Hosting an Event Cache

[+SgtMikal]

I have never hosted an event cache before, and was thinking of planning one for this summer. I was thinking of making it a dual-purpose event, and having attendees bring canned goods for a food drive, and then delivering everything to a food bank myself.

 

My questions are, is this allowed? Has this been done before? I also don't have anything for door prizes, so I will need to think about that as well. Any ideas? Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Thanx!

 

SgtMikal

[Andronicus]

I have never hosted an event cache before, and was thinking of planning one for this summer. I was thinking of making it a dual-purpose event, and having attendees bring canned goods for a food drive, and then delivering everything to a food bank myself.

 

My questions are, is this allowed? Has this been done before? I also don't have anything for door prizes, so I will need to think about that as well. Any ideas? Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Thanx!

 

SgtMikal

The food drive may be considered an agenda. Check with your reviewer. Door prizes? Contact some GC.com re-sellers and ask them to sponsor the event. My halloween event last year got a nice item donated by one of the online sellers.

[+briansnat]

It is unlikely to be published with a food drive element. That would violate the agenda guideline. Before submitting an event (or placing any cache) it's best to read the guidelines.

 

If you can get a few door prizes fine, but I rarely see door prizes at events. They are not expected so I wouldn't worry too much about it. In fact there are few things that will take the wind out of the sails of an event faster for me than sitting through an extended door prize raffle. I go to events to socialize, not win things.

Edited April 12, 2011 by briansnat

[+Bhob]

If you can get a few door prizes fine, but I rarely see door prizes at events. They are not expected so I wouldn't worry too much about it. In fact there are few things that will ruin an event faster for me than sitting through an extended door prize raffle. I go to events to socialize, not win things.

must be some kind of weird regional/cultural thing

 

in my neck of the woods, the raffle is the highlight of the event

(well, after the food, maybe)

donated geocoins, swag, ready-made geocaches, etc

 

tickets are sold to cover the costs of of renting the venue and other overhead

sales are always brisk

[+ZSandmann]

Almost every event I have ever been to has had some kind of door prizes and people seem to love them I always get a pile of donations when I host one. But I have only sold tickets for the raffle one time and that was several years ago when we raised money for a food bank and animal shelter following Katrina. At that time what I did was give one raffle ticket per two cans of food or $1 donated. I am not sure based on what was said above if this would be allowed today.

 

If you do try to do this I would not put much emphasis on it and certainly don't make it any sort of requirement. Work with your reviewer to see if there is a way to do a food drive within the current guidelines or contact Groundspeak and ask for an exception.

 

Good luck!

[+briansnat]

must be some kind of weird regional/cultural thing

 

in my neck of the woods, the raffle is the highlight of the event

(well, after the food, maybe)

donated geocoins, swag, ready-made geocaches, etc

 

tickets are sold to cover the costs of of renting the venue and other overhead

sales are always brisk

 

I guess it is regional. Events rarely have raffles here. When they do it's usually only at the major events that draw a lot of people. I don't mind a handful of door prizes being raffled off, but I've been to a few events where there were dozens of door prizes and to sit there for close to an hour listening to numbers being read out isn't my cup of beer.

 

But I have only sold tickets for the raffle one time and that was several years ago when we raised money for a food bank and animal shelter following Katrina. At that time what I did was give one raffle ticket per two cans of food or $1 donated. I am not sure based on what was said above if this would be allowed today.

 

If you do try to do this I would not put much emphasis on it and certainly don't make it any sort of requirement. Work with your reviewer to see if there is a way to do a food drive within the current guidelines or contact Groundspeak and ask for an exception.

 

I'm not sure how you got that one through because the no agenda guideline was in effect well before Katrina.

 

There really isn't anything keeping someone from informally asking for food donations leading up to an event. If an event host were to mention the food drive on a regional geocaching forum, on his Facebook page, Twitter, his blog, wherever, and verbally to cachers he knows he could easily pull off a food drive. It's not like Groundspeak sends out agents to events to make sure that no guideline violations are occurring. But a mention of it on the cache page will most likely prevent it from being published.

 

As ZSandmann mentioned, you can also contact Groundspeak (contact@geocaching.com) and ask for an exception. You never know.

Edited April 12, 2011 by briansnat

[+bflentje]

It is unlikely to be published with a food drive element. That would violate the agenda guideline. Before submitting an event (or placing any cache) it's best to read the guidelines.

 

If you can get a few door prizes fine, but I rarely see door prizes at events. They are not expected so I wouldn't worry too much about it. In fact there are few things that will take the wind out of the sails of an event faster for me than sitting through an extended door prize raffle. I go to events to socialize, not win things.

 

I am not saying I like the element of a door prize raffle but I've never been to an event that didn't have one.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Locally, most all events have prizes. Not really door prizes, though.

All attendees just put their name on a paper, it's added to a (hat), they are drawn and prizes awarded throughout the event.

Everything from unactivated geocoins/TB's/Cachekins, T-shirts, cache containers (all kinds), patches, caps and the like.

 

I don't think that anyone here goes to an event for those drawings, though.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Door prize drawings have been the standard out here for some time. I can't remember the last event I attended that didn't have one.

[+GeoGeeBee]

Locally, most all events have prizes. Not really door prizes, though.

All attendees just put their name on a paper, it's added to a (hat), they are drawn and prizes awarded throughout the event.

That is the definition of a door prize, isn't it?

[+Thrak]

If you can get a few door prizes fine, but I rarely see door prizes at events. They are not expected so I wouldn't worry too much about it. In fact there are few things that will ruin an event faster for me than sitting through an extended door prize raffle. I go to events to socialize, not win things.

must be some kind of weird regional/cultural thing

 

in my neck of the woods, the raffle is the highlight of the event

(well, after the food, maybe)

donated geocoins, swag, ready-made geocaches, etc

 

tickets are sold to cover the costs of of renting the venue and other overhead

sales are always brisk

 

Most events in this area have raffles but some don't. Personally, I don't really want to win anything. Sometimes the raffle tickets are free and I give them away to other folks at the event. Sometimes I've purchased a few but that's been when there was some sort of fund raiser going on or when there was a 50/50 raffle where the group gets half of the money and the raffle winner gets the other half. I don't think we've had one of those for quite some time and it seems like the last one was when we were raising money toward co-hosting GW VI. On that one I would have just left my half in the kitty anyway. I did keep tickets at one small event where there was some good kid swag up for grabs. I won and gave my winning ticket to another person's son so he could pick what he wanted. The boy seemed so surprised and happy - it was fun. At another event in the same venue I won but slipped my winning ticket onto the nearby table of someone who had gone to the restroom. When he returned he was pleased to discover that he had won. Often the prizes are cache containers or swag or fully stocked regular-sized caches. I don't need those. I don't have a problem coming up with an ammo can and swag to put in it - I have more of a problem finding a quality spot to place the caches I already have.

 

Like briansnat, I go to events to socialize rather than to win stuff. Gabbing about caching with other cachers is MUCH more fun. Having to be relatively quiet and pay attention to a long series of drawings and such detracts from the gabbing. The local group here - the N.U.T.S. (Northstate Unusual Treasure Seekers) sometimes gets together for a breakfast event. I love those. We meet outdoors at a park and everybody brings stuff to eat. I tend to bring 6 lbs. of bacon. At the last breakfast event did anybody shout out, "Hey! Thrak's here!"? Nope, what I heard was, "The BACON IS HERE!" Gotta love the bacon.

[+LukeTrocity]

If you can get a few door prizes fine, but I rarely see door prizes at events. They are not expected so I wouldn't worry too much about it. In fact there are few things that will ruin an event faster for me than sitting through an extended door prize raffle. I go to events to socialize, not win things.

must be some kind of weird regional/cultural thing

 

in my neck of the woods, the raffle is the highlight of the event

(well, after the food, maybe)

donated geocoins, swag, ready-made geocaches, etc

 

tickets are sold to cover the costs of of renting the venue and other overhead

sales are always brisk

 

I think its more of "to each his own" thing. I love raffles as well. They are totally fun. I won an ammo box my last event!

[+hzoi]

Raffles are tricky things. And by the way, when someone says "raffle" I define that as I pay for a raffle ticket and I have a chance to get a prize. If I don't have to pay, I just call that a drawing.

 

We run into issues with raffles in the Army all the time, because there are very specific rules and limited authority to do raffles in the federal workplace. I have done legal reviews on raffles and talked to colleagues who have done the same, and we always give them careful scrutiny.

 

Take the following guidance as my personal take, but as an attorney, here's how I view some of the scenarios discussed above. Not trying to call anyone out or rain on anyone's parade here, and I'm neither the cache police nor an attorney for Groundspeak. Just trying to call 'em like I see 'em and make folks aware of potential issues -- what you do with this information is your business.

 

- If I pay cash for a ticket and the money is used to raise funds for a cause (such as Red Cross, food bank, relief effort), you run afoul of the agenda rules, as above.

- If I pay cash for a ticket and the money goes into a pot that I have a chance to win or split, that's basically a small lottery, and that raises issues with applicable state and local gambling laws.

- If I pay cash for a ticket and the money goes to reimburse the event organizer for prizes they bought, that's still basically a small lottery, with goods instead of cash, and it's still gambling.

- If I pay cash for a ticket and some of the money goes to reimburse the event organizer for prizes they bought and some of the money is used to raise funds for a cause, that invokes both gambling laws and the Groundspeak rules on cache agendas.

- If I provide a can of food or any other goods to get a ticket and the goods go to a cause, it runs afoul of the Groundspeak rules on cache agendas.

 

But:

 

- If I don't pay for a ticket and it's just a drawing for a door prize that the event organizer went out and got out of the goodness of their heart, I see no issues. This is actually common practice here in the River Region.

[+Jennifer&Dean]

When we throw our winter event, it is just an event, with games and chatting. I'll do a single drawing, maybe another if something cool gets donated, we don't do more than 2 usually.

 

But do collect food for the Food Bank and Ani-Meals food bank. We NEVER mention it on the event page. It is always mentioned in the local forums and is a voluntary part of the get-together. People who are in the group and read the thread will see that we are collecting for the food bank and participate if they want too. But we don't advertise it and we don't worry if folks don't participate.

 

Last event we didn't really even mention it on the local site and folks still brought stuff to donate. It has just become a part of the winter event we have. Folks appreciate the opportunity to donate and we don't have to worry about the agenda stuff as it is not an official or required part of the event.

[+NanCycle]

Raffles are tricky things. And by the way, when someone says "raffle" I define that as I pay for a raffle ticket and I have a chance to get a prize. If I don't have to pay, I just call that a drawing.

 

Take the following guidance as my personal take, but as an attorney, here's how I view some of the scenarios discussed above. Not trying to call anyone out or rain on anyone's parade here, and I'm neither the cache police nor an attorney for Groundspeak. Just trying to call 'em like I see 'em and make folks aware of potential issues -- what you do with this information is your business.

 

- If I pay cash for a ticket and the money goes into a pot that I have a chance to win or split, that's basically a small lottery, and that raises issues with applicable state and local gambling laws.

- If I pay cash for a ticket and the money goes to reimburse the event organizer for prizes they bought, that's still basically a small lottery, with goods instead of cash, and it's still gambling.

- If I pay cash for a ticket and some of the money goes to reimburse the event organizer for prizes they bought and some of the money is used to raise funds for a cause, that invokes both gambling laws and the Groundspeak rules on cache agendas.

 

 

I am not an attorney, but I think this point is worth emphasizing.

 

If you are going to have a "Raffle" as opposed to a "Drawing" (as defined above by hzoi) you need to be very careful not to run afoul of your state and local gaming laws.