Clubmeetings
Clubmeetings are held usually every second sunday of an even month at 4 pm at the Coffeehouse in Normal. However, changes can occur, so check the news or contact a board member!
The Coffehouse and Deli
114 E. Beaufort St.
Normal, IL 61761
N 40 30.567 W 088 59.035
Every clubmember or those who are interested in becoming ones are invited. If you are in doubt on the location or time contact one of our board members. Meetings minutes of former clubmeetings are available on this page.
Aug 19, 2007
Present: Team Jimni, Coachman12, Ge0Jester, Ge0Scavenger, 2golfers, Team MZFD, Gossamar, Peoria Bill, Jordanw_us, AJNormal, racer2814, MutherAndSun, Super_Cacher, Joranda, CYBret
Jun 10, 2007
Present: Team Jimni, Coachman12, Baby Banana's, pengyou, Ge0Jester, Boo2, Jasonm9984, Ge0Scavenger, DixieKats, 2golfers, Team MZFD, Civic Doodie, Gossamar, NebulousNimrod, NoLemon, Corp of Discovery, Peoria Bill, Geomutt951. Review of the picnic yesterday, had somewhere between 70-75 people...A HUGE SUCCESS!! A special thanks goes out to all of the sponsors whom donated door prizes or discounted items. Also thank all those whom helped at the event. 4 new permanent caches also were placed within the park.
2. Forms are now available for all paying members to be filled out, which is to help keep more accurate records. NoLemon also encouraged all members of CIGA to join the forum or keep an more close eye on the forums, within the groups website and to contact NoLemon to activate an account if not already signed up.
3. August event will be held in Normal, Gossamar will be sponsor. Leaning toward ice cream event. Date to be announced later. NoLemon is working on a camping event to be held in September, more details next meeting.
4. Questioned the group of participants on whether a monthly meet and eat would be appropiate or keep them every other month. Interest seemed to be for an every month event of some type.
5. Adopt a highway idea. Team Jimni still following up, but it would appear from another club member that the highway must be maintained 4-times per year.
6. Money generating ideas. Raffle. Coachman12 still researching this option, $25.00 registration fee, depending on county. Geocoins. Paul from the GEONIL group stated that the northern group is very interested in putting out another coin. LEGS group will pass this go-around. With the coin option, members might have the ability to order a more personal coin with the group or state logo for a lesser fee.
7. The CIGA design is to be updated to be better suited for future coin and/or merchandised items.
8. Nolemon talked about becoming a non-profit entity for tax purposes and also possible liability. To do this, the group will most likely need to elect president, vice-president.
9. Bylaws, group will utilize other clubs bylaws to gather ideas and to modify/personalize the guidelines specifically for our group. A timeline has been set to be completed by December-07.
10.Geobash(GCZRVY) will be in July in northern indiana. Currently about 10-club members that we know of are going. Discussion to possibly have a cache caravan on the trip over as a group. A bookmark or querie list will be generated to aid the group on the trip.
11. Fundraising..Jason9984 suggested T-shirts and might have possible connections with a printing company. Will wait till after logo-redesign to gather more details. Also Cafe-Press was mentioned as a site to offer CIGA merchandise. Geocaching U, utilizes this site to market its wares and has been successful.
12. Ideas for geocaching..Muscataine Iowa, bike trail with 20-caches, 30-or more can easily be attained. Would make good day trip, also mentioned was Grants trail in St. Louis, Jefferson Barrack's also in St. Louis. Nolemon will start a thread within the forums for caching trip information.
13. Next club meeting 8/19/07
14. Would like to thank all of those people whom attending tonights club meeting and provided ideas, gave opinions, or even warmed a chair.
..submitted by gossamar
Apr 29, 2007
Present: Gossamar--Tom, Peoria Bill--Bill, Coachman12-Tom, Team Jimmi-Jim & Melissa, NoLemon-KC, Scuba Instructor-Wayne, Guests--Geojester and Geoscavenger1. Review of April breakfast...big success, 75-80 people in attendance and lots of new member dues collected.
2. Coin sale is officially OVER. KC submitted check for $255.50 to the club to be deposited. ALL ILLINOIS GEOCOINS ARE NOW SOLD OUT WITHIN CIGA.
3. With the welcome letter finalized, motion was made for a "welcome committee" to send the letters to people in the respected areas to avoid duplication. Will utilize CIGA website for mailings for a record so duplication is not an issue. Team Jimmi will cover the Peoria and surrounding area, Gossamar will cover Normal area...will need to find a volunteer for the Springfield and possibly Decatur area.
4. June event...6/9/07...Meadow Valley Park-Washington. Gps classes held between 10:00 and 12:noon. Topics/schedule still work in progress. Club will provide Brats/Hot-Dogs, Buns. KC bringing a BIG JUG of iced tea. Other options of beverages are being explored. Gossamar and KC will bring coolers.
5. Still need to create form for new members to sign up and list any family member names.
6. NoLemon...will host an event towards end of May in Peoria/East Peoria area. More details as listing gets posted.
7. August event...Meet and Greet...either NoLemon or Gossamar will host...not sure of details as of yet.
8. Motion made to start holding monthly "Meet and Eats" to keep interest and CIGA name fresh within the local Geocaching Community.
9. Motion to make the bi-monthly club meetings and actual "event-cache" to draw in more people for ideas and participation of club events. Gossamar will set-up the first listing at the CoffeeHouse. Depending on success, alternate locations might need to be considered for future club meetings. Next club meeting will be 6/10/07.
10. Suggestion made for club to join the "Adopt a Highway" program to advertise the club. Team Jimmi will research commitment required for the program.
11. With coin sales now complete, new fundraisers will be needed to continue our sponsoring of events. NoLemon will contact GONIL about re-issuing an Illinois Geocoin. The LEGS group was not interested in another coin sale. Other ideas include having a raffle for a new GPS. Coachman12 will research the necessary permits needed for this type of fundraising event.
12. Board member attendance, it was decided tonight after a few months of discussion to have board members be present in at least 4 of the 6 yearly meetings or sacrifice their position. With the recent finalization of treasurer duties passed from Pattytracker to Peoria Bill, we now have 2-open board positions. Interested parties should contact a current board member or attend a monthly meeting to express their interest.
13. A need to re-examine the bylaws and attain more structure within the group and designate a point person. Election of a President, Vice-President, and Treasurer should soon follow.
14. A contact list or email list within the CIGA website for the board members needs to be fine-tuned. This will allow easy communication between members to further discuss ideas, issues, works in progress, and for meeting attendance confirmation.
submitted by gossamar 2/18/07
Feb 18, 2007
Present: Gossamar--Tom, Peoria Bill--Bill, Coachman12-Tom, Cutie-in-IL-Jim & Melissa, Guests--Dan-laxusa13 and Dave Jones1. A Review on the last meet and eat sponsored by Gossamar. Had 30-35 people in attendance, and ran out of room at Panera bread. 4-members paid dues that evening.
2. Next event on April 7th at Shooters Buffet in Normal, Gossamar in sponsor. Agreed to spend $100.00 for door prizes. Will solicite local stores for donations.
3. June event...cookout..Cutie-in-Il are sponsors. Have made initial contacts, but nothing concrete as of yet.
4. Welcome letter. A welcome letter has been approved..one to post on the website and one for CIGA members to send over email to new cachers in the area. Jim/Melissa(Cuties-in-IL) will send the web version to Kerstin to place on website. Group was thinking that a "Welcome" tab could be added at the top as a place for the letter. Possibly move the "Home" tab over and place "Welcome" tab between the "Home" and "Activities" tab.
5. Another form was suggested for members of CIGA. This form would include Name, Geocaching login, Town, Phone number(optional), and Email address. This form would be utilized to generate a member list and make contacting members easier. Gossamar will work on form and post to board group for feedback.
6. A new member list will be generated with the new dues that are collected for the 2007 year.
7. Peoria Bill has accepted Treasurer duties and is workin on the final details of the transition with Pattytracker. Bill also disclosed to the group the current financial status and current members paid.
8. Webmaster(Kerstin) if a notice could be placed on the webpage reminding members who have not paid dues for the 2007 year to please do so. Peoria Bill is now treasurer and dues can be mailed to him.
9. Decision was made for family dues to CIGA. If children are still living at parents address and are in college, they would fall under the parent login name for dues.
10. Coachman12 proposed and idea from him and Nolemon about some small member tags to be handed out with dues. Initial start-up costs would be about $200.00 for the first batch, with some resales possible later to generate funds for the group. Nolemon was going to work on a design. More as it becomes available.
11. Next club meeting on 4/29/07.
submitted by gossamar 2/18/07
Dec 10, 2006
Present: Gossamar, Kerstin76, Cuties in IL, DixieKats, Nebulous Nimrod, Pengyou, Gem Cachers, 2golfers1. A quick review of the November Meet and Eat in East Peoria. Peoria Bill was not available for a complete review, but it was estimated that 30-40 people attended, event was deemed very successful especially with some of the new cachers in attendance.
2. Discussion about a welcome letter to new cachers in the area to inform them about the CIGA group, membership and general questions. Gossamar will draft a copy then distribute to various members for final input. Letter would then be sent geographically by board/club members to new cachers in thier respected area.
3. Approximately 25-Illinois Geocoins are still available through NoLemon, sales benefit the CIGA organization.
4. Treasurer duties still are in motion to be transferred from Pattytracker to Peoria Bill. With member dues coming January 1st, website will need to be updated to reflect new mailing address for member dues.
5. On December 17th, there is a farewell party/event for Kerstin76. The event listing is "Happy Trails". Kerstin is leaving the area, actually the country to pursue her career. As such, Kerstin has resigned her post as a board member. We wish her well in her new endevours and work druing her time with the board group. Kerstin will still manage the website.
6. 2Golfers also resigned their post on the board. With some new cachers taking an interest in the group, they decided it was time to let some new faces be part of the organization. The original term for a board member was never really set in stone as there was not much interest from other cachers to join the board group, thus leaving the "original core group" to continue the work for the club. However, recently some of the newer geocachers have expressed interest in the club, thus 2golfers decided it was time. The board thanks them for all of the time and effort and hard work over the past few years.
7. The CIGA group now has 2-open board positions, one of which was filled tonight by Cuites in IL. They volunteered thier services to the board. Board voted unamiously(?) to vote Cuties in IL to one of the open spots. This still leaves one open board member spot open. Anyone interested should contact the CIGA group, send an email to one of the current board members, or they can also attend one of our club meetings to voice an interest in the position. The next club meeting will be 2/18/07.
8. A suggestion was made to review the bylaws and modify some of the statements in regards to board terms.
9. A motion was also made to move the club meetings further back in the month to adjust for differing work schedules among board/club members, and as such the next club meeting will be moved back one weekend and will happen on 2/18/07.
10. There will be a Meet and Eat on January 30th in Bloomington. Gossamar will be the sponsor and it will be held at one of the Panera Bread locations. More details to follow.
11. There will be a spring breakfast held on April 7th. Gossamar will be the sponsor, location will be Shooters Buffet in Normal.(summer cache bash location)
12. An event for June in in the planning stages around the Peoria area. Cuties in IL will research locations. Looking at possibly a cookout.
13. On April 14th, there will be a GPS class held in Mt. Zion at Spitler Woods state park. This is the same class held north of bloomington that is sponsored by the park district. CIGA has once again been solicited with helping support the class. Any interested cachers whom want to help with this class should contact Gossamar as the number of volunteers needed is limited. Gossamar has agreed to help, but any member of CIGA is more than welcome to support this event.
14. There was a concern about some of the recent members signing up on the forums having nothing to do with geocaching, but sales. After small discussion, it was determined that based on our limited access to key software that would block these people, the webmasters should periodically delete those individuals.
15. A suggestion was also made that new members signing up with CIGA, if done through the website, should receive a welcome letter or acknowledgement that the fees have been received. An updated member list should also be generated some time in January to reflect some of the recent changes. CIGA should also look at generating a member renewal letter to those current members reminding them of the new year and dues fees. Dues are $10.00 per login name per year. Dues help pay for the website, but mostly are for door prizes/supplies to various events. Board members receive no compensation from dues or any other source for thier services to the club.
16. CIGA should also start generating letters to the various club members alerting them to club sponsored events and not everyone watches the website with regularity or has the search within thier home query.
17. More effort will be made in the upcoming year to have a CIGA sponsored trip, most likely to St. Louis for a day/weeked of caching.
18. MOGA was briefly discussed and possibly volunteering with SLAGA to support the event. There is a growing number of CIGA members going to this event in March.
19. CIGA would like to THANK all of those who attend tonights club meeting and reiterated that next club meeting will be held on 2/18/07.
submitted by Gossamar....12/10/06
Oct 15, 2006
Present: Gossamar, Coachman12, Team MZFD, 2Golfers, Kerstin76, Peoria Bill1. Discussed recent Meet and Eat held in Bloomington, sponsored by Gossamar. Had 25-30 in attendance, with a few new cachers joining the event.
2. Discussed at next club meeting, 12/10/06, drafting a letter to send to new cachers in each of the board members areas to inform and generate interest in the club, hopefully leading to new members.
3. Decatur event...attendance numbers a little low with one week to go, will post on the event listing reminding those people on the fence to please sign up for food purposes. Kerstin will also generate a mass mailing to members from the CIGA website as further reminders.
4. 12/5/06...Peoria Meet and Greet..sponsored by Peoria Bill, watch for listing soon.
5. A note was made to contact KC in regards to the clubs Illinois Geocoin inventory.
6. Pattytracker has asked Peoria Bill to take over duties as treasurer. Will update website once things are final. Present board members okay'd the change.
7. We also will follow-up with Patty on the status of our name badges for the board members.
8. Briefly discussed MOGA, the listing is up and registration has begun.
meeting adjourned.
submitted by Gossamar, 10/15/06
Aug 13, 2006
Present: 2golfers, Team MZFD, Kerstin76, Peoria Bill, Gossamar1. Discussed recent success of the Champaign event and how many new cachers were in attendance.
2. Discussed fall cook-out event in Decatur, 10/21/06, to be held at Spitler Woods. This is same place as last years event. Budget $100.00 for door prizes. Minimal food items should be needed as we stocked up during the Champaign event. Gossamar to bring firewood. A note will be posted if people are interested in camping or not to let the group know. Currently, campsites have not been reserved.
3. There will be a Meet and Eat either in Decatur or Bloomington on 9/12/06. 2Golfers and Gossamar will be researching Panera Bread as a possible location.
4. A possible Meat and Eat will be held in Peoria on 12/5/06. More details to follow.
5. A note will be sent to the treasurer to get an update on club funds so that this number will be available at the next meeting.
6. The meeting room has been reserved for the remainder of the year. The next club meeting will be held on 10/8/06 and again on 12/10/06 at 4:00 p.m. at The Coffeehouse(downstairs) in downtown Normal.
7. Plans for a fall geocaching trip have been postponed until the spring. Possible locations include the St. Louis area or Chicago/Lake Michigan area.
...meeting closed at 5:00 p.m.
submitted by Gossamar 8/13/06
Jun 11, 2006
Apr 09, 2006
Jan 29, 2006
Attending:Gossamar, Peoria Bill, Kerstin76, Brother R, 2Golfers, Alacrity, Pattytracker, Pengyou, NoLemon
- Discussed membership and finances. Pattytracker brought bank statements to verify the financial record for the club. It was also noted that Gossamar and Peoria Bill are now co-treasurers to aid in dispersement of funds when needed. Last year we had approximately 25 paid members. Currently we have 15-paid members. An announcement will be made at the Peoria Breakfast for membership dues if people are interested in joining. Dues goes to website fees, door prizes and supplies for various club sponsored events. NoLemon stated that the first deposit from the Illinois Coin Sale should be available soon for the club. Financial numbers shall be kept within the board group.
- A motion was made by the board to allow interested parties to have access to the website to "freshen it up" a bit. If the project is a success, then further discussions in regards to the future of the website will be discussed by the board. CIGA will remain in control of the domain name.
- A Breakfast Event Cache will be held on March 4th, 2006. Peoria Bill is the sponsor, and will explore possible news potentials through the local news media. 2Golfers brought a ready made CIGA sign in book with markers and name tags for the event. This book will be used for all CIGA events where applicable. Pattytracker and NoLemon will explore making permanent name badges for board members to be worn at events. Regular club member badges may follow at a later date. We will also have cache listings and a map for those out of town cachers. No event caches will be placed, but the idea of an escort by more experienced cachers for the newbie cachers will be explored.
- Earthday is 4/22/06. Gossamar will contact Ewing Park stewards(per an earlier email from pengyou) about setting up an event for a possible CITO.
- A motion was made by the board to accept to new board members to replace non-attending members. Alacrity and Kersten76 will now be placed on the board of CIGA.
- Discussion was made to have meetings held every other month at the basement of the Coffeehouse due to central location for all members. Gossamar contacted the Coffeehouse on 1/30/06 to discuss reservations. Gave the next two meeting dates and expect return call within 1-2 days to confirm or deny request. Alternate sites might need to be explored. The next two club meeting dates are 4/9/06 and 6/11/06 at 4:00 p.m.
- The next event after the breakfast will be held in Springfield on 5/6/06 and will be sponsored by Pengyou and TeamCooper. The next event will be held in Champaign on 7/15/06 and be sponsored by Kersten76 and possibly Diggles & Liggles.
- NoLemon updated the coin status, no shipments as of yet. As of 1/29/06 there will still about 40-coins available to purchase from the CIGA club. In addition, NoLemon stated that an individual group coin among the 3-Illinois clubs is being discussed, but nothing set in stone yet.
- Discussion was also made to have all future events be sponsored by CIGA and have the hosting member after the club name. This gives CIGA some credibility when soliciting future events and or business transactions.
- MOGA was also discussed. Who was going from the club, where are people staying, etc. If weather is nice, possible campfire chat will be held at Gossamar's campsite during the event. Details to be worked out as event date comes closer.
Submitted by Gossamar 1/30/06
Sep 18, 2005
Present:- gossamar
- Peoria Bill
- 2golfers
- Ma & Pa
- Nolemon
- Coachman12
- Team Mclm
- Team Cooper
- Ajnormal
- Most discussion was on the upcoming event cache in October sponsored by 2golfers and crew. 2golfers will provide hot dogs and buns with condiments to be reimbursed by CIGA after costs have been tallied. Nolemon will provide a turkey fryer for making French fries or other fried goodies. Each participant is asked to bring a dish to pass of their choice and any hot-dog sticks to cook with. Gossamar will provide firewood if the park does not provide. There will also be small fridge available for those items requiring refrigeration. Keep an eye on the event cache page for future updates.
- Some discussion was made this weekend at the northern geo-picnic about the three Illinois groups (Geonil, CIGA, LEGS) in going together to have an Illinois geocoin minted. More discussion on this topic will come in the next few months, most likely initiated by the Geonil group.
- There is still much discussion in trying to have some sort of monthly meeting, like a meet and eat with major events taking place each quarter. The next meet and eat is scheduled for Bloomington on 12/8/05, Peoria on 1/18/06. Peoria will also host the next breakfast event sometime in March. There is also a tentative meet and eat planned for Springfield in February, more details as the area is researched by Team Cooper and pengyou.
Meeting adjourned for food at 5:00 p.m.....
Submitted by gossamar
Apr 17, 2005
Present Tom-Gossamar Richard-Brother R Stephanie-Team MZFD Steve & Luise-2Golfers KC-NoLemon Aubrey J-AJNormal Bill-Peoria Bill Tom-Coachman122Golfers, BrotherR, Coachman12, NoLemon, TeamMZFD attended the MOGA event down in Missouri last weekend. Said the event was a BLAST and we should all plan to attend next year. The event was proffesionally planned, initiated and followed-up upon at various stages of the event. The events were planned in a timely manner and several milestones were achieved on the trip. Cache numbers for the event was in the mid 40's over the course of the two days. Overall a very positive experience and the CIGA group was probably the next largest outside of the MOGA members sponsoring the event. Stephanie provided a nice slide show of pictures from the event. After the MOGA discussion, business was attended to:
-
1. A Summer Cache Bash will be held on Saturday, June 25th in Normal. The event will start at 8:00 a.m. with breakfast at Shooters Buffet(same as Normal Breakfast EventCache) and reservation has been confirmed as of 4/18/05. . The goal is to hide 25 caches in the Bloomington-Normal area. Current caches in the area will be considered as part of the 25, but no firm decision has been made as of yet. Gossamar is the contact for this event.
1a. Peoria Bill will be emailing a detailed map of the Bloomington-Normal parks that will be used as a template for the above event.
2. 2Golfers suggested creating a tempory cache log to log these event caches. They brought a sample from one of the past MOGA events. This allows the event cache to be more easily managed. A temporary event log cache will be submitted prior to the event and disabled for logging as per the discussion.
3. Another nifty idea was presented from one of the LEGS events. A picture page was presented that had about 9 photos on it. These photos were taking in the area of some of the LEGS caches. The goal was to match the picture with the cache. Each picture had 4 or 5 choices to choose from.
4. Bill mentioned maybe creating a FRS radio frequency designation for the club. The channel number 2, secure code 33(2.33) was given as an option. Members of MOGA use this frequency. Most of the newer FRS radios do have this secondary privacy code, but many of the older ones do not. FRS radios could be used for event caches or other group caching.
5. A fall event will be planned for October at Decatur in the Spitler Woods park. This will be more of an evening/cook-out event with the activities starting mid-day rather than morning. An exact date will be determined within the week after a check of reservation availability. 2Golfers is the contact for this event. There may be some tent camping available, more information to follow.
6. More discussion about a Geocaching class sponsored by the group. Gossamar is working with BroMenn Community Wellness in assisting a Geocaching class in the early part of June. Some more club involvement might be needed after final class outline is approved. Details will follow when available.
7. Discussed have all persons participating in the CIGA discussion groups to register a login name. Guests will have the ability to view and read forums, but not the ability to post replys. NoLemon mentioned that the Geocaching forums are set-up in this same manner.
8. Next club meeting will be held on May 22nd, 2005 at 4:00 p.m. at the Coffeehouse in downtown Normal. Most discussion will be centered around the upcoming summer cache bash and details on the fall cook-out event.
Submitted by gossamar 4/18/05
Feb 22, 2005
Greetings, here is a breakdown of today's meeting held at the coffeehouse. Club meeting held 2/20/05 at 4:00 p.m. CoffeeHouse, Normal
Attending:
Tom-Gossamar
Steve & Luise-2Golfers
Stephanie-Team MZFD
Richard-Brother R
Aubrey-AJNormal
- Decatur Event Breakfast final preparations are being done. 6-event cache sites have been scouted and a few others potential cache sites possibly for a total of 10-new caches in Decatur for the day. Event starts at 9:00 a.m.
- Journal survivors cache---tabled for later meeting
- Standard form or format for members/non-members to be able to download for seeking approval in park districts either local or state. Will discuss in further at Breakfast to see what is needed to get a form on the web.
- Other website to do lists include having a form to print out and mail with dues to a member of CIGA, most likely PattyTracker.
- Geocache training at a Public Facility. Gossamar mentioned that he was approached by BroMenn's Community Wellness Department if there was interest in helping facilitate a class. Of course the response was a BIG YES!! Stated that we could have other CIGA members help with class, GPS's and such in exchange for getting our name out there. Have not heard any further developement as of yet.
- Still floating the idea of a cache to do for the month or a top 5 list. Tabled for another meeting.
- Discussed some paperless caching with present attendees. Showed some ins/outs of "CacheMate" using the Palm handhelds.
- Next Club meeting 4/17/05 at 4:00 p.m. CoffeeHouse, Downtown Normal.
Submitted by gossamar 02/22/05
Jan 16, 2005
Greetings, here is a breakdown of today's meeting held at the coffeehouse.Attending:
- Tom-Gossamar
- Bill-Peoria Bill
- KC-NoLemon
- Steve & Luise-2Golfers
- Ray-Papa Ray
- Aubrey-AJnormal
- Tom-Coachman12
TOPICS:
- Decatur Breakfast Event cache will be held on March 5th, 2005 at the Old Country Buffet. 2Golfers are the contacts for this event. They plan on 5 event only caches and hope to have about 5-10 new caches up and running before the event..
- There is a Chicago Event Breakfast scheduled for 1/22/05. Gossamar and Peoria Bill plan to attend and if others are interested in going they should contact one of them. Tenative plans are to meet in Chenoa at around 6:30 a.m. at the fuel station in front of McDonalds.
- A few new ideas were proposed for future event caches, one to have a "Survivors JOURNAL" or maybe a "Surviving Foundulac". Event Cache would be held towards the end of summer tentatively.
- Reproposed the idea of a universal form to be used by CIGA members in seeking approval for placement of caches.
- Talked again about having a Public Training class at a local library. Wildcountry is sponsoring a class in Normal, so maybe Peoria might be a better local.
- KC-NoLemon is still working out details for the first "Meet and Eat" to be held in Peoria. Tenative plans are for meeting at Donnely's in early Febuary.
- There is still interest in creating a "Must Do" list for caches. This list could be updated monthly with 5 caches within our territory, or special ones outside of our range.
- Need to create a Membership page to answer questions from interested individuals. There was a post recently on the boards with those questions asked and we currently have no recourse. The questions proposed by the individual were very thought provoking and provided some insight on how we can continue to improve our organization and website. These questions dealt with Dues payment and reasons for joining.
- The question was proposed tonight as to whether the "board" meetings were open meetings for the membership. The answer from among the group was YES. All of the board meetings have an open door policy where members can attend and provide input. With that said, we will change the title of the meetings from "Board" to "CLUB" meetings. Also, we will move the location of the meetings to the CoffeeHouse in Normal. While WILDCOUNTRY is a good meeting spot, recent changes in the store hours and number of members attending the meetings have made this location less fesible for a productive meeting.
- The next CLUB meeting will be held Febuary 20th 2005 at 4:00 p.m. at the CoffeeHouse in Normal. GPS coords will be available soon.
Submitted by gossamar 1/17/05
Dec 05, 2004
Greetings, here is a breakdown of today's meeting held at the coffeehouse.Attending:
- Gossamar
- Peoria Bill
- NoLemon
- 2Golfers
- BrotherR(2-golfers son)
- Coachman12
TOPICS:
- Discussed the past 3 CIGA events and the impact that they had. Commented on the Breakfast Huge Success, the amount of trash collected at the CITO event, and our presence at the Orienteering event. Was curious as to the current member status/number of CIGA, Patty can shed light on this at next meeting.
- Discussed some training in the upcoming year at the board meetings or even some of the event caches. Some possible ideas:
- Orienteering..having a member come to a meeting to present
- Paperless caching. Something new that is catching on, and easier ways to implement have been found versus what is listed in Geocaching-U website.
- Developed a standard form and/or presentation standard for the park districts, DNR or other areas needing permission for caches. Suggested presenting the idea of geocaching as a group rather than individually. Perhaps we can tap some of the already established cache owners for their list of contacts and or tips.
- A spring breakfast event cache is tentatively planned for March 5th, 2005 in Decatur. In discussing the past events, we thought would be good to have the event hosted someplace new. Old Country Buffet in Decatur would be a possibility and to be confirmed at a later date. 2Golfers will be the contact for this event and possibly TEAM MZFD. Also discussed some possible door prizes with the dues that have been collected. PeoriaBill mentioned that most companies for charitable work require paperwork and a 6-week turn around time. This will need to be noted for solicitation by the group members.
- Discussed possibly having an "Open door meeting" to the public to answer questions about GPS receivers, GEOCACHING. Would most likely be held at a local library in one meeting rooms. Could also contact library staff about our group and if people are asking questions to refer them to us.
- NoLemon suggested possibly having a local meet & eat event on a monthly or bi-monthly time frame to keep interest in the club going. Also, by having the CIGA name show up on the new cache search could bring in new members. LEGS does something like this now. Perhaps CyBret can offer some insight. NoLemon will coordinate the first one by the end of January.
- Having the group do a TOP TEN of caches for the year, or ones that are CIGA approved as voted by the group. Perhaps an online poll and/or voting could be utilized.
- The next CIGA BOARD MEETING IS: SUNDAY, JANUARY 16TH 2005.
We will meet at Wildcountry and most likely end up at coffeehouse, this can be kind of a SHOW & TELL for those cool X-MAS gifts you received.
Submitted by gossamar 12/5/04
Oct 24, 2004
No meeting minutes are available for this meeting.Oct 10, 2004
The meeting started at 4:15 at The Coffee House after we walked over from Wild Country.There were nine people at the meeting; Peoria Bill, No Lemon, Coachman 10, Alacrity, Scuba Instructor, S10, Gossamer, myself and my husband Marvin.
- Event Planning
-NORMAL Breakfast Cache (GCKTPF)
- Location Flying Wolf was not there to tell us what he has found out about a restaurant. Gossamer will contact him to get as much info as he can to get the event scheduled and turned into Geocaching.com.
- Time Nov 6, 2004 9:00 (Saturday)
- Costs – to be determined by restaurant chosen
- Cache Page – Those of us that have seen it, appreciated it.
- Event Caches – Not really an event but more information on the planned event cache; There will be six caches hidden in the Bloomington/Normal area hidden just for the day of our Breakfast Event Cache. These will not be on the Geocaching website. Anyone interested, that attends the event, will be able to log them by logging the event as many as seven times, counting the event itself. There will be something specific made that they will need to find and verify to the cache owner that they have found it. It will basically be on the honor system though.
- Misc. Topics – I will contact all the members of ICACHE as well as Brad Smalley to see if they are interested in CIGA before the next planning meeting on Oct. 24th.
- CIGA Web Page – Pengyou was not there so we tabled the discussion until the next meeting.
- CIGA Charter/Bylaws – review text..post comments to web? - We decided to go over these at the event and let all those that become members vote on the bylaws as they are or revise them if needed, by a majority vote.
- Dues – to be determined by a majority vote at the event cache by those wanting to join the club.
- Logo for web pages – We all still liked your idea of the state of IL with the Doppler screen over it.
- Selection of Board Members – Another item to do at the event cache.
- Time and place for next meeting – Next meeting is to be Oct.24th. We will again meet at Wild Country and decide if we will stay there or go back over to the Coffee House. Classes are now over for the year so we will probably be able to meet at Wild Country. We will discuss any loose ends for the Beakfast Event Cache.
The meeting adjourned at 5:15. Please send any corrections to Patty Durre
Posted 10/14/04.
Oct 3, 2004
Hi everyone,I just want to thank everyone for showing up today to help get a new club going here in Central Illinois. With having not one person in charge, but a whole board, I think this is going to work out for all of us. I just want to reiterate that our next meeting is planned for next Sunday, Oct. 10, at the Coffee House at 4:00. We will be discussing our first Club meeting to be held as an event breakfast on November 6th and other matters to get our club going.
Here is the list of names, Geocaching names and email addresses for those present today as well for cacher 8913 who was out of the country today. If something should come up and you are unable to attend next Sunday, please let one of us know.
| NAME | GEOCACHING NAME | EMAIL ADDRESS |
|---|---|---|
| Patty Durre | Pattytracker | pattytracker(at)insightbb.com |
| Todd McCartney | Flying Wolf | tandn(at)mchsi.com |
| Tom Hankins | Gossamar | buford.hound(at)verizon.net |
| Dave Beedle | Alacrity | dbeedle(at)yahoo.com |
| Dick Smith | 8913 | mdsscuba(at)gte |
| George Rompot | pengyou | grompot(at)ameritech.net |
| William Crisp | Peoria Bill | wicrisp(at)insightbb.com |
| Tom Hardyman | Coachman 12 | tomhardyman(at)aol.com |
Patty Durre