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Oga-cito-events


The Blue Quasar

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OGA is hoping to undertake many CITO projects for Earth Day/Week support.

 

Our Events will be running on Apr 17th and hopefully in many Municipalities.

 

Since this is our first project under our newly formed banner I thought (after reading all the forum comments from other users) that we should keep all the info in one place.

 

As recommended by GM100Guy, contacting Pitch-In Canada and their affiliates for their support or guidance is on the list to get us going.

 

We need people to head the clean up efforts in many regions. We also need people to show up for the events. We need a form letter to send to local governments and parks' stewards to be drafted for approval by our group.

 

All suggestions, comments and ideas wanted..... put it up so we can praise you up!

 

We have about 2 months to get everything in place, if we start planning now we can have a great CITO day and start off OGA in fine fashion.

 

:D The Blue Quasar

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Met with the local trail committee tonight and they are very enthusiastic about an April 17th CITO event. April 19-25 is Pitch-In Canada Week - see Here for more details - lots of resources available. Now just have to plan an event - likely combine it with a trail clean-up day, get some locals involved (not many cachers round here), run a geocaching demo, put out some new caches.............any more ideas? The trail committee was so enthusiastic that if I wanted to put up signs saying "Geocachers Welcome" they'd welcome it. They are working on a trail brochure and want it to include the fact that there are caches to be found and include a link to GC.com. :)

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Good work Hard Oiler!

 

I am working on my CITO project. I think GM100Guy is planning a CITO for Toronto, and Donna G has said she might have something out her way.

 

Hoping to get Trimbles Trek and Daniel Boone Gang on board soon.

 

Then we build from there.

 

GM and Donna... do you have a site or sites picked? I am having a bit of trouble figuring mine out, but it will work out one way or other.

 

:) The Blue Quasar

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TTI: Nope you didn't win an oil well - went to a local - the draw must have been rigged ;) . I was thinking of including some tickets for the next oil well draw in a cache I'll be putting out April 17th so come on up and try again. BTW the prize is %12.5 of your oil well's revenue for 10 years - so if you're lucky and get a good well and the current price of oil stays up that's worth winning :)

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I received an email back from the City Of Toronto today about the CITO event and Geocaching in general.

 

They want me to call them and set up a meeting with a parks manager.

 

I will call and see what they want to talk about ablout and see what concerns they have.

 

I will forward the email to BQ later tonight when I return home.

 

:lol:

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Just a note of update for Hamilton area CITO event efforts.

 

I've received word from the City of Hamilton's Parks Department and hopefully within a week or 2 I will be able to have a face to face meeting to discuss their support to the event/endorsement as well as our local clean up commitee H.E.L.P. comes into play with that.

 

Aside from which I've contacted the HCA to discuss our locations, since a couple do happen to be on conservation land, but so far no word. The HCA does hold a clean up at several areas in May, so I'm not sure if they care to be involved but I'll have a seperate event posted for a CITO on the may date for one of the areas in Hamilton.

 

Regards,

 

Bear Aka Keith

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I have had something come up and will not be able to organize the CITO in Toronto.

 

I have sent BQ the information for a contact in that I found at the City of Toronto.

 

They also expresssed other issues that they have about geocaching in general.

 

I think that OGA should contact this person and discuss there concerns as the reps of geocachers in Ontario.

 

<_<

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That's too bad that something came up, I know you were looking forward to it as you really got a good head start on it.

 

I didn't receive an email, which is probably a problem on my end again, so if you could forward it again that would be great. Unless you meant the one that you sent two weeks ago.

 

I am definitely still having email problems as some people that found caches of mine I am only discovering when I look at "My Cache Page"

 

FYI: if you send me an email, you will receive a confirmation reply automatically. If you don't get an auto-reply then the email did not get to my mailbox.

 

<_< The Blue Quasar

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CITO updates (as far as I know)

 

Bear and Ducky have had contact with HCA regarding a CITO event for Hamilton

 

The Blue Quasar has requested discussion with Niagara Parks about a CITO event

 

Donna G has also started her work on her CITO event

 

The St. Catharines Standard will be attending the event cache in Beamsville on 01 May to cover the event and hear about the CITO success stories that will be reported on from across Ontario.

 

 

Looking for more people and areas and feedback, let build this up and show the geocaching community how we can clean up!

 

:rolleyes: The Blue Quasar

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I thought I would pass on a link from a recent forum discussion for an excellent Geocaching Brochure which looks like a great resource that can be used when dealing with the un-informed public or park managers. Perhaps this is something the OGA can utilize until we have something of our own to offer. There is a blank space provided for our logo and contact information.

Have a look at it as it's quite impressive.

 

Cheers, Olar

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Here is my first reply from the City of Belleville, we are not dead with this issue but we are starting to hobble.

 

Dear Mr. Kyte,

 

The collective agreements at the City of Belleville prevent us from authorizing any work that may adversely affect members of the bargaining units. Our Unions have been co-operative in the past however, and I have forwarded your request to them for their consideration. I will notify you when a decision is reached.

 

John Martin BA, MBA, CD

Director of Human Resources

City of Belleville

(613) 967-3200 ext 3235

Fax (613) 967-3225

 

-----Original Message-----

From: GaryKyte [mailto:garykyte@kos.net]

Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 12:06 PM

To: John Martin

Cc: Larry Glover

Subject: Cleanup along waterfront trail

 

Hello, my name is Gary Kyte and I am contacting you in regards to the Bayshore Waterfront Trail.

I belong to an organization called the Ontario Geocaching Association (OGA). Our group is relatively young and recently formed.

I am attaching a few web links with this request so that you can see what we are all about.

 

The Ontario Geocaching Association http://66.207.113.44/oga/

Geochaching Dot Com http://www.geocaching.com/

Cache In Trash Out http://www.cacheintrashout.org/

 

Now for our request, on Apr. 17th different groups within our organization will be performing Cache In and Trash Out (CITO)at different area parks and recreation areas. I am the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties representative for the OGA so I was hoping that we would be able to show our appreciation for the area by picking up trash along the Bayshore Waterfront Trail. We are hoping for 15 to 20 volunteers from our organization to spend a few hours just picking up trash and bagging it for disposal. I truly hope that this an acceptable offer to the Parks and Recreation Dept. We will supply the manpower and hope that people will see what we are all about. We will not be selling anything nor will we be asking for anything we just want to show our appreciation for the outdoors and the group(s) behind them. Cost to the city would be nil however we could use help with transporting the refuse at the end.

 

I am proposing a schedule to our group which will be :

9:00 get together coffee

10:00 cleanup

12;00 break

12:30 cleanup

2:00 load garbage

3:00 breakup

Thank you in advance

 

Gary Kyte

Ontario Geocaching Assoc.

Hastings and Prince Edward County Rep.

Edited by Cachengrab
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Just a note that the above letter was giving to the City of Belleville after 3 days of phone calling and talking to several different people for the City. The quick note was a format layout they requested to be able to turn into the Union for consideration. The City is in support but they need to get an okay from the union.

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Cachengrab.... that was an outstanding letter you wrote. I commend you on how thorough you were.

 

Please allow me to spin it back in a positive way.

 

You have informed them about your intentions and those of the OGA. You have not requested any resourses from them either.

 

As an environmentally motivated group, you will be seen as a positive effort and the union and/or city, and it is unlikely that they would, may object to your plan to clean up a public area. However that would not be in their best interest.

 

I believe you were merely providing information of what was planned, and not necessarily seeking approval. As it is a public area, you should not need permission to pick up trash.

 

It is more likely that the city cannot say "Yes, clean up the area" as this would be a union job. But if they say nothing and you do it, it is unlikely anyone wouls complain.

 

:) The Blue Quasar

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BQ I see what you are saying and I feel that the City will allow this Event to take place. I realize that they need to protect themselves from reprise from the Union.

I will modify the post above so that it will reflect the possitive aspects of what is happening here.

 

Since I can not go backwards to edit I will do it here.

Here is my first reply from the City of Belleville, we are not dead with this issue but we are starting to hobble

Here is my first reply from the City of Belleville, we are not dead with this issue but we are starting to move ahead slowly. Support from the City is with us but we now need to get support from thier Union.

Edited by Cachengrab
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[The following was just posted to the main CITO thread. I repost it here in case others miss it -- doug]

 

Never been in a CITO before, but I started brainstorming and jotting notes down. Currenty the Work Breakdown Structure of the project looks like this (sorry, I'm a Project Engineer by day...) :

 

(Note: these are just tasks to execute our CITO. Once we get the activities listed, we hopefully assign some responsible people and schedule them)

 

Draft Work Breakdown Structure for

Cache In - Trash Out - Sudbury Ontaro 2004

 

1. Location: To be determined. Currently discussing with city and

other groups.

1.1 Find an area that needs clean up.

1.2 prefer parkland, trail area, geocaching friendly

 

2. Supplies

2.1 Bags for trash, recycling

2.2 Gloves or other protective gear

2.3 Bathrooms for volunteers?

2.4 Food for volunteers? or does everyone Brown bag?

2.5 First Aid? consider cuts, bruises, etc.

2.6 Drinking water

 

3. Removal

3.1 Once the trash is collected and piled in a central area, determine

if the city/waste-company will pick it up for the dump.

Consider recyclables. Consider if city will leave a truck for the day.

3.2 Large items - if there are items too big for people to carry. Volunteer

with a quad and trailer?

 

4.0 Announcements / Communication

4.1 Post announcement on geocaching.com

4.2 Written media release for Norlife, SudStar, TheBox, CBC, french media?

 

5.0 Day Schedule

5.1 Kids activities

5.2 Mini-caches

5.3 Sponsor prizes? Consdier places that sell GPS equipment, plus

others that are community focused.

5.4 Contingency plan for bad weather?

5.5 Work Area assignments - how many people to work in each area - consider

late arrivals

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I have submitted my CITO event for April 17th and it is pending approval from Cache Tech.

 

I have had to make a change to the naming structure as follows

 

OGA - CITO - Niagara

 

The change is that there are spaces on either side of the hyphens. This was done to accommodate the geocaching.com search page for "hide and seek a cache". This way people can search for OGA or CITO and the list of all caches will appear.

 

A clean planet is a happy planet..... and that is something I'd like to see.

 

:rolleyes: The Blue Quasar

Edited by The Blue Quasar
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From today's Petrolia Topic:

 

Cache-in Trash-out

 

"Saturday April 17th is cache-in trash out time on the Petrolia Discovery Trail. This will be a cleanup day but also a chance to learn about geocaching on trails, a type of scavenger hunt. It'll start at the covered bridge at Bridgeview Park at 9am"

 

Not exactly the Globe and Mail but at least it's a start :rolleyes:

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OGA - CITO - Peterborough 2004 has been posted. I think it was approved about 5 minutes after I submitted it! (Thanks cache-tech) Hope we have a decent turnout. I think I'll wait to see how many people to expect before I inform the local paper - I wouldn't want them to show up to watch the four Explorers pick up garbage. :rolleyes:

 

Donna G

Edited by TheGertridgeExplorers
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The name's changed - the event's the same. To be consistent the Petrolia/Sarnia CITO event is now:

OGA - CITO - Petrolia

The town is providing us with "mechanical hands" for picking up trash. Specially ordered from BC. Be interesting to try them out. Might become essential caching gear for extracting caches from rotting logs :unsure:

 

PS the Oga logo has been updated to Rev 6e unless it's been changed again :lol:

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So far there are three OGA - CITO events placed on Geocaching.com

 

To present ourselves as a unified group the format for any Ontario CITO events that are being put together by OGA members, or those that wish to join the OGA effort should be like this example

 

"OGA - CITO - Toronto" where there are spaces on either side of the hyphens and OGA and CITO are all-caps and the area is first-letter-capped.

 

If you have a CITO event posted already and would like it to be a part of the OGA CITO's please be sure to let me know and submit or edit the name as suggested.

 

If you access the geocaching.com's "Hide and seek a cache" page and search for "OGA - CITO" it will list all of them.

 

:D The Blue Quasar

 

Hoping to see quite a few more.... some people that I know are working on their CITO events are "Bear & Ducky" for Hamilton, "Trimbles Trek" for Guelph, "Cachengrab" for Bellville, "Algonquin Bound" for Burlington (possibly) and there are a few other that I want to touch base with as well to see if they were interested.

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