[Az-Geocaching] Statewide Caching Group [LONG]

[Team Tierra Buena]

John,
 
I don't think I've posted to this listserv since the "AZGCA" effort
imploded, but I've been hiding behind the drywall the entire time. I'll give
you our perspective (mine and Judi's -- I would never presume to speak for
Tamo and Julie, but I suspect they would agree with much though not all of
what I'm about to say).
 
First, based on our experience, we don't today believe a statewide
organization is workable. One of the biggest issues, as others have
mentioned, is the cost of travel. But even when gas was $2-2.50 a gallon,
folks from Yuma, Show Low, Kingman, Flagstaff, Tucson, etc., don't want to
have to come to Phoenix to get things done. We had at the time the skills
and resources needed to put up a website, 24/7 chat, forums, BBSs,
listservs, and pretty much anything else that could be delivered through an
ISP, once the ball got rolling. But at the statewide level we were still
going to need people to "come to town" a few times to get it all rolling.
Some folks DID come from Tucson, Yuma, Bouse, Show Low, Flagstaff, Prescott,
Benson, and elsewhere, and thanks to all of you who did.
 
But they didn't keep coming, and we don't blame them. It was a lot of travel
for a lot of work, and no short term results. Blame us for that. We were
perhaps more focused on doing it right than on getting it done. 
 
Travel aside, there's another reason we think a statewide group won't fly.
When we were trying to get this going, we traveled a fair chunk of the state
visiting cachers in a few cities. We held "focus groups" in Tucson, Sedona,
Show Low, as well as in the East Valley, West Valley, and "Central" Phoenix.
We wanted to get out to Yuma because of the strong caching community there,
but we just couldn't work it out at the time. What we learned, but what we
didn't want to admit to ourselves, is that the caching communities in
Arizona and the issues of concern to them are as varied as the very
topography of those communities. What's on the mind of a cacher in
Springerville probably has little in common with what's on the mind of a
cacher in Surprise. Plus, there is a real and not necessarily unjustified
concern that exists in other parts of the state that is perhaps best
described as the perception of "The State of Maricopa".
 
Perhaps we didn't see (or want to see) the emphasis on regional issues
because from our perspective at the time (four cachers from "The State of
Maricopa"), the biggest concern, as ShadowAce mentioned, was the state (e.g:
State Parks Department), and federal (e.g., National Parks Service) agencies
that appeared to be pushing to not only outlaw geocaching in their
dominions, but to have it declared a criminal act. We thought that we could
only be effective with these agencies by speaking at a statewide
organizational level, so we, to our later regret, downplayed what the
cachers in the "outlying" focus groups were telling us. As a result we tried
and failed to get the collective weight of a statewide organization behind
us.
 
Result? To cite a few examples, Cattail Cove State Park south of Lake Havasu
City now has an annual geocaching event. The other state parks are looking
at geocaching programs as a means of increasing attendance (and user fees).
The Yuma area cachers are working with the KofA NWR, and Northeast Valley
cachers work with the McDowell-Sonoran Preserve on those agencies' concerns
-- all without the need for a state organization. We failed to remember Tip
O'Neill's wise words: All politics is local.
 
Every successful organization needs what I've referred to from time to time
as "The Dirty Dozen". It may not be 12 people; it may be eight or twenty.
But you need that core group of people who share the vision and the ideals
and are willing to do just about anything to achieve them. We never got our
Dirty Dozen. To make it tougher to succeed, what we did get were people who
were not only unwilling to help but at the same time would sabotage whatever
we were doing that didn't jibe with how they would have done things -- if
only they themselves could have been bothered to do them. It was the
damnedest, and to me personally, the most disheartening aspect of the entire
effort. And they're still out there, likely reading this post. So if you go
forward you may have to deal with them as well.
 
If after reading this you still want to pursue a statewide organization we
wish you success, but we hope you'll understand our current lack of
enthusiasm for getting involved. These days, we'd rather just go geocaching.
 
Steve
Team Tierra Buena
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