Geocaching Team Building Exercise

[+Ox]

Hi, I've been caching for a few months now and brought it up at our (Goodwill Industries) monthly management conference as a unique and productive team-building and leadership exercise. The company seems very interested in the idea. I called the company listed on the gc.com website to inquire, but it turns out they do the program for large for-profit companies that have serious dough to sling around. The training budget for my entire program would only cover about 1/4 of the cost. Keep in mind I want to do this every quarter. So heres the rub: I need ideas on fun multi-caches with team building and leadership themes. Please post your ideas for a great 1 day team building adventure. Here is what I already have:

 

Pine Log State Forest (Pavilion, miles of trails)

One (1) GPS unit (mine)

 

Not Much, eh?

 

Here Is What I Am Willing to Use My Budget For(List not complete):

 

Rental fees for GPSs

Two-Way Radio for teams

Cache materials and prizes

 

I will personally send some Goodwill swag to the person with the best idea, no joke! (Makes excellent cache stuffers)

 

I anxiously await your replies

[The_Brownies]

There are a couple ideas that come to mind and they are in the from movies I have seen in the past. One idea is a modern day virtual photo scavengar hunt. Look for places of interest in your area and shoot the coodinates. Create a couple list of these coodinates, and tell each team to go to these locations and do make a group shot. Then when they are done, everyone comes back and downloads the digital photos and you give prizes for the most original photos.

 

Scavenger Hunt - 2nd idea. Get a list of local caches. Give a list with different caches on them to each of the teams with the requirements. Give each team a bag of exchange items not on the list and tell them, locate these caches. From all of these caches, you need to retrieve the following items and give each item a point value. Have the teams go out and they try and find the caches that are out there. They exchange items they were given for an item on the list of items that you want them to find. On X hour have them come back and award prizes based on the items that were recoved or for the most points. I would make the prizes something worth competing for. I.e. $25 gift certificate for Starbucks. A day off. Etc. To make sure they found the cache, make them take a group photo with the cache container.

 

Savengar Hunt - 3rd idea -- Create a list of local caches by difficulty level. Award so many points for finding caches based on the overall diffculty. 5 pts for a 1/1, 10 for a 2/2 15 for a 3/3 and 25 for a 4/4 or above. Again, make them take a group photo with the cache. the team at the end of the day with the most points wins.

 

For future hunts, start doing this in different cities, or keep track of the caches that have been found and remove them from the list of available caches.

Edited February 3, 2004 by The_Brownies

[+Ox]

I should mention that I am not against going up to the Forest and placing caches specifically for this event and then retrieving them afterwards, besides it get me out of the office and I get paid to do it. Also, food is included in the program, naturally.

[+The Weasel]

How many people will be doing this? What you could do is set this up like a multi cache, but have it like a contest.

 

Lets say for arguments sake that your talking 30 people. What you could do (and you would only need 1 GPS) is to break people up in groups of 6. Make the muti cache 6 stages long.

 

The first person will go out find the first cache, run the GPS back like a baton to the second person in line like a race. After a six stages are found, you mark their time down. The the next team of 6 people do the same. At the end of the day you could give out medals to the group who does the multi the fastest. I think it would involve teamwork and would be fun.

 

(I'm all about free Goodwill swag!!! bring it to me!! )

Edited February 3, 2004 by The Weasel

[+dino_hunters]

I'd get a few Garmin Rhinos. A gps with a 2-way radio built in. They also allow you to see where all the other rhino users are.

 

At a family reunion last year, my father in law hid 10 tupperware containers in a scattered area. In each was a bunch of candy with numbers labeled on them. The idea was to find them before everyone else, so you could get the highest number from each cache. The highest score wins. Its up to the finders to decide which order to find them. Coordinates for all caches were provided. It ended up being pretty fun.

[The_Brownies]

Have you ever thought about doing a modern day capture the flag GPS style? Each team places a bunch of caches, or you could do it. In that cache is the teams flag. Each team goes after each others caches and the first team to find the other teams flag wins.

[+TeamK-9]

How bout you split them into teams and then drop them off somewhere in the park. They then have to work together to find a multicache, which in turn finally leads them to a pavillion where you have the food...

[+Halden]

I would place several caches in a Hiking/Walking trail area. Make teh first couple easy and once they get the hang of it throw it some puzzle cache were they have to solve puzzles that are relevant to the industry to get the coords. You could put specific FTF cards in the caches and see which team gets the most FTF, Which team gets the most finds etc... Make sure some of the caches require teamwork.

[The_Brownies]

Can't resist the thougt...

 

Your not in league with Playtime are you ? I.e. using a Sock Puppet Account to fish for ideas on team building events for free and then using our ideas for big bucks? That would be pure evil..

Edited February 3, 2004 by The_Brownies

[+Ox]

HAHA, no not a sock account, check my finds, I only have 10 and none of them are anywhere near Seattle. I am a 24 year old working stiff for a non-profit agency looking for fun ways to keep my staff motivated and ready for action. Plus this could be great fun for me too. I can already see "scouting excursions" to the area during business hours.

[Tahosa and Sons]

Sounds like the above posts would give you some neat ideas. I wish you were out here in CO, because I would jump in and help you. Goodwill is my choice for picking up some nice swag stuff, and I've run into some awesome deals for my own personal use.

 

Another thing you could look at is doing some basic compass ideas where it would take some team playing to get to the goal. EMail me and maybe I can come up with an idea for this one.

[The_Brownies]

because I would jump in and help you.

Why don't you move this thread to the South Southeast Forum and see what ideas you get from there.

 

How about you split them into teams and then drop them off somewhere in the park. They then have to work together to find a multicache, which in turn finally leads them to a pavillion where you have the food...

 

Very cool idea.. too bad you don't have access to an Obsticle (Confidence) Course. Put the coords for each leg on the different obsticles. Maybe you could make your own course. Have them repel down a rock face to get coords for 1st leg. Put a 2nd set of coords in a container in the middle of a mud pit. 3rd leg - May be make them climb a climbing wall and at the top of the wall are the coords to the next leg. Another idea is to put up a Greesed flag pole and each team has to climb it to get to the coords for the next leg.

 

I remember when I was at Ft Campbell KY, to qualify for the Airassult school, you had to pass an obsticle course. The first thing I had to do was climb a ladder that was 25ft tall and the rungs got farther apart as you climbed the ladder. At the top you are standing up and have to swing your legs over the top rung and climb down the other side. Man, I could see people sweating over coords at the top of the ladder.

 

Here's a truely evil thought. Make the event like the TV show Survivor -- First team to the cache is immune. But the 2nd team has to vote off a member. Last team to the final coords with most members wins.

 

Another cruel idea -- Geocaching Fear Factor Style. Would you put your hand in a bottle of secret ooze for the next cache coords? I don't suggest that you tape coordinates to an aligator and then have teams wrestle the gator to get the coords. I guess if the gator was inflateable or a plush toy -- then you could do that.

Edited February 3, 2004 by The_Brownies

[+Ox]

I need a good idea that requires serious teamwork to complete. I like the idea of having the end point at the lunch area, but I need some ideas on teamwork oriented caching. That Goodwill swag is sitting by me ready to be set out!

Edited February 4, 2004 by Ox

[The_Brownies]

Cannot resist the temptation... Too great....

 

Edited February 4, 2004 by The_Brownies