[Az-Geocaching] Fw: Geocaching- AZ site stewards

[Brian Cluff]

On Fri, 2002-08-23 at 16:04, Team Tierra Buena wrote:
> Allyn, I've been waiting to see if anyone else was going to offer you
> any suggestions, and since no one has, I figured I'd reply so you
> wouldn't think you were being ignored. Your question is simple, but I
> suspect it puts most of us into that "deer in the headlights" freeze.
> The reason for that is simple: There is no one who can really give you
> an authoritative answer, because there is no one in authority.

I know I don't mind passing along what the majority of the people on the
list have expressed, but I always refer anyone that asked for hard
policies to the official site or Jeremy.  I see our site as more of a
watering hole, or a VAR for geocaching in arizona, but nothing
official.  I wouldn't mind being considered the official watering hole,
but everyone else has to determin that, and I think that people have to
some extent.

> We don't have any formal organization, officers, and such. Brian and
> Jason, who run this website and list server out of the goodness of their
> hearts, sometimes become our "press secretaries" simply because they are
> probably the most accessible cachers in the state to the general public.

It does seem that way all of a sudden, although I have been refering
most of the people looking for answers to Bob Renner for another voice,
so they don't have to take my word for it.  I've chose Bob because of
his past media experience, and he tends to be very good with people.

> But I guarantee you we don't pay them enough to do that, and they
> probably didn't realize it would become part of their job descriptions
> when they decided to put up the site. Other than that, there's no one
> making policy for Geocachers in this state, and no one who's been
> elected to speak on our behalf. Further, I suspect many if not most of
> us like the informality of that anarchy (in the formal, best sense of
> the word). There are a few organizations in other states and
> metropolitan areas, but I'll bet they number less than a dozen in the
> US. 

I personally don't mind talking to the reporters at all.  It might get
annoying if I was Jeremy since he probably have to talk to people every
day, but only being affiliated with Arizona, it really limits the number
of organizations I have to deal with.  As long as the geocaching
community doesn't mind what I have to say for them.. bring the
geocachers on.  Otherwise we can elect someone to stear the media
inqueries to.

> PS (to all): In the aftermath of the "Republic" article, I would have
> thought someone else would have raised this question by now: Whether we
> want it or not, do we need it? Is it time to start thinking about
> forming an "Arizona Geocachers Association"?

There should be a follow up article in the republic tomorrow that should
take a little of the sting out of the last article, and there should be
a very favorable article in the tribune in a few days and I just
answered a few questions though e-mail for the Independant, but he asked
for them back by noon today and I got them in at noon:20 so I don't know
if he had to move onto another acticle by then.  If he does do one, that
one should be at least informational, and probably favorable to us.
I know that I have had a crash course in journalism in a past few weeks,
I would now not be very suprised to see an article detailing how
geocachers would spread the west nile virus because of how much more we
are outside and therefore more likely to get an infectious mosquito
bite, and of course the article would probably sounds like we are all
carriers... whatever.

Brian Cluff
Team Snaptek