Unfortunately we have gotten the following response to the submitted event page for the Bluebirds and Bluegrass Festival at Dauset Trails even though an event page has been approved in the past for this event.

This will not prevent us from having the table at the event and we still would appreciate any volunteers to help man the table. Please respond to Tarvol_2000 through Groundspeak, if you are willing to help. The event page would have read as follows:

The coordinates for the event are N33 14.157 W83 56.535


"The Georgia Geocachers Association is hosting a Geocaching information booth at the Bluebirds & Bluegrass Festival on April 11th at the Dauset Trails Nature Center near Jackson, Georgia. Come join us for an hour and earn a smiley just for talking to people about that thing you love - Geocaching!

This 9th annual Bluebirds and Bluegrass Festival will feature live bluegrass bands, an Easter Egg Hunt for kids 10 and younger (egg hunt begins at 11:00 AM), a rock climbing wall, a moonwalk, spider bungee jump, plant sales, outdoor recreation and wildlife exhibitions, food and drink for sale, and more. Free parking, Free admission. Bring your whole family for a fun-filled day but please leave your pets at home. The festival runs from 9:00 AM until 4:00PM

The Dauset Trails Nature Center is a private, non-profit nature center based on environmental education that is open for all to enjoy. In addition, they provide environmental programs (by reservation only) for groups. Programs include Mammals/Birds of Prey, Reptiles and many more. There is no fee for admission to the center, the festival, or parking. They accept donations at the Visitor's Center.

Dauset Trails Nature Center has 1,200 acres of scenic woods, fields, creeks and lakes. You can see native, live animals on exhibit (non-releasable) and in the wild, hike and bike 17 miles of trails, horseback ride 10 miles of trail separate from the hiking and biking trails, enjoy wildflower landscapes in the Woodland Garden and Children's Garden, picnic...

Come join the fun and camaraderie!

Children are welcome and encouraged, but no dogs or other pets. Sorry.

The relationship between Dauset Trails and the GGA was initiated by Rebel. This was one of his favorite events of the year. Come out and carry on the tradition by helping tell others about our great pastime."


The response from Groundspeak as to posting the cache was as follows:

"Hi Guys,

Looks like fun, and a good tribute to Rebel. Unfortunately, due to a tightening of the geocaching guidelines on Events it's no longer something that can be published as an event cache. Please see (visit link)

The problem is that the geocaching event you've submitted is a small part of a much larger event which would go on regardless of whether the geocaching event page is published or not. It fails the "organized by geocachers for geocachers" litmus test for events.

I've run this by the other reviewers in the country and everyone has been applying the guidelines uniformly in that regard: if there's a geocaching info table set up at Earth Day, or other events, it can't be listed as a geocaching event. Some have been sent upstream to "appeals@geocaching.com" which has also said "sorry, but no". The only exception they'll make is if it's a CITO event that's part of a larger cleanup activity, but only if the geocachers have their own section to clean up that's apart from the larger group of non-geocachers.

That's not to say this isn't a worthy thing to do; quite the opposite. The consensus was that since this activity and the Duaset Trails music festival has a history it should be promoted in the GGA and groundspeak forums. People should still be encouraged to participate and help out, albeit not for a "smiley".

Thanks for your understanding,
erik - geocaching.com admin"

THE GGA MEETING WILL BE LESS THAN A MILE AWAY FROM THE BLUEBIRDS AND BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL IN THE ADJOINING INDIAN SPRINGS STATE PARK.....COME OUT AND JOIN THE FUN....SORRY THAT GROUNDSPEAK WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO COLLECT A SMILEY FOR PARTICIPATING WHEN THEY HAVE ALLOWED IT FOR THIS EVENT EVERY TIME A GEOCACHING TABLE HAS BEEN AT THIS EVENT IN THE PAST.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tarvol,

Yep, wish I could have continued to publish that as a geocaching event. It's a great tribute to Ed.

Also wish I could have published the GGA Booth at the Folksmarch in Helen in April 2008 while we had the GGA meeting at nearby Unicoi State Park. I participated at that booth, and as a result could not make the GGA event too.

Ditto for the GGA Info Table at the Earth Day at Elachee while we had the April 9th 2008 CITO down the road at Lake Lanier

Ditto for the April 20th, 2008 GGA Info Table we set up at Stone Mountain Park's 50th Anniversary event. Couldn't list that as a geocaching event as it was part of a much larger event that was not geocaching related.

I'm sure there are others in the last year that I would have liked to be able to publish, but cannot as they do not meet the latest guidelines.

At least we can drum up support for all these events in our GGA discussion forum.

All the best,
~erik~

Erik, we appreciate your help. I don't think that it occurred to any of us that this event no longer fit the guidelines since it had been allowed each time before.