Off-Topic

As I prepare to go home for the evening I look back at our discussion forums with sadness. The most popular sections these days are the Milestones section where people rarely get offended and the Off-Topic section where non-geocaching threads are.

In the Off-Topic section the two most active threads are "Joke of the Day" and "Can You Explain This". There are other sections on the site with more posts, but once you edit out all of the fighting you are left with the Off-Topic threads. I don't often participate in these threads - my primary interest in this site is geocaching. The reason these threads are so active is there is nothing in there to argue about.

I think about all of this just two short hours after receiving my second "warning" about inappropriate behavior on the forums. I may be banned right now, I didn't check back to see.

I won't pretend I took the high road. In the end it doesn't matter. As a group we are afraid. Afraid to discusss the merits of ammo cans vs micros. Afraid to discuss urban caching vs rural caching. Afraid to see what is on the other side of the hill. I don't just mean GOWT or JAG. One group after all is simply a small but growing subset of the other.

I never wanted to argue. I wanted people to be able to rationally discuss geocaching issues/topics without some moron(s) trying to ruin it. We in GOWT were not prepared for morons to overrun our group. We were not prepared for a worthless stump to become our president. [Editor's note: The worthless stump resigned on May 3rd] I haven't given up on GOWT. I told some folks the other day: "It's not how hard you can hit, its how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward - how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!!" I didn't explain to them why I posted the quote (from Rocky Balboa) - why I find it relevant. I figured it would become apparent. Maybe it will.

The only thing I can guarantee is that I will get up tomorrow and keep moving forward.

I still have one question that I'll probably never get an answer to: What part of the "Jackson area" does Dyersburg fall in? I looked at a map but it appears that Dyersburg is not in the Jackson Area.... :-)

Wasted days and nights...

Yesterday a real bonehead posted a message on the GOWT forums in a public area calling me a back-stabber. In a rare move for me, I ignored it. After I saw it was deleted I knew all heck would break loose that night. I went home and enjoyed a couple of movies and went to bed. When I checked the forums the next day I saw the moderators had been quite busy.

I read the previous night's posts (those that didn't get deleted) and laughed out loud several times.

One dude wanted a refund of his dues retroactively for two years.

He also has a fascinating signature: "IF YOU DON'T LIKE ME, LETS GET IT ON......"
I wouldn't "get it on" with him even if I still liked him. I don't swing that way.

[You can't ban me in here, genius!]

We have excellent moderators on our site and I compliment the fine work they do. Unfortunately it appears they will be busy for a while.

JAG says hello

Fan mail I received today provided me with a good laugh!

// begin

Subject: Nice blog

I just read your blog, and just let me say.......GROW UP! Nice little session of whinning and crying.

If your that curious about JAG, ask a member, but if he gets caught......he's gone too!

_________________
There's a change a coming

// end

Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog, knows who sent it so I won't bother saying who it is. I will say that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The dude who sent me the message is proof of that.

Word of the day

cli·ché [klee-shey, kli-]
–n
1. a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.
2. (in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of color, musical expression, etc.
3. anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.
–adj
4. trite; hackneyed; stereotyped; clichéd

When asked on our forums as to the status of our 2007 GOWT President, I made the comment that he was spotted recently "guarding the Krispy Kremes at a recent JAG CITO". I took a bit of heat for that - some folks going as far to suggest I should be banned from the GOWT forums. I later posted the CITO log entry from said GOWT president where he specifically referred to the donuts. I then received personal messages asking why I was so bitter and hateful. Sigh. Subsequently I learned that a few in JAG adopted the term. JAG's leader even used the phrase in a "Will Attend" log for an event.

That is how a new JAG cliché was born: "guarding the Krispy Kremes". Glad I could help!

Join the "JAG NATION"

It is comforting to note that my friends in the Jackson Area Geocachers are actively seeking new members. They decided to start fairly small, limiting their membership to those who were a "good-fit" and whose character was "personally vouched for" by an existing member. They now have an open invitation to anyone who wishes to be considered for membership. A charter member of this "elite" group has this to say: "WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR VISIT TO THE JAG NATION LOOKING FORWARD TO MEETING YOU!!" To join this fine group of folks just go to: Jackson Area Geocachers

Of course, I will not dirty up their ranks by joining myself. Have fun, JAG NATION!!!!

Word of the day

in·noc·u·ous [i-nok-yoo-uhs]
–adj
1. not harmful or injurious; harmless: an innocuous comment that implies someone likes donuts
2. not likely to irritate or offend; inoffensive; an innocuous remark that our GOWT president is MIA
3. not interesting, stimulating, or significant; pallid; insipid: an innocuous forum thread

Many of our GOWT discussion forum topics start out like this:
1) Someone states an opinion. Maybe informed, oftentimes not.
2) Someone else responds -maybe with some humor, maybe not.
3) Someone makes an innocuous (on the surface) comment.
4) Someone takes the bait.
5) All hell breaks loose.
...
6) Thread is locked.

The relevant thread today almost got me banned from the site. The funny thing was who wanted to ban me. I really was not trying to do anything other than convince a new member who had stumbled across our "conflict threads" that although things seemed out of control that we as a group are good people and the organization would continue regardless. I believe that I failed. My bad.

Props to my friend spencersb who attempted to calm things down only to be drug into the battle once again.

Bonus word of the day:
lu·di·crous [loo-di-kruhs]
–adj
causing laughter because of absurdity; provoking or deserving derision; ridiculous; laughable: Dalls' ludicrous attempt to moderate a forum thread left me laughing until my sides ached.

I was not at my diplomatic best today, I admit. Oh well, there is always tomorrow...

GOWT 2.0 - The Reboot?

What happens when progress to repair a damaged organization is stymied by a lack of responsiveness by some of the members of the leadership?

Of course, there could be many reasons that some on our leadership committee might choose to "silently filibuster" efforts to move forward. Much like in regular politics - the minority party may feel that the majority don't take their views seriously so they stall in order to force compromise. Maybe they have chosen to focus their efforts somewhere else and simply don't care whether our problems ever get resolved.

In our case, it appears to me that the latter is true. We as a group can not simply wait until the next time for elections for change to happen. It must happen now. In the grand scheme of things GOWT's problems are relatively minor. As many people have noted, we can continue to hunt and place geocaches without any formal organization. I will not document in this entry what I perceive our problems to be. I laugh when I actually think how this all started.

As my friend and founding president of GOWT, spencersb, noted a comment to an earlier posting - "GOWT will survive, maybe in a reduced form, but it will survive". I agree with this sentiment and have observed that within the group that I have contact with we are stronger and closer than ever. I will also note that it is not just a core of the Memphis members that are making it better, the many members scattered throughout west Tennessee also play a very important part in our success!

Will we have to reboot? Will there be a GOWT 2.0? We shall see. The vast majority of our members care about our direction and the future of our organization. They will not let GOWT go gently into that good night. They will not give up without a fight.

Another Cool Arkansas Story

I have many great memories of caching in Arkansas: Here is one of my favorite tales.

On July 20, 2005, jbgreer (my trusty caching buddy) and I decided to make a cache run to Jacksonville, AR. Since my mom (one of the best caching partners ever!) was in town for a visit, we took her with us. I had been to Jacksonville before and when I saw the JJR series had been placed since my last visit, I was excited to return to the area.

Fairly early in the morning we drove up to a cache in the JJR series (JJR #2 C R A Z Y ! ! ! by topkitty) that was in a wooded area. It was a very tough hide and we were all happy when jbgreer made the find! As we were walking back to the cachemobile, my Mom noticed that her glasses were missing. She didn't need them to see but they were prescription, very expensive, and she had carried them with her on this trip. We searched and searched but they were small and light and were impossible for us to find in the woods. We were majorly bummed but continued on our cache hunt.

We found a total of 19 caches that day, including JJR # 5 Obligatory Wally World Cache by topkitty98 & markrocksinheavennow, where I was quite surprised to have disturbed a big nest of very angry wasps! I got and signed the log with wasps swarming around me. I guess I was pretty lucky not to have been seriously stung and decided to press my luck by swatting the nest out into the parking lot.

We drove home that day happy with the day (except for the glasses, of course). Jbgreer logged his finds that day and had mentioned our losing the glasses at JJR #2. When I got to a computer the next day to log my finds, I was shocked to discover that not only had cachers looked for the glasses (thanks, nonnipoppy) but a couple of cachers had actually found the glasses! I contacted KevinG68 who along with mlbobo71 had found them to arrange to get them back. They had a relative there who was actually driving to Memphis the next day and was bringing the glasses with him to his business (not terribly far from my house)! I made arrangements to go pick them up that Monday (or maybe Tuesday..)

Geocachers are some of the greatest people I have ever met and Arkansas geocachers are no exception to the rule! I have had the privilege of meeting a few recently and enjoyed discussing Arkansas hides. When reviewing my log notes to find out the exact weekend this tale took place, I was surprised that it had been so long ago. Hopefully I can get back that way soon.

Caching in Jonesboro

I haven't been taking a lot of road trips lately and it had been awhile since my last cache run west of West Memphis so when Prontopup suggested we make a run to Jonesboro, I was excited! Over the next week we made some plans and decided to go on a Tuesday. There was a forecast of snow, but we expected we would be in and out before it hit...

On Wednesday, January 31st, Prontopup met me at my building around 7:45am and off we went! I served as navigator that day, a role I enjoy - especially since buying a GPSr with mapping software!

I had intended to experiment with podcasting - I brought along a small tape recorder - but it was so cold, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

First stop: Trumann

We stopped off briefly in Trumann where I didn't expect to have much success based on reading cache logs. We found the first cache we looked for and gave another cache a good search, but decided in the end to head on into Jonesboro.

Next stop: Jonesboro

We spent the morning caching in town, our only DNFs being in downtown itself. We did encounter more than a few logs that had been soaked and were now frozen. My gel pen was able to write on most of them.

We stopped at KFC for lunch and while Pup was washing his hands, I decided to put fresh batteries in my GPSr. A couple of guys at the next table asked me if it was a ..telephone... When I explained what it was and that I used it to help me with directions, one guy laughed and told me I was in Jonesboro!

After lunch we picked up a few more caches and headed into Craighead Forest State Park. By this time it was starting to snow pretty good so we were careful to park in a way that made it easy to get out.

We considered ourselves pretty clever for caching in town before the snow hit, but when we discovered many of the caches in the park were micros, we were a bit concerned that the snow would make it tough to find them. We weren't terribly concerned about getting lost since the caches in this park are around a lake with nice trails and paved roads. The worst part for me was that I kept taking off my gloves to work the GPSr and sign logs and eventually my hands became numb from the cold. Although we made it around the loop, we DNFed probably half the caches in the park.

When we got back to the car, we shook off the snow, brushed snow off of the car windows and tried to leave the park. The park exit was not terribly far from the highway but there was an accident and some traffic backup on the road we needed to be on. One of the residents allowed us (and others) to cut through his yard onto another road that took us toward the highway.

Once we got a little ways east of Jonesboro the snowfall stopped.

Last stop: Marked Tree

As we approached Marked Tree, we decided we would take another shot at one we missed earlier, "Marked Tree Siphons". Since Prontopup was familiar with Marked Tree, we had no trouble getting to the somewhat isolated cache location. It was tricky getting to the cache itself, but we had fun and were glad we stopped here.

--------

I am pleased to note that many of the caches we found that day were placed by tech_guy and the missus, who I later met (briefly) at a GOWT CITO in Memphis.

I certainly enjoyed the day and the caches! Some of them could have used some better ziplocs but I'm not complaining! Jonesboro is a great town and I hope to come back soon and find the caches I missed.

I would certainly like to cache more in Northeast Arkansas in the future! I have more than 200 finds in Arkansas, mostly in towns and cities along the interstate from West Memphis to Clarksville.

My thoughts about CITOs

CITO (Cache-In-Trash-Out) events are without a doubt my favorite type of geocaching event to have attended (to date). I have been to three CITOs in my relatively short time in GOWT (Geocachers of West Tennessee). I like CITOs in large part because of the bonding that takes place. Regular events I have been to have been fun, but as an introverted type, I tend to spend more time eating than greeting! CITOs, while allowing us to improve the environment, force us to work as a team (or many small teams) to get a common job done. Many times we move around in different groups talking while we work. This allows us to bond more effectively (in my opinion) than in other types of events.


I am reminded of this having attended a CITO in Memphis two weeks ago and preparing to attend another in Arkansas later this week. I look forward to making new friends and working together to improve an area of the country that I always enjoy visiting.

How to Build Your Own Successful Geocaching Club

Sometimes people in geocaching clubs disagree. Sometimes people disagree violently! Sometimes you have to think to yourself: How could I create the perfect geocaching club where everyone would be happy and smiling? If that is your goal, here are a few tried and true suggestions to help you in your quest!

1) Make it local.
The less people have to travel, the more likely it is that they will show up to your events. The fact that only 3 people show up to your CITO and 2 show up just to sign the log is no problem. After all, you own this club and it's all good.

2) Restrict your membership.
Rabid members in your community can stifle free expression by attacking anything or anyone they disagree with. This will be no problem for you since, after all, everyone will agree with you - why else join your group. A good way to control members from joining en masse is to require approval from current members who will vouch that a proposed member is a "good fit".

3) Recruit from an established geocaching community.
You usually know some of these people already and it is easy to pick and choose the members that you want to "seed" your own club. You can trust these "seed" members to recruit others that share your goals of being "elite".

4) Make sure that you make and enforce rules or codes of conduct.
Once you allow an open and democratic process to occur, you invariably run the risk of it heading in an unanticipated direction. If you have implemented suggestions 1 - 3 successfully, enforcement of rules becomes - unneccessary!

5) If you have discussion boards, make sure no "outsider" can read them!
While this has the potential to stunt membership growth, you maintain control and the illusion of "eliteness".

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Following these few, simple suggestions can almost guarantee that your organization will soon blossom to become one of the "elite" geocaching organizations in your state. Good luck!

If you have other helpful suggestions for building a successful geocaching club, feel free to share your ideas in the comment section.