Should we form a Geocaching Maine Organization?

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Originally Posted by brdad

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We have to start somewhere. That's why we had a physical meeting to decide just where to start. It's hard to make guidelines for doing this stuff when there is no one to help the process appeal to the majority and to go more smoothly.

So let's not get all excited. Let's get our trial group elected and back them up as well. All GeocachingMaine.org members will be able to voice their opinions of approval or disapproval as time goes on. If, in 6 months or a year, we decide we need to change the members, purpose, or existance of this group we will do so.

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I have read the thread and realise some folks may have changed their minds, but the pole says "No". Folks went into the vote knowing they couldn't change it. They should have waited untill they knew what they wanted to vote or the poll should be reposted.
If this boards only function is to represent the site owner and the site, then moving forward is fine (thats part of web site management and up to the the site owner), but to claim that this board represents the membership "Geopcachers of Maine" or the wishs of the membership "Geopcachers of Maine" is not true.

"That's why we had a physical meeting to decide just where to start." Perhaps this meeting should have been more open and involved more of the membership about to be represented.

While you may feel that this is a trial group, it isn't. Their are no terms of office set, no duties, no nuthing other than the election of a board that will be representing the membership and Geocachers of Maine.

Perhaps I appear to be argumentative and disruptive, but that is not my intent. I have seen too many good groups and good people lost from the groups over just this type of issue. Good intentions are fine and good, but in this type of endevor good intentions without adequate planning and organization are a sure recipe for failure. We have folks out there critical of our group just like our group has folks that are critical of other groups and they will be more than happy to point out the faults after the fact.

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

I have read the thread and realise some folks may have changed their minds, but the pole says "No". Folks went into the vote knowing they couldn't change it. They should have waited untill they knew what they wanted to vote or the poll should be reposted.
If this boards only function is to represent the site owner and the site, then moving forward is fine (thats part of web site management and up to the the site owner), but to claim that this board represents the membership "Geopcachers of Maine" or the wishs of the membership "Geopcachers of Maine" is not true.

"That's why we had a physical meeting to decide just where to start." Perhaps this meeting should have been more open and involved more of the membership about to be represented.

While you may feel that this is a trial group, it isn't. Their are no terms of office set, no duties, no nuthing other than the election of a board that will be representing the membership and Geocachers of Maine.

Perhaps I appear to be argumentative and disruptive, but that is not my intent. I have seen too many good groups and good people lost from the groups over just this type of issue. Good intentions are fine and good, but in this type of endevor good intentions without adequate planning and organization are a sure recipe for failure. We have folks out there critical of our group just like our group has folks that are critical of other groups and they will be more than happy to point out the faults after the fact.

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It does in fact seem that you are trying to be argumentive. Where were you when we had the meeting to talk about this stuff. If you feel this passionate about this stuff maybe you should have been a part of it before it was to late. The ball is rolling and we are at the point of voting for members.

It also seems like you have member for a long time but never had anything constructive to say until there was a topic you could argue about. Please help us in making this better instead dwelling on what has already been done and what cant be changed and add to this in a positive manner.

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Originally Posted by dave1976

It does in fact seem that you are trying to be argumentive. Where were you when we had the meeting to talk about this stuff. If you feel this passionate about this stuff maybe you should have been a part of it before it was to late. The ball is rolling and we are at the point of voting for members.

It also seems like you have member for a long time but never had anything constructive to say until there was a topic you could argue about. Please help us in making this better instead dwelling on what has already been done and what cant be changed and add to this in a positive manner.

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I as perhaps some others would have been happy to attend the meeting had I been given the oppertunity. Perhaps had more members been involved I wouldn't feel the need to day anything now.

With regard to my having been around for a while and not having anything constructive to say, I see no point in repeating something someone else has already said. There have been plenty of of oppertunities to argue in the past were that my only interest. I have been attempting to help out. Nothing has been done yet that can't be undone and done right. I have made great effort to approach this in a positive manner. Over this media (the internet) it is difficult to convay that criticism has merit and is not ment simply to be disruptive and to inflame, especially when it appears to go against the good intentions of other folks trying to accomplish something.

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

I as perhaps some others would have been happy to attend the meeting had I been given the oppertunity. Perhaps had more members been involved I wouldn't feel the need to day anything now.

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As one who was involved in the planning for the meeting, I apologize if you didn't get the word. It was featured prominently on the home page of this website. The webmaster made the effort to send a personal email to ALL members. And the subject was discussed at length in these forums. I'm not sure what else could have been done.

Which reminds me of a complaint at the WWWWWW event RULOST2? and I hosted last February. While there were over 100 people there, all wearing nametags, one cacher complained that they couldn't find the group. Only two rooms in the restaurant, and it would only taken a "is this the geocaching group?" to produce a hearty welcome. But this cacher didn't connect with the group and left unhappy.

Again, there are times when you do all you can, but someone literally slips through the cracks.

:D :D

RockyHa:
By the way, welcome to the forum! Please keep posting!!! We need all the ideas we can get right now.

All:
This is a case of "chicken before the egg". We don't have a lot of predeterminded rules because no one here wants to make rules unilateraly. I am certain that the board will only be set for a short period of time. The maximum time we discussed at the meeting was one year and some of us prefered as short as 3 mounths. We just don't know how long it will take to properly think everything through. We obviously can't just think everything through in secret.

I don't feel we are trying to represent every cacher in Maine. We are only trying to find a way to acurately represent the views of the members of this forum.

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Originally Posted by tat

RockyHa:
By the way, welcome to the forum! Please keep posting!!! We need all the ideas we can get right now.

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LOL I have a feeling many more statements like that could make you real unpopular.

One of the biggest reasons I have been responding to posts here is that I belong to a Penturning group that tried to organize and do bigger and better things. They were better organised in their attempt, but rushed into it. When the dust settled we lost many of the most helpfull and dedicated members of the group icludeing several of the folks elected. It has been over a year and there are still hard feelings. I hate to see the same thing happen here.

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

One of the biggest reasons I have been responding to posts here is that I belong to a Penturning group that tried to organize and do bigger and better things. They were better organised in their attempt, but rushed into it. When the dust settled we lost many of the most helpfull and dedicated members of the group icludeing several of the folks elected. It has been over a year and there are still hard feelings. I hate to see the same thing happen here.

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All the more reason we want to have you share your ideas and experience! We certainly don't want that to happen here. As you can see, we are moving forward - your input will be very helpful!

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

"That's why we had a physical meeting to decide just where to start." Perhaps this meeting should have been more open and involved more of the membership about to be represented.

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Other then the email that you missed as others have mentioned there were post on the web site talking about the upcoming meeting for weeks prior to it.

Here is where we posted about having the meeting weeks prior to the meeting:
http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum...ead.php?t=1547

Here is the post that was on the web sites front page for a week
http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum...ead.php?t=1571

Here is where we asked for nominations:
http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum...ead.php?t=1599

I am very sorry that you were not involved in the meeting and I tried my best to get the word out and made post on the web site. It is hard to please everyone. But there is not much more then I can do except apologize.

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

LOL I have a feeling many more statements like that could make you real unpopular.

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On the contrary we are very open minded here in this forum and try to get all opinions from everyone concerned and not just from people who may have the same goals as we do. All we are trying to do is get the ball rolling so to speak so when the time comes for a voice we will be well prepared to have answers. If you have been following the total sport of geocaching at all you will have seen that many states are regulating it very strictly and we hope to be on the forefront in this state when it comes to that. Hoepfully we won't be in a situation like that but we want to be prepared if and when it does happen. May of us have already been working with other land management groups in the past. Tat has been working with the Mt Agamenticus trusts, Hiram 357 with the Kennebec Region Land trusts and I worked for a time with the Boothbay Region Land trusts. All trying to work with and educate them on the benefits of geocaching and all contacts with these so far have been very positive.

At the very least the poll should be deleated prior to closeing the election as the numbers aren't there to support having the election. Frankly the existance of the poll reflects poorly on the ethics of the nominees.

I would suggest this thread just be closed as it has aged to the point where it should be no longer under discussion. Let's move on, people!

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

At the very least the poll should be deleated prior to closeing the election as the numbers aren't there to support having the election. Frankly the existance of the poll reflects poorly on the ethics of the nominees.

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The ethics of the nominees??? I'm sorry, "dude", but I think you owe me an apology. This has NOTHING to do with the ethics of the moninees.

A meeting of GeocachingMaine was held and THEY decided to form an Advisory Committee. Nominations for the advisory committee were made by the members. If their decision is not what you want, deal with it.

You're WAY off base!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

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Originally Posted by brdad

I would suggest this thread just be closed as it has aged to the point where it should be no longer under discussion. Let's move on, people!

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I FULLY agree!

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Originally Posted by WhereRWe?

, deal with it.

You're WAY off base!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

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The poll results say it all.

I see what is going on. I think that rockyha is having trouble deciding who to vote for so they are trying to fire the nominees up to see who answers the most politically correct.:rolleyes: That was very clever. Smart thinking.:rolleyes: NOT!!!!:mad:

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Originally Posted by dave1976

I see what is going on. I think that rockyha is having trouble deciding who to vote for so they are trying to fire the nominees up to see who answers the most politically correct.:rolleyes: That was very clever. Smart thinking.:rolleyes: NOT!!!!:mad:

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No sorry, I haven't much respect for politically correct or verbose empty statements, I'm more into honesty, integrety and doing things right.

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

No sorry, I haven't much respect for politically correct or verbose empty statements, I'm more into honesty, integrety and doing things right.

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I would really like to know if you have anything what so ever constructive to say. Seems like you have just been going on and on. So tell us. If we where to scrap this whole idea. What exactly would you have done differently. We have batted this around for at least the almost two years that I have been around. Maybe just maybe we missed something and you could resolve years of discussion in just the week since you showed up.

My concern is that the poll doesn't support the election, the numbers aren't there to justify saying the membership is in favor of organizing, hence calling into question the ethics of the nominees.


Sure there are several ways to go about it. Theb best in my opinion is to form a stearing committee of individuals interested. If that is a large group, then elect leadership within the committee. Generate a propasal; makeup of the board, basic duties and responcibilities, purpose of the board, terms of office, removal of a member of the board and such. Then conduct a poll. If the membership is not in favor of something, address the membership concerns and run a new poll. Once there is a poll infavor of organizing, conduct an election and put the board to work. The board is actually representing the membership, everyone knows what they are voting for and their commitments and responcibilities. No one can come back a year from now when your trying to represent Maine Geocachers and use the poll to demonstrate that the existance of the board doesn't even represent the wishes of the members of geocachingmaine.org.

Granted not simple and probably not everyone gets what they want innitially, but leads to a lot less potential for problems down the road.

Rocky

Rocky, this poll is old news. As we have said at least once before, there has been a more recent vote. The organization will move on. It would be nice if you accepted that plan and moved along with us, instead of debating issues which are null and void now. We may as well be debating the writing of the Declaration of Independence.

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

My concern is that the poll doesn't support the election, the numbers aren't there to justify saying the membership is in favor of organizing, hence calling into question the ethics of the nominees.


Sure there are several ways to go about it. Theb best in my opinion is to form a stearing committee of individuals interested. If that is a large group, then elect leadership within the committee. Generate a propasal; makeup of the board, basic duties and responcibilities, purpose of the board, terms of office, removal of a member of the board and such. Then conduct a poll. If the membership is not in favor of something, address the membership concerns and run a new poll. Once there is a poll infavor of organizing, conduct an election and put the board to work. The board is actually representing the membership, everyone knows what they are voting for and their commitments and responcibilities. No one can come back a year from now when your trying to represent Maine Geocachers and use the poll to demonstrate that the existance of the board doesn't even represent the wishes of the members of geocachingmaine.org.

Granted not simple and probably not everyone gets what they want innitially, but leads to a lot less potential for problems down the road.

Rocky

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Much of this is in motion. I agree that the poll doesnt support the fact that we moved forward to start putting togeather a list of nominees, Girlmate and I where strongly against forming an organization. After many folks started sharing their point of views they swayed our decision the other way. So all of this being said I would beleive that we where not the only ones that changed our minds. Remember the poll was placed then we voted and as we discussed it in the forumns many minds where changed.

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

... form a stearing committee of individuals interested. If that is a large group, then elect leadership within the committee. Generate a propasal; makeup of the board, basic duties and responcibilities, purpose of the board, terms of office, removal of a member of the board and such. Then conduct a poll. If the membership is not in favor of something, address the membership concerns and run a new poll. Once there is a poll infavor of organizing, conduct an election and put the board to work. ...

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I could not have said it better! This is exactly what we are doing. We have a large group, over 750! We are now electing leadership within the committe. They will generate a proposal with all of the details.

You are part of the committe, along with everyone else. I cannot stress how important your input is. We are not leaving anyone out of the discussions.

We need ideas. We need eveyone to present their opinons. You may notice the tone of the discussion gets a bit heated at times, but don't let that slow you down.

We also need to get this resolved. The final outcome may well be to not organize at all, although I doubt it. Our completely disorganzed approach has caused a lot of harm already. I will not get into any of that here, but if you want to know more, I'd gladly email you enough threads to let you see for yourself.

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Originally Posted by RockyHa

Sure there are several ways to go about it. Theb best in my opinion is to form a stearing committee of individuals interested.

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What do you think this is all about??? :confused: :confused:

The name "steering committee" (my suggestion) was rejected as it implied that the committee would be "steering" the group in a certain direction. Since this was not the case, the name "Advisory Committe" was adopted.

Nominations of members interested in being on the committee were made by members attending the meeting, from which 5 members will be selected by ballot.

Sheesh!

This poll is old news as someone posted. There is no sense dwelling on this anymore since we have moved on. The reason we moved on and forward with creating a five member committee is because once a vote was placed on the web site regarding the question we are now discussing here you could not change your vote. This is the way the software is currently written. When people voted most of them voted against organizing, then when they read some of the replies that others posted it changed there mind and then they tried to change there vote not realizing they could not. They sent me PM's and emails asking me to change there vote.

This is why we had a meeting and sent out a mass email informing the entire membership about the meeting ahead of time. It seems that one person did not get the email due to some sort of glitch and I apologize for that. But if everyone was following the posts on the web site then they have no reason not to know about the meeting.

I am now closing this thread. So let’s move on, your either going to support the organization or your not. If you choose not to support the organization then you can still come here and use the web site. The organization movement has nothing to do with the web site.