Georgia Geocachers Association
August, 2004 Meeting Minutes
Composed by Trailerman


The August 2004 meeting was held August 14, 2004, at Hard Labor Creek State Park. There were 25 prior members and 7 new members present. There was also one new member that came from a long way off:Germany. His geonick was "emzett" (spelling may be off, because he didn't sign in). Everyone had fun chatting with him, as well as hunting the local cache with him.

~erik~ kicked off the meeting by greeting everyone and welcoming new members. This was the first time we had held a GGA meeting in the east central part of Georgia.

First on the agenda was an update by Erik on the US Forest Service’s position on geocaches. Recently, the Georgia division of the FS had advised key members of the GGA that they had decided to ban all except virtual geocaches in all US Forest Service land. There is a thread on the GGA Forums that discuss the issue. In response, the GGA Steering Committee requested that the FS hold off and allow GGA to meet with them to understand the implications and results of such a policy. On August 13th, ~erik~ and Mtn-man meet with four representatives of the FS.

The meeting with the FS representatives was very successful. They agreed to hold off on the ban and instead use a temporary moratorium on new caches for 60 days until a plan that was mutually agreeable to geocachers and the FS could be worked out. The GGA Steering Committee, along with Allan Lacy who has been involved with interfacing with the FS, will be preparing a proposal for the FS over the next month or so. This proposal will provide for workable approval, policing and removal procedures that are suitable for both the FS and the geocaching community.

Keying off the activity with the FS, Erik outlined the upcoming GGA events. The September GGA meeting will be put off until September 18th in order to allow our main Fall CITO event to be held at one of the Army Corps of Engineers parks at Lake Lanier. We have been asked by the USACE to hold our CITO at their park (to be determined). With an eye toward putting our best “geocacher foot” forward for land managers to appreciate we care about the land we use.

On October 9th, the Annual GGA Challenge Event will be held at the Elachee Nature Center. We discussed how the event would be conducted, and The Yoyo Man and Birdies agreed to work on the event committee to work out details for a Bingo-like geocaching game to be the Challenge this year. The “Challenge Event Planning Forum” will be re-activated for coordination of the Event activities. Everyone is encouraged to volunteer to help with the Challenge, the food, prizes, etc., via this forum.

Next, came the break and much chatting and swapping of stories.

After the break, the raffle for door prizes and some special Travel Bugs was held. Special among the door prizes was a complete cache placed in the area by Strapped-4-Cache with the coordinates placed in the raffle, and a special certificate for a hiking stick provided by El Diablo. Also, Smoothjazz donated a great hiking stick to the prize list. Many other prizes were donated as well.

Then Mtn-man then summarized the new organization style for the GGA. Since we have grown so much and we have members all over the southeast, it makes sense to organize the GGA into Chapters. Each Chapter would have a Chapter Leader to coordinate the Chapter activity. The Chapter Leader is selected separately from the Steering Committee, which has statewide responsibility to all Chapters.

The first to request chapter status was the Central Savannah River Area group. They will be granted Chapter status. The remaining GGA members will become members of a chapter centered roughly in north Georgia. Everyone is still a member of the GGA, but is now also associated with a Chapter. Anytime 10 or more members desire to form their own Chapter, they can petition the Steering Committee for Chapter status.

Guidelines for the new organization, becoming a Chapter and selecting a Chapter Leader will all be posted in the Forums in the near future. Any GGA member can make comments as desired for a 30-day period, after which the Guidelines will be finalized. For folks in areas like Rome, Albany, Augusta, Macon, etc., having local meetings may make sense and Chapter status provides a good way to do that. By the way, any GGA member can attend any Chapter meeting they wish. Check the Forum for details.

Mtn-man then mentioned that we would be going through the process to select a Chapter Leader for the North Georgia or Metro Atlanta Chapter soon. In addition, later this year, the Steering Committee positions he and ~erik~ hold now are up for election. Nominations will be made and elections held later this calendar year. Again, watch the GGA Member Forums for information on the election.

Following in the lines of administrative updates, Mtn-man mentioned that the Steering Committee was looking at the possibility of the GGA becoming a formal not-for-profit organization. If this looks like a good thing to do, the subject will be posted on the Forums for general discussion, and probably put up for a vote by all members of the GGA before any action is taken.

The official meeting was adjourned and everyone played "Find the Coordinates" that Johnnie had posted. He had hidden a quarter very well and everyone tried to get as close to the "spot" as they could. Penny Wise was closest and won a neat insulated water bottle. However, Johnnie got to keep the quarter.

Next month's meeting will be held September 18th, ONE WEEK LATER THAN NORMAL, in order to hold the CITO Event at the same time. Everyone please try to attend.