Idea: A "welcome Newbies!" Event Cache

[+Sparrowhawk]

I have been talking to someone new to geocaching, and they had a lot of questions, such as wanting to see a GPS in action, different models of GPSr units, questions about geocaching, etc.

 

My unit is a Meriplat. Works fine for me... but I wondered if it was fair for him to just get an impression based on that.

 

Then I had a cool idea. A special "Welcome Newbies!" cache event. It would work like this:

 

A sort of mini cache machine, consisting of at least 5 impressive caches within a 5 mile radius. Mix it up a bit, maybe a micro, maybe a simple puzzle cache, and at least 3 "wow, didn't know THIS was here!" cool-location caches.

 

The newbies get to look for the caches while the veterans get to hang out and be encouraging. Lots of postive vibes.

 

Then afterwards, a get-together in a pub.

 

Cool idea or not? How to improve it if it could work?

 

All ideas are welcome.

[+Sparrowhawk]

Modification of idea:

 

This would be in Portland.

 

It would be on a Sunday, starting with a breakfast place on Sandy Blvd. Then we'd work our way south, end up at the Original Stash, and celebrate at some pub in Oregon City.

 

That way, if you only have the morning or the evening to hang out, you can choose breakfast or dinner with geocachers.

 

Just brainstorming...

[+Half-Canadian]

The BCGA hosted this type of event last summer, and it was a big success:

ABC's of Geocaching -- Novice Night Special Event!

 

We set up a central meeting point in an unused overflow parking lot of a city park with folding tables, chairs, and a barbecue. We had displays set up in this area with samples of different cache containers, a display board of how to move and log travel bugs, and an assortment of various gps units from within our group that people could look at. Of course this area was well supervised! In this same area, we had someone welcoming new arrivals, passing out nametags and raffle tickets, and collecting donations for the hot dog and pop meal deal.

 

Prior to the event, we set up 5 temporary, non-loggable caches around the perimeter of the parking lot, and had one BCGA member stationed at each location to answer questions and give tips. We made cache page printouts just like a regular cache would have, and people could walk from one station to the next after inputting the coordinates. The caches included an ammo can in a stump, a lock & lock under a footbridge, a magnetic keyholder under a bench, a fake pine cone, and one more that I don't remember.

 

We had discussed during the planning of this event whether or not to have people just drive from one existing cache to the next and then meet up for a meal somewhere, but we decided it would be more worthwhile to keep people in one location so they could have more time to talk, visit, and meet others instead of spending a lot of the time driving. That was the right decision -- people had a super time just sitting in groups in the parking lot with a hotdog and a can of pop, talking and getting hints from other newbies and those of us with more experience. You can see from the photos on the cache page what a good time everyone had -- both the brand new cachers and the "old timers".

 

It was an easy event to host -- several people each prepared a temporary cache and/or a display board, we set up 30 minutes ahead of time, cleaned up, picked up the temporary caches, and were done. People really enjoyed themselves, and a lot of those newbies are still enthusiastically caching.

[+Sparrowhawk]

Well, it looks like my schedule simply does not allow me to set up anything as fancy as my original idea, or as well-organized as the idea above... but I can at least arrange SOMEthing, make it low-key and easy to deal with, and see about making it cool from there.

 

Any other ideas are appreciated... thanks for the help so far.

[+TotemLake]

Are you local to any nearby clubs? Bring your newbie to a pizza night. Our club tends to split up afterwards and go on cache hunts. That would be a great introduction to geocaching without having to go all out to organize anything special.

[+Lizzy]

The BCGA hosted this type of event last summer, and it was a big success:

ABC's of Geocaching -- Novice Night Special Event!

 

We set up a central meeting point in an unused overflow parking lot of a city park with folding tables, chairs, and a barbecue. We had displays set up in this area with samples of different cache containers, a display board of how to move and log travel bugs, and an assortment of various gps units from within our group that people could look at. Of course this area was well supervised! In this same area, we had someone welcoming new arrivals, passing out nametags and raffle tickets, and collecting donations for the hot dog and pop meal deal.

 

Prior to the event, we set up 5 temporary, non-loggable caches around the perimeter of the parking lot, and had one BCGA member stationed at each location to answer questions and give tips. We made cache page printouts just like a regular cache would have, and people could walk from one station to the next after inputting the coordinates. The caches included an ammo can in a stump, a lock & lock under a footbridge, a magnetic keyholder under a bench, a fake pine cone, and one more that I don't remember.

 

We had discussed during the planning of this event whether or not to have people just drive from one existing cache to the next and then meet up for a meal somewhere, but we decided it would be more worthwhile to keep people in one location so they could have more time to talk, visit, and meet others instead of spending a lot of the time driving. That was the right decision -- people had a super time just sitting in groups in the parking lot with a hotdog and a can of pop, talking and getting hints from other newbies and those of us with more experience. You can see from the photos on the cache page what a good time everyone had -- both the brand new cachers and the "old timers".

 

It was an easy event to host -- several people each prepared a temporary cache and/or a display board, we set up 30 minutes ahead of time, cleaned up, picked up the temporary caches, and were done. People really enjoyed themselves, and a lot of those newbies are still enthusiastically caching.

 

We need something like this in Washington. When I first started out, it was all hit & miss and the learning curve was sooo steep. I would've loved this kind of an event, especially if it was also published in local papers, etc. If anyone decided to have an event like this somewhat locally, I'd be more than willing to do a huge amount of help with it. I'm too "chicken" to do this on my own... <fear of failure?!>

[+DoodleCat & MisterKrrk]

Just to give this topic a bump, we've sent an email to SparrowHawk about adding some newbie events to an event cache we're planning in Oregon City for the last Sunday in August. If anyone wants to help out by hiding a sneaky temporary cache or two for newbies to practice on, let us know.