promoting Geocaching

[+MacDaddy]

Living in Sitka, AK. (Southest Alaska) We have a total of 7 caches, (I think.) I have planted three of them.

I want to promote the sport/activity here. There are roughly 8000 residents. And you get here by boat or Alaska Airlines, no driving here. Many cruise ship folks hop off for the day and find the caches occasionally. Would going through a University (we have two) program work, local newspaper, etc? We have an incredible amount of public land here, the mountains are behind us, the ocean at our door kind of thing. I'm looking for advice from experienced promoters and other great ideas.

 

Don't wait until tomorrow. Get out and do it now, before you wake up and look at the mirror, and the person looking back at you asks you why we never did those things?!!

[+Team Gootz]

There are several university placed caches here in the Houston area. The geography department in two local colleges placed them. No details for you however, but here's a link, maybe you can email them for assistance.

 

Good Luck!

 

Mother Gootz

 

Where in the nursery rhyme does it say Humpty Dumpty is an egg?

[+Scott Johnson]

I too have wondered how to promote the sport more. The more people involved the better it will be.

 

I wonder why the manufacturers are not doing more to promote this? Seems to me they should be leading the charge to sell more units...

 

My thoughts for you:

Contact the tourist office, chamber of commerce, the cruise ships that dock... maybe you could start your own business and rent GPS units to the tourists who get off the boat? The local newspapers, national ones, the State Natural Resources Department (bastards that they usually are here in MN) etc...

 

Hope this helps.

[Rubbertoe]

I'm happy to let the hobby grow at its own rate, without me trying to help or hurt it.

 

For one, the faster it grows - the more clogged this site will get with traffic. And, the more people that learn about it - the more chance of people dorking with caches, or stealing them altogether.

 

I just think it'd be really hard to promote the hobby to only those types of people that would be interested, without also letting the a$$holes know about it - the ones that would end up doing naughty things to caches, just because they can.

 

- Toe.

 

--==< Rubbertoe's Webcam, Photo Albums, and Homepage >==--

[+Markwell]

quote:

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Originally posted by Scott Johnson:

I wonder why the manufacturers are not doing more to promote this? Seems to me they should be leading the charge to sell more units...

---

 

Jeremy mentioned it a while ago when asking if Garmin or Magellan would consider sponsoring a portion of the Geocaching site. He said there response was along the lines of "Why do we need to pay money to your site, when your site already boosts our sales?" Not a direct quote, but the general idea.

 

Garmin already does promote to its limited ability. On their site they have a page dedicated to Geocaching, and there they also let people know that they have icons on their product for Geocache Unfound and Geocache Found.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

[+Trudy & the beast]

Our granddaughter, an active geocacher, is taking a class in orienteering through her Girl Scout troop. You might offer to make a presentation to your local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts as well as any other youth organization. This would give you the opportunity to start them into the RASH with the right techniques and attitudes. This would be a cool thing to do.

[Eeyore and Shadow]

quote:

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Garmin already does promote to its limited ability. On their site they have a page dedicated to Geocaching,

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I know that its their site and they feel the need to advertise their units but any place that a GPS would work fine the always inserted a GARMIN GPS. seem just a little like overkill. lol

 

Eeyore

 

It took a GPS to get me away from technology.

[+MacDaddy]

I found out I have a friend who is a scout leader here in Sitka, and when I described geocaching to him, he asked me to come give a presentation to his scout troop. This coincides with me planting a multi-cache this weekend, so it should work out great.

This will undoubtedly lerad to parents getting involved.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Don't wait until tomorrow. Get out and do it now, before you wake up and look at the mirror, and the person looking back at you asks you why we never did those things?!!

[Priebe's Pride]

As the parent of the said Girl Scout, I am thrilled that you are doing the presentation. I am excited for the scouts that you will be talking to, also. Remember your first cache? That thrill is still out there for them. Talk to the leader. The next time they go camping, see if they would be interested in caching. Plant a cache specifically for them in mind, maybe even name it for them. I have signed my son up for the boy scouts, and hope that we can introduce caching to them too.