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Starting to place caches


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So... we've found a few (35) caches now, thinking that's enough to start placing our own?

 

We want to start by putting one in the church opposite our house (church micro) as it will be easy to maintain and keep an eye on, and it's a lovely church and we need more visitors. We are thinking we need to get permission from the vicar (we don't have a church warden here at the moment). I know I need to send the info to a member to get a micro number if we do it that way.

 

How far from a church could we do it if we were unable to get permission from the vicar?

 

Thanks

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So... we've found a few (35) caches now, thinking that's enough to start placing our own?

Absolutely - Groundspeak recommend about 20 finds before starting to place your own. By now you should have a good idea about what makes a good cache, a good location and a good (waterproof) container.

We are thinking we need to get permission from the vicar.

You'll need written permission form the vicar to place it on church grounds. E-mail permission is good, as it means you can copy it and paste it in to the reviewer note when you submit your cache. Without proof of permission, a reviewer won't publish a cache placed on church grounds.

How far from a church could we do it if we were unable to get permission from the vicar?

However far is practical based on the situation and proximity of other caches - although if the church can't be seen from GZ, convention dictates that you'd make it a multi, so at least finders would visit the church first.

 

As an owner of a few Church Micro caches myself, I tend to find that if you can get the final location within 0.2 miles of the church, most people seem to expect something like that. If you have to place it further away, I'd recommend a little note on the cache page something to the effect that " The final location is a fair distance from the church due to the proximity of existing caches" or something like that. Perhaps mentioning whether driving or walking to GZ is recommended.

 

If the final is not on Church grounds, only normal permission rules apply - i.e. you should still get permission from the landowner, but you don't have to provide proof to the reviewer.

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Awesome thanks Mellers! We were thinking of emailing to ask the vicar so that should cover all that.

There aren't any caches for miles around, so our plan is to place the church one then go on to (hopefully) get permission from the PCC so we can place some on the common land in the village.

 

There are footpaths through fields here, do we need permission from the PCC or landowners for placing them there?

 

Thanks

:)

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Well worth reading, and reading again, the Guidelines.

 

Also worth reading: https://wiki.Groundspeak.com/display/GEO/United+Kingdom which has the UK Reviewers 'additional' Guidelines.

 

eg. For a cache within church grounds, you will require 'Specific' permission, to prove it's allowed to be placed there, before a Reviewer will publish it...

 

Good Luck with your cache placements! :D

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So... we've just send the vicar an email asking about placing a cache,

 

'Dear Michael,

 

We would very much like to place a Geocache within the churchyard in xxx.

Attached is a leaflet which I hope explains geocaching clearly.

 

The geocache would go within the grounds of the churchyard and would be carefully sited so as not to cause damage or a disturbance. We would be happy to show you the location of the cache, or show you other geocaches in the area so you can see what they are like.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

Victoria and Mary'

 

I've included this link.

 

Hopefully he agrees to it, if he doesn't then we'll have to consider putting it in our front hedge but that might encourage people to pick nuts out of our hedge and we already lose a lot to the pesky squirrels :o

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So... we've just send the vicar an email asking about placing a cache,

 

'Dear Michael,

 

We would very much like to place a Geocache within the churchyard in xxx.

Attached is a leaflet which I hope explains geocaching clearly.

 

The geocache would go within the grounds of the churchyard and would be carefully sited so as not to cause damage or a disturbance. We would be happy to show you the location of the cache, or show you other geocaches in the area so you can see what they are like.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

Victoria and Mary'

 

I've included this link.

 

Hopefully he agrees to it, if he doesn't then we'll have to consider putting it in our front hedge but that might encourage people to pick nuts out of our hedge and we already lose a lot to the pesky squirrels :o

 

We have had a reply from the vicar to say that he doesn't understand the concept and we would need permission from the PCC to place the cache within the church grounds. I'm thinking that as it will be problematic to get permission for each and every cache in the village, that we get general permission for the church yard and the common land within the village. Then any that are on footpaths on land owned by someone, we will get permission separately from the landowner if and when we decide to place them.

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If the PCC say no to them going on the common land and in the churchyard, then we won't be able to put them in the village, other than in people's hedges.

 

Gosh this is a tricky issue. I doubt anyone would even notice there being a few extra people coming through the village and visiting the church.

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Mum has just informed me that the Parochial Church Council (PCC) is different to the Parish Council (also abbreviated to PCC).

So... can't get generic permission for any common land in the village.

 

However, the people on the Parochial Church Council are nice people are very likely to be persuaded to allow a cache within the churchyard, especially if it encourages people to visit the church. But they only meet 4-6 times a year. We need to win the vicar round first, and then hopefully he will help us take it to the PCC.

 

So complicated.

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Mum has just informed me that the Parochial Church Council (PCC) is different to the Parish Council (also abbreviated to PCC).

So... can't get generic permission for any common land in the village.

 

However, the people on the Parochial Church Council are nice people are very likely to be persuaded to allow a cache within the churchyard, especially if it encourages people to visit the church. But they only meet 4-6 times a year. We need to win the vicar round first, and then hopefully he will help us take it to the PCC.

 

So complicated.

 

Have you thought about asking for permission in person? This allows you do better describe the game and let the land manager (LM) see actual cache samples you have brought with you. You can also immediately answer any questions or reservations the LM may have. If you have already identified a potential location for the cache you can show the LM what the cache will look like when placed. Keep in mind for someone who has no idea about geocaching it is difficult to picture what is involved.

 

Good luck with you hiding efforts!

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Mum took the vicar to find a cache in a local churchyard (although didn't manage to find it... <_< )

However, the vicar is for the idea, we just have to sell it to the PCC, which should be ok. We have to write a letter but can include photos and pictures, so my plan is to write a letter and include a couple of photos of caches (up close so as not to give away their locations). We will give the PCC a rough idea of where in the churchyard we will put the cache, (thinking of doing a multi-cache, leading people from the church porch to the war memorial and then to the physical cache).

 

We'll include a picture of the intended container, which will hopefully be large enough to contain swappables (yay)!

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Mum has just informed me that the Parochial Church Council (PCC) is different to the Parish Council (also abbreviated to PCC).

So... can't get generic permission for any common land in the village.

 

However, the people on the Parochial Church Council are nice people are very likely to be persuaded to allow a cache within the churchyard, especially if it encourages people to visit the church. But they only meet 4-6 times a year. We need to win the vicar round first, and then hopefully he will help us take it to the PCC.

 

So complicated.

 

Have you thought about asking for permission in person? This allows you do better describe the game and let the land manager (LM) see actual cache samples you have brought with you. You can also immediately answer any questions or reservations the LM may have. If you have already identified a potential location for the cache you can show the LM what the cache will look like when placed. Keep in mind for someone who has no idea about geocaching it is difficult to picture what is involved.

 

Good luck with you hiding efforts!

I have to agree with this. In areas of sensitivity such as churchyards, in our experience it is far better to arrange a face-to-face with the vicar/reverend/warden. We took along a draft of the cache page, a GPS and the container. We fully explained the concept of Geocaching to them and let them use the GPS to take them to the sensible place we had earmarked for the hide. We assured them that there wouldnt suddenly be throngs of people milling around the churchyard and that we would closeley monitor the area. We provided them with our contact number and stated that would remove it immediately if any problems arose or if they requested it. In all cases, TPTB agreed to the placement.

If TPTB dont fully understand the concept, thier default position will almost certainly be, 'No'.

May be you could ask to attend the next PCC meeting or enter at the AOB stage and give them an informal/short brief?

Good luck.

Edited to add...

We also found that once we had placed 1 cache in a churchyard and it had had a successful and problem-free history, it was worth mentioning to subsequent officials of other churches. The knowledge that other church officials in the area had granted permission, seemed to give them confidence to agree.

Edited by thehoomer
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Sooo... Finally heard back from the PCC. They're very happy for us to place a cache in the churchyard. Although they have pointed out that our proposed site has some potential tripping hazards.

We said in the letter to the PCC that it would be made very clear in the listing that we will be removing the cache if there is lots of noise, etc. Especially at night (it being a small village, there is very little noise in the area so any noise from cachers will cause problems).

 

Thanks!

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