[GeoStL] Re: Bellefontaine Neighbors Caching - UPDATE

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Naw Andrew, we wouldn't give you any bullets.

Nice job on getting the parks to modify their rules.
If anyone ever needs a formalized set of rules that is similar to our county parks set of "No rules, rules", these folks have a (mostly) nice set. It is generally a restatement of the geocaching.com rules plus one or two extras and they have formalized their parks *liaison * team that takes a lot of the work off the parks people. We have several parks *liaison people now that has just developed naturally over time. Openspace.org has formalized the relationship and given the monitoring teams a few additional duties. Essentially the eyes and ears of the parks service. * 

http://www.openspace.org/activities/geocaching_guidelines.asp
The folks in Springfield have been trying to live with their set of rules. Until this week, I don't think there have been caches placed there in over a year. They have killed caching in the parks with their set of rules. It is the same set of rules that is in BN parks. Some cacher are getting together to renegotiate the rules. The above set is what they are going try to use as a model. 
Even the slightly restrictive rules listed are doable.
#6, "include name and contact number" is always a good idea. #9 ...the "no further than 200 feet off a trail" could be problematic in a 
park setting where there are no set trails. Even still, it is not bad.
The setting up of a geocaching police system may or may not be a good idea. It would indeed be nice to have a group of locals on the ground to actually check caches after they are placed. I depend on people to give 
me feedback if something is really  out of whack. Sometimes I get it,
sometimes i don't. I get the feeling that no one really wants to be the one
tattle-tailing on a cacher that placed a messed up cache. As mentioned
previously, a cacher here  is a go between that  keeps the parks system  up
to date on where  the caches are and how they are hidden and then reports
back to me if any of the caches really are in messed up locations. Then I take care if it with the cache owner. We haven't found the need to set up a team yet although sharing the monitoring duties would be nice. 
The procedure or dealing with non-compliant  caches would put local cachers
right in the line of fire or a ton of nastyness.  This sort of thing has
been tried with mixed results in other places.  Being that this is on the
real official governmental type level, it could be that a lot of nastyness
will not come to the cache monitors. Still, it is not pleasant to be the
recipient  of such love notes.  I have a fire resistant suit and it is still
not good. 
The procedure for cache removals is just about what I do now. I get all the 
"Needs
maintenance and needs archived"  logs. If I see something like "dude, this
looks like a pipe bomb and it is next to the airport", I take the cache down
right away.  I don't have to wait for anyone to go review it for me.  All of
the needs maintenance logs such as, "container might me broken" logs I sit
on to give the cache owner a chance to do something about the problem.  As
many of you know, I check all the caches that have maintenance issues and
are disabled more or less on a monthly basis.  I give the cache owner a
chance to fix things and if they don't, *I archive the cache. HERE is where my problem happens. * 

Once I remove the listing from geocaching.com,  the cache page is gone and
my worries are over BUT in many cases, there is still trash laying in the
park that I have no authority to remove.  I used to send locals out to
retrieve the trash and clean up the parks. I thought we were doing everyone
a favor. Not so as I soon found out. Many caches around the country are cross listed on other geocaching sites. If I archive a cache that is cross listed on navicache and have the trash removed, people 
may still be  looking for it based on the other listing site. I have now
just disrupted someone else's game piece that I have no business doing.  In
essence I have just requested a geocaching.com cacher to steal a navicachers 
cache.
Let me tell you, that smarts when the owner finds out. :-) Having a local, governmental park representative actually decide that the trash must be picked up, regardless of whose game it belongs to is a good thing. I very often have park ranger pick up trash and write to me to let me know. I archive it from geocaching.com with a 
note that it was removed by the parks service.  If it was also a navicache
location, they are on their own to figure out what happened. We have very few navitrash caches and only 4 terracaches in the stl area. 
There are more around Springfield area and it becomes more of an issue.

The parks service must keep in mind that geocaching.com is only one of
several listing services. Their policies should be general enough to
encompass any sort of hidden trinket boxes on the park property. Letterboxes, geocaches, terracaches, navicaches, earthcaches (virtual 
caches) , medallion hunting and there may be more.  A non- denomination
"trinket box monitoring team"  that keeps track of everything on all the
sites would be nice for the parks tho.


All in all, I think the open space rules are very nice and if I ever need a
set of formal rules for someone to go by, I will use these. 

Again, mostly a restatement of the regular rules with a few nice monitoring
systems. I can go for it as it would make things easier for me and I am all
for that. :-) 





Andrew Senger wrote:
You don't want to deputize me. I'll citizen arrest someone and shoot myself in the foot.
On 8/29/07, *Jack Konecker* < jack.konecker@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:jack.konecker@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote: 

    SLAGA needs to deputize Andrew and send him to
    the Missouri Dept. of Conservation to guide them in
    creating their geocaching policy.






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