New Northeast Tennessee Club

[+thestosh]

Hello,

I think it is time to start thinking about a geocaching club for the Knoxville area of Tennessee. Middle TN has its club, and South East TN has theirs, but we don't have one yet. I think that Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Johnson City are sufficiently separated to warrant individual clubs. Tennessee geocachers might consider having a statewide Tennessee Geocachers’ Association and have the individual clubs act as chapters of the association. (However, that is another subject) I have been doing a bit of research and talking to a lot of geocachers on the matter. Our area is becoming more active each week and it would be good to coordinate some of our efforts in the form of a club.

I will be posting an event cache within the week (for late January) to give everyone a chance to come out and put their ideas on the table. I would like to include a lot of the initial ideas for the club on the cache page to help trigger other cachers' interest. If you would be interested in helping me with my efforts to get the club founded and on it s feet, please send me an email with your ideas or post them here. I think the first think to decide on will be a club name. From there we will need to consider a logo and other things. I am open to suggestions for the date, time, and place for the event cache that will hopefully get the ball rolling. Based on initial review of a TN map, Johnson City may need its own club, but if they currently lack the number of geocachers to support a club, they could drive down to the Knoxville meetings. Right now, it looks like this new club would draw its member base from the following main cities:

Alcoa, Clinton, Farragut, Gatlinburg, Harriman, Jefferson City, Kingston, Knoxville, La Follette, Lenoir City, Loudon, Madisonville, Maryville, Morristown, Newport, Pigeon Forge, Powell, Sevierville, Seymour, Sweetwater, and others.

Thanks for any input you may have,

- TheStosh (Stosh Morency) Maryville, TN

[+DavidMac]

I have done a little research into renting facilities in the area if we decide to do so. One possibility might be the Adair Park in Knoxville, which I am told has an indoor area that can be rented for $20/hr. I've never seen it myself so I can't say wether it's acceptable or not. I have been told that this facility is small enough that a group larger than 30 may find it a little close. If we want to brave the cold, outdoor shelters can be had in Knoxville for $25 and Maryville for $20. This seems like a nice central location considering we would have people coming from the directions of Jefferson City and Maryville.

 

Is this usually what other clubs have done? At this point it's hard to tell how many may be interested- a very small number of people meeting in somebody's living room would be fine but a larger group at a house would be a bad idea. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to be paying for much more space than we need...

 

Then again, I hear that thestosh may want access to a VCR.

[+Destitute]

I wish I knew Stosh better, then I would feel more comfortable about sayin "B.S." to his official account of how he drove "the Dragon" when he went after DavidMac's cache.

Whatever ya'll decide on a meeting place, e-mail me. If work doesn't interfer, we'll most likely be there.

[+iontarget]

We drove around Knoxville this evening looking for possible sites to hold this event cache. All locations ended up being located on or really close to Kingston Pike: Fazoli's, Shoney's, Mandarin House, CiCi's Pizza, Barnhill's Buffett, Applebee's. I think all of these locations would have enough space and enough variety of food to please almost everyone. I'm very excited that there is interest in forming a geocaching club for this area.

Edited December 2, 2003 by melinda

[+DavidMac]

Ah, I didn't even think about restaurants. I think one or more of those might even have a separate section (like a party room) that we could take. The actual meeting space doesn't cost anything plus we can get a good meal....

[+groundsquirrel & chunky chipmunk]

Greetings .....me and chunky are game with any location ..remember ..we will be coming from morristown ...so the later we start the better ....say 6:30 or 7 pm would be fine .....dont care to drive the distance ...just work with us on time ....we will check back later ......

 

g.s. and chunky

Edited December 2, 2003 by groundsquirrel & chunky chipmunk

[+thestosh]

So far I have received positive replies from the following geocachers: (no negative replies yet)

DavidMac

Destitute

Groundsquirrel and Chunky Chipmunk

Hikenit

Kurgan (MonaBear, Fungirl)

Melinda

MountainRose and CoveBear

P-Herm

SquishTish26

The Cache Couple

 

I emailed several cachers who had logged finds on my geocaches in the Maryville / Knoxville area. If you know any geocachers in the area that might be interested in the club, have them post a note on this forum at this address:

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=59540

 

Tentatively, I am planning on posting the event cache for Saturday January 24, 2004 starting at 6PM and going till we get tired of each other.

We will continue to use the forum as a place to discuss and beat out a lot of the preliminaries before the actual event.

- TheStosh

Edited December 2, 2003 by thestosh

[+MountainMudbug]

Hi everybody, I'm happy to see some organizing going on here in the Knoxville area - hope I can participate as things solidify.

 

I know that no decisions have been made regarding name and logo, but I went ahead and jumped in to do a little image composing.

We can all start considering what attributes we'd like to see in the logo department. This was just a quick design to get the creative juices flowing. The Official Geocaching logo wasn't incorporated into it (which is something that many geocaching clubs have done in their logos, and which does look very nice).

 

 

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone!

[+McCaughan Family]

Gatti's on Kingston Pike (near Army Surplus where you buy ammo boxes) has a meeting room but that might be too small. The 24th is a good date for us.

 

Cathy McCaughan

[+McCaughan Family]

Names we've thought of include:

 

Geocaching Families of East Tennessee and East Tennessee Geocachers

 

I'll have to sit and doodle some logo thoughts. There are some Geocaching logos already in the Cafe Press shops.

 

Cathy McCaughan

[+The Cache Couple]

Everything sounds good to us so far. With 2 kids at home, we will have to plan around them but so far, so good. Sounds like something that will be fun and also a good starting point.

 

As far as the logo above, it looks great! Would it be very difficult to put the Groundspeak logo behind it and leave everything else the way it is? It looks great though! So far count in 2 couples from the Morristown area, Groundsquirrel & Chunky Chipmonk and us.

 

Thanks Stosh for making this happen! What about Team Bert?? Anyone heard from them?

[+Squishtish26]

Hey,

I think that this is a great idea!!! I think it is time that a club like this gets started. Shoney's, Ryan's or Barnhill Buffet are great places to meet. Also Applebee's is another great place to meet. A suggestion for the name is the either The Northeastern Tennessee Geocacher's Club or The Tennessee Smoke Mountain Geocacher's Club. The date and time is fine with me. I glad to see the responses this is getting.

[+DavidMac]

What about Team Bert?? Anyone heard from them?

I sent them an email earlier this afternoon. Hoping to hear from them soon...

 

I'm partial to the name Geocachers of the Smoky Mountains or Great Smoky Mountain Geocaching Assn or something similar that would set us apart from the Southeast TN group geographically.

[+thestosh]

Here is a little list of geocaching club websites that I compiled. It is by no means all-inclusive, but it gets a nice variety of large and small clubs in varing stages of development. It should help give us some ideas on current club naming conventions, logo designs, and even a taste of what our club website could look like.

- TheStosh

 

Alabama Geocachers Association http://www.alacache.com/

Arizona Geocaching http://www.azgeocaching.com/

Arkansas State Parks http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/things/geocache/

Central Oregon http://www.cogeo.org/

Chicagoland Geocachers http://www.chicagogeocaching.com/

Florida Geocachers http://www.floridacachers.com/

Geocachers of Central Kentucky http://www.geocky.org/

Georgia Geocachers Association http://www.ggaonline.org/

GEOSET http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SETennGeocaching/

GPS Hawaii http://www.lightfantastic.org/gps/

Great Plains Geocaching http://www.gpgeocaching.com/

Great Plains Geocaching http://www.gpgeocaching.com/

Houston Geocachers http://www.houstoncachers.org/

Huntsville Area Geocachers http://www.hsvgeocache.us/main/index.php

Idaho Geocachers http://idahogeocachers.org/

Indiana Geocaching http://www.indianageocaching.com/

Michigan Geocaching Organization http://www.mi-geocaching.org/

Middle Tennessee Geocachers http://www.mtgc.org/

Minnesota Geocaching Association http://www.mngca.org/

Mississippi Geocachers Association http://www.msga.net/

Nevada Geocaching http://www.nevadageocaching.com/

New England Geocaching http://ne.geocaching.com/

NY Geocaching Organization http://www.ny-geocaching.org/

Ozark Mountain Geocachers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ozmtngeocachers/

Portland Geocaching http://www.pdxgeocaching.com/

River City Geocaching & Dining Society http://www.rcgds.net/

Southern California Geocachers http://www.scgeocachers.org/

St. Louis Area Geocachers Association http://www.geostl.com/

Texas Geocaching Association http://www.texasgeocaching.com/

Triad Geocachers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/triadgeocachers/

Triangle Area Geocachers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TriangleGeocachers/

Tulsa Area Geocachers http://www.members.cox.net/geocache/

Utah Geocachers http://www.utahgeocachers.com/

Utah Geo-Club http://www.cachunuts.com/

Washington State Geocaching Association http://www.xsnrg.com/geocachingwa/

Wisconsin Geocaching Association http://www.wi-geocaching.com/

 

100+ more clubs on Yahoo Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=geocaching

[tenalley]

Hey everyone!

 

I just sent Stosh a reply to his e-mail about the club and found this discussion.

 

It looks like '96 Olympic-Volunteer & Siggy and myself are interested in joining! Thanks for inviting us, Stosh. Even though we are a little south, we wouldn't mind heading north for a good time! It would be good to see all of you again. I'm not sure about Jan. 24 for '96 Olympic-Volunteer, but I can sure try to come and perhaps bring Siggy along.

 

I gave Stosh some ideas and he can post them if he wishes. I'll keep an eye out for any further developments.

 

Tenalley

[+Hikenit]

Good going Stosh!

I might swing up that way to check it out.

 

Here is a free message board that can help you get started. Just scroll down to the bottom and click get yours.

 

Anyone wanting to, can visit us here in the Southeast on 12/14 in Chattanooga for the first GEOSET meeting and watch us go thru the growing pains. We would love it if you all could make it.

 

Happy caching!

Edited December 3, 2003 by Hikenit

[+iontarget]

I really like "Tennessee Smokey Mountains Geocaching Club".

[Lt.Dan]

Count me in, and my brother go_vols81. Name a date and time and we'll be there.

Were both newbies to caching, but it seems right down our alley. I just found my first one yesterday, so im officially in the game now.

 

Just curious, how many folks attend UT? Im assuming thestosh and davidmac, but how many others?

 

add me to any mailing lists you got going.

 

Lt.Dan

dharris1@utk.edu

 

*edit* I agree with the "Smokey Mountain" distinction. "SMOKE : Smoky Mountain Outdoor Kaching Enthusiasts" hmmm... may have to work on the K...

Edited December 4, 2003 by Lt.Dan

[+DMflyer]

Hehehe, glad you think Johnson City needs their OWN ! <grin>

 

I like Tri-Cities GeoCachers Association, with the Tenn Stars over Johnson City

Having a Statewide Organization and each area having enough to warrant an association would be a great idea.

 

If / when there is an announcement, I'll try to make the Event, if there is to be one.

 

One side note to this. If we are going to get government agency approvals for caches, we might want to come up with a cache hiding guidelines. Was thinking something in the same line of thought as the Nashville Area does. They submit the cache to a group from their own organization, then the City / County / State will have blanket approval. Idea was to regulate themselves before being banned in all government owned lands.

 

This might be one of the items on the agenda, if there is to be one.

[+McCaughan Family]

We have already talked to Knoxville Parks and Recreation and they are happy about the geocaching on their property.

 

Cathy

[+MountainMudbug]

I'd also like to see 'Smoky Mtns' incorporated into the name somehow.....

I've looked over some other clubs' sites and logos (thanks Stosh for posting all those links) - there is some great work out there, lots of interesting ideas.

 

Whatever name we choose, perhaps it should be relatively easy to say or abbreviate

Some suggestions above:

Eastern Tennessee Geocachers - ETG

Tennessee Smoky Mtns Geocaching Club - TSMGC

Great Smoky Mtns Geocaching Association - GSMGA

NorthEastern Tennessee Geocachers Club - NETGC

 

Here's another basic image; no preference to the name, just tossing out more ideas to get the ball rolling:

[+McCaughan Family]

I like East Tennessee Geocachers with the mountains in the logo. People can add their town to the name if they want. ETG - Knoxville, ETG - Johnson City, etc.

 

Cathy

[+9Key]

Hmmm, how many regional Tennessee caching groups are there?!

[+DavidMac]

Hmmm, how many regional Tennessee caching groups are there?! 

Hey, Bristol is closer to Canada than it is to Memphis.

Edit: Memphis is actually closer to Dallas than to Bristol, too.

Edited December 8, 2003 by DavidMac

[+AB4N]

Hmmm, how many regional Tennessee caching groups are there?!

GEOSET (Geocachers of Southeast Tennessee) was formed to promote and grow the game in our area; it wasn't happening any other way. There are already several players that have been inactive for some time become interested again.

 

How many people from Chattanooga have driven 2-3 hours to a Middle Tennessee event? How many people from Memphis? There might be some merit in forming a state group with each regional group being a member thereof, but one must ask the question, for what purpose and benefit?

[+TN Bandit]

Did anyone go to the event cache in > Athens? I attended a meeting in Nashville by the > MTGC. They have a great group but it did take a > while to build. I can contact them to help get it > kick started. They produced a show for comunnity > T.V. about Geocaching for newbies, maybe at some > point we could get a copy and show it on area cable > providers for exposure! The MTGC has a meeting every > 6 weeks, depending on the demographics of members > you could rotate meeting places from the member's > counties. Even though Knoxville will be the largest > city you don't won't to have it there all the time. > I would suggest a competitive event cache like the > one in Athens to raise money to help jump start the > club as well.

Name suggestion: Smoky Mountain Geocaching Club "SMGC"

Thanks > Bobby Trotter > TN Bandit

[+AB4N]

...I know that no decisions have been made regarding name and logo, but I went ahead and jumped in to do a little image composing

 

...The Official Geocaching logo wasn't incorporated into it (which is something that many geocaching clubs have done in their logos, and which does look very nice).

Good luck on the new group! I may try to join you at your event. I would also like to re-extend the invitation that Hikenit made for everyone to come to the GEOSET event Dec. 14 here in southeast Tennessee.

 

You already have some impressive logo designs submitted. I just wanted to let you all know that if you do decide to use any of the official Geocaching logo as part of your regional logo you will need to submit it for approval to Geocaching.com The rules are pretty stiff for legal reasons, and we have pretty much decided to leave out those parts; we are still working on a logo ourselves. You can check out the logo usage requirements at: http://www.geocaching.com/about/logousage.aspx

[+McCaughan Family]

So, we could be GEONET. Appealing name for those of us who are computer addicted.

 

Do we have a definite meeting date and location yet?

 

Why does the group need money? Becoming a non-profit group takes time and maintaining it is even worse.

 

Cathy

[+JoGPS]

In Tennessee there are several way to set up a club, assoc., ect. Some easy some hard, we from the MTGC would be more than happy to explain how we did it and why we have dues.

 

Their may be a way for one state organization, but as AB4N said what would be the benefits, there may be some that I am not seeing, but am blind sometimes. I personally believe that the more local level people working with land mangers and geocaching presentations in their on area more can get more done for the good of the sport. With the different views of all the park systems across the state on geocaching having local groups seems would work better at least in Tennessee at least from where I sit. Especially with the one on one meetings with officials. Its hard for them to say no to a local person.

 

A big thanks to Stosh and Hikenit for taking the lead in their areas for trying to put something together for all, been there done that and know what it takes.

[+thestosh]

Okay everyone,

I have condensed many of the emails I have received and the post on this forum into a single web page. Hopefully this will further aid discussion and speed the process of getting the club on its feet.

http://www.thestosh.com/geocaching/club

 

Be sure to check out this link to the logo submissions.

http://www.thestosh.com/geocaching/logos

 

Thanks to everyone for all the support, ideas, and positive responses to starting a club in our area.

- TheStosh

Edited December 9, 2003 by thestosh

[+DavidMac]

Looking at thestosh's webpage and looking back on this thread, it looks like this is where we stand in getting this started. Here's a quick list that is more or less a summary of his page, and I created it more for purposes of organizing my own thoughts in writing. First things to decide are:

 

club name

club logo

'mission statement'- I've personally never been a fan of these, but I realize they're necessary for any group and we probably should come up with one. Looking at other caching groups statements of purpose, most of them are deceptively simple and to-the-point.

website- I see that TheStosh may have inadvertently volunteered himself for this responsibility . There may also be cost issues involved.

first meeting:

-where?

-when?

 

It would be nice to have these settled by the first meeting, but we don't necessarily have to (minus #5, of course). It may be easier to hold discussion in person rather than over the internet. Once the initial issues are settled, these are things we probably need to consider at a first meeting:

 

club organization

dues? -current consensus seems to be no

meeting locations

meeting frequency

services- workshops for new cachers, etc

community involvement- CITO, adopt a highway, etc

 

It seems like we have alot of interest and alot of good ideas to start out with, so I'm pretty optimistic.

[+TN Bandit]

It sems Davis Mac has a great outline of things to be covered and implemented. I know we can't get everything done the first time out but now is a great time to get things started and get the club on it's way. There was a point raised about "monies" and the need for it for a "non-profit" organization and the "dues". Dues will help with a commitment of it's members even it's a small fee. One thing to keep in mind when you rent a pavalion at a park($25 or so) or web hosting ($20 a month)will be operating cost of the club. It will be hard for the treasurer to track down each member at the meeting for $3 or $4 to cover cost. Just some non fun things to think about for starting the club.

I'm glad JoGPS is dropping a line I think we need to ask for his guidance to help get this started as effortless as possible!

[+thestosh]

Here is the latest development towards getting the club founded:

 

GCHBTQ

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=106696

 

We are now soliciting:

donations for door prizes

Someone to make a cool cake with geocaching related art on it

Someone to make a posterboard that quickly defines geocaching to others in the restaurant .

 

Don't forget to check out our progress here:

http://www.thestosh.com/geocaching/club

 

Thanks for all the good lucks and offers to help from area geocachers and other clubs.

- TheStosh

Edited December 17, 2003 by thestosh

[+grahamcowan]

Stosh,

 

Count myself and my wife in. See you then.

 

-Graham & Sherri

[+AB4N]

...

We are now soliciting:

...

Someone to make a cool cake with geocaching related art on it

...

- TheStosh

We will be in Pigeon Forge that week, and are planning to stop by and say hello. My wife made the cake for the GEOSET meeting, and said she would be happy to help out with a cake for your group too. That is if you don't get any local volunteers on this; we don't want to take the opportunity away from a local who might be interested in doing it.

 

If you folk would like for her to do this just give her some ideas on words and design, otherwise she will use the name that is on the event listing and come up with her own design, she is pretty creative.

 

Can't wait to meet more geocachers!

[Day Late AV8er]

I'm glad to see this happening, and I plan on attending. I just introduced a work associate to Geocaching and he purchased a Meridian Color. I will try to talk him into attending also.

My vote is for something with "Smoky Mountains" in the name also.

Hats off to The Stosh for steping forward on this endeavor.

[+Hikenit]

I will see what I can do for logos with Smoky Mountains in it for yall.

 

Pizza! ain't nothing wrong with that! I'll do my best to be there.

[+JoGPS]

It sounds like you have a pretty good meeting lined up in January ,but it’s gonna be hard to beat that cake that was in Chat town ………………JOE

[+Team Bert]

Sounds like fun. We thought of a possible name: geocacheBuffs - East Region, Tennessee, or BERT . We're working on a really attractive logo.

Just kidding, looking forward to the event cache and we plan on being there.

[saltyglue]

I was just wondering the same thing if there was a club/org here in east tn. I am new to geocaching and love it already. I would also be willing to join. As far as a website goes i can get a place to host it and cover the upfront cost, i.e domain registration, also do the design with help of others. I might be able to bring a few more people to the club too.

 

If i can be any help e-mail at dan@itech-pc.com. Oh has there been a location and date setup?

 

Dan

[KTG]

I'll be making the "About Geocaching" poster board to have at the event cache. The events that I have attended often attract curious attention from the other people eating out. Placing this "Geocaching Defined" poster board at the check-in table helps answer their questions and prompt conversation. We will be able to reuse it at other public events caches as well. - KTG

[+thestosh]

It looks like we are coming along pretty well with the event preparations.

We have had volunteers for the following:

Bake a geocaching cake for the event

A few geocachers have hidden caches to be released on the web site right after the event

A poster board that defines geocaching and has pictures of previous cache events

A roll of “My name is” stickers

A roll of door prize tickets

An event cache log book and pen

A poster with the proposed club names on it for voting purposes

 

Door prizes:

1 unregistered geocoin

1 unregistered travel bug dog tag

1 ready-made geocache ammo-box container

1 ready-made micro cache waterproof container

4 compasses

The usual pile of registered travel bugs everyone brings

 

Please feel free to bring additional door prizes that you want to donate.

Thanks to everyone that is helping to make this a fun event and a great club.

Thanks to everyone that is planning on attending the event and future club meetings.

 

GCHBTQ

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=106696

[+p-herm]

Bummer. Can't get the club page to load. Trying to think of something new and unique to bring for a door prize, but am coming up short. So, I'll bring another unregistered TB dog tag. Really like MMB's Smoky Mountain themed logo and am looking forward to seeing the cake! I've got a digital camera--only a 3.1 megapixel--I can bring to commit the whole affair to history.......

[+thestosh]

Well, I was a few minutes late, but I made it. Amazingly, so did 49 other people! I had made the reservation for 25-30 people because I thought we would have a good turnout. I guess we had more people interested in the club than we thought. Thank you so much to everyone that donated all the door prizes, the posters, the cake, the new caches for the event, and to everyone that drove from near and far. As far as picking the club name goes, the voting was fun and even attracted some last minute suggestions. Here are the tallies for the names that got more than one vote:

 

25 Great Smoky Mountains Geocaching Association - GSMGA

12 Smoky Mountains Organized Geocachers – SMOG

8 Tennessee Smoky Mountain Geocachers’ Club - TSMGC

7 Tennessee Smoky Mountains Geocaching Club - TSMGC

6 East Tennessee Geocaching Association - ETGA

6 Smoky Mountain Outdoor Kaching Enthusiasts - SMOKE

5 Geocaching Enthusiasts OF Northeast TN - GEONET

3 East Tennessee Geocachers - ETG

3 Eastern Tennessee Geocachers - ETG

3 Geocachers of East Tennessee – GET

3 Smoky Mountain Geocaching Club - SMGC

3 Tennessee Valley Geocaching Association – TVGC

 

It was noted that to be an “Association” certain fees and additional paperwork would need to be filed. Since the majority of us would rather keep money out of the club for now and would rather be out caching than doing paperwork, it looks like we will change “Association” to “club” in the name. Please refer to the forum for future club developments.

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=59540

If you did not get your name and email on the list to be contacted for future development of the club, just drop me an email. Thanks again.

[+McCaughan Family]

What happens next?

[+thestosh]

This thread has mostly served its purpose and is getting long and cumbersome. It is being continued with its new purpose at this link:

Great Smoky Mountains Geocaching Club - GSMGC

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=63451

 

This new thread will delve into the initial business of the club until we get our own forum up and running.