Chairman Candidates (2013/2014) - Q&A

[Maple Leaf]

This forum is an area for members to post questions and the candidates for to answer.

The two candidates are:

Maple Leaf
Puzbie


Their CVs/Manifestos will be posted here (https://www.gagb.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5191)

[richlay]

Congratulations on your nominations, I am delighted to see there will be a properly contested election.

Jen, I have tried to find a copy of last year's manifesto but cannot find it - is it available to refer back to?

Good luck both!

[Maple Leaf]

Congratulations on your nominations, I am delighted to see there will be a properly contested election.

Jen, I have tried to find a copy of last year's manifesto but cannot find it - is it available to refer back to?

Good luck both!

Up until part way through the Chairman elections last year, all posts relating to elections were in the Members forum - so the Chairman manifestos are still in there.

The two candidates for Chairman last year were Maple Leaf & Sandvika. The manifestos are here (https://www.gagb.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=4763) and the initial Q&A here (https://www.gagb.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=4762)

[N0hope]

Can I ask both candidates why they are standing?

[Maple Leaf]

Can I ask both candidates why they are standing?

Primarily, I want to continue with the things that are currently in progress and to continue to raise the awareness of the GAGB. I don't like leaving a job unfinished!

Having been an active member of the GAGB since I first started geocaching in 2005, I was delighted when in 2010 I was asked if I would stand for committee. Having then spent two years on the committee as Secretary, it was then an honour to be elected as Chairman last year.

I have the knowledge, dedication & commitment to the GAGB to continue in the Chairman role for the coming year.

We are getting a lot of new members who have only just discovered geocaching, which is great, but it is still surprising that there are so many exisiting geocachers that have not heard of the GAGB.

At the WM Mega this year, we had a lot of people to our stand/participated in our map game and several that came to the committee's Q&A sesssion - many who didn't know about GAGB. We need to continue to change that!

My aim of the GAGB10 weekend last summer was to promote the GAGB across the entire country. Despite advertising/requesting cachers to host their own GAGB10 CITO events (and having GAGB10 trackables made) there were only a few events ........ which was a real disappointment. However, those that did attend had a great time and suggested we should do an annual GAGB CITO weekend .... so maybe something for the diary next year.

[Puzbie]

Can I ask both candidates why they are standing?

Firstly, I would recommend reading all the CVs which I see have now been posted here (https://www.gagb.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5191).

To summarise why I am standing, my reasons are twofold. Firstly, I wasn't satisfied with how the GAGB handled the MOD affair, and secondly, I would like to see us explore more ways of raising the profile and reputation of both GAGB and geocaching in the UK in general.

[mollyjak]

I would like to see us explore more ways of raising the profile and reputation of both GAGB and geocaching in the UK in general.[/QUOTE]


Puzbie

Please could you expand your thoughts on your statement and how it could be achieved?

How would you deal with the negativity the GAGB receives from some cachers and how that could be changed to a positive?

[Puzbie]

Puzbie

Please could you expand your thoughts on your statement and how it could be achieved?

How would you deal with the negativity the GAGB receives from some cachers and how that could be changed to a positive?

Hello Mollyjak, thank you for showing an interest in proceedings. With regards to negativity I think I should first state that I don't think it will ever totally be eliminated. I don't think I have ever seen a single online forum that has had no dissenting voices. It comes with the territory. Also, not all dissenting voices should be accommodated. When they encourage illegal activity, they should be put firmly and squarely in their place.

I have been in a situation in the past, where a large majority of the forum (on collecting antique bottles, believe it or not) seemed in favour of such activities. Forum posts were full of how land owners had been outwitted and how, basically, the posters had illegally dug up people's land. I was appalled by this, and when it became apparent that this was the majority view (at least of that forum) then I left. I don't see anywhere near that level of dissent in the GAGB forum and facebook pages. The vast majority of posters seem to be genuine people just looking for advice and to socialise.

However, as I laid out in my CV, I think that if the committee had a greater awareness of the strengths and abilities of the ordinary members, and utilised these skills, rather than ignored them, when negotiating with landowners, then there would be much less negativity. For instance, in the MOD negotiations, I saw people posting useful advice and being ignored. I think the key mistake here was not that the advice wasn't followed, but that they were ignored. People who persisted with their questioning on the issue were told that if they didn't like it, they should stand for nomination themselves. That is no way to treat rank and file members, and it can only lead to negativity, especially if the outcome of the proceedings was such a disappointing one.

Also, I think it important that when negotiations are ongoing, ordinary members are kept in touch with how events are proceeding. During the MOD negotiations it seemed like there was a wall of silence. I think the reasoning behind this was that the MOD (and you can substituted any landowner name here) was aware of this forum and had access to it. It was therefore deemed inappropriate to discuss the matter here.

But so what if the landowner has access to this forum? We are not a business planning a hostile takeover, we are a group of cachers trying to put forward a case as to why caching should be allowed. If we had open discussion, and the ordinary members were listened to, there would be nothing to hide or be ashamed about on these forums. Anybody encouraging illegal activities should be immediately sanctioned, but other than that, people should at the very least, be listened to.

Finally, In my CV I also suggest a way in which we could positively improve the caching image to the general public (including landowners). I won't rehash any more of my CV here, but by actions such as those I outlined, we could improve the image and make landowners far more amenable to our requests.

[richlay]

The CITO events this year appeared to be very successful and it was great to see committee members supporting and also to see them at several localised events.

How would you maintain and build on this success in the next 12 months?

Would you plan the CITO event to be an annual occurrence, or is there an opportunity for other events that to be held across the country at the same time too, in a similar way to the WWFM?

Please expand on how you would approach the event element of the game this year.

[Puzbie]

The CITO events this year appeared to be very successful and it was great to see committee members supporting and also to see them at several localised events.

How would you maintain and build on this success in the next 12 months?

Would you plan the CITO event to be an annual occurrence, or is there an opportunity for other events that to be held across the country at the same time too, in a similar way to the WWFM?

Please expand on how you would approach the event element of the game this year.

I am a big fan of CITO. In my experience, the most effective form has been the placement of plastic CITO bags within caches. I first came across this while doing a cache in Cyprus, and I had soon filled the bag I found in the cache. If we could encourage this sort of practice, so that CITO became the norm, rather than the exception, then it would do wonders for our reputation and be a useful bargaining chip in landowner negotiations. If we can demonstrate to landowners the positive benefits <b>that they will receive</b> from geocaching, it can only help our cause.

It also provides a useful outlet for all the plastic bags I am sure I am not alone in accumulating at home.

With regards to CITO events, I have never personally attended any. However, I would certainly be supportive of them and if the membership wanted to continue them they would certainly get my support.

[Maple Leaf]

The CITO events this year appeared to be very successful and it was great to see committee members supporting and also to see them at several localised events.

How would you maintain and build on this success in the next 12 months?

Would you plan the CITO event to be an annual occurrence, or is there an opportunity for other events that to be held across the country at the same time too, in a similar way to the WWFM?

Please expand on how you would approach the event element of the game this year.

As it was the GAGB's 10th anniversary year, I really wanted to do something to celebrate this and thought that by having events all of the UK & NI it would be an ideal way to make people aware of the GAGB. The idea of promoting it as CITO events was a way of giving something back to the landowners/councils.

With the GAGB10 logo and trackables we had hoped that we would get a lot more events than we did but I am grateful to those of you that did host/attend one. In hindsight, our CITO date was probably too close to the annual CITO weekend (which you got a souvenir for) - but we wanted to do it on the anniversary weekend.

I would like to have an annual (at least) GAGB event/s around the country so this is something that I would certainly be looking into with the new committee. I would be keen to work with the landowners that give permission for the placement of caches - whether this be the larger organisations like Forestry Commission, Woodland Trust, National Trust - or just smaller/local ones, so that we are at least giving something back to them at the same time as having events.

I will continue to attend regional events when I can, especially if there are any on when I am working around the country, and to promote the GAGB.

[LadybugKids]

The 2014 GAGB Chairman Ballot is loaded into Surveymonkey and set to be e-mailed out shortly after midnight, tonight (0015 on 1 November).

The header of the e-mail will read:
"ladybugs at geocachealaska.org via surveymonkey.com" <member at surveymonkey.com>
("at" replaces "@" in the above to keep the text from appearing as links)

so if you don't receive a ballot and you were a member of record as of 1 October, please check you Junk/Spam folders/filters.

If you still can't find your ballot, send me an e-mail at ladybugs@geocachealaska.org (ladybugs@geocachealaska.org) from your GAGB e-mail address of record and I'll send you a fresh ballot.

Regards,
Michael Malvick/Ladybug Kids
GAGB Returning Officer

[N0hope]

A last minute question for Puzbie:

I have openly said that I will vote for Maple Leaf as I feel she, and the rest of the committee, have run the GAGB very well for the last year and I feel that the committee handled the MOD situation well. What would you say to me to make me change my mind and vote for you?

[matty1984]

Picking up on a few things in the CVs, previous Q&As and my own concerns.

1) How will you ensure that member's views and concerns are taken on-board by the committee?

2) Now that many organisations are jumping on the geocaching bandwagon, how will you utilise these to raise the profile of caching?

3) The geocaching community, by its very nature, is a very fragmented one. Have you any plans to bring more members of the community together?

[martletsman]

Another last minute question for Puzbie:

I wonder how often and how many cachers you have met in the past year.

Have you any plans to increase contact with the silent majority that do enter into discussions via threads?

[Puzbie]

A last minute question for Puzbie:

I have openly said that I will vote for Maple Leaf as I feel she, and the rest of the committee, have run the GAGB very well for the last year and I feel that the committee handled the MOD situation well. What would you say to me to make me change my mind and vote for you?

With regards to the MOD situation, if you think they handled it well, I don't really think I can say anything to convince you. The end result of the MOD situation is that caches are no longer allowed on MOD land and that existing caches will be removed once the MOD finally come up with a map of their land. If you think that that was a good result, then I would hate to see what you would have considered a bad result to be.

In my mind a good result would have been that geocaches would still be allowed. A satisfactory result would have been that they be banned as a default, but that local managers could allow caches in certain specific situations. For instance, if the land manager was happy that a region of land was never used for live firing practice, they could grant permission. However, the result we got, ie a complete ban on anything but virtual waypoints, is certainly not satisfactory.

Now, I have a question for you, No Hope. If you think they handled the situation well, can you tell me what they actually did?

[Brenin Tegeingl]

With regards to the MOD situation, if you think they handled it well, I don't really think I can say anything to convince you. The end result of the MOD situation is that caches are no longer allowed on MOD land and that existing caches will be removed once the MOD finally come up with a map of their land. If you think that that was a good result, then I would hate to see what you would have considered a bad result to be.

In my mind a good result would have been that geocaches would still be allowed. A satisfactory result would have been that they be banned as a default, but that local managers could allow caches in certain specific situations. For instance, if the land manager was happy that a region of land was never used for live firing practice, they could grant permission. However, the result we got, ie a complete ban on anything but virtual waypoints, is certainly not satisfactory.

Now, I have a question for you, No Hope. If you think they handled the situation well, can you tell me what they actually did?

Sorry but what you have described, is the Dream Situation. And as we all know, reality is never like that.

Sometimes it is possible to turn around a Negative Landowner, and that comes from a number of cases, where I've personally done so. Others will have so entrenched their Mind Set, what every you say or offer, just gets a flat refusal.

I notice you have not once mentioned the the MOD specifically pointed to the Negative Comments, made on this forums and elsewhere, in their refusal.

So how would you personally deal with such negativity, especially when members of the Community have made such, in areas, where the GAGB Committee, has no ability to moderate such posts?

And by negative comments, affecting the outcome. I am not just referring to the Negative comments pointed to by the MOD. We are also in the same situation with United Utilities, who actually mentioned their Statutory Duty towards their Employee's, when referring to the Negative Posts, Logs and actual comments to Staff, by Geocachers.

So a second question, are you now still saying that the GAGB are solely responsible for the MOD outcome, or do the Negative Posts by the Community, have a role to play in the decision by the MOD?

Dave

[Puzbie]

Picking up on a few things in the CVs, previous Q&As and my own concerns.

1) How will you ensure that member's views and concerns are taken on-board by the committee?

2) Now that many organisations are jumping on the geocaching bandwagon, how will you utilise these to raise the profile of caching?

3) The geocaching community, by its very nature, is a very fragmented one. Have you any plans to bring more members of the community together?

1. They need to be listened to. Simple as that. During the MOD situation I saw that this wasn't currently the case.

2. You have to be careful here. Geocaching is an activity that stands on its own two feet. Commercial involvement could kill it, and the GAGB could run into trouble with the listing sites like geocaching.com if we gave the appearance of being under a corporate thumb. My main concern would not be that we raise the profile of geocaching, but that we prevent it from getting sabotaged by corporate greed. The primary image aspects I would like to concentrate on is CITO and the charity angle I touched on in my CV.

Please note that this is not a criticism of the current committee. I am not saying they have done anything wrong at all. I am referring to events that may happen in the future.

3. I have no problem with an annual GAGB event, and would certainly like to give cachers a greater voice on the forum and facebook. Lets face it, most cachers seem to prefer facebook. This is a shame, as it isn't well suited for discussions. But its a fact of life.

With regards to bringing people together, I would query why we need to. I see the GAGB committees role primarily as an administrative one. Events and meets already happen and are well attended. What most geocachers want is to be able to geocache. The primary role of the GAGB should be able to facilitate this. To that end, its a fairly thankless task, as a lot of cachers will have a long happy geocaching experience without knowing of our existence.

[Puzbie]

Another last minute question for Puzbie:

I wonder how often and how many cachers you have met in the past year.

Have you any plans to increase contact with the silent majority that do enter into discussions via threads?

I've met four, outside of my usual caching friends. I met them in the field, so to speak. The caches I prefer normally involve long walks in the countryside, so its not unusual to find the cache without seeing anybody.

I have not attended any geocaching events up until now, as I've never really had the urge. Were I elected, I would obviously make an effort to attend some, as it would come with the territory. But I see the role mainly as an administrative one. I have nothing against events and the like, but I'm not going to pretend that I am a regular attender, because I am not.

With regards to the silent majority on facebook, I would make it a priority to ensure they are listened to. Currently they aren't.

[Puzbie]

Sorry but what you have described, is the Dream Situation. And as we all know, reality is never like that.

Sometimes it is possible to turn around a Negative Landowner, and that comes from a number of cases, where I've personally done so. Others will have so entrenched their Mind Set, what every you say or offer, just gets a flat refusal.

I notice you have not once mentioned the the MOD specifically pointed to the Negative Comments, made on this forums and elsewhere, in their refusal.

So how would you personally deal with such negativity, especially when members of the Community have made such, in areas, where the GAGB Committee, has no ability to moderate such posts?

And by negative comments, affecting the outcome. I am not just referring to the Negative comments pointed to by the MOD. We are also in the same situation with United Utilities, who actually mentioned their Statutory Duty towards their Employee's, when referring to the Negative Posts, Logs and actual comments to Staff, by Geocachers.

So a second question, are you now still saying that the GAGB are solely responsible for the MOD outcome, or do the Negative Posts by the Community, have a role to play in the decision by the MOD?

Dave


First and formost, anybody posting endorsements of illegal activities should be shown the door. I hold no truck with anything like that.

Secondly, what do you mean, the dream situation? Do you mean my description of a good outcome, whereby we are allowed to cache, or do you mean my description of an acceptable outcome? If you don't no into the negotiation with the hope of achieving at least the latter outcome, then why bother negotiating at all?

Now, with regards to negative comments, I have asked a number of times for somebody to highlight these comments. I remember reading the various forum discussions on the subject. I may have missed some (what with facebook, GAGB and geocaching.com not to mention the regional sites, its highly likely I did) but from what I saw, the vast majority of the negativity was directed at the GAGB because they weren't giving out any information. I also saw people offering valid useful advice and getting ignored. That just made people more angry. But also, an age old negotiation strategy, and one that is bread and butter to the MOD, is to cause dissent amongst the ranks of your opponent. With this sentence they certainly succeeded.

We cannot stop landowners from viewing our forums, and nor should we. Indeed, it would be nice if they posted openly.

However, ANY hint of illegal activity on our part, be it intimidating staff, ignoring landowner wishes (not necessarily illegal but certainly against GC rules and the like) should not be tolerated. We cannot stop people geocaching, but we can certainly stop them from posting on our forums.

[Maple Leaf]

Picking up on a few things in the CVs, previous Q&As and my own concerns.

1) How will you ensure that member's views and concerns are taken on-board by the committee?

2) Now that many organisations are jumping on the geocaching bandwagon, how will you utilise these to raise the profile of caching?

3) The geocaching community, by its very nature, is a very fragmented one. Have you any plans to bring more members of the community together?

1) I would hope that we are already listening to member's views, however with the wide spread of social media it is often hard to keep up with the comments/posts and sometimes things are missed. I would strongly recommend that any items that need to be brought to the commitee's attention are posted in the GAGB forums.
We normally hold commitee meetings bi-monthly and announce the date/agenda the previous week. I am happy to add items to the agenda but there is no reason they have to wait for the meeting - many things can be discussed and sorted in the committee forums rather than rushed through with everything else in what is normally a 2-3hr meeting.
If people don't want to post in an open forum, they can email the committee direct or leave a voicemail message on the GAGB phone service.

2) I am pleased to say that the GAGB does appear to be the first (or an early) port of call by media companies etc wanting to find out more about geocaching. Sometimes we can help these directly and other times we pass on their details to someone (a cacher or group) that we think may be able to help.
With local/regional organisations it is beneficial to work with them to advise them about correctly about geocaching and help them where needed. In fact today, I have had a reply from an organisation local to me, that I contacted recently to offer my help. They want to promote caching on their land, so a meeting is being arranged.
There will be many more organisations that cachers (personal or GAGB) can work and offer help and advise the best practice and I would like the GAGB to either be involved or referenced to.

3) It is always going to be hard to reach out to all the geocachers. There are many that still just go for a walk and find little boxes! The GAGB cache box labels is one method that we already use to reach those cachers (and placed by cachers that do know about us). Hopefully there are a lot more of our labels out in the wild now following the Mega event this year.

I would like to have other promotional merchandise and giveaways available and is something that we have talked about in the past. Hopefully, this is something we can progress with during the forthcoming year now we have some funds.

Events (and Mega events) and social media are also a regular part of the geocaching hobby for many cachers, so this is an area that is perfect for reaching out to cachers. This could be GAGB events (as mentioned further up the Q&A thread) or having GAGB items distributed at other events (e.g. event packs)

We also have the GAGB facebook group (1400 members - majority of who are geocachers), 600 followers on Twitter (many companies/organisations) and are approaching 200 'likes' on the new GAGB Facebook PAGE that we only started this week (primarily to pass on GAGB/UK caching information without it getting lost in the general group chat).

[Maple Leaf]

I would just like to add a few comments with reference to the MOD (my words in black text and quotes/extracts in blue/green).

Extracted from MOD letter:

Whilst the MOD does operate a presumption in favour of public access on its estate, when compatible with military operations and training, we do not consider physical geocaches to be acceptable. Our main areas of concern centre on:

a. National Security – It is not appropriate to encourage people to leave or conceal marked or unmarked packages on any part of the MOD owned estate as it contradicts all security procedures and could lead to false security alerts.

b. Public Risk and MOD’s Duty of Care to all Users of the estate – The majority of the MOD training estate is a risk area where blank fire, pyrotechnics and smoke may be used even outside of the 'live fire' danger areas. The Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) danger is self evident in live ranges but also exists in dry training areas where individuals could inadvertently disturb, or harm themselves, on military debris whilst searching for or hiding geocaches.

I believe the above areas of concern are very important and totally understand/agree.

I am also pleased to see that Puzbie agreed in a previous post (quoted below) from August.


.... snip.... A good few years ago, on Ash Ranges, the MOD erected a miniature village, made of wood. From a distance it looked quite realistic. I was a child at the time, and went to investigate one day with my friends. Normally, the army would fire 7.62mm at the time, but the bullets they fired at this village were weird. They were made of a soft metal, about two inches thick, and they were all hollow.

Well, all but one of them was. My brother found one that had a capped end. I was fascinated by it, but he, being older and more sensible, threw it as far as he could into the undergrowth, where it promptly exploded.

Now, this area was within the red flag area (though the flags weren't up at the time), and it does highlight why putting caches in that area should be a complete nono, with or without an MOD ban. But my beef has always been that a lot of land around here is owned by the MOD but not used. It would be nice, in my opinion, if the MOD didn't treat all their land equally, but I do appreciate that they have more important things to deal with than catering for my hobby. And at least with virtual waypoints I can set caches that lead people on a beautiful walk through some lovely countryside.

Another paragraph from MOD letter which explains why they have to have a MOD wide agreement.

The MOD estate is extensive. It is fundamental that a consistent approach is applied across the owned estate to ensure there is no confusion amongst staff and military users in how sites are operated and to ensure overall clarity in how the public can safely use the military estate. Resources do not allow a site specific approach to geocaching and, more importantly, this would not support an over arching level of consistency.


Quote from Puzbie's CV/Manifesto:

However, when dealing the MOD, they certainly seemed out of their depth. I am sure that had they utilised member knowledge and experience to a greater extent we could have received a more positive result. Also, we wouldn't have seen the outright ban that was put in place before a decision had even been made. Dartmoor received especially shoddy treatment in this respect.


A GAGB member (not committee member) asked if we would like them to negotiate with the MOD or did we want to do it ourselves. As they were an ex-MOD employee it was felt that they had more experience than any of the current commitee had so we took them up on their offer.


Dartmoor - I don't understand Puzbie's reference to Dartmoor and refer to another extract from the MOD letter:

There are a small number of training areas that the MOD do not own or hold under leasehold arrangements. These are areas where the MOD is licensed to train but are not the primary occupier. In these circumstances the MOD has no control over geocaching or many other recreational activities and thus it still remains the landowner’s decision to allow the placing of geo-caches e.g. Dartmoor Training Area with the exception of Willsworthy Range which is owned by the MOD.

Jen

[Puzbie]

I would just like to add a few comments with reference to the MOD (my words in black text and quotes/extracts in blue/green).

I am also pleased to see that Puzbie agreed in a previous post (quoted below) from August.



I still do agree that we shouldn't have caches in danger areas. However, to date I've never actually seen one placed in a danger area, so its a bit of a paper tiger. I'm not saying its ever happened, but I've never seen one.

This was the main MOD thread on geocaching.com:

https://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=312162&hl=mod&st=0

The key beef about Dartmoor is summed up by one of Dartmoor Dave's comments:

"I fully understand that the UK Reviewers are obliged to follow land owners wishes and I have not criticised them for doing so. However, on Dartmoor the MOD are NOT the landowners and I think their jurisdiction should have been ascertained before this blanket ban was imposed. "

I recommend prospective voters look through that thread and draw their own conclusions.

They may also want to consider the following two threads on the GAGB forums:

https://www.gagb.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5124

and the follow up:

https://www.gagb.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5151

[N0hope]

With regards to the MOD situation, if you think they handled it well, I don't really think I can say anything to convince you. The end result of the MOD situation is that caches are no longer allowed on MOD land and that existing caches will be removed once the MOD finally come up with a map of their land. If you think that that was a good result, then I would hate to see what you would have considered a bad result to be.


Thanks for your reply but you did not answer my question :( and it makes it clear you are a one trick pony and have just thrown the other "ideas" of CITO and swaps in to try and cover this.

I never said it was a good result, I said I was happy with the way the situation had been handled. As already mentioned by others on this thread the result was a lot to do with comments made by members on this forum and on Facebook. Especially the "We have the right to do what we want" crowd. :wacko:

As for your question... Well I'm not standing for election am I ;)

[Puzbie]

Thanks for your reply but you did not answer my question :( and it makes it clear you are a one trick pony and have just thrown the other "ideas" of CITO and swaps in to try and cover this.

I never said it was a good result, I said I was happy with the way the situation had been handled. As already mentioned by others on this thread the result was a lot to do with comments made by members on this forum and on Facebook. Especially the "We have the right to do what we want" crowd. :wacko:

As for your question... Well I'm not standing for election am I ;)

I did answer your question. I said the following:



With regards to the MOD situation, if you think they handled it well, I don't really think I can say anything to convince you.

Now I went on to imply that by thinking they handled it well, you also thought they got a good result. However, you didn'tactually say that, and I am happy to be corrected on that point.

But the point is this: you say they handled it well, but you can't actually say what it is it that they did. Up against that, what on Earth could I say to convince you otherwise?

I take issue with your one trick pony claim. I began looking into my charity caches before I ever thought about running in this election, and I have always practiced CITO. The few caches I have placed myself have spare plastic bags in the cache so people have no excuse not to practice CITO as well.

Finally, I take issue with this point you made:



"As already mentioned by others on this thread the result was a lot to do with comments made by members on this forum and on Facebook. Especially the "We have the right to do what we want" crowd."


I already posted links to the three threads about this subject on GAGB and the geocaching forum. Can you point me to any offending posts in there?

I know you are not running for election, but if you are making statements such as this, you should at least be able to back them up with evidence when queried.

[LadybugKids]

As of now, 288 votes for GAGB Chair have been cast, so we're half-way to matching last year's vote tally of 550. Current turnout is about 12%, so seven out of eight members haven't yet voted.

If you haven't voted, vote now! If you have voted, encourage a fellow member to vote.

[bobo frett]

I haven't received a vote. I did get an email but there was no content to the mail. I have emailed the ballot holders but not heard owt back.

[bobo frett]

Puzbie. Please can you elaborate on what you would plan to do for charity. I don't fully understand what you are suggesting. I know when it comes to publishing geocaches then no charities should be mentioned (I think this is right). So can you break down your plans for that.

[martletsman]

Thank you for the reply.
To my embarrassment I left a word out of my question.
Have you any plans to increase contact with the silent majority that do enter into discussions via threads?

Should have been

Have you any plans to increase contact with the silent majority that do NOTenter into discussions via threads?
Sorry about that.

[LadybugKids]

I haven't received a vote. I did get an email but there was no content to the mail. I have emailed the ballot holders but not heard owt back.E-mail received and replacement ballot sent!

I'm at the keyboard intermittently today because I'm outside racing winter to repair the fence the 110 mph winds damaged last week.

[Puzbie]

Puzbie. Please can you elaborate on what you would plan to do for charity. I don't fully understand what you are suggesting. I know when it comes to publishing geocaches then no charities should be mentioned (I think this is right). So can you break down your plans for that.


To be honest, the idea behind charity shop participation wasn't entirely altruistic. I do my geocaching with our daughter, and we favour medium to large sized caches where there is a chance of finding some interesting booty. Unfortunately, these days the caches mostly seem to contain junk, with the exception of travelbugs and the like. So, I thought that if we could encourage people to use charity shops as a source of booty for caches, we would serve two purposes. Firstly we would be doing a bit of good, but secondly, we would be making the treasure more interesting too. I appreciate that to a lot of people, the thrill of geocaching is in the hunt, but when children are involved, and especially when you are introducing new people to the hobby, it becomes a lot easier to win them over if they get something half interesting for their efforts.


This was the blurb in the actual listing that related to charity:



Charity Booty is intended to be a series of caches containing items purchased from charity shops. Travel bugs and geocoins etc are more than welcome, but if you take a regular item of treasure, please replace it with something else purchased from a charity shop.

As stated previously, the cache was rejected, but not because of the mention of charity. Perhaps its because I am only referring to charity in general terms, and not specifying a particular cause? This was the reviewer response:




Temporarily Disable Listing 08/08/2013
Hi

Just reviewing your new cache and the following item(s) need sorting out before I can publish it :-

1, As you are aware caches on MOD land are not allowed. I've had a look at the location of your cache and its located in Standinghill Wood which I believe to be an MOD training area. My reason for thinking this is because of the signs located at the entrance of the wood here (visit link) As a result of this I'm not able to publish your cache in this location


More information can be found here (visit link)
I am temporarily disabling your cache while these issues are sorted out.


Whether I am elected or not, I will be pursuing this charity angle, as anything that helps improve the treasure aspect of geocaching will make it more enjoyable for my family. I obviously don't want to produce caches that are against the rules, but the concept of using charity shops as a source of interesting cache content is definitely something that is worth investigating further. I am fully aware that a lot of cachers may not even read the description, but there is no harm in trying.

[mollyjak]

I have not attended any geocaching events up until now, as I've never really had the urge. Were I elected, I would obviously make an effort to attend some, as it would come with the territory. But I see the role mainly as an administrative one. I have nothing against events and the like, but I'm not going to pretend that I am a regular attender, because I am not.

To clarify - you would be prepared to travel to events to stand and talk to members of the GAGB and potential members who may have just discovered Geocaching?

There has been a GAGB stand manned by the Chairman and current Committee members for at least five of the annual roving mega events and the GAGB trackable banner has been at the last two Piratemania events spreading the word - as well as a number of smaller events.
During the mega this year at Gaydon - five Committee members were able to attend, man the stand, spread the word and take part with one of the organised talks led by the present Chairman.

Would you be able to be the 'Face' for the GAGB to promote and organise when needed?

[matty1984]

Thanks for the replies both. Both give an insight into where you stand. One final question from me.

I am a member of the BMC (British Mountaineering Council) which in many ways has a similar role to the GAGB, albeit with a paid membership and some salaried officers. However, a great deal of local work is done by voluntary regional committees. Is there a case for the GAGB to utilise a similar model to ensure that regional issues (landowner permissions) are dealt with effectively and local cachers have better opportunities to interact with elected officers?

[Bill D (wwh)]

... However, a great deal of local work is done by voluntary regional committees. Is there a case for the GAGB to utilise a similar model to ensure that regional issues (landowner permissions) are dealt with effectively and local cachers have better opportunities to interact with elected officers?

That's an interesting idea, and one I don't remember hearing proposed for GAGB before. It may well be worth exploring.

[Jacaru]

As admin on Nottinghamshire Geocachers Facebook group I organise a lot of events locally and would welcome either candidate to come and talk at one of our events so that the good work of the GAGB could be publicised more. I know that Maple Leaf has done this is the past, would you be willing to do the same Puzbie?

[Maple Leaf]

Thanks for the replies both. Both give an insight into where you stand. One final question from me.

I am a member of the BMC (British Mountaineering Council) which in many ways has a similar role to the GAGB, albeit with a paid membership and some salaried officers. However, a great deal of local work is done by voluntary regional committees. Is there a case for the GAGB to utilise a similar model to ensure that regional issues (landowner permissions) are dealt with effectively and local cachers have better opportunities to interact with elected officers?

The current committee are very well spread across the country which has been helpful this year as we have been able to deal with regional things (Bobo Frett has done a few promotional geocaching visits - some local and some further a field) and for the GAGB10 events. It has also been useful as far as mixing socially with other cachers - physically and facebook - and being able to spread the word, and answer questions, about the GAGB through their caching friends.

However, to answer Matty1984's question. If we don't have a committee member in a specific area (or even if we do), then I don't see any reason why we can't utilise any members that wish to be come involved (and possibly interested in joining the committee in the future). There are aleady geocachers that coordinate the cache placements/permissions/waiting list in a couple of areas e.g. DizzyPair with the NewForest caches.

We have in the past offered support/advise for geocachers who are going for meetings with their local landowners regarding permission etc.

We have asked for help amongst the members if we get a request for something that we aren't able to deal with ourselves (usually due to location/time commitments) e.g. BBC Radio Northampton several months and more recently Radio 4 Open Country - both these were put in touch with the Mega Halloween team - so I suppose we already are utilising the members around the country.

[Amblingalong]

I would just like to throw into the pot what I would like to see from the GAGB.

Following on from Matty1984's comments;

I am a radio ham and a member of a national organisation that has regional and local area representatives that I can contact if I want to find out what is going in the area where I live and in neighbouring areas. I know that a lot of other national organisations work in this way and I feel that it is a good thing to involve members locally.

I posted a thread on the GAGB forum earlier this year asking for contact details of the north east representative as I wanted to try to get a bit more active and involved in geocaching in my region. I felt that some of the replies were questioning my reasons for asking, it felt like I was being looked upon as a trouble maker for asking.

The response I received was to go on Facebook as there are quite a few local groups on there. I have resisted joining Facebook for years but did join so I could make contact with other cachers and to see what is going on locally.

I have no doubt that a lot of good and hard work has been undertaken by the GAGB committee but I would like to see local representation and to be able to look on the GAGB website to see what is going on locally.

[Puzbie]

To clarify - you would be prepared to travel to events to stand and talk to members of the GAGB and potential members who may have just discovered Geocaching?

There has been a GAGB stand manned by the Chairman and current Committee members for at least five of the annual roving mega events and the GAGB trackable banner has been at the last two Piratemania events spreading the word - as well as a number of smaller events.
During the mega this year at Gaydon - five Committee members were able to attend, man the stand, spread the word and take part with one of the organised talks led by the present Chairman.

Would you be able to be the 'Face' for the GAGB to promote and organise when needed?

If elected I certainly wouldn't spend every weekend travelling to events. I'm not even going to claim anything remotely like that. If the chair's appearance at a multitude of events is important to you as a member of GAGB, then you should vote for Maple Leaf. I am not putting words into her mouth, but she does seem to make a lot of effort on this front, and I will be concentrating mostly on sorting out the administrative issues mentioned in my CV. I will obviously be expected to attend some events, as I said, it goes with the territory.

[Puzbie]

Thanks for the replies both. Both give an insight into where you stand. One final question from me.

I am a member of the BMC (British Mountaineering Council) which in many ways has a similar role to the GAGB, albeit with a paid membership and some salaried officers. However, a great deal of local work is done by voluntary regional committees. Is there a case for the GAGB to utilise a similar model to ensure that regional issues (landowner permissions) are dealt with effectively and local cachers have better opportunities to interact with elected officers?

That is certainly something worth considering. I certainly favour a decentralised approach to land permissions, and I think that currently there is a distinct lack of communication between the committee and ordinary members, at least online.

[Puzbie]

That's an interesting idea, and one I don't remember hearing proposed for GAGB before. It may well be worth exploring.

Agreed.

[Puzbie]

As admin on Nottinghamshire Geocachers Facebook group I organise a lot of events locally and would welcome either candidate to come and talk at one of our events so that the good work of the GAGB could be publicised more. I know that Maple Leaf has done this is the past, would you be willing to do the same Puzbie?

I wouldn't be prepared to travel up to Nottinghamshire to promote the good work of the GAGB. I have nothing against Nottinghamshire, but my time could be spent better actually doing good work for the GAGB.

[Puzbie]

I would just like to throw into the pot what I would like to see from the GAGB.

Following on from Matty1984's comments;

I am a radio ham and a member of a national organisation that has regional and local area representatives that I can contact if I want to find out what is going in the area where I live and in neighbouring areas. I know that a lot of other national organisations work in this way and I feel that it is a good thing to involve members locally.

I posted a thread on the GAGB forum earlier this year asking for contact details of the north east representative as I wanted to try to get a bit more active and involved in geocaching in my region. I felt that some of the replies were questioning my reasons for asking, it felt like I was being looked upon as a trouble maker for asking.

The response I received was to go on Facebook as there are quite a few local groups on there. I have resisted joining Facebook for years but did join so I could make contact with other cachers and to see what is going on locally.

I have no doubt that a lot of good and hard work has been undertaken by the GAGB committee but I would like to see local representation and to be able to look on the GAGB website to see what is going on locally.

I too received a fairly frosty reception, so I can see where you are coming from.

With regards to the GAGB website and facebook, I believe that the website is already being redesigned. Hopefully that will solve a lot of the problems, but until its rolled out I am as much in the dark as you are. The issue of facebook is a difficult one. The facebook pages are much busier than the forum, but they are also much less user-friendly. I'm a web designer myself, so I don't envy the task of the person doing the redesign. But at the very least, an index of relevent facebook groups would be useful.

[Maple Leaf]

But at the very least, an index of relevent facebook groups would be useful.

We do have a list, but at the moment it is only available on the GAGB Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/notes/gagb-uk-ireland-caching-news/regional-facebook-groups/451161741590955) (where it can be updated by any group member).

It is already in place on the new website (and I checked/updated a couple of weeks ago)

[Puzbie]

Thanks Maple Leaf.