It is encouraging to see a group of volunteers spend many hours micromanaging and nitpicking within the forums of a state organization AND undertake the business of trying to get the state to open its parks to geocaching. There are many, MANY city and county parks that either look the other way or outright encourage geocaching, but if people have time to fight for the right to cache in a state park, God bless them. Yes, I know, the battle is to protect what we have as much as it is to open up state parks on a controlled basis. God bless you all again.
What I have found from reading the MNGCA forum is that a group of them (board members, primarily) have managed to alienate some while trying to do good on behalf of all. They're a lot like politicians, their voters will sing their praises, others will never be pleased.
What amazes me about it all is not that the organization and board have their fans and detractors, it's that these people have so much time on their hands that they can sit there and disect every sentence of every post made by an "opponent," and/or find time to guide the organization with their infinite wisdom. Of course all of this goes on while these "players" are geocaching regularly, right? Do any of these people have jobs? Did they have friends or hobbies prior to geocaching? I understand finding something you enjoy and making it a passion, but good God, there are several people in Minnesota that need to experience a little more in life, evidently.
I am sure you find this in every state organization, it can't be isolated to Minnesota and the Groundspeak forums. And I'm sure it's a passing fancy for some folks. I have been guilty of overindulging in online chats myself, although not volatile ones like I see at MNGCA. (I get easily sucked into discussions about "Lost.")
Despite all of this, I've seen enough evidence, and I'm not pointing a finger at MNGCA at the moment, of how "volunteers" because obsessive and controlling. Not being a psychologist, I can't cite the study, but if you have ever taken a psychology class you probably discussed the experiments where two groups were assigned roles, convicts and prison guards. Those who were assigned to be prison guards were so consumed by the power they held that the experiment had to be ended because of the way they were treating the convicts. Bottom line, when you give volunteers power and responsibility, some will abuse it, no matter how nice of a person he or she is.
I have seen shades of such behavior at MNGCA and at geocaching.com, as well as at other online venues. It is the way society works, right or wrong.
At the moment, it is festering in Minnesota. Good luck to all of you. I have a TV show to catch up on, thanks to DVR, a football team to watch on Sunday, (I am obviously not a Vikings or Packers fan,) a family to spend time with and a house to clean. Chances are I won't have time to participate again in your petty bickering.
