Hi guys,
It's been awhile since I've pestered you all, but I think it's time I emerge again at least here. What I really need is some of you local cachers to pester me to cache, and perhaps tag along till the bug bites me again
Anyways, on to my actual reason of posting.
I'm going to steal a lot of language from my LAST (ha ha) posting on this subject here, as well as an email I sent a little over a year ago.
Well I can't find them so I guess I have to engage my brain.
So, here goes. I tend to rant so stick with me.
As a first note, I'm only posting this here this time. This is intentional. As we move forward I feel that any personal involved with nwogeo on an organizational level will need to pay attention to this forum. I know I am guilty of not, but I think we CAN make it better.
Anyways, as many of you have probably noticed (and some have even posted about), NWOGeo is a bit stagnant as an organization. We kinda hit a stalling point in the upper and, and while the group can continue to go on like this as long as it wants to (I'll continue hosting the page indefinitely, and as long as Gizmo or someone handles the day to day maint, which I'm sure I could help with it'll be fine). However, I think the group can be better. How it becomes better is largely up to you.
A bit of history.
Way back in yesteryear I started caching. I was immediately hooked. It was the PERFECT nerd sport. Nerdy and outdoors. I quickly found a good number of the caches in the area, and then when International CITO day came, I decided it was time for an event. CITO events didn't exist back then, so I posted an event to help clean the metroparks on their earth day work day.
Needless to say, Good Dog, my wife and I were the only 3 to show. We did a good job pulling garlic mustard that day, and I met another cacher. Mike and I chatted, and both expressed an interest in trying to start a group. He said that Yogi and him had been discussing it.
That night I registered nwogeo.org and created a terrible webpage and a mailing list.
At some point or another we got big enough we decided we needed some leadership. (It actually didn't take long looking at the mailing list archives).
We decided that the simplest way to structure were a few point people. We kicked around the name and ended up with the Steering Committee with Hydnckr as our Grand Poobah.
As time went on, we added several other members to the committee. It was also kicked around a handful of times becoming a non-profit or taking organization to the next level. That was usually shot down.
At some point, some of the cachers started to drift off. I think Hydnckr was the first to go - he still caches but doesn't have time to dedicate to it. A few more dropped off the face of caching. So we added and dropped people as necessary. A couple left due to some issues with representation as steering committee, and several left due to frustration over a lack of action on the part of the steering committee. Fast forward and I think it leaves myself - the ever-present refuses to quit member, and Gizmo who has said he would leave if there were other active members. I'm not sure where BBD stand on it. Additionally the committee voted that the original members (Mike, myself and Yogi), although "retired", would retain access to the forums.
The main goal of the steering committee was originally intended as a way to direct the group. We never intended to be "elitist", excluding, OR to do all the work event planning etc. We've been accused of being several things. We DO have a "secret forum" area, but it's really boring, I promise. We don't sit there and make fun of you or anything
Anyways, on to the next era.
Last year we had a failed attempt to reorganize. There just wasn't enough blood that was interested in a formal organization, so it defaulted to an informal one. That's what we've had for a few years.
However, several cachers who were new when the last round came up have contacted several us with interest, so it's time to approach this again.
I think we need to do what we did last time - have an informal meeting at a library to discuss where we all want it to go. I can moderate again if need be. Then we can break into a smaller group (It'll happen naturally) and see if we can't move something along.
So, this is where I need input. Is this something with interest from you, the community? Where do YOU want to see us go? Are there good times to meet? Do I smell?
Anyways, post away. It'll be a healthy discussion.
Thanks for listening to me rant.
Jason