What Do You Want The Oga To Do For You?

[gm100guy]

1. I want them to be voice to represent us in matters that effect the whole province first and for most and not local issues but advice locals on dealing with these issues.

 

2. Get together with other Provincial Organizations and work on getting a Canada wide organization.

 

3. Help organize local chapters and get input from as many cachers as they can.

 

4. Run and have province wide cache events for all to enjoy.

 

5. Stop having events at bars and taverns and have day time meetings that all can attend with families.

 

What thoughts to others have?

 

[+res2100]

Here are some of the things I would like to see for OGA:

 

6. I would like to see OGA be a community of geocachers to have fun together, sharing in a common sport that we all enjoy. A place for all of us to go and share our experiences and stories and simply just to have fun.

 

7. Create a policy and list of caches that need maintence/cleanup/removal/archival and have volunteers check on these caches and take the appropriate action. I saw this on another site...not sure which one, perhaps the Michigan or Arizona site. I thought it worked really well, and they also had stats to go along with it as to how many an individual actually went to to clean up.

 

8. Stats...not for competition, but for fun. Something like what I have put together here: http://ca.geocities.com/geocachingcanada/stats.html or even http://ca.geocities.com/geocachingcanada/ogastats.html (not done yet)

 

9. Get the website done or atleast into a state so that it can be made public as soon as possible.

 

And some of my comments:

1. I want them to be voice to represent us in matters that effect the whole province first and for most and not local issues but advice locals on dealing with these issues.

What issues currently affect the whole province? The only one I know of is the ban in Provincial Parks, and that seems to be on Cache-Tech's plate at the moment. As for local issues such as with the Hamilton Conservation Authority, I think that the "locals" are currently working on this. By getting this local issue solved, it may help solve those and set precidences for the provincial issues.

 

2. Get together with other Provincial Organizations and work on getting a Canada wide organization.

I think this one might have to wait quite a bit, as OGA is still just starting.

 

3. Help organize local chapters and get input from as many cachers as they can.

We have regional reps (I notice that the Toronto position is still vacant, why don't you volunteer for that?), so that should take care of this, and I am sure a lot of us, including yourself have given a lot of suggestions.

 

4. Run and have province wide cache events for all to enjoy.

What kinds of events did you have in mind? I can't picture right now how we could make a province wide event, since Ontario is just way too big. We are bigger than most countries. For example, I am not going to drive 4 or 5 hours to Ottawa to attend an event...it's just too far away.

 

5. Stop having events at bars and taverns and have day time meetings that all can attend with families.

Although I am not a big fan of pubs and bars, the 2 pub nights that I have been to have been a huge success and I would even consider them to be family friendly. I even brought my 6 year old son with me for the one that was in Hamilton. Despite being the only kid there, he still enjoyed it and keeps asking when the next one is that we are going to. I'll probably bring him next time again and hope others would bring their kids too. GAGAFAP2 was an awesome event too and I agree it would be nice to have more similar type events throughout the year, and the upcoming Cave Springs event in May looks already like it will be a huge success and is for families too, so hopefully you'll be there with your kids too. The CITO events are family friendly too...now it's just a matter of deciding which one to attend...I am considering going to the Peterborough one currently, despite it being about 150km away. Maybe you can host an event...I am sure the turnout will be great, based on turnouts to other events. Perhaps different people can create their own annual events like the GAGAFAP or GAGem events.

 

I see a lot of potential for OGA, and the good it will do to the entire geocaching community in Ontario.

Edited March 21, 2004 by res2100

[+logger&trail]

All in all, I would say that for a fledgling organization some great inroads have been made by the OGA to date. The framework of the organization has been established, the foundations of the website have been laid. Online discussions are being held regularly to help make the decisions. These discussions have been joined by a number of people from across the province. All are invited to attend to provide input. Of course, like others I would like to see it happen faster but I realize putting something together of this magnitude takes time.

 

1. I want them to be voice to represent us in matters that effect the whole province first and for most and not local issues but advice locals on dealing with these issues.

In order to gain experience in advising local groups on how to deal with matters you will at some point have to be involved in discussions at a local level. A surgeon can't give advice on an operation that he hinself has never performed. I would see what you are suggesting being the case once things are established and the group as a whole becomes more familiar with dealing in such matters.

 

2. Get together with other Provincial Organizations and work on getting a Canada wide organization

 

As I recall, when the topic of a Canada wide organizayion was brought up in the intial discussions, the idea was shot down as being too broad a scope for our inital start-up. Given time this may come to fruition.

 

3. Help organize local chapters and get input from as many cachers as they can.

 

As Res2100 mentioned local volunteer leaders from each area have stepped up to the plate to take responsibility for their areas. There are still a number of areas open including Toronto. Might you be willing to take on the responsibility?

 

4. Run and have province wide cache events for all to enjoy.

 

Seems to me this is already happening I seem to recall a few OGA-CITO events planned for April 17. I believe these will be the first official OGA sanctioned events. Again, might be worthwhile to get involved.

 

5. Stop having events at bars and taverns and have day time meetings that all can attend with families

 

So far I haven't seen one OGA sanctioned event hosted at a bar or pub. These events were hosted by local cachers as event caches. These are great oppurtunities for cachers to meet each other and discuss the state of geocaching in general. If you still classify these as OGA meetings then you should look at the recently held Valentines Day event cache which was geared to cachers of all ages with different cache routes designed for kids, adults and neanderthals. But again that was an event cache hosted by P38manCdn and not a OGA event.

 

Since the entire structure of the OGA is based purely on volunteer labour, things will obviously take much longer to get off the ground. From what I have seen to date, a lot of people have been involved in the creation of logos, website text, contacting other organizations, getting approvals etc. I feel that a fair amount has been accomplished since the official formation of the group less than 2 months ago. All I can say is lack of involvement breeds ignorance. To make things better one must get involved.

 

Happy Caching!

 

Logger

[+TrimblesTrek]

My thoughts.

OGA is in it's infancy. Great steps have been taken to date. Good progress has been made. Kudos to BQ for taking on the leadership role with such professionalism.

 

The weekly discussions have been great. The website is coming along nicely.

 

-----------

My comments.

 

1. I want them to be voice to represent us in matters that effect the whole province first and for most and not local issues but advice locals on dealing with these issues.

It makes perfect sense, first and foremost, that the OGA gets its feet wet dealing with the government at a local level. Sheesh. OGA is brand new. Don't expect miracles in the first week. Colin can perform his miracles later.

 

2. Get together with other Provincial Organizations and work on getting a Canada wide organization.

I think it would benefit us all if we could exchange thoughts with other provincial Geocaching organizations. A Canada-wide association? Why?

 

3. Help organize local chapters and get input from as many cachers as they can.

I don't personally think that local chapters are needed at this early stage. If it does become necessary in the future, I would expect any number of seasoned, experienced geocachers to step right up. As it stands, we already have a number of regional representative positions. Some of these positions are vacant. Want to make a difference? Offer to handle an area.

 

4. Run and have province wide cache events for all to enjoy.

Um... there have already been many province-wide cache events for all to enjoy. Four GAG events (in Ontario). Two GAGAFAP events. Two Cupids Cache events. More of each are scheduled. Plus a plethora of restaurant based events. It's not up to the OGA to run all these events. It's up to individual geocachers to do the organizing. You want to run an event? Great! Set it up. You can expect anywhere from 50 to 100+ attendees. I'm sure your event would be approved for listing on the OGA website too!

 

5. Stop having events at bars and taverns and have day time meetings that all can attend with families.

Not a single pub night to date has been an OGA event. The fact that there has been a lot of OGA organization discussion at these events simply speaks to the interest on the part of the Geocachers that have attended the events.

 

I don't believe we've had a single event where kids wouldn't be welcomed. If the fact that some of the folks are having a beer or two bothers you, then by all means, stay away. If you want to host your own event, go ahead. Pick a venue and a date!

 

 

-TT-

The further I travel, the more I learn.

Ad nauseum forum posting won't get you any closer to geocaching.

Get out and have some fun.

[+The Blue Quasar]

What do I want OGA to do for me?

 

Interesting...

 

I wanted to provide enhanced .loc files. But sadly that idea was never going to become a reality. I accept that. Things don't always go our way.

 

I wanted the province of Ontario divided up by municipalities so that the OGA could have a local contact person to handle any cache related issues, but the logistics of that were overwhelming. That idea has been altered into something slightly different.

 

I wanted to provide a document for landowners or governement groups to have available to them so they understand the OGA's position on various issues. That is slowly coming.

 

I wanted to provide parking co-ords and ratings of caches so that when people travel to new areas on Ontario they would know what to expect.

 

I wanted pictures of cachers enjoying the hobby that really brought them here, and I'm sure one day that will come.

 

I wanted everyone to be happy with the effort that OGA was making for them to hopefully improve their geocaching experience, and have additional support if they wanted it.

 

I wanted to have a centralize OGA event, once a year. Donna G suggested that Lake Simcoe would be a central location and a camping idea might work well. Things like that take A LOT of work to set up. With all that I have to handle with OGA, work and most importantly my family I simply cannot do everything that everyone wants.

 

I be honest in saying that my priorities are in order

1)... My family

2)... My work

3)... Going geocaching, including placing and finding caches

4)... OGA

5)... Being social with my friends, including volleyball, baseball and actually have a night out once in a while.

 

So, I am providing as much time as I can. This is not a complaint, but I know that I am doing a lot to help develop OGA and all of those people on the contact list are doing a lot too. I enjoy it, and I think they do too.

 

Some people have asked about progress, and honestly these things take time. We have made a lot of progress, more than I expected and if anyone wants to see anything added to OGA then I suggest they take it to the next step and write it out in full and submit it to myself, Keith Watson or Amazon Annie.

 

We still don't have a "Board of Directors" or similar as there is no need. We openly discuss OGA every Wednesday night at 9 when Keith graciously allows us to on HIS chat group.

 

The Blue Quasar

[+mrcpu]

I wanted to provide enhanced .loc files.  But sadly that idea was never going to become a reality.  I accept that.  Things don't always go our way.

I don't get that? How much more advanced can you get then the GPX format? If you're not a premium member then why not spend the $3 USD / month and get the membership?

 

A couple of your other comments just sounded like you want a replacement page for Geocaching.com!

 

-I DO NOT want the OGA to try and replace GC.

-I DO want the OGA to be "site agnostic" and not concentrate specifically on one site.

-I DO NOT want the OGA website to host any cache info directly (linking to other sites is fine!)

-I DO want the OGA to be a common, productive voice when dealing with Parks Ontario.

[+The Blue Quasar]

I have explained that before. I have never wanted OGA to replace geocaching.com or be affliated with any other geocache style page. Many of my posts have said that. So apparently I have to say it once again.

 

OGA is not to replace Geocaching.com as the primary source of geocache information.

 

OGA cannot and will not provide co-ordinate information about caches. It MAY list them and link them directly back to geocaching.com.

 

I was only stating what I had initially wanted to do, and some of that has changed for various reasons be they difficulty, authorization or lack of interest.

 

I suggest that if you have questions about my intentions that you re-read, or read for the first time, any of my posts and see what I said, and don't read into things. That is never a wise position to take with any text based discussion.

 

The Blue Quasar

[+LugNuts]

I can't say anything that some of the cachers that I respect the most have already stated. (and, I certainly can't say it any better)

 

We all have different priorities in our lives. Everyone is trying to do what they can. I think that everything is coming together great, and faster than I expected. Congratulations to all involved!

 

I worked on some of my OGA homework last night, and had planned on finishing part of it today, but, I had a chance to go caching instead. Sorry gang, I went outside. Homework can wait until tomorrow night. I like your priority list BQ.

 

So, far, a quote that comes to mind is ...

 

"Ask not what OGA can do for you, but, what you can do for OGA."

[+mrcpu]

I was only stating what I had initially wanted to do, and some of that has changed for various reasons be they difficulty, authorization or lack of interest.

Cool! so we agree! I always love it when I read 2 people in a forum who are agreeing with each other, and everyone else can see that, but they can't!

[+The Blue Quasar]

Then I would say we have concensus! (quoted from the PHB from Dilbert)

 

The Blue Quasar

[+Keith Watson]

"Ask not what OGA can do for you, but, what you can do for OGA."

Now that is the best thing I have heard said in thsi thread.

[+logger&trail]

QUOTE (LugNuts @ Mar 21 2004, 09:22 PM)

"Ask not what OGA can do for you, but, what you can do for OGA." 

 

Now that is the best thing I have heard said in thsi thread.

 

Here Here!

 

If you want change, you have to work for it !

 

Happy Caching!

 

Logger