Girl Guides Geocaching

[+Highland Horde 0]

So here is the scoop. My girlfriends daughter is a Girl Guide, and my girlfriend is a Guide Leader. We were talking about getting the girls out geocaching but I want to make sure they have fun (thats the easy part) but I dont want to end up with dead caches poorly places. I looked online to see what info there was out and another Guide unit did some stuff but one of the tasks was to place a geocache or release a TB (along with finding at least 2 caches). I am not sure about having the girls place the caches. In my limited experience I have already run into caches not being maintained and some poorly places and muggled.

Does anyone have some ideas on what we can do to make it fun, and educational, but not lead to other posts here complaining about poorly organized geocaching groups

[+WindChill 0]

Do the caches placed have to be permanent or can they be temps?

 

Good placement and maintenance are part of the game so they should be part of what you teach the girls. This doesnt mean they need to be the ones to maintain the caches forever, but they should understand that maintenance is part of it. Plus, it gives you a chance to take them out again in a few months. Hunt a couple of new caches and check on their hides.

[+Highland Horde 0]

I think I am leaning towards having the girls find a couple caches on their own (with parents) and as a group build and place a cache and I will be sure to discuss good placement and maintenance. The unit is smaller (8 girls) so I think we could build one good well stocked with swag cache and I could make sure they have a link to the cache page but I would maintain it. I also won a geocoin that i think I will donate for their 100th anniversary this year....well donate isnt really accurate...it will still be on my list and i will track it but they can release it and name it...as well as 2 or 3 bugs...

[+godavid 0]

dont forget the geocaching creed : ) ----↓ click link below

Edited February 25, 2010 by wilddav

[+Meemoland 0]

I am planning on doing this with my guides this term - would be nice if there was an official girlguiding.org bug!

[+BBWolf+3Pigs 1]

My wife and I did a little caching with her GS troop. We had them look for a couple of my caches which I knew were in good shape and well stocked (and of course easy to find).

 

They also put together a cache and hid it at one of the local GS camps, to be found by the girls who camped there (they have many summer day and overnight camp sessions during the summer, and it is available to troops for all sorts of activities. We wrote up a description, and provided it to he local council and the folks that run the camp. It was NOT published on geocaching.com, since the general public is not allowed on the campground.

[+K13 1027]

So here is the scoop. My girlfriends daughter is a Girl Guide, and my girlfriend is a Guide Leader. We were talking about getting the girls out geocaching but I want to make sure they have fun (thats the easy part) but I dont want to end up with dead caches poorly places. I looked online to see what info there was out and another Guide unit did some stuff but one of the tasks was to place a geocache or release a TB (along with finding at least 2 caches). I am not sure about having the girls place the caches. In my limited experience I have already run into caches not being maintained and some poorly places and muggled.

Does anyone have some ideas on what we can do to make it fun, and educational, but not lead to other posts here complaining about poorly organized geocaching groups

 

I would encourage the Travel Bug and finding caches, instead of placing a cache. Owner permanence with the group could be a factor (the girls do grow up , I know mine has).

[Keystone 3449]

Since the time when this thread was started, we have opened a new subforum in the Education section. Moving this thread to "Youth Organizations & Clubs."

[+The_Incredibles_ 37]

The main thing, I think is that an adult (preferably an active geocacher) take responsiblity for the cache after placing. It sounds to me like you're going to do that.

 

If you wanted to get the kids involved in maintenance, you could assign each family a date (perhaps once/month) to have them go check on the cache and post a note on the cache page to say they've done it. 8 girls will mean you're covered for 8 months, then you can decide if you want to continue maintenance checks yourself or archive the cache.