King, Pierce, Snohomish Counties and the general Puget Sound area. http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php Wed, 08 Sep 2010 07:01:09 -0700 120 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=405 off their couches and away from their computers as possible.

My plan of attack: endless fun with geocaching. We have recently obtained a number of gps units and a brief intro to what geocaching is.

HOWEVER... we would like to here from the seasoned geocachers in the are. We are holding our annual Healthy Kids Day event on April 17th here at the Y and it would be soooooo helpful to have an expert on board. I myself have found several caches, but that hardly qualifies me.

During our Healthy Kids Day we will be allowing families to find 'mock caches' that I will hide only for that day and giving them a beginners guide.

HELP!

ALSO... we are interested in plugging in to the wsga and getting ideas on how to excite kids and teens about geocaching.

]]> Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:37:09 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=405 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=332 Cougar Mountain CITO 2010.

Cougar Mountain has 50+ caches, and King County Parks has been very supportive of geocaching, so let’s thank them by making this another successful work project!


Please use this thread to announce your CITOs this year - let's help all our parks!]]> Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:11:36 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=332 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=331
GSAK 101 Beginning with GSAK is a repeat of last year's. It's an introduction to GSAK, how to get it setup, basic filtering and usage.

GSAK 104 GSAK, Maps and Caching will deal with using GSAK with some of the map programs. MS Streets & Trips, NG Topo! and Garmin Mapsource are the ones I use (I might add another program or switch if the demand is there). Discussion will be on the use of the different programs in caching and how GSAK interacts with them.

If you have specific questions about these classes, please post them.

If you have requests about other GSAK topics, also post them. More classes will be scheduled.
]]> Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:49:58 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=331 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=300 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:57:47 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=300 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=285 The Puget Sound Holiday Party (2009) is now on the calendar!

Why is the date in parentheses? Cos it's on Jan. 9, 2010. Who says the festivities end after New Year's? Put on your party hats one more time and join us for our first event of 2010. Everyone is welcome, members and non-members alike. This is a family event, so bring the kids (we know they never get tired of gifts!).

Why is it in January? Normally, we hold our Holiday Party on the weekend between Christmas and New Year's, but the holidays fell on weekends this year, and too much was happening before the holidays, and the Centralia/Chehalis Cache Machine is Jan. 2, so...welcome to 2010!

WSGA Puget Sound Holiday Party

When: Saturday, January 9, 2010
Time: 5:30-8:30 PM

Where: Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, 411 156th Ave NE, Bellevue (N 47° 36.830 W 122° 08.048)

This is the same venue as the past two years. Thanks to Kiersolvd for again arranging for his church to provide the space, which is centrally located in the chapter region.

This year, instead of a general potluck, we are doing a Spudfest menu. LandRover's wife, Bug-a-boo, has generously offered to provide baked potatoes for all. Attendees will be asked to bring toppings, a salad, or dessert.

And, of course, we'll have a white elephant gift exchange!

So, check it out, let us know if you'll be attending and what you'll be bringing to round out the menu, and see you there!]]> Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:29:28 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=285 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=281 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:16:27 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=281 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=226 Puget Sound Chapter's Summer Picnic is Sunday, July 26, at Lake Boren Park in Newcastle! We hope to have a Camo Clinic, as well, and we'll hear the initial scoop on GeoWoodstock VIII, which is coming to our chapter area on July 3, 2010.

Everyone's welcome - all chapters, members and non-members. Hope to see you there! Pls RSVP and let everyone know what you'll be bringing to the potluck and whether you have any camo tricks you can share. (Remember: Even the simple stuff is cool to a newbie.)]]> Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:22:13 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=226 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=221 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:28:45 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=221 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=202

I'll kick this off by highlighting three recent presentations, and add more as they occur. I'd love to hear about other geocaching presentations, as well - feel free to tell us about yours! (For example, I hear there was a youth training session last fall in Olympia put on by local cachers - kewl.)

April 22 - Puyallup Library Teen Group

The Puyallup Youth Librarian requested a geocaching presentation for their after-school youth group as part of TV Turn-Off Week (as it turned out, the event was on Earth Day!). Hydnsek did the presentation, with help from JustMike, WellJointed, The Jester, and Velma (of Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma). After an introductory slide show (shortened version of the standard PowerPoint deck), we divided the 25+ teens into groups (each with a geocacher), and they hunted for six temporary caches we placed around the library and Pioneer Park. Fun! The REI in Puyallup generously loaned us six GPS units, which we preloaded with the temp caches. Inside, we had a display with geocache containers and contents, GPS-related library books, and several handouts (geocaching brochure, cache pages for Flaming Geyser CITO and GPS Adventure Maze, Latitude/Longitude Explained, and WSGA info).

May 14 - Boy Scouts, Sammamish Trails District Roundtable, Kirkland

A Boy Scout leader asked us to host a geocaching display at their district roundtable so adult Scout leaders could learn more about geocaching. Frisbee'r put together a great booth and presentation with the help of jcar, Albert&friends, and FrodoB. They had two PCs looping the geocaching presentation (wow!), a display of geocaching containers, the geocaching brochure to hand out, and of course, the WSGA banners. They talked with folks individually about caching, and Albert&friends did a hands-on demo using two caches she'd placed just outside.


May 30 - Boy Scouts, Troop 274, Puyallup

The Assistant Scout Master has asked us to teach his troop about geocaching in preparation for an upcoming Scout-sponsored geocaching event in early June. (He says most have never used a GPS.) This one is in the planning stages, but frisbee'r is again taking the lead, with support from Team Misguided, Hoppingcrow, and others. More details later - and frisbee'r would love to hear from you if you can lend a hand!]]> Sun, 17 May 2009 22:56:18 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=202 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=198
I'm hoping to get some of our clever cache creators to demonstrate their talents, from cool ammo cans to clever cache disguises. If you're willing to share your knowledge, or want to suggest a cacher with skillz, please let me know! Other ideas welcomed!]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 09:55:49 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=198 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=191 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:08:16 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=191 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=160
We received this request from Bruce Salmon, a local Boy Scout leader:

I don't know much about Geocaching but I know it is becoming a popular activity. I represent a fairly large group of boy scouts. I am organizing an event where a number of adventure type providers will come to exhibit their services. We expect to have approximately 100 boy scout and venture leaders in attendance. Does your organization have someone that can come and exhibit what you do, how to get involved, etc.? The event is set for May 14th from 7:30 pm until 9:00 pm in Kirkland.


Can someone volunteer to do the presentation for this scout group? It's a great opportunity to teach some kids about the outdoors and our geeky activity, and good promotion for WSGA, to boot.

Thanks in advance!]]> Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:10:57 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=160 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=158 Edit: This was submitted to me by Hydnsek, the Puget Sound Chapter representative, for the March newsletter. Since the submission included several important items, I included the entire text here to supplement the edited version for the newsletter. I should have made it clear where the source of this information came from -- I apologize for any confusion that this oversight may have caused....Half-Canadian

Our first 2009 meeting was a Valentine's Pizza Party in Puyallup. We had an overflow crowd of 50+, newcomers and seasoned cachers, who swapped stories over pizza, fondled the new WSGA geocoins, and heard what WSGA has planned for the year. We also signed up new members – welcome to NanetteF and Ranger Smith! Watch for our next chapter meeting in the North Sound in early April.

WSGA-PS's big project right now is developing a series of training classes to help our members learn the basics of geocaching, go paperless, and discover the benefits of GSAK at both an introductory and advanced level. The Jester, TotemLake, and hydnsek are developing the series, with input from you. The first sessions are scheduled for March 21 and April 11 at the Newport Way Library in Bellevue. For more details on topics and schedule, and to provide your input, please visit the GSAK Tutorial Series thread.

We're also reopening discussions with Discovery Park personnel, in hopes of eventually getting geocaching restored as a permitted activity. As part of the relationship-building, WSGA members are hosting CITOs in conjunction with two of their annual Beach Cleanup events, on May 16 (seattlegeekgrrrlz) and June 20 (WeightMan). Watch for the event announcements.]]> Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:28:33 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=158 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=157
I will create a new thread for each tutorial date, to announce the specifics and sign up attendees. For the first two weeks, signups for these tutorials are offered exclusively to current WSGA members as a membership benefit. Classes are limited to 20 participants per session (members from other chapters are welcome). Non-members can indicate their interest in these two sessions here and will be able to sign up as of March 29 through the GC.com event announcement that will be posted. Participation is first come, first served; I will post attendance lists to confirm your spots (if you change your mind, let me know so someone else can take your place).

These sessions are being led by The Jester and TotemLake, and include hands-on training, so bring your laptops. If you don't have a laptop, that's fine, too. We will be projecting the presentation, and perhap you can share someone's laptop for practice.

When you reply, please state which session (or both) you are signing up for. Feel free to provide feedback on the preliminary agenda, and/or include any specific topics or tasks you'd like to see covered. (Keep in mind the specific focus of each session.)


Saturday, April 11

Newport Way Library

N 47° 34.239 W 122° 08.976
14250 SE Newport Way, Bellevue 98006
425-747-2390

Two sessions in their meeting room (adjacent to front entrance).


12:30-2:30 - Going Paperless

Presenter: TotemLake (Greg McCaddon)
Assistant: The Jester (Craig Brown)

What does "going paperless" mean? What are the options? How do you get set up and have cache pages displayed on your PDA/GPS for the first time?

Paperless caching is within reach of anyone with a cheap Palm and a few bucks for CacheMate. Or maybe you have a Pocket PC, or new Garmin Oregon, or an iPhone... The options are multiplying, so for this tutorial, we will focus on the most common combination - a Garmin GPSmap 60, a Palm PDA, and CacheMate - to give you the basic idea and help you get started. Folks with other hardware/software can share their knowledge during our breakdown mini-sessions.

Agenda to come.


3:00-4:45 - GSAK - Paperless

Presenter: The Jester (Craig Brown)
Assistant: TotemLake (Greg McCaddon)

GSAK can make paperless caching much easier, and we'll show you how.

Agenda to come.


The library allows you to bring snacks and drinks, but we can't order pizzas or provide lunch (sorry). We'll have a side table for those who want to share snacks and sips.

We'll also have a donations jar for those who'd like to help offset the costs incurred in creating the presentation materials (including handouts). Thanks for your support!

Many, many thanks to The Jester and TotemLake for all their efforts to create and present these tutorials for the benefit of WSGA members. Special thanks to maj115 for loaning us his LCD projector. ]]> Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:05:52 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=157 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=156
I will create a new thread for each tutorial date, to announce the specifics and sign up attendees. For the first two weeks, signups for these tutorials are offered exclusively to current WSGA members as a membership benefit. Classes are limited to 20 participants per session (members from other chapters are welcome). Non-members can indicate their interest in these two sessions here and will be able to sign up as of March 8 through the GC.com event announcement that will be posted. Participation is first come, first served; I will post attendance lists to confirm your spots (if you change your mind, let me know so someone else can take your place).

These sessions are being led by The Jester (GSAK guru) and TotemLake, and include hands-on training, so bring your laptops. If you don't have a laptop, that's fine, too. We will be projecting the presentation, and perhap you can share someone's laptop for practice.

Due to popular demand, we are starting with GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), the awesome, all-in-one shareware tool for organizing your geocaching data.

When you reply, please state which session (or both) you are signing up for. Feel free to provide feedback on the preliminary agenda, and/or include any specific topics or tasks you'd like to see covered. (Keep in mind the specific focus of each session; there will be advanced GSAK tutorials later, focusing on filters, macros, mapping, database management, etc.)

Saturday, March 21

Newport Way Library

N 47° 34.239 W 122° 08.976
14250 SE Newport Way, Bellevue 98006
425-747-2390

Two sessions in their meeting room (adjacent to front entrance).

Presenter: The Jester (Craig Brown)
Assistants: TotemLake (Greg McCaddon), hydnsek (Abby Wolfe)

12:15-2:15 - GSAK 101 (Getting Started)

Preliminary agenda:

• What is GSAK?
• Downloading and installing GSAK
• Understanding the interface (screen, buttons)
• Using the basic tools
• Importing data
• Basic filters
• Searching
• Exporting to your GPSr

2:45-4:45 - GSAK 102 (Getting More out of GSAK)

Preliminary agenda:

• Using columns
• Corrected coordinates
• Archived caches
• Semi-automatic logging
• Exporting data (maps, PDA, printing)
• More on filters

The library allows you to bring snacks and drinks, but we can't order pizzas or provide lunch (sorry). We'll have a side table for those who want to share snacks and sips.

We'll also have a donations jar for those who'd like to help offset the costs incurred in creating the presentation materials (including handouts). Thanks for your support!

Many, many thanks to The Jester and TotemLake for all their efforts to create and present these tutorials for the benefit of WSGA members. Special thanks to maj115 for loaning us his LCD projector. ]]> Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:46:32 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=156 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=150
All CITO weekend events arranged by March 25 will be included in the upcoming WSGA CITO t-shirt. It will feature a map of our state with all of the 2009 CITO events plotted on it. Groundspeak will not be producing a CITO shirt this year, so this will be the only 2009 CITO shirt available for the state of Washington. Details about the shirts will be coming soon from Laurie our WSGA President, but don't miss the opportunity for your event to be included!

The WSGA's goal for CITO Weekend 2009 is to have at least two events held within each chapter. If more can be held within any chapters, that will be even better! This is the biggest and best way we have to build good relations with the land managers who oversee all the wonderful places that we get to play, and to give back to our environment.

Putting on a CITO event is very easy to do, but to make it even easier I will be posting additional topics on the CITO forum soon with tips on how to organize a successful CITO event. In the meantime, who in the Puget Sound Chapter is going to step up and agree to host an event? Let's hear from you so we can make a big impact in our state with CITO this year!]]> Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:08:18 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=150 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=99
- How many of you would be interested? Note that because each topic would be a separate session, you don't have to attend all of them, just the ones that interest you. If you're somewhat familiar with GSAK, the Intro session might not interest you, but perhaps one on Macros would, e.g.

- What would you like to see covered? Let's say we did a series of 4-6 sessions, one evening per week (day/time/location TBD). The first one could be "Introduction to GSAK." What other topics would you like to see? Macros? Filtering? Map integration? Etc.

- Location may be the same for all sessions, for ease of setup and continuity. Jester lives in Renton, so it would likely be nearby.

Okay, your turn! And Jester should be popping up here soon, as well.]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:10:40 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=99 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=98
Thanks for electing me your Puget Sound Chapter Rep. As the new chapter rep, I'm interested in hearing what you'd like to get out of chapter meetings.

- Do you just want regular social gatherings? If so, that's cool.

- Would you like to have specific topics on occasion? If so, suggestions? A couple I've heard are GSAK tutorials and cache-creation workshops (although COWWS has one of those coming up already). For more on the GSAK tutorial idea, see separate topic to be posted shortly. Other suggestions?

- How about meetings that are special caching events, like the FTF caching contest Bob did in September, or the caching rally that alciato and kiersolvd did a year ago?

- Other thoughts?

Location:

Since we have a huge chapter area and lots of members, I'd like to rotate the meetings around the region - North, Central, South - as has been done previously, with one per quarter in each area. In the Central area, it would be nice to switch between the East Side and Seattle. In this way, hopefully all members will have a meeting near them a few times a year.

However, to do that I need your help. Specifically, I need someone in the South end and in Seattle who is willing to find and arrange meeting locations for us on a quarterly basis. I have the East Side of the Central area covered , and hopefully also the North end (Monroe, unless someone wants to help find another location).

Feel free to respond here, or ping me privately with your thoughts and offers to help. ]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:54:27 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=98 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=89 Sick of all this snow?

Can't get your car down the street in front of your home that never gets plowed?

Want to see some of your geocaching friends and make some new ones?


The rain is returning just in time to clear the roads up for the Puget Sound Holiday Party!

Check out the event page at the link below for all of the details:

Puget Sound Holiday Party ]]> Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:16:53 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=89 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=10 We're still smoothing out the edges on the new site, but how do you like it so far? There are so many new features that we didn't have before! Did you have any difficulties finding your way to this new site? Post here to let us know you found us.]]> Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:07:17 -0700 http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=10