6th Annual GOWT Gathering - 2/20/2010

I had made plans to attend 6th Annual GOWT Gathering by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC2327K) earlier in the month, but waited until the week off to invite my caching buddy jbgreer to come along with me. He agreed to go and we met at his house at 9am to start our day with a few caches before the event. I picked the day's caches less than a day earlier, because the weather forecast was in flux. I picked out two spots with a total of 5 caches - all with good difficulty/terrain ratings.

[ A nice stretch of greenbelt ]

[ Herb Parsons Lake ]

[ A nice little hike around the lake ]

After finding the last cache and making our way back to the parking area, we set off for the event in Mason.

We arrived at the event site five minutes after the start time and the parking lot was already packed. Upon entering the restaurant we found an empty table away from the main group and ordered lunch.

At first I sensed a sewage backup near the restrooms, but it turned out to be a table of folks from JAG. I knew dalls would probably be there because some JAG caches were nominated for awards, and could tell by early poll numbers that JAG folks had been voting. I did not expect to see some of the others which included, as far as I can tell, TurndAround, bashful and jimmylogan, and RiverNWick.

[ members of JAG seek attention by sitting under the GOWT banner ]

Prontopup was the MC for the event with tiger130 by his side as usual. Because I was focused on eating my lunch, my memories of the event itself may be a little spotty.

A couple of future events were mentioned, including a CITO at one of the cleanest parks in Germantown. I look forward to seeing TurndAround at an event where work is involved.

"Best cache" winners were announced. I don't remember many of the results, but was pleasantly surprised that THE 385 CACHE by MagicRock (GC1918C) won out over Yogi & Taz by Bashful & JimmyLogan (GC1P8RH) as best micro. Last time I had checked the poll, Yogi and Taz was leading, undoubtedly due to JAG voters.

People who achieved significant caching milestones were announced. I wasn't surprised when my 3K milestone was overlooked while recognizing lesser milestones by JAG members Nascarjunk, bashful and jimmylogan.

The 2010 Leadership Committee was announced. I was not surprised to hear that the same people who ran the group on auto-pilot last year would be doing the job again.

There were some changes on the Advisory Committee. I don't know if these were replacements or additions, though. I heard GC4EVR and 76Stinger were now members and I thought I heard that dalls was now a member of the Advisory Committee. Somebody must have read my earlier blog entry where I suggested that dalls be appointed to the Leadership Committee. I would have preferred it if they had instead followed my recommendation that they get a new webmaster.

I actually thought 76Stinger was a good choice and I laugh at the prospect of him and others having to work with dalls in any capacity.

It was Bashful from JAG's birthday so Prontopup led (most of) the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday".

I know that by now you are wondering if I have anything positive to say regarding the event. I enjoyed talking with Hoot Owl and pcsenn, both when we arrived and before we left. I enjoyed talking with 76Stinger and Road King and several other people I met while there. I enjoyed the food and the good weather of the day. Tada!

On the way back to Memphis from the event, jbgreer and I found two more nearby caches to end the day.

Update 7:57pm

dalls responds to this post via his log for the event. Here is the original text in the event that someone asks him to change it:

"The bluff boys and the danger ranger on the road again trying to find our way to the GOWT event in Mason, TN. With the gas tank full, check engine light on, and bluff boys all buckle in with our new hans devices around our necks we were ready to go. We took every back road going all over Haywood, Fayette ,and Shelby county at one point I thought turndaround was routing with his magellan again but he had his gps upside down. Anyways I had a great day caching it doesn't matter if we did see that Welcome to Mississippi and Kentucky sign.

We finally made it. I had a blast meeting new cachers and catching up with my old JAG and GOWT friends. Two thumbs up for Pup doing an awesome job with the mic, Hoot for running everything behind the scenes. Thanks for the Best Earthcache and Best Event awards and the opportunity to serve GOWT again. I will do my best to make what everyone wants to happen. And finally I enjoyed everyone there but one person who is big and bad behind a computer and behind the plants with one eye looking this way and the other that way. Talking about sewer it did start sinking when he started making his way over there but he saw no one wanted him around so it was time for him to go which was the best thing to happen. Maybe one day he will get the hint. Thanks for a great event."

Your new Advisory Committee member, dalls....

Update: 2/22/2010:

Dalls, ever the voice of reason edits his event log to add the following:

For Mackheath. If you are so smart and can see straight you would notice that the only thing i edit was adding Tiger to the original post. No one made me edit anything mr brown nose, get a life and move on. Being over 60 people there and only 2 talked to you it should tell you something, if you can't get a hint we don't want you around. Stop complaining go hide a few caches you the only one I know that has 3000 finds with 2 hides, thats a shame.

[This entry was edited by dalls on Monday, February 22, 2010 at 10:04:31 AM.]

Some my readers may wonder why I post stuff like this on my blog.

At the tail end of my service on the GOWT Reorganization Committee (November 2007), we were looking for volunteers to serve as the original Leadership Committee, Advisory Committee, and moderating team. Most of the members of the Reorganization Committee were pretty stressed out so there weren't many volunteers. I volunteered to serve in the event that we couldn't get enough committee members. I was told by several folks that I couldn't serve because they felt that we needed leaders who were "beyond reproach". As a result, I monitor the behaviors of the people picked to serve on these committees so that I may learn with constitutes "beyond reproach". Every time dalls or anyone else on the committees makes a public misstep [ like insulting a geocacher on a public forum like geocaching.com's cache/event logs] , I will document it and dissect it on this blog. People like dalls make this task highly entertaining.

Nice. Dalls logged a DNF for me on MH Cache:

"Mackheath didn't log a DNF so I will log it for him. I know its hard for him to see straight so he probably left out the middle bush with one eye looking at the bush on the right and the other looking at the tree. Hey mr brown nose it's there."

Reading the rules regarding membership in the GOWT Advisory Committee I read the following sentence:

New Members of the Advisory Committee shall be chosen by simple majority of the then serving Advisory Committee.

What seven members (simple majority) of the 2009 GOWT Advisory Committee don't understand the simple tenet that: "Raccoons don't make good pets."?