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GAGB Geocaching Awards 2024

The GAGB Geocaching Awards are back to recognise and celebrate outstanding geocaches and geocachers.

Voting has closed and the winners will be announced at our event on 28th September 2024 (GCAPFVH). The shortlists can be found on this page.

:GAGB Geocaching Awards

See below for the full list of categories and guidance, along with the rules. A timetable for the whole awards process is also provided, which includes details on when voting will take place. Frequently asked questions can be found at the bottom of the page.

Categories

Category
Guidance
Best Physical Cache Must have been published in 2023 and live as of 31st December 2023. All physical cache types are included - Traditionals, Multis, Puzzles, Letterbox Hybrids, and Wherigos. Non-physical cache types (including Adventure Labs) and events are not included. Sponsored by Project Geocoin.
Best Non-Physical Cache Must have been published in 2023 and live as of 31st December 2023. All non-physical cache types are included - Virtual Caches placed as part of Virtual Rewards 3.0, between 1st Jan 2023 and 31st March 2023 only, EarthCaches, and Adventure Labs. Events are not included. Sponsored by Severn UK Mega 2025
Best Series Must have been published in 2023 and live as of 31st December 2023. Does not include national series or Adventure Labs. Sponsored by The SideTracked Series.
Most Helpful Landowner A new category for 2024. Who has been a great support to geocaching in the UK? They don't need to cache or place caches themselves, nor do they necessarily have to be included in the GLAD (but if not, we would love them to be!). Any type of landowner can be nominated - an organisation, local authority, private landowner or proprietor, farmer... and list goes on! Sponsored by Stoke Bunnies.
Geocacher of the Year Could be the most dedicated cache owner, keenest cache maintainer, most inspiring or creative cache owner, most helpful event host, most committed cacher who went the extra mile and more… basically this could be called 'Services to Geocaching’ - an impressive, inspirational cacher. Sponsored by UK Geocoin Database.

Rules and Terms & Conditions

  1. All geocachers, including non-GAGB members, based within Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are eligible to nominate, vote, and win a GAGB Geocaching Award. This excludes incumbent members of the GAGB Executive Committee.
  2. Eligible geocachers (as defined above) can submit up to three nominations per category via the online form.
  3. Nominations do not have to be submitted for every category, although this is encouraged.
  4. The nominations form can only be completed once – all nominations must be submitted at the same time.
  5. Nominations must solely be for geocaches, series, Adventure Labs, and geocachers within Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
  6. Geocaches on all listing sites are eligible to be nominated.
  7. Nominations must comply with the guidance for each category in order to be valid.
  8. You cannot nominate your own geocaches or yourself.
  9. An individual can be nominated in up to two categories. For example, it would be permissible to nominate someone for ‘Geocacher of the Year’ and also nominate one of their geocaches for ‘Best Physical Cache’.
  10. Incumbent members of the GAGB Executive Committee (elected in November 2023) are not eligible to be nominated, cannot submit nominations themselves, and are not entitled to vote.
  11. GAGB Regional Representatives, Appointed Members, Friends, Supporters, Founders, and former Committee Members are eligible to be nominated, nominate, and vote.
  12. All nominations will be reviewed by members of the GAGB Executive Committee who will assess their validity and compliance with the guidance and rules. The GAGB reserve the right to discard nominations which are not valid.
  13. Members of the GAGB Executive Committee will produce a shortlist of up to five finalists for each category. These shortlists will be final, and those on the shortlist will be informed prior to them being made public.
  14. All geocachers in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands (except those on the Committee) are entitled to cast one vote per category based on the shortlists. Strict measures will be implemented to ensure this, and any duplicate votes or additional votes by geocachers outside of these areas will be disregarded.
  15. Collusion is forbidden at all stages. For example (but not limited to), you cannot ask anyone to nominate or vote for you, attempt to influence the shortlisting process, nor cast additional votes yourself, via fellow geocachers, or other means.
  16. All awards are available to be sponsored, including by geocaching groups, organisations, businesses, and individuals. The fee is £10 per award. Sponsorship will cover the cost of producing the physical award and contribute towards meeting associated operational costs. Any money left following these expenses will be retained by the GAGB to fund the organisation’s work as set out in the GAGB Constitution.

Timetable

The GAGB Geocaching Awards will follow a timetable of approximately seven months, as set out below.

Date/Time Stage
Friday 1st March Nominations open
Saturday 8th June at 23:59 Nominations close
Monday 8th July at 0:00 Voting opens
Thursday 8th August at 23:59 Voting closes
Saturday 28th September 2024 Winners announced and awards ceremony at GAGB’s annual autumn event on 28th September in Gloucestershire – GCAPFVH.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, it has! The GAGB Geocaching Awards were held last year - you can view a list of the winners and finalists here. Before this, the National Geocaching Awards, which were organised by Simply Paul, took place in 2016 at the Geolympix Mega (GC5XXYY) in Hertfordshire. The GAGB were there, sponsoring and handing out ‘The GAGB Award for Most Helpful Landowner or Management Authority’. We are pleased that this category is returning this year! The National Geocaching Awards returned in 2017, this time at the Devon UK Mega Event at Bicton College (GC6JZNY). However, they were not held between 2018 and 2022 inclusive.

We are grateful to Simply Paul for all the support and advice he has provided. The GAGB Geocaching Awards are closely based on the format of the original National Geocaching Awards, so much credit goes to Simply Paul.

In addition, the West Midlands Mega Committee organised their own, separate set of awards in 2022 to coincide with Mega Week.

Last year, the GAGB Geocaching Awards covered the years 2017 - 2022 inclusive, with the earlier National Geocaching Awards covering the years before this. To avoid the same caches being nominated again, it was decided to only include caches placed in 2023 - giving us an opportunity to recognise, celebrate, and promote newer caches.

During this period, the GAGB committee will go through all the nominations received and create a shortlist for each category.

Firstly, all nominations will be checked to ensure that they are valid, i.e. in compliance with the category guidance and rules included above.

The specific method for shortlisting from the list of valid nominations will not be disclosed, but factors such as favourite point percentages and the reasons given for a nomination will be taken into account by a panel of GAGB committee members, who will reach a collective decision.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony during the GAGB’s event in September. Specific details, including the event date, will be announced in due course.

The reason they will not be announced once the vote closes are twofold: votes need to be verified and the physical awards will then need to be ordered!

You will have to wait until the award ceremony to find out! What we can tell you is that they will be physical awards which the winners will be able to display with pride.

If you have any further questions, please email awards@gagb.org.uk.