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Thread: Is it coming to this?

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beach Comber View Post
    I agree, Gary. This is just the type of thing that was presented during pre-voting discussion as a potential role for the board. Such as - to come up with a potential plan, language that could possibly be used in letters, an organized approach to contacting local governments, etc. ...
    This is just my opinion, not necessarily the board's opinion:

    I think the advisory board should provide advice and organization. The members should come up with the plan, language, etc.
    We should all work on this together.

    In this situation, I think we should concentrate on urban caches that are near structures and were large numbers of people congrgate, i.e. parking lots. These places are more likely to cause evacutations, which seems to be the biggest concern of law enforcement.

    I also think the individual cacher should approach thier own town because the local contact is very important. The plan and documents can certainly come from this site and cary our letterhead, as long as the contact is a local contact.

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by tat View Post
    This is just my opinion, not necessarily the board's opinion:

    I think the advisory board should provide advice and organization. The members should come up with the plan, language, etc.
    We should all work on this together.

    In this situation, I think we should concentrate on urban caches that are near structures and were large numbers of people congrgate, i.e. parking lots. These places are more likely to cause evacutations, which seems to be the biggest concern of law enforcement.

    I also think the individual cacher should approach thier own town because the local contact is very important. The plan and documents can certainly come from this site and cary our letterhead, as long as the contact is a local contact.
    I agree as well about working with the membership in developing a plan. I think it should be up to each individual to decide if the cache that they have placed would be under scrutiny. Working with your own town or locality should be the beginning of developing a relationship with those individuals. You know what or should know if it would cause any troubles. Having worked with a couple of land trusts in getting caches approved myself has been a great asset to not only the cachers but developing communication between those individuals involved. I think it is our responsibility to be good stewards. I would like to propose that if you have a cache that you think might be questionable then feel free to ask here on this site,I'm sure we can come to a concensus. Better to be safe than sorry.
    Just smile it won't crack your face

    The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is
    suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best
    friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

  3. #33
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    Jun 2004
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    I agree the whole site should participate, not just the board.

    There are two sides to this. There is what can we do about caches that are placed in less than favorable areas and what to do about them being placed. We have been discussing that.

    The second which I am not sure eveyone is considering is what to do if someone reports a cache as suspicious. Even if everyone were to report all their urban caches to the respective town offices, we can't expect the list to be updated on a regular basis, and we can't expect the offices to remember where they all are. So what do we do? Find some authority who could look up cache info? Have a few of us for references to call in case something comes up and they want to ask if it might be a cache? Educate cachers to be alert in case something comes up they can contact the authorities? Something else?

    Preventing a scare attack is great, but if one starts it seems Geocaching would take the least impact if the authorities could be alterted to the fact it may just be a cache. They may have to still treat it as a threat, but that knowledge could help in many cases.
    DNFTT! DNFTT! DNFTT!

    "The funniest thing about this particular signature is that by the time you realize it doesn't say anything it's to late to stop reading it..."

  4. #34
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    Jun 2004
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    We have a large enough membership and I think it would be good if we started to get some feedback from some of the others who might not usually submit anything to the site and see what they have to say. We seem to have a core group of participants on the site and it would be good to see more participation from the membership at large.
    Just smile it won't crack your face

    The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is
    suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best
    friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

  5. #35
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    Jul 2004
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    Niskayuna, NY
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    Ok. From one insane cat. How's this for starters.

    No cache container of any type shall be placed within 0.1 miles of any building structure, bridge, railroad track, road, utility line, monument, playground, or in areas frequented by large numbers of people.

    WOW! It eliminates just about all urban caches and a lot of park and grabs, but it leaves wide open the quality caches that are numerous in Maine.

    It would go a long way towards making caches less suspicious to others in that they would not be close by.

    We all need to think about how others see us and what we appear to be doing in this post 9-11 world.

    My 2 cents worth.




    A house is not a home without a cat.

  6. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sabby View Post
    Ok. From one insane cat. How's this for starters.

    No cache container of any type shall be placed within 0.1 miles of any building structure, bridge, railroad track, road, utility line, monument, playground, or in areas frequented by large numbers of people.

    WOW! It eliminates just about all urban caches and a lot of park and grabs, but it leaves wide open the quality caches that are numerous in Maine.

    It would go a long way towards making caches less suspicious to others in that they would not be close by.

    We all need to think about how others see us and what we appear to be doing in this post 9-11 world.

    My 2 cents worth.
    I love it! Of couse, I'd have to can one of my caches and move another. But I'd do it.

    While we're at it, we can increase the minumim distance between all, caches to 1 mile?

    Unfortunately, most cachers don't share my opinions on that subject.

    You are right in that we do need to be more aware when placing caches.
    DNFTT! DNFTT! DNFTT!

    "The funniest thing about this particular signature is that by the time you realize it doesn't say anything it's to late to stop reading it..."

  7. #37
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    Jul 2004
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    Portland, Maine
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beach Comber View Post
    This is just the type of thing that was presented during pre-voting discussion as a potential role for the board. Such as - to come up with a potential plan, language that could possibly be used in letters, an organized approach to contacting local governments, etc.
    I want to clarify the point I was trying to make here. The potential plan, language, etc. would be put forth as recommendations from the board rather than a dictum or final decision.

    I heard clearly during pre-voting discussions that it was not of interest to have a group of individuals making decisions for the populus as a whole, but rather to have a smaller group brainstorm and then put out some recommendations. I totally agree with that approach. I think it is helpful to have a starting point to review and discuss rather than having a blank slate and a large number of individuals trying to identify a product. That is that value of having a committee or in this case, an informal board approach. We have tried the open slate approach in the past and made little to no progress - I would prefer to have the board establish a timeline to discuss this and then put out a draft. The membership could then review and provide feedback.
    ~ Beach Comber ~

  8. #38
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    Jun 2004
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    Fairfield, Maine
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    357

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sabby View Post
    No cache container of any type shall be placed...in areas frequented by large numbers of people.
    How many people is a "large number" ;-)

  9. #39
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    Jul 2004
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    Niskayuna, NY
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    How many people is a "large number" ;-)
    Oh I don't know lets start with

    If 25 or more people could pass by the cache each day.




    A house is not a home without a cat.

  10. #40
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    Jun 2004
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    Solon, Maine
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    Quote Originally Posted by Haffy View Post
    I think education is the best tool we can all use now to make sure that all new cachers are aware of the ramifications that will take place if we continue to place caches in places that will call attention to them and also placing them in areas where we don't have permission. I have noticed a profileration of micro caches all across the state and hope we don't go the way of other states. In lew of recent developements in Boston and other cities where bomb squads have been called out because ill thought out placement of caches we should be aware of these things being brought up.
    EXACTLY! We've seen caches in ridiculous locations. In some areas, "cachers" place new caches because "this area needed a cache" - which means that there wasn't another within 500 feet.

    Our motto used to be "Maine - The Way Geocaching Should Be". Sadly, I think that geocaching in Maine is now the same as it is in a lot of other states...

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