What in your opinion is the purpose of theGAGB?
How would you communicate this to the members and the broader community?
What in your opinion is the purpose of theGAGB?
How would you communicate this to the members and the broader community?
the purpose of the GAGB has to be that of the voice of the caching community,the gagb has to be more proactive and be seen, we also need regional representatives especially in areas that there is no committee member, we need to be speaking to people find out what they want and also tell them about whats going on we need to include all members this could be done with a simple GAGB regional meet and greet.
GAGB is an association for some UK Geocachers, maintaining a database of land owner permissions, forum and publishing an online magazine. It survives mostly because of goodwill and appreciation that the land owner database is essential. Membership benefits are discounts to some Gecaching stores and ability to shape the organisation through annual elections.
I would like GAGB to be the pre-eminent Geocaching organisation in UK, respresenting the overwhelming majority of our UK Geocaching community in their interactions with land owners, authorities and listing sites. GAGB membership should be the obvious choice because we should provide a wealth of valued benefits that our members make regular use of.
We can take a steer from the British Canoe Union and British Mountaineering Council, both of which have similar issues to GAGB, and to a lesser extent from the Ramblers Association, but most importantly, from our members and potential members.
I beleive that the purpoose of the GAGB is to be used as a force for improving British geocaching as a whole and as it already offers a wide ranging variety of services (Seeker, Discounts and the land owner database being the biggest 3) I would seek to expand them by furthering the work laid down by the past 2 committee's and improving the relationship of the GAGB with the general caching commuity by reaching out to everyone across the forums and not ignoring people because they
didn't have the chance to get to an event. If anyone has an issue they want to discuss (if I am elected) I WILL be there to listen to them no matter what.
Thanks
Dominic
I asked the same question, firstly when I was invited to vote for Zomblou as a committee member and secondly when I was invited to run for election to it myself
It's true that I've made very little use of the site or the organisation myself in the roughly 2.5 years I've been geocaching.
I'm aware that there's a landowner permission database of some kind - but have never made use of it, instead negotiating individual permissions myself. More recently I've come to understand that the database is in need of an update too.
I'm aware that there are forums here and prior to these recent elections these forums seemed fairly quiet. That's not unusual though - activity on those other geocaching forums I'm active in has dwindled to almost nothing over the past 2.5 years too - I suspect as more people migrate over to Facebook etc.
And from delving into those threads which have arisen around the elections, it seems that the GAGB itself isn't quite sure or, to frame more positively, is recognising the fact that it's probably time to review and reshape the organisation in order to improve relevance / membership / support moving forward.
Personally I'd like to think that GAGB can become what I think it originally set out to be - the voice of GB cachers and a bridge between cachers and non-cachers. And maybe it can - with the cooperation and support I think of the major listing sites.
Which is where I think difficulties might start to arise.
Why do I think that?
Let's imagine I'm a landowner for a moment...
A GAGB representative contacts me to ask for an agreement to allow the placing of geocaches on my land.
I'm not averse to the idea - but I want to make sure there are reasonable rules in place to ensure that I don't suffer as a result of granting this permission.
GAGB hands over a list of - well, let's call them rules for now - and tells me that geocachers play by these rules.
Problem is, geocaching is organic - nobody owns it - and there's no actual quality control in place which ensures that geocachers play by those rules - particularly as each listing site (I imagine - I haven't researched in any depth) has its own variation on a theme.
So how do I feel, as the landowner, when a geocacher who favours another listing site, which has guidelines which differ from the GAGB standard, places a cache outside the scope I as the landowner agreed to - and then points to the fact I've given a blanket permission agreement via GAGB?
Who sorts it out?
GAGB? The listing site in question? Am I left between two chairs?
Surely if GAGB seeks to be the voice of GB geocachers, and the bridge between cachers and non-cachers - and seeks to negotiate landowner permission agreements on the basis of a set of agreed guidelines - then those guidelines MUST span all listing sites?
In summary, I think that being the voice of GB geocachers (if that it what GAGB seeks to be) will require greater integration between GAGB and the major listing sites. I don't see how we can have one, without the other.
You've quoted my entire post.
So which comment in particular do you find slightly biased?
And you've probably actually proven my point - that as things stand, GAGB cannot responsibly be the voice of GB geocachers in terms of guideline compliance and landowner agreements - because each listing site does things differently
That's the way it should be. GAGB pioneers the way by getting consent to cache on the most flexible terms possible, individual listing sites differentiate themselves from one another by putting in place additional guidance that matters to them and their members.
It seems to me that OC UK could have stayed in line with GAGB's guidelines, had GAGB not acquired a whole load of excess baggage from one other listing site.
I'm looking forward to GAGB having minimal guidelines and being empowered by them.
The GAGB is to represent cachers in Great Britain. I am not going to repeat as others have given answers above.
How would I communicate this? As often and as loudly as I have done this year at events, through the many Facebook groups I belong to, as Admin for the GAGB Facebook group. I now realise that while spending time on FB I haven't been posting on this forum even though I do log in a few times a week.
The GAGB has a purpose both for the caching community and also as a point of contact/ interface to the wider non-caching world. The latter results in approaches from the public, landowners and the press. GAGB publishes channels for these approaches, both email addresses and also phone numbers which can be used on cache containers. This allows a consistent response to such enquiries and I believe it is a really useful service that ensures "the good name" of geocaching.
GAGB started because we were concerned that geocaching could get a bad name and effectively become an activity which was discouraged by landowners, part of this concern came from the early bans of caching on US National Parks. We have been successful in avoiding significant problems of this sort, having only a few UK landowners who have banned caching and this is at least partly as a result of being able to reference GAGBs early agreements in subsequent discussions.
It would be good to find ways to encourage more UK cachers to join GAGB. I'd love to find a "killer application" that means everyone joins and even to find ways to bring back those who have actively decided that they don't want to be members but I think there is a much bigger opportunity to bring in more of the masses of cachers who have never heard of us and would probably join because we do have useful resources.
Caching since 2001
Founder member of GAGB (2003)
Committee (2003-2013)
Chair of GAGB (2010-2012)
Negotiator of 18 Landowner Agreements
GAGB Friend