We were a group of people united by a common interest - geocaching.
An organization was formed - Geocachers of West Tennessee. Anyone could join, our forums were wide-open and we could discuss other interests besides geocaching. We held events frequently and all over the GOWT area.
We were proud of our fast-growing membership and incredibly active discussion forums.
If there were any internal problems brewing, many members (including myself) were unaware.
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On a dark and stormy night in February 2007 (the 25th, I believe) all heck broke loose on our public discussion forums. Some pretty vicious accusations were thrown out. Since I consider(ed?) myself friends with everyone involved in the "fight", I made an honest attempt to discover the source of the problems and help work out a solution. I actually learned a lot by communicating with others. No two people had the same story although there was some overlap. People who weren't directly involved had more to say than the people directly involved. There were a few people who simply resorted to name-calling and accusation-throwing. Many of this last group became involved with the founding of a new geocaching group, JAG - Jackson Area Geocachers (good luck, guys...) Some of these members of JAG use clever forum signatures like:
"ITS ALL ABOUT THE TRUTH, NOTHNG MORE...."
"GOT JAG? WE CAN TELL THE TRUTH!!!"
"There's a change a coming"
As I said, good luck with that...
Our forums are quiet now, not because anything was solved but rather because folks headed off in different directions. The future of GOWT is uncertain. Negotiations within our Executive committee may be happening but it is unknown to me as to whether progress is being made or not.
As for now, I will stand by GOWT and trust that things will work out. I am not alone.
The purpose of this post is not to necessarily place blame - we may never know exactly what happened, but rather to show that bad things can happen in any group and that there is much we can learn from what happens in other geocaching groups.
I don't want to ever have to say: "Once upon a time there was a geocaching club called 'Geocachers of West Tennessee'" but if that is the way things turn out, at least I know my GOWT geocoins will increase in value!
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Did anything positive happen as a result of this epic battle? For me, I now communicate more with the local geocachers in my area than I ever did before.
1 comment:
Your last sentence says it all. For all its bluster and bombast, the disagreement has separated some friends, but brought others closer together, I'm sure on both sides.
I'll say this much: an organization formed solely around its members' common disagreement will eventually disagree with each other, not have the skills to resolve it, and split again. I'm honored that a rule was created apparently strictly to keep me out of the new forums! :^)
This much, I can promise you: GOWT will survive. Perhaps in a temporarily reduced form, but it WILL survive!
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