Mid-Atlantic/D.C. Metro area Geocacher's group?

[Guest tedoca]

Hello all,

 

Anyone interested in forming a group in the Mid-Atlantic/D.C. Metro area for promoting and supporting Geocaching?

 

Something along the lines of the Georgia Geocachers Association and the Lousianna Area Geocachers Group or LAGG (couldn't find a url for them).

 

There are quite a large number of both active caches and active cacher's in the D.C., Northern Virginia, Montgomery, and Prince Georges County areas although that area may be too small to attract enough interested members to constitute a diverse group.

 

My thought was to include Maryland's Eastern shore as well as Delaware to the East, North to at least the Pennsylvania line and perhaps some of Southern Pa. (Philly, Harrisburg?). West to Hagerstown (Cumberland?) to include the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia, and South to oh, say Fredericksburg?

 

Seems like an area that size would be large enough to attract a diverse membership yet still small enough to best serve the needs and address the concerns of the local geocaching community. It is also large enough to cover the full range of terrain/population variances from beach and marsh on the Eastern shore to the high mountains of West Virginia, Western Maryland, and Pensylvania, as well as rural vs. urban areas.

 

Some things I think a group such as this could accomplish...

 

Educate the community on geocaching and promote the activity through pamphlets and brochures, demonstrations at local Scout meetings, outings, events etc.

 

Educate it's members on responsible geocaching, navigation techniques, map reading skills, plant/tree/animal track identification etc. through an electronic newsletter with submissions from guest contributors or articles written by members with expertise in a given area, or through (quarterly?) meetings with guest speakers and/or demonstrations by Park personnel, naturalists or group members etc.

 

Work with park officials to obtain permission for placing caches in our local parks and promote a cooperative effort between geocacher's and park management. Possibly maintain a database of contact names and numbers for parks where geocaching activities are welcomed?

 

Serve as a central repository for coordinating event-caches,gatherings,picnics etc. Coordinate outings such as trail cleanup trips, hikes, bike rides/tours or group trips to distant caching hot-spots, for example.

 

Just a few ideas I had, anyone else?

 

Some of the elements I think we would need to make this work...

 

First, we would need enough interested participants (the reason for this post). Without that there's not much point in any of this. By participate I guess I'm thinking anyone who would be willing to attend meetings, gatherings, picnics, event-caches, etc. A plus would be those willing/able to write articles for a newsletter, give demonstrations on GPS use, map reading etc., organize trail clean-up trips, host a meeting or organize event-caches, etc.

 

Some web space somewhere for a web page(though I guess we could start with one of those free web hosting sites like Yahoo or Tripod).

 

Someone who could design, create, and maintain a website giving the group a 'presence' on the internet.

 

Someone who could put together and publish a newsletter, and folks who could write articles or invite experts to contribute. Someone with a connection in the park service would be great.

 

A Secretary to take minutes at meetings and post them to the website.

 

I would hope that this could be done on an entirely voluntary basis but, say we wanted to rent a van for a caching trip, or place a deposit on a picnic shelter, in cases like that we may need someone who could serve as Treasurer (any accountants out there?)

 

Anything else?

 

So, how many out there would like to have a local group like this? How many would be interested in contributing to/participating in forming and maintaining the group?

 

 

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Regards,

Tedoca

[Guest LoCache]

t me extend an invitation to you to take advantage of everything we have learned so far in forming a group. If there are any documents, advice, artwork for logo's etc that we can offer in getting you started you are welcome to it!

 

Currently, there are a couple of other groups forming and we are offering them the same assistance. We even have a word document we could provide you with to assist you in forming a group....basically recanting how we formed.

 

I will be happy to tell you more if you want to email me. Best of luck to you!

Geo

 

http://www.ggaonline.org

[Guest cottingham]

quote:

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Originally posted by tedoca:

Anyone interested in forming a group in the Mid-Atlantic/D.C. Metro area for promoting and supporting Geocaching?

---

Do you have room for "honorary" members? I live in Kansas City, but work for a company in Herndon, and have been flying up to DC about once a month. Naturally, I try to get in some geocaching after hours -- not so easy when the sun sets around 5 PM.

 

Here's a thought. Set up a group on one of the free sites you mentioned, then print up a bunch of business-card-sized flyers advertising the group and soliciting new members. Then, drop them off in every cache you visit in the area. I'm not due to go back until April, but I'd be happy to help spread the word then.

[Guest cottingham]

quote:

---

Originally posted by tedoca:

Anyone interested in forming a group in the Mid-Atlantic/D.C. Metro area for promoting and supporting Geocaching?

---

Do you have room for "honorary" members? I live in Kansas City, but work for a company in Herndon, and have been flying up to DC about once a month. Naturally, I try to get in some geocaching after hours -- not so easy when the sun sets around 5 PM.

 

Here's a thought. Set up a group on one of the free sites you mentioned, then print up a bunch of business-card-sized flyers advertising the group and soliciting new members. Then, drop them off in every cache you visit in the area. I'm not due to go back until April, but I'd be happy to help spread the word then.

[Guest tedoca]

LoCache,

 

Thanks for the offer... I've been following the thread by Dave P and gleaning info from there. I'd certainly appreciate any info and assistance you have to offer but first I wanted to float the idea around for awhile and see if there is enough interest. If there's no takers there's not much point in even doing it. I wouldn't want any 'group' that formed to be one man's opinion of how it should be. What's the point in that? If the group is not at least somewhat representative of the whole, well, you know what I mean.

 

There are, by my calculations, over 300 active caches in the area I described, and around 500 active cachers in the same area. Seems likely that there would be quite a few folks interested and it would be nice to see say, 10%, express some interest in being INVOLVED in the formation of a group. Anything less than that and it becomes the work and opinions of only a few and is not representative of the whole.

 

I do understand that not everyone participates in the forums, so an initial number of something less than 10% COULD be viable with the hope and expectation that after advertising and promoting the idea more participants would surface or perhaps just show up at the first meeting.

 

Cottingham,

 

Absolutely! Again, I would not want to speak as the voice for everyone, but the group I'm envisioning would not be arbitrarily limited to some exclusive bunch of veteran cacher's who happened to live within the defined area. In fact, one of the things I find most appealing about geocaching is that I can do it wherever I go. So, my hope would be that traveling cacher's could find a local group, wherever they happened to be traveling, of great benefit to them... just as if I was traveling outside my home area... I would like to have a similar resource available to me.

 

In addition to that, having a member from outside the area could be of great benefit to the group in pointing out differences in cache styles, hiding techniques etc...

 

Thanks for the replies,

 

Let's hope some locals express interest in this too!

 

 

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Regards,

Tedoca

[Guest tedoca]

 

No one interested in forming a group, huh?

 

[Cybercam]

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Camden Cybercam88@aol.com

[Cybercam]

hi i live in fredericksburg i will help you if you wunt e-mail me please.

 

 

Camden Cybercam88@aol.com