The first meeting of the year was held in the REI Egyptian Ballroom / stockroom at the Atlanta store off I85 at Clairmont Road on January 14th. This location was much roomier than those REI has had for us in the past, and the 55 to 60 people in attendance all had seats this time around. Thanks REI!

The meeting started with mtn-man greeting those in attendance, and asking if there were any new members and anyone who got a new GPS for Christmas. There were several of both. 9 new members were welcomed to the group, 47 geocachers or geocaching teams who had attended previous meetings were in attendance.
Mtn-man briefly explained some of the history and features of the GGA, introduced the steering committee members, and told the new members that they'd be given access to the "members only" section of the GGA discussion forums.

As is the custom, the first half of our meeting consisted of a presentation: in this case one on compass use.
Although the GPS is our primary tool for finding geocaches, mtn-man and erik, our two speakers, stressed that a compass is an invaluable tool to have along. Using an imaginary cache hunt illustrated on poster board, it was shown how to use a compass as the cache is neared to triangulate the position of the cache, then use a compass bearing to approach the final 50 to 100 feet, when a GPS pointer starts to become erratic.
Using the compass to get back from the cache to the trailhead or car was also demonstrated, as was shooting bearings when doing a multistage cache hunt in which distance and bearing is given.
The difference between true north and magnetic north, and the resulting magnetic declination was explained, as was how to make an emergency compass using an analog watch. With the watch held horizontally and the hour hand pointing toward the sun, south is halfway between the hour hand and the 12 o'clock position on the watch.

Compass class was followed by a break to socialize and exchange geocaching lies. We also had GGA hiking stick medallions for sale - donated by Johnnie Lacy, Prior to the customary raffle we did something new: we auctioned off four geocoins donated to the GGA. With mtn-man doing a stellar job as auctioneer the first on the block was a Georgia Stone Mountain geocoin donated by its talented team of designers. Second coin to be auctioned was an AtlantaGal 2006 coin donated by the owner. Next on the block was a Trez Pirate Trezure 24K Gold coin donated by Trez. And the final auction was for Jeeptoysrus's donation of their cool 2005 Day Jeep coin. The proceeds of the geocoin auction and the hiking stick medallion sale will be used to fund our website, pay for future pavilion rental, and other operating expenses.
Most seemed to enjoy the geocoin auction, and we'll do it again - but give everyone prior warning so they can visit their ATM on the way to the meeting.

Gpsfun described a geocoin/travel bug he's created. The TB will visit geocaches within the state of Georgia, and those who move the TB to a cache, as well as those who logged it at the meeting, will be entered in a drawing to win a Groundspeak Volunteer geocoin.

The meeting concluded with the customary raffle and more socializing.

Our next meeting will include a chili cookoff and be held February 11th in a presently secret location in middle Georgia. Please join us.