another on 8/27/05. No reply from you.

I have been corresponded with Sonny from www.podcacher.com by email recently. In one email I specifically asked if they would host my SLAGA podcasts. That is one email I didn't get a reply to. I don't think my podcasts are THAT bad! But it could very well be that it doesn't fit into their plans for their web site. They do a very good job of keeping their website fresh all by themselves. georadio.org would be the perfect for the SLAGA podcasts. Maybe I'm too anxious for publication and maybe my emails to deltadawg are being marked as spam. But once I have a podcast ready, I want to be able to put it 'out there' immediately.

I created two geocaching podcasts for our SLAGA group in St. Louis. Rather than add one more RSS feed to the world, my first choice would be to include them in the feed at http://www.georadio.org. According to its webmaster, deltadawg, freelance contributions are encouraged. However, there hasn't been a podcast from that site in over a month. Deltadawg hasn't replied to any of my emails regarding publishing my SLAGA podcasts. There isn't a better time than now to catch the podcasting wave. Besides myself, I know there are others who want to jump on the bandwagon and add geocaching podcast content to the internet. (I know about www.podcacher.com and www.cachecaster.com, but I haven't seen either site welcome freelance contributions.) If georadio.org isn't going to catch the wave, then I might consider getting on my own surfboard and start paddling. Anyone else want to join me in creating an incubator web site for freelance geocaching podcasts? Or can someone wake deltadawg up? In the mean time, the two SLAGA geocaching podcasts are at: http://podcast.geostl.com

...

MOGA 2005 DVD Videos are now available for purchase on-line at http://moga.geostl.com. They will also be available for a reduced price at SLAGA events throughout the year (if you happen to be in the St. Louis, Missouri area during those times) Go to http://moga.geostl.com and see what the videos are about. If you were at the event, you are most likely *IN* the video! Money collected will go to offset the cost of DVD production and distribution, as well as add funds to the SLAGA bank account.

The event is over. Visit http://moga.geostl.com for pictures of the course winners and videos captured throughout the event.

Latest video production: Introduction to MOGA 2005 (4.4 MB) http://www.geostl.com/MOGA/2005_MOGA_EventIntro.wmv The other 2 videos SLAGA has produced for the event: Greeting from the host (1.0 MB) http://www.geostl.com/MOGA/20050212_MOGA_TimMollyIntro.wmv Meramec State Park montage (4.0 MB) http://www.geostl.com/MOGA/2005_MeramecStatePark_Montage.wmv

There seems to be some confusion on when this event is. It was announced above that is will be held in May, 2006. But it says April 2, 2005 on the event cache page. Is that because you can't set up event caches that far ahead of time? But then, people are logging notes like it is this year. Hmmmmm. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...78-af70c9faee6f

I will be there Fri, Sat and Sun. I won't be competing. I'll be documenting! We've decided this year to get some video footage and release a DVD about how the event was put together and highlights from the event, itself. This was somewhat of an afterthought. We didn't get started on documenting until a couple of weeks ago. But we have create a couple of short videos you might be interested in seeing. Go to http://moga.geostl.com and look for the section called MULTI-MEDIA INFORMATION. I'm working on another short video this weekend. It will be something about the courses and activities during the 3 days in April. We'll have a couple of digital video cameras rolling during the event, along with a bunch of digital cameras. If you have a group coming from far away, send me an email. We can arrange a few minutes to mention your team and to say a few words about the event, for posterity. I can't promise we'll use all the footage, but if noone else volunteers, you stand a great chance of being on our DVD! Paul Konopacki (aka konopapw) email me at: moga2005_documentary@geostl.com

I keep trying to retire, but always get sucked back in. This time, I don't have the will to continue. It has been years of "darned if you do and darned if you don't". We are looking for geocachers (preferrably SLAGA members) to help maintain the technical parts of http://www.geostl.com. We also need people to provide content. This is strictly a volunteer effort. For the past few years, I've been doing most of the work to maintain the site and provide content (RGS playing a key role to relieve some of the pressure). I learned a lot about web development, but it's time for me to move on. Only 2 of our 266 SLAGA 'members' have shown any interest in turning over responsibility. And I know neither want to have to put in as much time as I have over the years. So, if the work can be coordinated and spread out, geostl.com can still remain a viable site. I have promised to consult throughout the transition. I've also promised to continue to maintain the dynamic content of the site (Perl script and mySQL) until someone brave enough comes along to rewrite it all in PHP! (it would be one heck of a learning experience ...) Anyway, I'm just trying to get the word out to increase the chances that geostl.com doesn't die a slow death. Email webmaster @ geostl.com if you want to be part of SLAGA's technical future. Paul Konopacki (aka konopapw)