Presentation To Public Agencies.

[+Mr Smiles]

An idea we are contemplating in our area, is to put on a presentation about geocaching (what are these nutty people doing out here?) with law enforcement, security, park maintenance, and recreation personnel from various agencies invited to attend.

 

Not wanting to reinvent the wheel...any suggestions?

 

Mr Smiles

[+New England n00b]

http://www.geocacher-u.com/

 

A worthy site to read through. They have an excellent introduction-to pamphlet...

[+CYBret]

Take them through the brochure.

 

Emphasize no digging and CITO.

 

Find a sympathetic soul on the board and take them on a good hunt before the presentation.

 

Smile a lot...er...well...that goes without saying.

 

Bret

[+wimseyguy]

Keep them away from the forums and its regulars!

But keep us posted on your progress.

[+Mr Smiles]

Good suggestions...all!...(esp. whimseyguy

 

I would be particularly interested to hear from any others that have done this already.

[+woody_k]

My $.02 worth.

 

Who are you going to tell? Unless the local law enforcement agency is 10 cops or less most are going to forget any information you tell them even if the chief agrees with you. Then how are they going to tell the citizenry when they call and say some crazy fool is walking around "suspiciously".

 

Personally I think we should not let them into our business unless they find the web page on their own. If all the citizenry found out about this fun hobby, you are going to have those lunatics that think all we do is trample the flora and fauna and harm everything in site. They will muggle every cache they can because we post it on the web page.

 

Let me ask some questions:

 

Is this going to stop being stopped by the cops? No.

 

So some fool of a cop arrest you, what happens then? Bad cop, the D.A. won't file this case because this web site is proof that a cache exists. Then sue the pants offf that cop for him/her being stupid. They deserve it then. I say this from my, so far, 18 years as a Deputy Sheriff.

 

My agency alone has 1500 sworn personel. There is no way on God's green earth that 1500 deputies are going to retain any info you tell them about geocaching. Then you have all the city P.D.s, the forest feds, the railroad feds.....

 

So these agencies say "No you can't have those in my area". Is that going to stop you from doing so? I hope not. but then some smart alec city lawyer will have a city law stating how they have to be camo'd, size regulated and then some council memeber will say hey we can get some revenue for this. All of a sudden you have to have a permit to hide one and then get a permit to find them.

 

I know this sounds out there, but the less the government knows the better we are. Unless you are trying to get the feds or the state to open up an area for geocaching I say don't ask don't tell.

 

But good luck on your endevour. I wish I was able to help you in some way.

 

Ken

Edited August 14, 2004 by Woodyk

[+E = Mc2]

An idea here: set up a booth at the next public event in one of your local parks! Get the local cachers to bring their GPS'rs and post it on BC.com as an event cache. You might even attract a few new cachers while you're at it. We have one park that the naturalist has actually ASKED us to place caches in!

 

Truth be told, you'll probably be hard pressed to get many to attend even if you provide food. (now beer, OTOH...) If you are trying to get permission to place caches, try using the aforementioned brochure, and practice your presentation before you do it. If you are worried about running afoul of local law enforcement while caching, don't try to hide what you are doing, but explain what you are up to. Unless you are on private property, what are they going to do to you?

[+Boot Group]

Look under the GPS in Education forum. There are some presentation ideas there.

[+Will+Bill]

Get the local cachers to bring their GPS'rs and post it on BC.com as an event cache.

British Caching, eh? LOL!

[+clearpath]

If, during your presentation, the audience is unimpressed, you can always strip down to your speedo's and dance on a table top. If nothing else, they will always remember you...

 

PS - when you are done, be sure and say, "tadaaa."

[+E = Mc2]

Get the local cachers to bring their GPS'rs and post it on BC.com as an event cache.

British Caching, eh? LOL!

No, Boise Cascade Corporation is hosting event caches now.

 

Another reason why we need a speel chechquer on these posts...

[+D-cachers]

I find it interesting that no one responded to what WoodyK had to say about this...

 

By his own account he has 18+ years as a deputy sheriff...and regardless of location, his perspective certainly seems to be general enough to apply to most communities. He took the time to write a lengthy explanation of his thoughts...

 

One of the benefits of having a world-wide forum like this is that you can get "expert" advice free of charge...

 

So...did anybody read what WoodyK had to say?

 

I did...and he makes sense to me...

[+briansnat]

Is this something you were asked by local officials to do, or is it something you've concocted on your own?

 

If its the latter I really doubt you're going to get all these people together for a presentation and if its the latter, I'm with Woodyk. Let sleeping clams lie, or before you know it you'll have town lawyers demanding you have a $1,000,000 liability policy to place a cache and maintenance workers sent out to toss them in the trash.

Edited August 15, 2004 by briansnat

[+Cache Viking]

I have been in City Government for 23 of my 26 working years and have attended more City Council and Commission meetings than I can remember.

 

If what you are trying to do is promote acceptance and allowance of Geocaching on Public Properies then you might be best served by starting with each group separately and one or two people at a time. Start with a the group that is more inclined to like what they hear and move upwards from there with the help of those you have already convinced. You will have to judge your own community to see where to start.

 

If you try to sell to all groups at once you will end up with more questions than you want or can possibly handle. I have seen way too many well intentioned people loose on the big meeting method.

 

If you are not having trouble with the local agencies then I would not bring up Geocaching to them.

[+Mr Smiles]

I find it interesting that no one responded to what WoodyK had to say about this...

 

So...did anybody read what WoodyK had to say?

 

 

Woodyk's posts were read and thoughtfully considerd. Perhaps there is just too much of the "idealist" in me...that, I think that well informed public agencies would provide a more comfortable environment for cachers to play in...that the public ought to be able to utilize public places without fear of confrontation by uniformed officers...that caches placed in public places would not be "officially" plundered...etc.

 

All this also makes me wonder if we cachers might get a bit of a rush from the possibility of getting caught in the act, and a sense of relief when we "pull it off" without getting caught. If this is a part of the sport, then having the blessings of agencies would detract from the fun, whether we want to own up to that or not.

 

This might make an enteresting new topic...

 

Mr Smiles