Intro to Geocaching @ Bass Pro shop

[RustyNail09]

I just recently got the ad in the mail and a small ad states there will be an intro to Geocaching on April 4&5th and also on April 12&13th.

This would be an excellent opportunity to do some PR about the local group here! I believe we should organize at least 1 person to attend each event.

I will call and get exact times for the events and maybe we can get a volunteer roster together to attend.

[yogi57]

I'm wondering who doing the presentation for BassPro?

[RustyNail09]

Probably a bass pro worker who knows very little about caching is my guess, but who knows..

[GizmoGuy411]

Could this be the person?

I received this PM on Jan 27th, and replied, but have not heard back from her since:

In a PM to GizmoGuy411, nightsky892 wrote:

Hi...I just joined the NWOGEO site and am new to geocaching. I thought geocaching would be a great activity that I could enjoy with my teenage sons as we love to explore "the road less traveled". Dirt roads hold so many adventures (and sometimes lots of potholes)...lol. Anyway, I work at Bass Pro and have been talking with management for quite some time about collaberating with local clubs, like Toledo Astronomy Club and NWOGEO, to host events, teach classes, etc. at the store, a win-win situation for both the club and the store. We have a conference room and acres of open fields, so lots of possibilities. The manager was quite interested and I told him I would contact the clubs and see what "great ideas" we could come up with and present to him. I also have spoken with several vendors who felt their companies would be very interested in donating both hardware and software for geocaching use at Bass Pro (for teaching the fundementals of geocaching). I saw that you were on the steering committee and thought I would run this idea by you. Please talk to the rest of the committee to see if this is anything the club might be interested in pursuing. If so, we could possibly set up a meeting to discuss ideas and come up with a proposal to present to the general manager (and maybe someone can teach me how to use my DeLorme Earthmate PN 40) -) I look forward to hearing from you and I'm hoping to attend my first Meet and Eat meeting next month. -)

In a reply, GizmoGuy411 wrote:

Hi (name removed)! Welcome to geocaching! I just checked your username on Geocaching.com and found you are REALLY new, as you do not have any finds yet. Good luck keeping your teenage sons interested! Teenagers usually fade away from geocaching, once the dating bug sets in! We have seen it happen frequently. You may want to bring them to the Meet & Eat so that the group enthusiasm catches on. Your idea of working with Bass Pro Shop is great! I'm sure there is potential there that the members will want to explore. I am one of the only three Steering Committee members left, as it pretty much became non functional within the last year. Reorganizational attempts started last summer, but stalled last fall. The NWOGEO.org website however has keep the membership at large very active and we have continued to organize events, despite the relative inactivity of the Steering Committee. By posting "Polls" on the board and enlisting the entire membership, we managed to make decisions, and our "2008 Holiday Shindig" was quite a success. Forums with Polls are now starting to get our annual Spring Picnic organized, as well as setting dates for our Adopt-A-Highway/CITO events. So in light of our current Steering Committee disposition, my suggestion is that we ask the general membership for ideas on how we could work with Bass Pro Shop, and see what happens. There are people out there with some great ideas. Once some ideas have been floated around, I'm sure people will volunteer to meet with your managers to discuss the ideas. Let's talk about it with members at the Meet & Eat and see what they have to say. Mighty-Mo is the only person I can think of that owned a Delorme, so we may have trouble finding people that know your GPS well enough to help you out. ToledoTom bought his son JumpingJoey one a year ago or so, and I helped him figure it out a little, however it has been long enough ago, that I doubt I can help much.

The system here indicated that she picked up the reply. When she did not show at the Meet & Eat, I sent her another PM, which the systems shows that she has not viewed.

In that last PM, GizmoGuy411 wrote:

We missed you at the Meet & Eat! The next ones will be at Findlay, and Defiance this month, and in B.G in March. The next one in Maumee will not be until April. (See the event list on our Home page here.) Take Care gg

I wonder if she even still works there, since we never heard from her.

[RustyNail09]

I will call Tommorow and attempt to get in contact with the person running it and maybe see if they'd be interested in having NWOGEO represented at this event and/or assistance from our group

[jhenkel]

I would be willing to be a rep on Sunday 4/5.

[RustyNail09]

I just got off the phone with bass pro and here is the information I received:

April 4th: beginner classes from 11-12 and advanced classes from 1-2
April 5th: same as above
April 11th: same as above
April 12th: same as above

They stated that there is a limit of 20 people in these classes.

I also have a call into the Special events coordinator about possibly giving assistance with teaching also if I have interested parties.

[yogi57]

3 hrs for a beginner class?

[RustyNail09]

sorry, mistype.. it's actually 11-12 , original post corrected also

[sunrenay]

jhenkel wrote:

I would be willing to be a rep on Sunday 4/5.

No way!

[RustyNail09]

actually, I plan on attending both sessions on 4/5 myself, also Drummerboy130, Tink100, Kamperman, and possibly Scuba may also be there

[sunrenay]

I'd go but they'd have to teach us while we sit on the boats or ride the elevators. If the class is limited to 20 shouldn't we just send 1 spy?

[RustyNail09]

the great question is, how much will these classes fill up... that's what I'm interested to see.. that is another reason that I called the events coordinator about possibly helping with teaching!

[jhenkel]

sunrenay wrote:

jhenkel wrote: I would be willing to be a rep on Sunday 4/5. No way!

WAY!

[jhenkel]

RustyNail09 wrote:

actually, I plan on attending both sessions on 4/5 myself, also Drummerboy130, Tink100, Kamperman, and possibly Scuba may also be there

Ok, that would be the only day I'd be available.