Meeting notes: November 9, 2002

Greetings to all.

On November 9 the Georgia Geocachers Association held its 18th meeting at the William H. Reynolds Nature Preserve in Clayton County, near Morrow. There were 21 members in attendance, including three new members.

After the meeting was opened, Jess announced the members of the GGA steering committee for the coming year. Newly elected SC members CharlieP (Charlie Parmelee), DaRebel (Ed Handler), and Johnnie (Johnnie Lacy) will join the re-elected incumbents Erik88l_r (Erik van Dyck), gpsfun (Brad Webb), and mtn-man (Greg Lampton). All of the candidates were thanked for their willingness to help lead the organization.


Jim McKenna then provided an excellent presentation on the principles and ethics of Leave No Trace (abbreviated LNT). Jim has presented to us before, and again was a big hit. The LNT principles fall under a group of seven headings:

Plan Ahead and Prepare
Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
Dispose of Waste Properly
Leave What You Find
Minimize Campfire Impacts
Respect Wildlife
Be Considerate of Other Visitors

A wealth of information on LNT can be found at www.lnt.org

Mtn-man briefly explained the progress the SC has made with the initiative to move all of the club's digital assets into accounts that are not linked to specific individuals. The club's new web page had been announced before the meeting, and has received enthusiastic reviews. At the meeting, Greg announced that the new web page is actually hosted on the same domain as the Infopop discussion boards that Geocaching dot Com uses for their forums, and that we have also opened a whole new discussion board at that site as well. Much of the current EZBoard information has been replicated on the new boards, and going forward, the EZBoard will be used only as an archive. This announcement was also enthusiastically received.

For reference, the new web page is at www.ggaonline.org, and the new discussion board is at www.ggaonline.org/6/ubb.x

Erik and Andymand then updated the members on current discussions with various rangers on the topic of geocaches in NPS areas. We believe we have a lot of positives to offer, including cleanup of several trails that are in desperate condition. Erik and Andy are continuing to work with the contacts and will keep the members informed via postings on the discussion board.

Mtn-man provided a demonstration on common items that geocachers should consider carrying in their backpacks, and it was noted that some of the suggestions made by Jim McKenna should be incorporated. Also, Allen Lacy has posted an excellent list on the discussion boards, and Greg will bump that topic to the top of the list to give it additional attention.

Following the drawing for door prizes, the meeting adjourned to a "contest" that Johnnie Lacy set up before the meeting. The basic theme of this activity was to demonstrate variations in GPS receiver accuracy. There were some interesting observations noted in the event cache log entries.

The next meeting is on December 14th, and will be an informal gathering for brunch at a buffet restaurant location. The event cache page will be submitted to the geocaching web site in a few days.

Happy geocaching!

—Brad

(NOTE: Some links have been removed from this public page.)