NorthWest Arkansas Cachers

For those of you not on the Arkansas Geocachers Association board, apparently the State Park Service would like to get various geocachers involved in helping to maintain the parkcaches so that out of state geocachers don't find a ball of wet paper mulch. Currently none in the NWA area (well, north of Lake Fort Smith) have been volunteered to be watched from time to time. If anyone up north could help out with the NW Ark parkcaches, send a note to Old River Runner who is heading up the list. As best as I can tell, this is a general call to geocachers, not to just that organization.

If you do have forum access over there, here's the link.

http://www.arkgeocaching.org/modules.ph ... e7d10b2963

Well, since we just found the one at Hobbs State Park, I know where it is I will volunteer to watch that one. How often does it need checking?

Old River Runner is coordinating the project and will let all of the volunteers know the time on checking. I don't think the state has all of teh details hashed out yet.

The ParkCache series has been a great success for the Arkansas State Parks (ASP) and for geocaching in Arkansas. However, due to problems with some of the ParkCaches, such as poor coordinates or being missing or in bad shape, the image of the State Parks and geocaching in Arkansas could be tainted. To address this problem, ASP was approached by the Arkansas Geocachers Association (ArkGeo) about allowing ArkGeo to partner with the State Parks on maintenance of the caches, on a volunteer basis. ASP was agreeable to this. The proposal was discussed at the ArkGeo Board meeting on Friday, January 8, and the Board unanimously approved a motion to enter into a ParkCache maintenance relationship with the State Parks.

ASP has agreed to allow ArkGeo to maintain the ParkCaches in all 52 State Parks. The only cache they will continue to maintain is the bonus ParkCache, The Grand Finale. If you wish to volunteer to maintain one or more ParkCaches in your local area, please send an email to me, Old River Runner (oldriverrunner@hotmail.com), as I have volunteered to coordinate this effort. I need your real name, geocaching name, and email address, and which state park(s) you are volunteering for.

To be perfectly clear, you do not have to be a member of ArkGeo to volunteer for this initiative. You just have to be willing to take on the responsibility for the ParkCache in a state park of your choosing (or multiple state parks, if you are willing). ArkGeo is responsible for coordinating this effort, but we realize that this is a task that should be shared by geocachers across the state, regardless of affiliation, if it is to be successful. It is a great opportunity for geocachers across the state to serve their state and to promote quality geocaching. I hope that members of NWAC can join us in this initiative, as the many state parks in the NW region still need volunteers.

For the current list of volunteers, go to this document.

Arkienana wrote:Well, since we just found the one at Hobbs State Park, I know where it is I will volunteer to watch that one. How often does it need checking?

Please send me an email with the information requested in my previous post and I will get you on our list. Thanks for volunteering! -- ORR

I've drafted some general guidelines for the ParkCache maintenance program and forwarded them to Joe Jacobs at the Arkansas State Parks for review and comment. The ArkGeo Board also has a copy for review and comment. I have scheduled a phone call with Joe for Monday (Jan. 25) to go over them. I hope to get this information distributed to all the volunteers soon thereafter, and post a link to the guidelines on this forum thread.

For your information, we now have 27 parks with volunteers! Thanks to all who have volunteered your service! That leaves 25 state parks without volunteers, so there's still plenty of opportunity to serve your state and your hobby.

I've just reviewed the list of volunteers and we now have all of the state parks in the northwest region covered with volunteers. Thank you, NWAC! I'm also hoping to get volunteers as backups, in case the primary volunteer is unavailable at some point (vacation, illness, etc.) and an issue with the cache needs to be addressed promptly. So there is still an opportunity for service, as none of the NWA state parks have backups yet. Think about and let me know if you are willing to volunteer as a backup.

I'd like to volunteer but, I guess I need to find them first. I'll come back to tis once I have a chance to actually go looking for them.

A big THANK YOU to pshelto for volunteering for Conway Cemetery State Park and to Nicodemus3 for volunteering to serve as backup for Prairie Grove State Park!

Any other volunteers out there???

Anyone got Lake Fort Smith yet?? I know the numbers are missing in it. I can volunteer for it.

I think Jffok and i are on record for that one, but a third backup won't ever hurt. Apparently I missed the fact that the numbers were missing from it.

I did not know the numbers were missing from it either. Ash we are falling down on our jobs. Guess we better get that taken care of.

Have either of you checked since October? I had to e-mail someone to get them. You guys may have already fixed it since I was there last.