The middle of May brought the Wisconsin Geocaching Association to Interstate State Park for the annual WGA Camp Out.  We were joined by the Minnesota Geocaching Association and geocachers enjoyed getting to know each other across the mighty St. Croix River. 

Some geocaching teams just joined us for the day but most participated in the camping part of the camp out.  Geocachers gathered around the fire on Friday and Saturday nights for roasting marshmallows, hot dogs and some lively geo-chatting.

It turned out to be a soggy weekend, we got a lot of rain.  This made some of the planned activities like the tug-of-war, fishing tournament and the guided nature hike lose some of their participants.  But on the other hand, the temperatures were comfortable in a sweatshirt and geocachers found themselves gathering under the covered picnic shelter for geo-chatting during the rain. 

But when does weather stop Wisconsin geocachers from going out and doing some hiking and geocaching?  A big thank you to Spike007 and scott543 for placing the new caches in the park for the event.  The beautiful park sits along the St. Croix River and it’s beautiful gorges, steep cliffs and unique rock formations made this an ideal setting for geocaching.  By Saturday around noon the rain stopped, just in time for us to fire up the grill for lunch, and we were treated to a beautiful, sunny day. Both the Wisconsin and Minnesota geocachers did their part in keeping our parks clean and beautiful by picking up trash for the Cache In Trash Out event. 

A few hearty souls braved the chilly rain and participated in the fishing derby contest.  Congratulations to Sandlanders and CacheNoTrace, winners of the fishing derby.  We were also treated to the yummy smells during the Dutch Oven cook-off.  Congratulations to the dynamic cooking duo mucluck and the katsmeow for their winning concoction of Beef and Beer Stew.  As the sun set it was time to pull out the flashlights and hit the trails for the night cache contest.  We were treated to all sorts of glowing and creative caches, it was really a hit!  Congratulations to Team Black-Cat, the Night Cache Contest winner for his eerie Snow White’s magic mirror entry.

Sunday morning we were treated to the WGA pancake breakfast.  It was pouring rain outside but we were nice and cozy under the picnic shelter.  It was a great way to finish off the weekend with a little more geo-chatting before everyone began to pack up their tents and head home to their own part of the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Thank you to all who attended and especially to all who helped make this event happen.  Check out the photos of the event on the cache page or in the WGA photo gallery.

They say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb but not in the Lonely Cache Game!

Jomusky racked up a lion's share of points in the last days of March to surge ahead of last month's winner Lacknothing who held the top spot for the month until this last onslaught of submissions.

Congratulations Jomusky!

Comment in the forums

Hello WGA!

Will the snow ever stop?! As Wisconsin geocachers, we've been spoiled the last 2 winters, with the lack of the white stuff. This season is a good reminder to seekers, (and cache owners) on what that 'snowflake icon' means!

Our first 2 WGA Events have come and gone; the LCG Event at Horicon and Bonfire on the Bay in Green Bay. Our thanks to the member volunteers that helped plan and execute these well attended gatherings.

The WGA Board of Directors met on Sunday, February 25th for 7 1/2 hours of WGA business. This was our required organizational meeting according to the WGA By-laws. The Association has always been blessed by good leaders, and the 2013 Board promises to continue that tradition in the coming year.

If the snow ever melts, the trash from the last 6 months will start to rear it's ugly head! Watch the Events List for WGA sponsored and locally sponsored CITO Events across the state.
Why not consider hosting a CITO? The WGA offers limited financial support to assist any member in co-hosting a CITO. Contact any current Director for more information.

The anticipation is building toward the WGA Spring Campout, being held on May 17-19 at Interstate Park near St. Croix Falls. Could this lead to an eventual MegaEvent? You should probably attend, so you can say, "I remember the first one!"

Finally, it is once again my privilege to serve another year as the President of the WGA. Please feel free to contact me at any time in the coming months with your input or comments. Better yet; introduce yourself at a WGA Event! I'd love to hear your "tales from the trails"!

Jim Bliefnick, WGA President

GC47Q1P 2013 WGA Spring Adopt-A-Highway Cleanup CITO this Saturday, April 27th, 2013.

Looks to be a great weekend and almost 70 degrees! The first of the year.

Please join us in helping to cleanup this 2 mile section of US HWY 10.

The Wisconsin Geocaching Association has adopted this section of roadway and over the last few years we have held several CITO events here.

WHERE: US HWY 10 between Hickory Hills Rd. and CTH W
DATE: Saturday, April 27th, 2013
TIME: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

We have plenty of Safety Vests, lots of trash and recyclable bags and even a few pairs of work gloves left.

All we need is you!

Visit the store: CLICK HERE!

 


Items are available for purchase to be picked up at the WGA Campout event at Hartman Creek State Park. Any proceeds from sales will help fund the Campout event costs and general operating costs of the Wisconsin Geocaching Association.

NOTE: Items may be purchased from the store until May 1. Campout fees may be payed for until Thursday, May 19.

** Items featured in the store will not be shipped **

Some of these items will be available for sale at the event in limited quantities and sizes if you do not pre-order online but to reserve your items and ensure you get the items you want, please order now! WGA apparel and Groundspeak item sales will only be open for a limited time to allow for processing time.

The following items are offered in the store:

Campout Event Apparel - T-shirts, Sweatshirts, and "Hoodie" Sweatshirts designed by WGA member BakRdz. New this year, 2 colors are available for most items and sizes.

Campout Event Pathtag - New this year, the WGA will be producing limited edition event Pathtags for each of the major WGA events. The campout Pathtag was designed by Freak Designs (WGA board member sweetlife).

Group Site Camping Fees - In order to camp on the group site, please order and pre-pay using the WGA store. Note: Each night is a separate item in the store. If you're not camping on the group site, you do not need to purchase these items. Attending the event activities is free.

Groundspeak Items - You can purchase some of the same items currently available in the Groundspeak store but without the shipping costs! If there is a Groundspeak item that you would like that isn't in the store, email webmaster<at>wi-geocaching.com. 

2010 WGA Geocoins - We still have a small inventory of the Wisconsin state-shaped Geocoins available. Get one before they run out!

 Wisconsin Geocaching Association

Wisconsin Geocaching Association
Annual BOD Meeting
February 24, 2013 9:00 am
600 E Northland Ave, Appleton, WI
APPROVED MINUTES

Meeting was called to order at 9:05 am by Jim.
All board members were present including: Lisa Daniels, Peter Quella, James Bliefnick, Barry Butrymowicz, Rebecca Lillo, Chris Walker, Rob England, Brian Kling, Renee Vanselow-Tapp
 

First order of business was the election of officers for the 2013 BOD.
For the position of President: Jim was nominated by Barry and second by Rob
Brian was nominated but declined
Pete was nominated by Brian and second by Jim
Vote was cast by paper ballot with Jim receiving 7 votes and Pete 2 votes
 

For the position of Vice President: Brian was nominated by Barry and second by Lisa
Pete was nominated by Renee and second by Brian
Vote was cast by paper ballot with Pete receiving 5 votes and Brian 4 votes
 

For the position of Treasurer: Renee was nominated by Brian and second by Pete
With only one nomination Renee had unanimous vote
 

For the position of Secretary: Barry was nominated by Brian and second by Pete
With only one nomination Barry had unanimous vote
 

Recap of "How to be a Board Member"
Jim explained some of the problems about making motions in the forums, if possible motions should be brought up in the Board forums first, so we can discuss it first, the make the formal motion to vote on.
Pete brought up about the actual term of Board Members. The actual term for new members starts at the annual meeting. New members to the board gain access to the BOD forums immediately after the election, but do not have voting powers for the approximately 2 weeks that they are in transition.
Access to the BOD forums is so that they can get caught up to speed on current happenings and also the past info that is available there. A motion will have to be made, and a change to the bylaws stating the actual start of new BOD terms.
Talked about making motions, posting in forums, and how to use the electronic voting.
Terms begin at the annual business meeting we need to post and change the bylaws.
Posts can be moved and deleted by any BOD, If it looks like obvious spam, it can be deleted. Brian mentioned that the new “attacks” we have been getting are by actual people who go thru the process of signing up for the site, and then post links in their forum tag lines.
 

Treasurer’s Report
Renee passed around a spreadsheet for the PayPal account and the checking account.
Renee is looking at gaining online access to the checking account and having the availability for the four officers of the BOD.
PayPal Account is now a business account using our Tax ID number. We can have 25 authorized users to use the account. It is still attached to Renee's credit card as a backup. With our checking account,
we are able to get a debit/check card that could be used as the backup and would free Renee of all indemnity if we had a back charge from a PayPal dispute.
Brian made motion to accept the Treasurer's report, Rob second, all in favor.
Minutes from 2012 meeting accepted.

Possible purchase of bookkeeping software
Brian has a point of sale program that could be used, a few tweaks are needed to make it work at
events, but can be easily done.
 

2013 Budget
Reservations have been paid for the Campout event.
In the past this has been the operating budget that we have ran off of:
Publicity events $1000 (Brochures, Patches, Stickers)
CITO Events $900
Regional Events $600
Campout Reservations $475
Picnic $400
Winter/Chili $120
LCG $100
Mega/ Pancake Breakfast $300
BOD Plaques $100
Geocoin Minting $3000
Pathtags $300
Generic Shirt orders $700

Discussion on the budget was tabled and will be discussed.
 

Web Site Report
Brian presented a recap of what happened in the last year and what will happen in the future on the website, as time permits.
Lately we have only have had the COTM winners article as our only monthly WGA news article. New news articles are needed more often.
WGA membership requirements and related website changes
At this time no changes are needed to the membership requirements. If we are looking at becoming a 501(c)(3) all information will be needed for our records.
 

Education Committee Report
We should look at other opportunities with state parks in other parts of the state. Similar to the way that Scrappy has his set up at Pike lake, his 101 classes went over well last year.
Rob brought up that Kohler Andrae had a interest last year.
Geo 101 and Train the Trainer Contact West Bend committee, to set up the times for the Train the Trainer and 101 consecutively. Running the Train the Trainer first, then let them help with the Geo 101 after.
101 Classes at State Parks. It was brought up to see if we can only have our “certified” trainers do 101 classes at State Parks, per our reviewers, we cannot limit who can hold a 101 class.
We need to update the 101 training info on the webpage.
 

Membership Committee Report
Talked about possibly sending out a “New Member Package” (Nametag, Coin, WGA Pencils) at a approximate cost of $3 per person, $100 per year. Possibly send out once a month.
Possibly send nametags to membership who do not have yet.
Send reminders to soon to expire memberships or expired memberships.
 

Ways to maintain Membership (Facebook, Twitter, other Social Media) - growing membership and a outline for growth
Chris talked about Facebook page. Weekly it is growing, Pictures get the biggest hits; about 1200 to 1300 hits on Facebook weekly. Might want to link to other caching groups in the area. (Wild bunch,Cooley Region, NE WI Geocachers).
Brian and Chris, are the two admins for FB.
 

Committee Assignments for 2013
Membership Chris is Chair, Brian, Barry
Education Jim, Rebecca, Renee is Chair
Website Lisa, Pete, Rob, Brian is Chair
We should put out a feeler post in all three committees to see if current members want to stay, and
maybe post in regular forums for new committee members.
 

A break was taken and Group photo to be posted on the WGA website.
 

Campout WI/MN
Brian has been in contact with the President of MnGA about 2 weeks ago.
Agreed to $175 in help, plus Cachkins and other donations.
Friends of Interstate park will be doing a presentation they could also do informational walks about the geographic features of the park.
We will again be doing Night Caches will need to have volunteers place them.
Preorder Shirts Need to have a longer leg time. Need to get the logo for shirts and pathtags finalized.
We will again have the Pancake Breakfast we need to look into Safe Food Handler classes.
Spike007 and Scott543 will be hiding caches for the event.
Possible GX Proxy Coin, along with a pathtag. Barry will look into designs and GX coins.
Preorder of shirts through store instead of just guessing on our sale quantity.
 

Geocoins and pathtags
2012 geocoin recap and inventory 49 silver 5 gold
2011 geocoin inventory 89
Barry will try to sell 2011 coins @ 9.99 Buy it now 5 of each
2012 at 9.99 with free shipping on both.
Start a new WGA eBay name and link to the new business Pay Pal account.
Look at making a 2014 geocoin. Goal to have it Ready for November 1, of 2013. Start working on it after the campout.
 

CITO or Regional events - How many @ $150? Specify what funds can be used for.
We will sponsor up to 6.
Merchandise will be donated at Retail Value to events out of the $150.
Pete made motion and Chris second to sponsor CITO or regional events if asked for by the membership. Merchandise can fill the $150 if requested. All present in favor.
We should have a goal to promote more CITO across the state.
Having a board member take over the DOT contact. Chris will take over the Contact.
 

Fall Picnic event location.
Location: Gov. Thompson
Chair: Barry Butymowicz
Brian made motion Barry second and all in favor of holding at Gov Thompson SP. September 14 or 21. Check hunting start dates, Barry will meet with Maggie (Park Ranger). And check hunting in park.

Limited edition geocoin awards and service plaque awards
Brian made motion Renee second, to purchase the award plaques from Mantiowoc Trophy for Brian Mckay and Ralph Edwards approx price $32 and $10.95 shipping. All present in favor.
Brian made motion Lisa second to present Debbie (Amita17) with a Silver Geocoin for efforts put forth at events. All present in favor.
 

WGA property
Current assets report
Trailer
2 grills
printer
download equip
turkey shoot targets
portable fire place
nescos
coffee Pots
T-shirt report and inventory
Current Inventory is all in one place.
Will need to order more before the Appleton CITO.
Renee made a motion to sell all old event shirts at $5 until gone. Brian Second. Motion Passed.
Renee will research and bring back to to the group the option of ordering hats, minimum order is 24 would have the generic logo on them.
F1rebirds brought up idea of Panthervision hats. Tabled until we see a better finished product.
 

Merchandise Sales at non WGA events / Donations to events
If asked by the cache owner and we have someone available to bring stuff there, sales can be at any event. In appreciation of allowing us to sell at the event, a donation of shirt or coin can be made to the event raffle (at the discretion of the seller).
 

Possibility of placing a geocache in every state park
Research # of state parks and which do not have caches.
WGA would be the owner of the cache, have a local cacher be the trail boss and maintain the cache.
Contact Ralph and see what info he has from this in the past.
Possibly make up labels to put on cache containers, send them to willing trail bosses with pencils.
Brian will contact Ralph and get the information.
 

WGA TB Race prizes
Possible prizes would be a State park sticker. Come up with about 10 “categories” for prizes.
With the response that we had this year, having another race again the following year could be easily done. Brian said the TBRun site is easy to use, but could write the code easily enough to run it directly from our site.
First place winner would win a State park sticker, Winner would also have team name, mileage and year put on WGA trailer. Brian made motion Renee Second. All in favor.
 

Amend the "Vendors at WGA Events" motion? Or keep wording/ cost the same?
Changes made and will be posted in the BOD forums. Motion will need to be voted on and passed online.
 

2014 Waukesha Jamboree
City wide community event. Geo101 and temp caches. Have been using the WGA as a sponsor, Renee will be the contact as it has been in the past and will keep us informed.
 

Discuss possible amendment to Article XIII: Property, Funds, and Assets of the bylaws to allow for some funds to remain in the WGA PayPal account (see attachment B)
We should check into the insurance issues with PayPal. Discussed at meeting and resolved
PayPal holds funds in federally insured bank accounts.
Discuss wisdom of having a personal bank account tied to WGA funds, and possible solutions to current situation.
Look at getting a Debit card attached to our checking account. This would relive Renee of liability of having her Credit Card attached to the PayPal account.
Discuss responsibility of WGA for reporting income and paying taxes or annual filing and publishing of Form 990
We were advised by free legal counsel (Mr Curly Girls) Attorney at law:
As of right now we are not violating any issues and being a non-for-profit non-stock org and do not have to worry about paying taxes.
 

Best way to track WGA assets.
Bring trailer to all events possible.
 

LCG Event
Pete brought up that there might be a few rule changes or clarifications needed soon.
 

COTM
Possible COTM Tours setup on the website.
Brian also reminded us to check the COTM near the end of the month. The program needs to have at least one cache in each region nominated.
 

West Bend Cache Bash
Barry will bring a Fire Dept tent to the Picnic to try out. They are purchased at Sam's Club approximate price $300. After the picnic we can decide if we would want to purchase one.
Pancake Breakfast and Geo101 are wanted by the West Bend committee.
 

Newsletter
Rebecca will take on the challenge of the newsletter, all of the BOD members need to help with this.
Try to get one out at least quarterly. Any material should be ready for a Mid March Newsletter.
 

"Remote" attendance to BOD meeting
Not reasonable as of yet.

Member Benefits Package
Jim brought a packet of info from the company he works for. Passed it on to Pete for review. It could be offered to our membership at no cost to us. It would be a accidental injury insurance similar to Afflac.
 

Meeting adjured 4:27 motion by Jim second by Pete.
 

UPDATED VENDOR MOTION
Whereas the Bylaws of the WGA state that our mission includes, as one of four purposes, "Provide an opportunity for geocachers in the State of Wisconsin to gather and socialize with one another."
Whereas, commercial interests may desire to make their products available to members of the WGA at our events;
Whereas, some member of the WGA may like to purchase geocaching related commercial products while at our events;
Whereas, our mission is primarily to provide a place for geocachers to socialize with one another, and unfettered and uncontrolled selling of commercial products within the shelter can potentially compromise the purpose of our event by being over populated with commercial interests, and some members may feel that commercial activity makes it more difficult to socialize;
The WGA from this date forward establishes these rules for the selling of commercial products at our events:
1. Vendors must get prior permission from the WGA of at least 7 days prior to the event in order to be allowed to sell commercial products at any WGA event.
2. Vendors must provide to the WGA Secretary the following information in writing prior to being approved to conducting any commercial activity: Name of individual, name of company (if any), mailing address, phone number, email address, and description of products that are intended for commercial activity.
3. Vendors may be required to pay a fee of $25 to the WGA for the privilege of setting up their commercial activity at our event. If vendor fee is waived, a donation would be accepted (for door prizes) in lieu of fee.
4. The WGA BOD will designate a area for vendor sales, the area may or may not be inside a shelter (if available). Vendors must provide their own table, booth or shelter to the extent that they see fit. The WGA is not responsible for providing any equipment to vendors.