Why do the names and faces at local events keep changing?
Events aren't for everyone. Personally, I hate people. I hate parties. I hate small talk. A year or so ago I forced myself to attend a couple GX events, thinking I might find a local buddy to GX with (S.O. is the "indoorsy" type). I discovered for the first time in my life that I might not hate people afterall. I DO like meeting GXers at events and in the wild; I haven't met a bad one yet. A couple cranky ones maybe, but no evil ones. They are the only social group I enjoy associating with. Now I feel deprived if I can't make a local event. I make a weekend caching/camping trip out of GX events not-so-close to home.
I hate competition and rushing in any form. A good number of events are based on turning GXing into a competition. This cannot be encouraging for Newbies. Hey you, with 24 finds, come compete against Team Juggs with 10,424 finds I just don't "get" the Poker Runs and FTF prizes. Why would I want to rush my trek through the woods??? The last two events I went to (non-competetive, TG) were in popular parks full of muggles on the weekend. I had to stand in line to sign the logs of several caches Great for Newbies, I guess, but jaded me felt robbed of my solitude.
GXing is appealing due to many aspects: hiking, biking, kayaking, photography, birdwatching, history, dogwalking, techie stuff and travel. If you love these aspects, you will continue GXing despite getting lost, skeeters, spiders, ticks, blisters, dehydration, sunburn, heat, cold, rain, mud, DNFs and disappointing caches. And speaking of urban micros, I love doin'em at night. A nap at 7pm; 3am Cracker Barrel, I am there, crawling under the washin' machine. No muggles, no traffic, and the temp is much more bearable in Florida in August. It does bug me, though, when a micro is placed ten yards away from a nice deep forest or when a micro is hidden where you could hide a Volkswagen. Placing a micro just requires very little thought.
And speaking of Newbie hides, I inherited a Newbie down the street who hid 10 carpy caches (and one okay cache) in my area before he even had any finds!!! I still haven't found a couple of them; I found out at an event that he has "buried a them a foot deep". If he drops out it will be from all the negative comments he's going to receive on his carpy caches. Not my day to watch him. I didn't hide any until I had over 300 finds, and I'm still embarrassed about my "Dive & Dine" micros.
Another reason people drop out is that they've found all the caches within 20 miles of home and work. Unless they move, they need to have the time and money to travel in order to keep playing.
Cache on,
tallglenn