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Starting a Geocache club in the Savannah,Ga area


johnboy11171

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Short of a formal group how about a very informal monthly "chat-n-chew?"

 

We do that here in the Charleston area up the coast from you. It's every first Monday of the month and we've been doing it for a few months now. The only trouble is we're getting too big for the space we normally use.

 

The format is very simple. One person finds a restaurant that has a meeting room. We choose Shoney's. Then pick a night. We picked Monday's for various reasons, one of which is it's a very dead night for restaurants. Also, it's not a night with Survivor, Lost, Amazing Race, Treasure Hunters, or other similar types of shows that likely appeal to cachers on that level. Also, a weeknight will rarely, if ever, overlap with a big Association meeting.

 

We decided to simply pick a night and time to do it and go with it instead of trying to get a consensus together. We've found that if you try to work around everyone's schedule it'd never get done. The fact that it's every month makes it available so that everyone would eventually be able to come.

 

The reason we try to keep it the same day of the month--the first Monday--is because then adjacent areas can know when to plan their meetings so they don't interfere or overlap. If you had your meetings on the same day as us, folks in the Beaufort area would have to make a decision as to which meeting to go to. Alternating days helps prevent that.

 

We all show up at around 7pm. We now have to make a short speech because of the number of new visitors we keep getting. We have a short round of introductions and then simply let folks talk amongst themselves.

 

Chow is the individuals' responsibility and we all eat at our leisure.

 

It's pretty fun and loose. We get to put faces with names, network for help on puzzles, or set dates to tackle the harder caches around. No organized games or none of that junk.

 

It's kind of like a formal group, but it's all of the fun and none of the work.

 

Hope this helps.

 

EDIT TO ADD: Don't be afraid of posting an event not having anyone show. I doubt very seriously that would happen. We had that fear at first, but decided if no one showed the wife and I would simply have a dinner together. Our first event had 15 teams, which is about 20 people, show up. I doubt you'd get skunked.

Edited by CoyoteRed
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Thank you.I might just try this idea.I see alot of people have looked at this thread,but a few have said anything.I guess they are afriad of change.I just thought it would be great to have a club in the Savannah area.I guess I was wrong.I might just go ahead a start one myself and see what happens.

Hace a nice Day

johnboy11171

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I don't think it's so much an idea of change, but one of a bit of, well, laziness or not wanting to get excited over something that might not come to pass or last long. I know, I was thinking the same thing at first.

 

We had a guy here that wanted to start such a group like you're thinking about. Knowing how involved general events can be, we didn't want to be involved in making it happen. The guy over-analyzed it and it ended up never happening. We always thought it was a good idea and would have attended, but we just didn't want to do any of the work.

 

Also, being involved in the early stages of the state association also taught me that is not something I really want to do. Once you start having "official" stances and policies then you're going to have folks who are not pleased of certain decisions. That's no fun. That's the reason our local events are not part of any group or association--even though we may call ourselves a group it's only in the loosest of terms. While I had at first wanted to create a chapter of the state group I think I like it as simply a gathering of friends and those interested in geocaching. Nothing more.

 

I, also, can understand the excitement of having an "official" group, but for me that got old pretty quick. I like the very informal nature of the group and it has been a success so far. Folks might not respond when you ask questions about it, but they sure will show up.

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Hey, saw the forum post, and thought about it for a little while. I think that would be a fun local way to meet cachers. A good restaurant to have it at would be "Fire Mountain". I have a micro cache there also. Just talk to one of the managers there and ask them if it would be ok with them. I'm not sure how many the room there would hold, but just thought that it would be a good idea. Also, I don't think that it costs anything to rent a room there, however I think that the only thing they ask for is gratuity. Hope it works out for you! :(;)

Edited by karate-kid
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Hey, saw the forum post, and thought about it for a little while. I think that would be a fun local way to meet cachers. A good restaurant to have it at would be "Fire Mountain". I have a micro cache there also. Just talk to one of the managers there and ask them if it would be ok with them. I'm not sure how many the room there would hold, but just thought that it would be a good idea. Also, I don't think that it costs anything to rent a room there, however I think that the only thing they ask for is gratuity. Hope it works out for you! :(;)

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That sounds like a pretty good idea. Making it informal with no "strings attached" that is. I have a 3 year old, so I don't get much time to do as much as I would like. I am new to GeoCaching, although I have been hearing about it for a while. Let me know when you plan a get together and I will see if the wife wanted to go.

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Have you all seen the new Savannah GeoCaching Yahoo group? If not, send me a PM and I'll PM the link back.

 

I think Monday nights, as suggested by CR work well. So as not to conflict, maybe the 2nd or 3rd Monday night of the month? I know that Carey Hilliard's restaurants have meeting rooms, as does Jalapenos. I'm sure there are plenty of others, those are just the ones I've been to recently.

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I just looked at the map of your area and saw that there are no events published. So I recommend you publish one. Find a park or restaurant that will give you room for a crowd and post a Meet and Greet. Cachers will show up. You don't have to plan anything more than chatting. I've done it a couple of times when I was traveling on business. I went to one in the Atlanta area when I was down their on business, it was posted by another cacher who was visiting and wanted to meet locals. Just post it and they will come.

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