Texas Geocaching Association

Up to date news for the Texas Geocaching Association!

A Monumental Mega Meeting Made By Texans

posted Jan 24, 2012 10:23 PM by Matthew Manning

Groundspeak, we thank you. You answered our cries, and honored our hard work. It has taken 10 years for the Texas Challenge to grow to what it is today. Last year, we were close. This year, we are beyond ambition.

This marks the first Mega Event to be born and raised in Texas. In the past, there has only been one prior Mega Event in Texas. If you were a geocacher 5.5 years ago, living in Texas, you might have attended the Geowoodstock held in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area. What makes this Mega Event different than Geowoodstock? How about the fact that Geowoodstock rotates from state to state. The Texas Challenge will never leave Texas.

This year is going to be epic. If you have never been to a Texas Challenge before, you will be choosing wisely to make this year your first. Let us just say that it will be historic! If you cannot make it, don't sweat it! As this Texas Challenge went Mega, it means that all future Texas Challenge events are already Mega Events. While we have been working hard to make this Challenge a success, we also have already began planning the next Texas Challenge.

We hope to see you at both, as every Challenge is unique. I can certainly say that both this year and next are no exception to that rule. I wish I could detail expectations for both of them, but that would ruin the surprise. Just stay tuned, and ride the waves of excitement!

7 Weeks and Counting!

posted Jan 20, 2012 12:26 AM by Matthew Manning

Groundspeak, hear us now! We, the geocachers of Texas, would like the Texas Challenge to be a Mega Event! 7 weeks until the Texas Challenge, we have 440 registered attendees. That number is growing by 5 to 15 every day. There is no doubt that this year, our 10th annual year of hosting this fun-filled event, will be the largest one yet. We know that there is a 500 attendee minimum for Mega Event status, but we also know that you make the ultimate decision!

Groundspeak, keep in mind that everyone should get the chance to get the coveted Mega Event icon. The closest Mega Event to Texas lately has been in Colorado. Since Texas is home to one of the largest concentration of both geocaches and geocachers, it only seems fair that there is a little positive bias to turning

GC33CNK into a mega event! Even Signal will be attending the event! As he is a representative of Groundspeak, and he finds an interest in our event, his acknowledgement of our growing event should only validate our plea for Mega status!

Geocachers of Texas, check out these attendance numbers:

35 Central Texas

27 East Texas

229 North Texas

46 Out of State

31 South Texas

46 Southeast Texas

26 West Texas

Will we see you there?

Website Update: Members Only Area

posted Dec 30, 2011 7:29 AM by Matthew Manning

Two days ago, we launched a new feature to the website called the "Members Only" area. It will allow you to check the information associated to your membership and see the pending status of any ID cards or Swag that has yet to be delivered. Sorry, at this time there still is no way to check the status of your membership application. Only Official Members may use the system.

We have restricted this portion of the website to Members Only, because it allows access to two other benefits of a TXGA Membership.

1. Member exclusive discounts

2. The opportunity to influence the TXGA

At this moment, we do not have any listed, but we have been working on getting discounts available, and they will be posted as soon as we have them available.

Many of the opportunities afforded to TXGA members come in the result of voting on subjects. Since the recently revitalized TXGA is still becoming more of a destination website for Texas Geocachers, we have not formulated any votes for Official Members yet. It would not be fair for the majority of the membership if a vote is decided by 30 of the 300+ TXGA members.

What we have added in the member only system is the ability to declare an opinion of what region your resident county lies in. Regional borders have always been a highly opinionated debate between many Texas Geocachers. For the first time, TXGA is actually going to do a census of member opinions on regions, and a system is going to use that information to identify regions by counties. This could resolve differences, or it could not. The actual point behind it is for TXGA to know where its elected Regional Representatives need to focus their attention.

You can access the Members Only area from the menu, under the Membership button. Alternately, you can go directly there.

If you have any questions, you can ask them in the forums under this thread, or contact us by email at contactus@texasgeocaching.com.

News Flash!

posted Dec 13, 2011 4:52 AM by Matthew Manning

Many of you are already receiving mail from the Texas Geocaching Association in the form of membership benefits. For those of you who are members that have not received their coveted swag and/or ID card, let us know.

In other news, we are still asking that you pre-register for the upcoming Texas Challenge, even if you are undecided on attending. Pre-registration is free, and you can always decide to go back and purchase swag for the Texas Challenge anytime between now and a few weeks before the event. Everyone that registers has the potential to turn this event into a Mega-Event. We hope to turn the Texas Challenge into a Mega as soon as we can, but your help is needed! The first and only time Texas has had a Mega-Event was in 2006. That needs to change.

We appreciate your membership, and as always, get out there and enjoy some geocaching!

Membership Benefits Update

posted Oct 26, 2011 1:29 PM by Matthew Manning

Greetings!

As the Membership Director for the Texas Geocaching Association, I just wanted to drop you a note regarding your Membership Benefits. I want to assure you that everything is on track for us to begin mailing out your membership packet. Coins will be arriving within approximately the next week and then we will need time to process and fulfill all of the orders. It is our belief that official members should have their TXGA Geocoin, pathtag and membership badge before Thanksgiving. We know this seems to have taken a long time but please remember that this was a brand new startup and there are a lot of membership packets to process. Thank you for your patience and again for joining us here at the TXGA.

For those who are not members yet, you are still welcome to join and receive membership benefits.

Sincerely,
Diane Cass
Membership Director

Texasgeocaching.com

posted Sep 15, 2011 2:13 AM by Matthew Manning [ updated Sep 15, 2011 2:23 PM ]

I just want to personally thank you all for the feedback you have been providing on the new Texas Geocaching Association website and forums. As you all have noticed, since it launched in late August, the site has been evolving slowly. There have been hiccups with the forums, and changes needed all over the site.

I consider all of the feedback you provide invaluable to making this website a key portal to everything geocaching related in Texas. Without it, I would not keep improving the site, as I wouldn't know what else to do to it.

As a status update, I want to point out that many of you who lost faith in the association before have opted to give us a second chance. To date, over 200 people have applied for membership! I understand that there are still many of you waiting for updates about your membership, and let me assure you that you will not go unanswered. If you don't hear from us within 3 days of applying for membership, send us an email at membership@texasgeocaching.com, so that we can examine the issue further. We are still ironing out all of the kinks in our new membership system, and we appreciate your patience.

Welcome!

posted Aug 26, 2011 10:28 PM by Matthew Manning [ updated Aug 29, 2011 3:36 PM ]

Welcome to the new website for the Texas Geocaching Association (TXGA). We hope that you enjoy your visit with us and decide to become a member. The TXGA is a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to promote geocaching within the state of Texas.

Before you browse through the website, I would like for you to be aware of some of the reasons we are calling this the "new" Texas Geocaching Association.

First this is the "new" TXGA because YOU are a part of it. It can only exist if you participate. We intend to be a positive voice for promoting geocaching throughout Texas and we can only do that with your support and active participation.

Already, the "new" TXGA has been working for you. Recently the San Antonio Municipal Parks banned geocaching and strongly requested that all 599 caches be removed. Within less than one week after this announcement, Cort Ferguson (TXGA South Region Representative, Tank&Spaz) contacted city officials. Through emails and phone calls, he convinced them to rescind the order. They have agreed to continue to allow geocaching as long as the caches are placed with a permit. The TXGA has successfully used a similar process with our state parks system. Thank you, Cort.

The TXGA doesn't plan to just be reactive and step in when we have problems. We intend to approach officials first and create a positive relationship that will allow us to enjoy caching in Texas for years to come.

Throughout the upcoming months, we will be introducing various programs for you to become more involved, but we encourage you to join us now and help us take off. Bottom line, the TXGA is not just a few people; it is all of the geocachers in Texas pulling together.

MEMBERSHIP -- How we are doing it now

Besides a brand new look, we want to make you aware of the new qualifications for becoming a Texas Geocaching member.

Everyone must sign up again to become a Texas Geocaching Member. It doesn't matter if you have signed up before or even if you are on the board of directors, everyone has to re-join the Texas Geocaching Association. This will enable us to organize the membership into a stronger, more cohesive organization.

Unlike the "old" Texas Geocaching Association, we will be requiring annual membership dues. WAIT, don't rush to judge. As a non-profit organization, we will have regular financial reports available to all members (as required by law). Each member who is interested will be able to know where the money is going.

"Where is the money going?" OR "Just what am I paying for?"

Legitimate questions and here is our answer:

As with any large organization, there are always operating costs such as paying for this website.

Although a portion of your annual dues will go the maintenance and support of this website, there are still tangible benefits (SWAG) for each paid, registered member. With each paid registration, a TXGA member will receive both a TXGA geocoin and a TXGA pathtag along with a membership card. They will also be officially registered to vote in all upcoming elections. (And we will have elections.)

We are also working on securing Member Benefits. At present, pathtags.com has told us that any registered TXGA member can receive an optional Metallic finish for free. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has indicated that they want to give TXGA members a discount on an Annual Park Pass, but as with most bureaucracies we are still trying to get this worked out. There are also ongoing discussions for discounts at sporting goods and outdoors stores, etc. The stronger and larger our membership becomes…. the more likely that companies will be willing to offer us these types of benefits.

If you would like, go ahead and click on the Members tab at the top of the page and start registering your TXGA membership.

2012 TEXAS CHALLENGE

We will still be having the Texas Challenge; however, the state organization intends to take a much more active role in assisting the regional hosts. This will allow for a smoother and more consistent event year after year. The next Texas Challenge is going to be held in March 2012 at Lake Ray Roberts. On that evening we will also be having our annual organization meeting and elections.

The website for the 2012 Texas Challenge is already online and open for you to register. Just click on the tab at the top of this page.

AND FINALLY…

The content of this website is for Texas geocachers and should come from Texas geocachers.

We want to encourage all Texas Geocaching members to feel free to submit news, articles and pictures. We want this website to be for all Texas geocachers and their friends.

Thank you for stopping by and again, Welcome to the "new" Texas Geocaching Association.

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