kbraband

The Wisconsin Geocaching Association structure has not been formalized up to this point, but we're now in the final stages of developing a set of bylaws. After that we're going to work on incorporating. We haven't taken dues or money from the store because we weren't incorporated and didn't want any of the leaders to have to claim the donations on his income tax. Regarding our website, we have been very fortunate to have people in the internet business as part our group's organizers -- namely Team CacheCows of Wisconsin and Jeremy V -- who have generously donated their time and services.

I'm thinking of bringing my 2 teenage kids with me on a spring break camping trip to the Mobile area the week of April 21. I have traveled in the area on business in the past but never tried to camp there. Can anyone give me some local advice? What are some good places for tent camping not too far from the beaches, or within a half-hour drive anyway? Would we need to make reservations? What's are the typical air temps that time of year? Do the beaches get overrun by college kids on spring break?

As of this writing there are 66 geocachers signed up for the campout. It should be another good one. Everyone is invited to sign up and join in.

I'm not sure what you are asking. Using videos on cache hunts... in what way? To post videos at your web site? To try to post clips with your finds?

It looks like the bar has just been raised for those who have to have the latest gadget. I've been thinking about getting a PDA and this new one from Garmin looks way cool. Read about it here: http://www.jsonline.com/bym/Tech/news/feb03/120822.asp I apologize in advance if this topic has been discussed. I did search for it... honestly!

We want to add our congrats and accolades from Wisconsin. We featured Bruce in a recent article in the Wisconsin Geocaching Association website.

.

This is my 3rd winter for geocaching and one of my favorite hunts was last month in northern Wisconsin: Treasure Point. The walk across the frozen lake was beautiful, although a mite chilly with the temp at -10F. It reminded me of a scene from the movie "A Simple Plan".

quote:Originally posted by spinwebby:I'll be contacting the Iowa DNR and associated agencies in the next couple of days to request a hearing. SpinWebby http://www.gpgeocaching.com http://www.gpgeocaching.com I did not mean to imply that Iowans should form another geocaching organization. Sorry! I know GPGeocaching is very active and it's great that it is going to get involved in this.

I replied to this over in the Midwest topic.

Liz, Thanks for sharing that letter. Unfortunately that's precisely the type of reaction we can expect from someone who does not or has not participated in geocaching. It's also why we are taking a proactive stance here in Wisconsin to work in close cooperation with the DNR State Parks managers to develop a geocaching policy. So far, things are going well in Wisconsin. The DNR has expressed support for geocaching because they understand what it's all about and because we -- the Wisconsin Geocaching Association -- are pledging our support to help self-police the activity. The fact that a few officials in Minnesota decided to ban geocaching is unfortunately but it should not be a reason to do so in Iowa. After all, we all know that Iowans are indepedent and intelligent! I would urge Iowa geocachers to form a strong state-wide geocaching organization and approach your state parks officials ASAP to help them develop a policy. Ken Braband Wisconsin Geocaching Association (and a former Iowan)

quote:Originally posted by Poindexter:Sounds cool to me but just make sure to let people know beforehand that treeclimbing skills are required and please do not recommend climbing spikes. They can be very harmful to trees and should only be used in tree removal operations. Iv'e been a treeclimber for quite a while and this has become a very popular activity. See http://www.treeclimbing.com for starters. Poindexter I just checked out the Tree Climbers International web site. Wow. It looks very cool! I wish there was a chapter around here that I could tie into.

The WGA is working with the Wisconsin DNR to develop a policy. You can read more about that effort here.

The WGA (Wisconsin Geocaching Association) has been working with the Wi DNR on a proposed policy for geocaching in state parks. Here's a summary of a meeting held on Jan. 21. If you would like to read more about this or post your comments, please do so in the forums at the WGA website. ----------- Brian and I had a very productive meeting today in Stevens Point with the DNR Park Management Team. Tonight we’re reporting in from Brian’s cabin on Bear Lake near Minocqua. We want to let our fellow WGA members know that things went well today and we will be moving ahead in cooperative efforts with the state park management team. Overall, the management team expressed their enthusiasm for working with us to develop a workable policy that geocachers can live with. They said they do not want Wisconsin to join the ranks of a few other states that have banned geocaching in its parks. While the managers want to review the proposed policy in more detail, the overall agreement with the policy as workable for state parks. They did take exception to the “500 foot clause” in paragraph 4.2 that says the geocache owner is allowed to move the container no more than 500 feet from its original location without obtaining new authorization. They felt this is too large a distance, and instead preferred that any movement of the cache be reported to the park contact person. While it may not be a “permit” per se, it looks like there will be some type of form the geocache owner will need to fill out when he or she seeks permission to place a cache. We discussed the possibility of making this an on-line form. Sue Black said she wanted to keep this form simple with basic information such as the owner’s name, contact information, coordinates, description of where the cache is, type of container, etc. The managers agreed that the form would not have to be as detailed as the proposed Pennsylvania form. We expressed our concern that if the form is too cumbersome and too intimidating, some geocachers would not bother to ask for permission and might instead hide geocaches without permission and then post them on the internet at sites other than geocaching.com. They affirmed our rule that no caches be placed in state natural areas. They felt the five-year lifetime for a cache was too long and favored a one-year length for a cache, with the option to renew at the end of the calendar year. Existing caches may be allowed to stay, provided they meet the park’s guidelines for placement and the owner fills out the permission form. The managers expressed interest drafting a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the WGA that would specify that we (geocachers) will be allowed to place caches in state parks if we agree to first fill out a form requesting permission from the park manager, and that if a geocacher does not abide by these rule the WGA will assist in removing the cache listing from the internet and the container from the park. In order for the DNR to sign such an agreement with the WGA, we would have to officially incorporate as some type of non-profit organization and/or look into the possibility of becoming a “friends” group like the various state parks now have. We also discussed volunteer efforts that the WGA could do for the parks, including geomapping of park trails. They suggested that WGA members could use the DNRs highly precise surveying GPSRs for this purpose after receiving training from the DNR. We agreed that geocachers would be very interested in doing this. Other ideas brought up by the Parks Management Team included having the parks publicize the locations of geocaches within their parks that would lead visitors to interpretive areas of the park, and then have GPSRs available to loan to visitors. Next steps for the WGA: not necessarily in this order - Continue working with the DNR to revise the proposed policy. - Look for ways to work with the parks on volunteer efforts. - Incorporate the WGA so we can sign a memorandum of agreement with the DNR. - Look into becoming a “Friends of the Parks” group that would work with all Wisconsin State Parks, not just a specific park. Respectfully sumbmitted Ken (kbraband) Brian (GrouseTales)

quote:Originally posted by Markwell:I'm kind of curious (my mind wanders when it's too cold for me to cache). Is it possible to download the Track Logs and get the time/date stamp and coordinates from each update? If so, is this available using any of the readily available software for Geocachers (EasyGPS, ExpertGPS, etc.)? http://www.markwell.us http://www.chicagogeocaching.com Yes, MapSource does this well as long as you don't save the active log on your GPS before you upload it to your computer. Here's an example page:

After BruceS stormed through Wisconsin this past fall, we featured him in an article in our WGA website. You can read it here: http://wi-geocaching.com/article.html

We had about 100 attend our second annual WGA picnic last August. The first picnic drew about 50, and our campout last spring attracted about 50 geocaching campers. There's lots of enthusiasm and participation in Wisconsin!

quote:Originally posted by Brogan: Everything else is fair! You can ask local cachers to help you out by moving your bug along, or by delaying someone elses! In the spirit of the original race, interference is suggested! I like your idea. However the above aspect appears to be a gigantic loophole that could ruin the whole event. Short of trashing a bug, someone could simply "accidently" leave it in their pack for days, weeks, months, even forever.

We are planning an evening meeting and social event for all Wisconsin geocachers for Tuesday Jan. 14, 2003 at the Trysting Place Pub in Germantown. Our purpose is to discuss items of interest to all WGA members. In particular we will talk about an upcoming DNR meeting that GrouseTales and kbraband have been invited to attend to discuss the proposed geocaching policy for Wisconsin State Parks. If you would like to hear about this upcoming DNR meeting and offer your comments and suggestions, please attend the Jan. 14 geocachers meeting. If you cannot attend this event but would like to be involved with the discussion, you will have the chance to read about what we discussed and give your input at the WGA website forums. We will post minutes of the meeting in the forum and we welcome your feedback there. In addition to the meeting, we will also have fun! Come on over and order from the menu. We plan to order from the menu at 6 p.m. and start the meeting at 6:45 p.m. We hope to see you there. This meeting is listed as an event cache with geocaching.com.

quote:Originally posted by PDOP's:Actually I believe that S/A was turned off during the Gulf war. Not positive why but I think it was to allow use of recreational GPSr's by coalition members. Just to clarify, SA was turned off in May of 2000 by President Clinton, not President Bush during the Gulf War. Also, the GPS system has been in service for the military since the late 1970s and for civilian use since the early 1980s.

When I worked for Collin Avionics (while taking ground school and flight lessions through the company) I was involved in PR for the company's early commercial GPS activities, including the first-ever transatlantic flight using only GPS navigation. This was accomplished by flying a Sabreliner biz jet from Cedar Rapids to Paris for the 1983 Paris Air Show. The pilot used only GPS navigation to get to Le Bourget Airport and taxi to within a few meters from a predetermined parking spot.

Many of you long-time geocachers will remember the adventure of Stinky the Skunk, who has a goal of traveling around the world from cache to cache. We don't call him a travel bug, because he left home before there ever was such a designation of TB. After several months of not hearing from him, Mrs. Stinky has received word that he is still making his way around the world. You can follow his adventures at the Where's Stinky web page.

quote:Originally posted by Cache Canucks:I think it safe to bet that any hardware manufacturer who gets this type of CEA award (...you _have_ heard of the CEA before, haven't you?) is quite likely to have the value of their stock influenced by the award's announcement. That, combined with the solid 4th quarter earnings mentioned by 'kbraband', probably made Garmin stock holders a rather happy group yesterday. Personally, I doubt that the CEA award has much to do with the 17% spike in the stock price. Seasoned analysts know that industry awards come and go. What they really react to are earnings.

Garmin stock went up more than 17% today, based on revenue estimates released today for the 4th quarter. Those of us who follow the markets and hold Garmin stock say calmly and objectively.... WOO HOO!

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=7289 While not a favorite in Iowa, judging by the fact that there has only been one find in 15 months, it would have to qualify as Iowa's most difficult.