Chase the Cache (Big Brothers Big Sisters) for 2012

[caughtatwork]

Last year Geocaching Australia was involved with Big Brothers, Big Sisters in Melbourne for their Chase the Cache fund raising event. http://www.chasethecache.com.au/

This is last years forum topic.
http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopi ... 11&t=15716

Big Brothers, Big Sisters has contacted Geocaching Australia again to help with the preparation and execution of the Chase the Cache to be run on March 25, 2012 in Melbourne (Docklands precinct).

BBBS have asked Geocaching Australia and volunteer geocachers to assist in some of the logistics of the event such as:
* Gathering the lat/lon for the specific caches to be hidden (there may be up to 60).
* Hiding the caches close to the event.
* Advice and / or construction of some of the more cunning cache types.
* Accurately rating the difficulty and terrain of the cache hides.
* Acting as a "support" group on the day for team who need some assistance in understanding their GPS or how to "follow the arrow". All of the GPS devices will be identical so this won't be too onerous.

The activities in finding locations, hiding the caches, gathering the coords (with photos and hints) was an enjoyable activity last time. iamapom, Keeper of Time, pwags and myself had a grand old time for a few hours over a couple of weekends leading up to the event.

Last year we kept the event simple. 200ml sistemas all within about 1km radius of Harbour Town. All at street level and pretty easy to find as we used the name of the cache as a big hint. There were about 20 teams with about 80 participants. BBBS are almost guaranteeing 50 teams with about 200 participants this time. They have significantly increased their corporate engagements and Channel 10 (Melbourne) have agreed to provide "Public Service" announcements on their public digital channels leading up to the activity. There's also a good chance they will cover the event for the evening news.

This year we are ramping up the fun a little bit. The area of the game will be from Harbour Town, all the way down to the Yarra River http://g.co/maps/vugku a distance of about 2km. We are also looking at covering the area around Etihad Stadium. This is probably triple the game area last time. We are also looking to have a range of cache sized. 200ml sistema to 35mm film canister down to a "blinkie" style magnetic cache. The blinkies will be removable caches worth more points. The challenge for the second comers is "is it still here or are we wasting our time". Like a moveable cache, but it doesn't get rehidden. We are also moving from street level to "any level" meaning altitude will become part of the challenge. For those who participated last time, this means up on the walkways, up trees, up art work, etc. Much more of a challenge. Especially with some micros in play.

We are having 60 caches this year. 10 will be set aside specifically for teams with a 12 year old or younger. They will be around the marshalling area so the kids who get tired and dont' want to walk 2km to the end point and back can still enjoy participating with some easier finds. The kids caches will not be available to teams without kids.

The larger area also means we have greater opportunities to hide cache "out of line of sight" of other caches. So no more following people around. It also means (with some of the infrastructure in play) that caches can be made a lot more fun by being cunningly concealed rather than just the plain box. A blinkie up some art work is going to be just mean, but hey if they want the points, they spend the time.

Geocaching Australia get nothing financial out of this exercise. It's an opportunity to get our name a little more prominent in the community which may attract some geocachers to Geocaching Australia. BBBS have indicated to me that they are also looking to run the same style event in other capital cities with Perth being the most interested. That means we could have an Australia wide involvement in helping BBBS fund raise. Now that would be nice.

The Senate has previously endorsed the name of Geocaching Australia being involved in the activity provided that the members understand that we are volunteers and that GCA gets no financial gain and we work to promote geocaching in Australia (GC and GCA).

So if you are interested in helping plan the caches or as a helper on the day or any other facet etc, please drop me a PM. We can then convene virtually to discuss some aspects and possible face-to-face to discuss more.

[Philipp]

That was heaps of fun last year - I'm in!

[Echo]

PM sent.

[caughtatwork]

Thanks to KoT, Philipp and Echo so far.
Are you interested in help on the day or help to hide (or both)?

[Keeper of Time]

Hi C@W, happy to consider both, last time was great fun.

[The Morris]

Me too - really enjoyed it last year. While we may not be able to help with the hiding - happy to help with some camo ideas as well as on the day.

[Echo]

Hi C@W, happy to consider both.

Ditto, it's not too shabby a way to fill in a few weekends...

[iamapom]

I'm in again.

[Echo]

Seems like we're getting the band back together!

[wileyclan]

I'm spewing that I won't be in Melbourne at the time as I rather enjoyed it this year.

Good luck for the day

Cheers

[iamapom]

Can I suggest that Philipp doesn't place any of the caches ?

[Philipp]

Nice try

[WanderingAus]

That sounds like a great opportunity to spread the word. Unfortunately there is no way I could be in Melbourne the day before the WanderingMrs birthday.

I'm very interested in the prospect for Perth, if it comes off I'll definitely be in it.

[covert]

Not happy I missed it lat year so keen to do it this year. I would like to help on the day.

[wyrdsister]

Would love to help.