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CITO - Food for thought


McLookers

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Our local caching community make an effort to hold CITO events.  We usually aim to have a local CITO in the two CITO souvenir weeks each year.  In addition we also team up with local Landcare Groups for tree planting and weeding.  We have held graffiti cleans.  

 

We have found that cachers will come from far and wide if there is a souvenir attached.  They are less inclined for non souvenir opportunities, it is usually the hard core CITOers that attend these.  

 

As a suggestion, perhaps there could be a CITO week each month with a souvenir attached.  This would give 12 CITO souvenirs per year.  It could mean that there was a designated 7 day period each month to hold a CITO and while there would be a reward of a souvenir for attendance, the real winner is the environment that we will have improved with great collaboration.  

 

It will hold CITO events in high regard for the positive influence they are.

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3 hours ago, McLookers said:

We have found that cachers will come from far and wide if there is a souvenir attached.  They are less inclined for non souvenir opportunities, it is usually the hard core CITOers that attend these.  

 

As a suggestion, perhaps there could be a CITO week each month with a souvenir attached.  This would give 12 CITO souvenirs per year.  It could mean that there was a designated 7 day period each month to hold a CITO and while there would be a reward of a souvenir for attendance, the real winner is the environment that we will have improved with great collaboration.  

 

It will hold CITO events in high regard for the positive influence they are.

 

(To me) it will hold CITO as meaning little.

Simple litter pick ups I don't even log attended anymore...

We CITO every day we're caching.  Isn't that what CITO is supposed to mean ?    

 

We've noticed that CITO events that include a souvenir, more-than"some" folks tend to mill around, while those there to actually help out will do so.

One I attended (a "souvenir day"), out of a dozen, only four of us were even using our gloves supplied.  Sheesh...

I don't know about anyone else, but I even look to see who's gonna be there now.

 - Realizing who the souvenir folks are,  there for chat while watching a couple work, really ticks me off.

I'd rather have six that want to help out, than a couple dozen on multiple days who are just standing around, waiting for it to be over ....

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5 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

 

(To me) it will hold CITO as meaning little.

Simple litter pick ups I don't even log attended anymore...

We CITO every day we're caching.  Isn't that what CITO is supposed to mean ?    

 

We've noticed that CITO events that include a souvenir, more-than"some" folks tend to mill around, while those there to actually help out will do so.

One I attended (a "souvenir day"), out of a dozen, only four of us were even using our gloves supplied.  Sheesh...

I don't know about anyone else, but I even look to see who's gonna be there now.

 - Realizing who the souvenir folks are,  there for chat while watching a couple work, really ticks me off.

I'd rather have six that want to help out, than a couple dozen on multiple days who are just standing around, waiting for it to be over ....

Holy moly. You're me! I used to experience the same thing in Scouting. People who only watch others do the work.

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I agree that creating so many souvenirs really only serves to dilute their importance. In the long run, I think fewer people are likely to attend an event every month for a souvenir than they are to turn up once or twice a year. I think if people really want to do CITOs, they should go out and do as many as possible. I don't think we should be incentivizing these events for the reasons mentioned above. The only CITO I've been to had a raffle for some neat coins and gear. Had that raffle been held at the end of the event, attendees would've been more likely to at least stick around long enough to realize that working might be an option. If you're trying to incentivize actual work at your event, especially for trash cleanups with quantifiable results, you can provide awards to those who do the most work at the end of the event. 

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I tend to agree with the other cachers that have posted here.  If there are monthly souvenirs, then plenty of cachers will show up just to claim the souvenir.  If those cachers show up and actually do the work, then great - but I think there would be enough cachers showing up just for the souvenir that it will end up souring other cachers on CITO events in general. The ideas about incentivizing cachers with prizes or gear sounds like a better approach.  While getting a souvenir isn't bad, it could become a negative if cachers start to avoid CITO's that are not held on the souvenir weekend.

 

Also, it's clearly evident that some cachers are vocal about their displeasure with souvenirs being made available to cachers that have more opportunities than they might have in their neck of the woods. There are certainly areas of the world where organizing a CITO event is not easy, so imagine the uproar from cachers in those areas that feel slighted that they can only get a few CITO souvenirs while cachers in the US/CA/EU have an easier time getting all of them. While I don't think this should be a deciding factor in creating or not creating souvenirs. I do think it's an interesting aspect to consider.

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One area normally very regulated had a land manager become a new member, and held a CITO event.  Lunch in a park afterwards.

The land manager spent time with each of us while working ( it was a lot...), and found he really liked the idea of us being there.

 It might have helped just a little that only a week before, he noticed us on a trail, and attached to the other 2/3rd's pack was bags of cans/bottles we lugged out with us. 

 - CITO.  :)

 

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5 hours ago, noncentric said:

I tend to agree with the other cachers that have posted here.  If there are monthly souvenirs, then plenty of cachers will show up just to claim the souvenir.  If those cachers show up and actually do the work, then great - but I think there would be enough cachers showing up just for the souvenir that it will end up souring other cachers on CITO events in general.

Yep.

One person I no longer cache with was upset that I was "holding her up" pulling bottles shoved in a property-line fence while walking, knowing that normally I might stop for a smoke, waiting for her to catch up.    :)

I guess the fact that folks were sticking bottles in the fence, rather than lug them back with them (they're lighter now...) wasn't an issue.

But this same person shows at most 1/2 - 1hr CITOs that are merely strolling with a friend n chat while picking up a bottle or two on a park trail.

 

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On 12/13/2018 at 2:28 AM, McLookers said:

Our local caching community make an effort to hold CITO events.  We usually aim to have a local CITO in the two CITO souvenir weeks each year.  In addition we also team up with local Landcare Groups for tree planting and weeding.  We have held graffiti cleans.  

 

We have found that cachers will come from far and wide if there is a souvenir attached.  They are less inclined for non souvenir opportunities, it is usually the hard core CITOers that attend these.  

 

As a suggestion, perhaps there could be a CITO week each month with a souvenir attached.  This would give 12 CITO souvenirs per year.  It could mean that there was a designated 7 day period each month to hold a CITO and while there would be a reward of a souvenir for attendance, the real winner is the environment that we will have improved with great collaboration.  

 

It will hold CITO events in high regard for the positive influence they are.

 

Thank you for hosting quality CITO events! I appreciate the feedback. We are currently evaluating the way we set up the CITO souvenir time periods. We want to encourage cachers to partner with local groups, just as you have been doing. Thanks for setting such a great example!

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