SLAGA Board Meeting

January 10, 2019

6:00 PM

Chemical Interchange

Attendees – Steve Bromley, Bill Lange, Patricia Hutchison, Carolyn Jaycox, Jan Salvaggio, Dave DeWitt, John Elfrank, Jason Jaycox

                The meeting was called to order at 5:46 PM.

                Motion to approve the December minutes was made by Carolyn, seconded by Jan. The minutes were unanimously approved.

                The treasurer’s report has been tabled as it was not ready to be presented.

Old Business

• Newsletter – Articles are needed. SLAGA members are encouraged to submit short write-ups of their geocaching adventures to appear in the newsletter and on the SLAGA website. Articles can be submitted to SLAGA via the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. email address.

• Email blast – Save the Date needs to be updated and sent out. Steve has requested anyone who wants their event information included to contact him.

• Event Recap:
  • Christmas Party – The event was very well attended and the Board extends its gratitude to Nan Dabler for hosting and to Terri Nealon for organizing the toy and food drives, both of which were also very successful. Terri Nealon had reported that the recipient charity, Circle of Concern, was very grateful to receive the items, as well as by the generosity shown by our SLAGA members who donated.
  • President’s New Year’s Day Hike – This event was well attended, with about fifty people showing up for the hike around Horseshoe Lake.

• Upcoming Events:
  • 11th Annual Slurpin’ Soup and Watchin’ Eagles – GC80C6K – Village of the Blue Rose, Clarksville, MO
  • SLAGA Winter Potluck & Cabin Fever 2019 – GC802VY – 1/26/19, 9 am-5 pm. Entrees are needed! Volunteers for various jobs are still needed. Please visit the cache page and sign up.
  • 2019 Winter in the Woods Festival – SLAGA will participate in this event with an information booth about geocaching on Saturday, February 2, 2019. The event is scheduled to run between 10 am and 3 pm at Rockwoods Reservation. Volunteers should contact Bill Lange, who will coordinate the carpool meeting point an hour before the event is scheduled to begin.
  • 2019 Spring Picnic – The picnic site in Columbia, IL is reserved for 4/27/19. Steve Bromley is hosting.

• Geocaching 101 Classes
  • The upcoming scheduled classes are: 3/30/19, 6/1/19, and 9/7/19.

• SLAGA Website:
  • Membership list – SLAGA is updating its membership list. To accomplish this, a raffle is being held with the following rules:
    • The 2019 Great SLAGA Membership Raffle
    • All entries must be submitted by midnight, January 15, 2019
    • One entry per user account
    • Prizes:
      • One randomly chosen member will receive a one-year SLAGA Premium Individual or Family membership, a set of SLAGA Fleur de Lis geocoins and a SLAGA Pathtag.
      • Four additional randomly chosen members will receive a one-year SLAGA Premium Individual or Family Membership and a SLAGA Pathtag.
    • Submitted information will be used to update member accounts.

• Budget:
  • The board discussed setting up a budget for the coming events in 2019, which would encompass expected expenses for all SLAGA-sponsored events, such as the Winter Potluck, the Grave Hop and other like events. Steve requested budgets be submitted for discussion at the next meeting.

• SLAGA Volunteer Coin – Steve requested Board members submit proposed criteria for being nominated and for being considered for this award.

• Excellence in Geocaching Award – Steve requested Board members submit proposed criteria for being nominated and for being considered for this award.

• Travel Bug Race – The winners will be announced at the Winter Potluck.

• New Equipment – Bill brought in and demonstrated the new projector and Chromecast devices at the meeting.

• Adopt a Highway – Steve reported hearing from Candy Grisham regarding this issue. There are several stretches of roadway open for adoption, including on Olive Street Road, west of Highway 141. The Board requests more information and alternatives for consideration.

• MOGA:
  • Status – John Elfrank reported on his progress in setting up caches and related items. He has several teams assisting but will accept other volunteers for both set-up processes and to help at the events.
  • Event publishing – Carolyn has taken the lead on promoting the published events on a variety of geocaching Facebook pages. This is ongoing.
  • Tee shirts – Tee-shirts are available as presales only. To order a tee-shirt, visit the MOGA website. So far, there are only 20 shirts sold.

New Business

• Event Photographer – The Board received a suggestion that we appoint an official event photographer to record events and to have photos available for posting to event pages, the SLAGA Facebook page and SLAGA.org. This idea was discussed but the Board has decided not to appoint anyone at this time.

• Action List – Bill proposed that the Board create an ‘action list’ to prevent items from being forgotten between meetings, but this discussion fizzled fairly quickly.

• Award Coins Update – Carolyn reported that she has been unable to procure the Milestone Award coins at this time. The vendor has apparently changed ownership and has been unresponsive to emails. John recommended another vendor and provided contact information for such. It is unknown at this time whether the coins will be available for awards at the Winter Potluck on January 26, 2019.

• Geocaching Adventure Lab Opportunity – SLAGA board members received an email from Groundspeak detailing a new app and an invitation to essentially set up and beta test lab caches in our area. Bill led the discussion about whether to accept the invitation and suggested that the Board nominate Ethan Rogers as the SLAGA representative to undertake this project. Carolyn motioned to accept the invitation, seconded by Jan and passed unanimously. After some phone tag during the meeting, Ethan returned Bill’s call, accepting the appointment. Patricia forwarded the email from Groundspeak which contained a link to fill out the required forms.

Next Meeting

• The next meeting will be held February 7, 2019 at Chemical Interchange at 6:00 pm.
• Adjournment – Motion to adjourn was made by Carolyn, seconded by Bill and passed. Meeting adjourned at 7:57 pm.