Important participation!

[arkansas_stickerdude]

Tech guy I have 3 and on the Steering commettee there will be 2 of us . I'm on the commettee also.

[nonnipoppy]

We will be happy to supply an ammo can or two stocked and ready to go. Our ability to be there will depend on several things that cannot be determined at this time but we will try............. poppy

[sayitagain]

tech guy,

I am a member of the Arkansas Recreation and Park Association and will probably be coming to the conference in Jonesboro. We bought several GarminGPSmap60CSx units this spring and are really utilizing them in our department. We are using GPS coordinates to mark the location of our utility meters, we use them for location when we contact one call before we dig. And this summer an intern who I got hooked on geo caching last year while he worked for us figured out how to download tracks from the Garmin GPS onto the Pagis system and we were able to download our park trails onto GPS maps. We also use them to measure mowing area as well. I could probably bring four of the units to Jonesboro with me. If per chance I wouldn't be able to make it Im sure I could send them up with one of the exhibitors or someone from another parks department. Just let me know how I can help. Sayitagain

[Team_Pink]

Thanks a heap. I'll put you down for four and get back in touch a few weeks before the meeting.

Sounds like you guys have found a good tool! From my conversations with Mr. Wilke, what he has in mind I think is to demonstrate what is probably going on in the parks and surrounding communities in the way of Geocaching. I am working on some things to show a few GPS features like the tracks feature you mentioned for example. I wanted to show a few different cache types and containers, some traditional and some non traditional to show how some caches, especially micros might be hidden.

What are your thoughts and what are some things that might be of interest to your peers?

[TheAlabamaRambler]

Dang, I had forgotten that SayItAgain was a Recreation & Park Association member!

Seems like a gold-mine to find that a member of our geocaching community, an experienced cacher, is part of the very association being addressed!

Given the familiarity SayItAgain has with the uses the association has already developed for GPS maybe he can give input into the presentation.

Association members already using a 60CSx aren't going to be impressed with an intro to GPS presentation!

So, questions, SayItAgain:

How many of the attendees at this meeting likely already use GPS?

Of those who do not, how many likely will? For what?

As an Association member, what are the concerns and issues the attendees will want to see addressed?

Should the focus lie on geocaching and how to do it or on the individual's CITO ethic, group CITO activities, the culture and practices of environmental sensitivity inherent in geocachers as outdoorsmen?

In other words, what does the Association hope to get from this meeting?

As a geocacher, what would you want to tell the Association?

Could you in fact be part of the presentation rather than just an attendee? (it's not my gig, so that's not an invite, I am just curious!)

Thanks!
Ed

[topkitty98]

Sorry, this slipped past me without a full response. We ARE planning to be there in February. So count me in as another committee member coming please. We have 2 C-whatever the letters are that do the good stuff- same kind as woodwalker's gps that we will have along and if necessary we can bring an OLD Magellan and a Garmin ETrex Legend. I can bring some kinda fingery food too. Let me know about that.

We cannot come to the October Event, though.


topkitty98

[sayitagain]

You know if you really think about it us geocachers are an awful lot like poor old Harry Potter in that we really don't know who to trust. We sneak around trying to open containers and sign logs without the Muggles seeing us when in actuality passing up an opportunity to tell someone about geo caching who might be interested enough in what we are doing to take up the sport. I have been put in situations before when trying to locate a cache that I just had to explain what I was doing and I have always left thinking that I just might have hooked someone else on this fantastic hobby. Now on to the questions. All of these are just calculated gueses based on what I have experinced but hope it will help shed some light on things. When I started talking about geo caching and using a GPS to my friends the ones who had them were the avid hunters and fisherman. They would use them to mark things while they were in the woods. Of the three guys I knew who had a GPS none of them knew how to put in a way point. In fact until I showed them how to do it on their GPS they didn't even know they had that capability.They used their GPS to Mark where they were and would just scroll down to find it again. They were always tracking where they had been. I imagine that will be the same for the ARPA. The hunters and fisherman will have a GPS but the majority of them will never have used it the way we do when we go geo caching, so I think evryone will be learning something new. As to how they will use it in the future or whether those who do not have one will go out and pick one up I think will depend a lot on how we tell our story. The reason that most people go to these conferences is to pick up knowledge about things happening in their profession and to net work with their fellow professionals. They also get to see other park and rec facilities and the chance to get ideas on how to incoroporate them into their facilities back home. Geo caching is a form of recreation so who better to tell about it to then a group of people who make their living making sure that people have fun. These are the teachers. The problem is an awful lot of them know knothing about the subject. I see our first challenge as being to explain geo caching and how it works. Basic info like the web site different containers basic knowledge of how it works. We need to show them how to use a GPS and some of the fun things we geo cachers do. We then need to go into the benifits exp family entertainment, excercise, chance to go places where you would not ordinarily go. I think we need to emphasize the conservation end of things and how we as geo cachers are concerned about the environment and the fact that we CITO. We need to make sure that the Parks Director who gets a request from someone to place a cache in one of their parks knows all of the benifits of allowing that. We need to educate those workers out in the field that might possibly find a cache while they are out there doing their regular duties to take care and not disturb it. One big adavantage to geo caching that I have found is that since so many of them are in parks I have visited parks all over the place in search of a cache and been able to see other department facilities, pick up ideas for our department and talk to fellow professionals that I have run into. We could touch on some of the uses that we have found with the GPS other then geo caching but I think that the emphasis should be on educating the educator. I think that it is fantastic the way that the members of this association have jumped on the band wagon to help put this presentation on and I know that this enthusiasm and can do attitude will be a big factor in how many additional geo cachers we can pick up in Jonesboro.This is a great opportunity to finally tell our story. There are no muggles here. These people are our friends just like Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore.
Sayitagain

[OldRiverRunner]

I see you need a couple more completed state park permits. I'll scan a couple of the 25 I currently hold and email them to you. -- ORR

[Team_Pink]

Thanks OldRiverRunner! If anyone has a city permit that you have had to fill out, I'd like to include that. I think a couple of different formats would assist a land manager that wants use permits get one designed for their park. Mr. Wilkie in Jonesboro elected not to use permits but another park director may want to.

[topkitty98]

ar_kayaker had something for an area he is involved with south east of Benton - I think they were city permits. Don't remember where they were on the forums.