[chstress53]

This thread is for anyone working on the Earthcache Master Pins. I have sent my info off for the Bronze Pin and have some requirments already under my belt for the Silver Pin. Eventually I hope to have the Gold & Platinum Pins also. This is way cool!! Anyone else becoming Earthcache Masters?

[TerryDad2]

I'm working on earning them for real. (I've been awared an honary place at platnum the platnum level for the number I've placed) My problem is finding them to visit. I'm up to the silver I think.

I've been told there is one other person that is up the platnum level.

[chstress53]

TerryDad2, on Jul 24 2006, 12:53 AM, said:

I'm working on earning them for real. (I've been awared an honary place at platnum the platnum level for the number I've placed) My problem is finding them to visit. I'm up to the silver I think.

I've been told there is one other person that is up the platnum level.

Wow, I am extremely impressed. Congratulations on setting a puzzle cache in Acadia. I wish it was up. My son and his family were just on vacation there and would have loved to do an Earthcache there. Were you one of the cachers to get the grant?

[TerryDad2]

I merely "consulted" on the puzzle in Acadia. I hope they do get it up soon. They are treading very carefully so that the program doesn't get nixed.

Yes, I also got a grant. I went through Arizona hitting 5 or so Monuments and parks. I'm still waiting for technical review on a few of the caches by the parks. At times they do have other stuff to do.

[shearzone]

chstress53, on Jul 23 2006, 06:52 PM, said:

This thread is for anyone working on the Earthcache Master Pins. I have sent my info off for the Bronze Pin and have some requirments already under my belt for the Silver Pin. Eventually I hope to have the Gold & Platinum Pins also. This is way cool!! Anyone else becoming Earthcache Masters?

I have applied twice for the bronze level pin, but I have yet to hear a response from the GSA. I can't imagine that the GSA is so swamped with earthcache masters applications that they do not have time to reply my application. To become a bronze earthcache master, you must 'visit and log three or more Earthcaches in two (2) or more states/countries'. I have visited six earthcaches (five in British Columbia, one in Alberta). The only reason I can think of is that the GSA does not recognize provinces as the Canadian equivalent of states. It seems to me that finding earthcaches in two or more provinces is harder than two or more states, because 1) there are fewer earthcaches in Canada, and 2) most provinces are larger than most states. I am one earthcache away from being at the silver level, but it's a long way to the next earthcache outside of Alberta or BC (Ontario or Idaho are the nearest).

[8Nuts MotherGoose]

I just read the information today. I have enough to claim a bronze. Sure wish there was a way to tell the difference between Waymark and Geocache Earthcaches. I had to scroll through the whole list just to find out that there are no new ones in Iowa, I've visited all of them. None within 100 miles of me. I guess I better get busy and create one.
I live on an old river bed that was part of the Mississippi River when it was flowing full of glacial melt. Peat is harvested (open pit mined?) just down the road. No roadside pull-offs, and most is just corn and bean fields.
Where do I start? Perhaps a discussion on sedimentary/organic buildup from a waterway to swamp to wetland to ... Well, ecological progression? Is a Multi allowed in Earth Caches? It would be 20 miles long I think.
My brain got engaged, I better stop here and make some notes elsewhere on my computer.

[TerryDad2]

shearzone, on Aug 15 2006, 02:36 PM, said:

I have applied twice for the bronze level pin, but I have yet to hear a response from the GSA. I can't imagine that the GSA is so swamped with earthcache masters applications that they do not have time to reply my application.

There is only one guy at GSA that is running the program. He was on vacation for a while. I had a few new earthcaches wait for a few weeks until he got back. Did you apply recently?

[ODragon]

Do you know if you apply for silver if you automatically get the bronze or do you have to fill out the form for each?

[TerryDad2]

ODragon, on Aug 16 2006, 12:07 PM, said:

Do you know if you apply for silver if you automatically get the bronze or do you have to fill out the form for each?

While I don't know for sure, I would go with filling the form out for each one.

[chstress53]

ck and received a reply that you need to fill out all forms, with the details of each Earthcache.

[shearzone]

shearzone, on Aug 15 2006, 01:36 PM, said:

I have applied twice for the bronze level pin, but I have yet to hear a response from the GSA. I can't imagine that the GSA is so swamped with earthcache masters applications that they do not have time to reply my application. ... I am one earthcache away from being at the silver level, but it's a long way to the next earthcache outside of Alberta or BC (Ontario or Idaho are the nearest).

I take the first part back, I recieved my bronze pin in the mail today! It looks great, thanks GSA! I think I'll wear it to Edmonton's next event. Now, just one more EC outside of Alberta and BC and I'll get a silver pin.

This post has been edited by shearzone: 21 August 2006 - 07:57 PM

[geoaware]

Hi all

The EarthCache Masters porject was set up to reward people for learning more about our planet by visiting EarthCaches. I think its great that so many people are taking on the challenge!

Just a few points to help people through the process...

1. You need to apply for all levels i.e. apply for bronze first, then silver. Applying for silver alone does not mean you will be sent a bronze pin as well.
2. You can use the same caches for each level. i.e. you can use the first three that you obtained bronze towards your silver level.
3. You must fill in the form completely...if you do not fill in the country/state field it will not be approved.
4. State/country/province.....I take all these into consideration. The object is to get people to travel further than their home town.

As TerryDad2 mentioned, the entire EarthCache program (approvals, pins, grants etc) is run by just one person. Sometimes I travel for work, am sick, or have a holiday. I try and clear things away as soon as I can....so please be patient if things don't seem to clear quickly.

So....go out and get them EarthCaches...and lets see if we can get a whole group of Platinum level Masters.

Oh....before I forget....on Sunday 8 Octover at 1pm we are trying to get a series of Event Caches set up related to EarthCaches. This is the first real launcg of EarthCaches...and it happens to fall on the first day of Earth Science Week as well. If you want to get involved....just send me an email at glewis@geosociety.org.

Cheers to all

Geoaware

[The Blue Quasar]

That's kinda cool! I didn't know about this program, and this would be a great goal.. For anyone that is looking for this, look here at EarthCache Masters

Thanks!

The Blue Quasar

[TerryDad2]

Anyone else setting up an Earthcache Event for Earth Science Week?

I've set up an Earthcache for Earth Science Week Event.

This kind of event would be a good way to get people interested in the program and show them that earthcaches exist on both gc.com and waymarking.com

[chstress53]

I sent off an inquiry to geoware regarding creating an Earthcacche event. It depends on theeir response back to me.

[TerryDad2]

Earthcache.org has a list of earthcache oriented events that are set up for Earth Science week. It would be a good way to get people started toward meeting the requirements for the pins.

Unfortunately there are only 2 listed in the entire world and one is mine.

[Jake39]

Never knew about this program until I read this 'Forum Link'.
Mailed away my info a week ago and received my "BRONZE PIN" this week already.
..Hi ho, hi ho - off for silver I go

[PAWSitraction]

I got to tell a few people about the Earthcache pins this weekend when they did one of our ECs. They'd never heard of it but thought it was really cool and were going to look into it.

[TerryDad2]

I put a link to the incentive pin page on each of my earthcaches to try to generate some interest and visibility.

From the responses, it appears that very few people know about them.

[Mr.Yuck]

Jake39, on Sep 23 2006, 05:01 PM, said:

Never knew about this program until I read this 'Forum Link'.
Mailed away my info a week ago and received my "BRONZE PIN" this week already.
..Hi ho, hi ho - off for silver I go

Yep, Bronze came surprisingly fast, as long as Geoaware wasn't on vacation I've been eligible for Silver for quite some time, just never filled out the form. Of couse I'll have to place a 2nd earthcache to eventually become gold.

[South Surrey Scavengers]

I wouldn't mind getting an Earthcache incentive pin but the number of earthcaches in my area that are not mine are pretty limited. Maybe the pins should consider the number of hides a bit more.

I would have loved to host an Earthcache event and I would have done it at any other time but I just finished hosting a CITO event and I'm off on vacation shortly. If it's going to be an annual event I'll be there next year.

[PAWSitraction]

South Surrey Scavengers, on Sep 26 2006, 01:44 AM, said:

I wouldn't mind getting an Earthcache incentive pin but the number of earthcaches in my area that are not mine are pretty limited. Maybe the pins should consider the number of hides a bit more.

I would have loved to host an Earthcache event and I would have done it at any other time but I just finished hosting a CITO event and I'm off on vacation shortly. If it's going to be an annual event I'll be there next year.

The requirements, number-wise, aren't really all that onerous - you only need 3 finds for your first pin. However, they do need to be in a minimum of 2 separate political-boundary zones: 2 different states, provinces, or countries. There's 20 o(on GC.com. I didn't check Waymarks; there may be more.) within a 300-mile radius of one of your Earthcaches in SW BC that aren't yours, by the way.

To get the more advanced pin levels, yes, it's considerably more challenging. I'm "stuck" on Silver right at the moment, both because of number of finds and the number of states / provinces / countries requirement. We'd had the requisite number of EC finds to qualify for Silver for a few months, but couldn't get the state requirement. They want people to travel to find the ECs to qualify. Otherwise, yeah, it would be skewed in favor of people in high-EC-concentration areas.

This post has been edited by PAWSitraction: 27 September 2006 - 10:51 AM

[Captain Gore-tex]

Having difficulty submitting the form as I get the following error message:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Line 1: Incorrect syntax near 's'.

/earthcache/geocaching2.asp, line 131


Any ideas anyone?

[TerryDad2]

PAWSitraction, on Sep 27 2006, 11:46 AM, said:

They want people to travel to find the ECs to qualify. Otherwise, yeah, it would be skewed in favor of people in high-EC-concentration areas.

Over in the Western US, you need to travel a little farther to meet the political boundary requirements than in the Eastern US.

I guess the cachers in Western Australia, Hawaii, and Siberia are in trouble for earthcaches to visit and how far they have to go to get to another state.

[Mr.Yuck]

TerryDad2, on Sep 27 2006, 06:24 PM, said:

PAWSitraction, on Sep 27 2006, 11:46 AM, said:

They want people to travel to find the ECs to qualify. Otherwise, yeah, it would be skewed in favor of people in high-EC-concentration areas.

Over in the Western US, you need to travel a little farther to meet the political boundary requirements than in the Eastern US.

You have a point there. Imagine how "easy" it would be in New England

[South Surrey Scavengers]

PAWSitraction, on Sep 27 2006, 11:46 AM, said:

South Surrey Scavengers, on Sep 26 2006, 01:44 AM, said:

I wouldn't mind getting an Earthcache incentive pin but the number of earthcaches in my area that are not mine are pretty limited. Maybe the pins should consider the number of hides a bit more.

I would have loved to host an Earthcache event and I would have done it at any other time but I just finished hosting a CITO event and I'm off on vacation shortly. If it's going to be an annual event I'll be there next year.

The requirements, number-wise, aren't really all that onerous - you only need 3 finds for your first pin. However, they do need to be in a minimum of 2 separate political-boundary zones: 2 different states, provinces, or countries. There's 20 o(on GC.com. I didn't check Waymarks; there may be more.) within a 300-mile radius of one of your Earthcaches in SW BC that aren't yours, by the way.

To get the more advanced pin levels, yes, it's considerably more challenging. I'm "stuck" on Silver right at the moment, both because of number of finds and the number of states / provinces / countries requirement. We'd had the requisite number of EC finds to qualify for Silver for a few months, but couldn't get the state requirement. They want people to travel to find the ECs to qualify. Otherwise, yeah, it would be skewed in favor of people in high-EC-concentration areas.

My own search of waymarking and geocaching.com found 4 of my own earthcaches within 100 km and none that anyone else has created. But I'm sure there are a lot of places in the world that don't have an earthcache within 100 km of it so many people are in the same boat. The point was, hiding/creating an earthcache should count as much as finding one if not more. Instead of log 12 and develop 2 for Gold, what about develop 12 and log 2? Seems just as good to me. Just my opinion.

[TerryDad2]

South Surrey Scavengers, on Sep 28 2006, 12:11 AM, said:

The point was, hiding/creating an earthcache should count as much as finding one if not more. Instead of log 12 and develop 2 for Gold, what about develop 12 and log 2? Seems just as good to me. Just my opinion.

The hiding requirement is in there so that enough get hidden for other people to meet the visiting requirement. It also takes a bit more work to create and maintain the earthcache than just visit. So I agree that the hiding should be just as important. Or maybe a seperate recognition path, but then GSA only has so much funds and time to run this program.

The geographical requirement still needs to be in place to prevent large concentrations in one area like there are in Southern California.

[The Blue Quasar]

LOL... since we can visit our own Waymarks, gettting a pin should be a piece of cake.

I'm kidding of course... Can't imagine the ESA allowing people to claim that they found their own Waymark entry for getting a pin.

The Blue Quasar

[chstress53]

Please please please I need advice ASAP!!
Back on Sept 6th I posted here that I would do an Earthcache Event, and that evening I sent my page off to Gary at the geologic Society. I only heard back from him a couple of days ago, and here is his reply

"Hi

I am already on the east coast doing some other work stuff....sorry about the brief email...but its just to let you know that any ebent cache goes through the normal gc.com process of approval. While they are related to EarthCaches...i have no part in the approval process

Gary

Gary Lewis
Director
Education & Outreach
Geological Society of America
www.geosociety.org
glewis@geosociety.org
Headquarters
3300 Penrose Place
Boulder, CO 80301
Ph : 303 357 1043
Fax : 303 357 1073
Satellite Office (Australia)
PO Box 187
Calwell ACT 2905

Ph : +61 2 6294 1536

Cell 1 720 201 8132 (international)

I then promptly emailed Groundspeak asking for an exception to the 2 week guidline ( That is not the problem)
Today it was turned down
here is the reply ( bascially he says go back to Gary and that the Earthcaches featured do not meet the new guidlines. The Earthcaches are close by were I am holding the event , were grandfathered on gc.com and one IS NOT EVEN MINE SO I CAN NOT CHANGE IT.)

EMAIL FROM REVIEWer
"Unfortunately, I cannot publish this EarthCache Event because the EarthCaches featured do not adhere to the new guidelines. Please work with Gary Lewis at the Geological Society of America to better understand how these lisings and the overall event may be improved"

I have offered to delete them from the page in an email ( I can not change them one is not even mine, a) deleting them to me also defeats the purpose of encouraging Earthcaches. I have emailed Gary and the reviewer and Terrydad2 for advice, Terry dad 2 helped me with the html in fact I borrowed a lot of what is on my cache page from him. Since Gary says he has nothing to do with Events I am at a loss. I can not change the Earthcaches They are not mine)

Anyone please help as time is ofthe essence. As you can see I am extremly frustrated about this. I still will hold my event and just post to local forums but I was hoping to have it listed here. This of course has discouraged me from doing this ever again. It is frustrating when I went to Gary first in a timely fasion and he says he has nothing to do with events even Earthcache events.


Maybe I can advertise some Earthcaches that meet the new guidlines but none are in our state or near the event location. I will email the reviewr again.

This post has been edited by chstress53: 01 October 2006 - 12:42 PM

[TerryDad2]

chstress53, on Oct 1 2006, 01:38 PM, said:

Anyone please help as time is ofthe essence. As you can see I am extremly frustrated about this. I still will hold my event and just post to local forums but I was hoping to have it listed here. This of course has discouraged me from doing this ever again. It is frustrating when I went to Gary first in a timely fasion and he says he has nothing to do with events even Earthcache events.


Maybe I can advertise some Earthcaches that meet the new guidlines but none are in our state or near the event location. I will email the reviewr again.

I would just delete the reference to the earthcaches and just point them out once people arrive.

I think that the reviewer is going a little far by checking out the caches referenced by the event.

[chstress53]

I offered in an email to the reviewer to delete the earthcaches but I have not received a response, I only posted here as time is of an essence. As the event is 1 week away. I have even called geoaware and left a message at the geologic society, but I am aware that he is most likely somewhere in nearby Phila PA at the setting up or attending the geologic conference. Should I just go back to the page and delete the earthcache references? I have never had to resubmit an event or cache and am not sure what to do next.

Waiting is so frustrating.

[The Blue Quasar]

If you listed it as an Event, then the reviewer should be reviewing it as an Event... not an EarthCache.

Just because your Event has an EarthCache theme doesn't change the fact that it is an Event.

If you created an Event around the idea of Virtual Caches.... as part of the Event activity, then that is above and beyond "People gathering together." That is the point of an Event, to 'gather'.

From what I remember, the rules on Events were softened a while ago. At least your idea is still somewhat Groundspeak related. You could have held a 'Bowling Event' for Cachers/Markers

The Blue Quasar

edit: added content

This post has been edited by The Blue Quasar: 02 October 2006 - 11:47 AM

[Dew Crew]

Got my bronze pin today. Looks sweet, and I love it. Thanks for getting it sent out so quickly.

[chstress53]

Thank you everyone for offering advice regarding the Earthcache Event. Your advice aided me in my thoughtful emails to everyone. Over the last couple of days I have been in touch with Geoware of the geologic society and he has posted a note on my Earthcache Rocking down the highway that it indeed does comply with the new guidlines. ( He even went so far as to post a note to that Earthcaches page and asked me to forward that info to the reviewer. ( I did) He also suggested I remove the one off the event page that does not meet the new guidlines ( It was not mine) as he would only like Earthcaches that highlight an earthcache that meets the new guidlines to be featured at Earthcache events as the reviewer had stated. Si I have enabled it again for a reviewer and now I wqit patiently. Also want to let you guys know that if you have an Earthcache even one over on the other site that part of my correspondence that even they will have to meet the new guidklines. When geoware is back from the east coast over the next few weeks he will be performing maintence on all the Earthcaches. So if you have one please update to meet the new guidlines. And regartding the Earthcache pins, he may be sending me a few overnight if the event cache gets listed. HE did tell me he does not have anything to do with those approvals. He also explained that is one reason why there are only 2 listed as others have had similar difficulties with the Earthcaches not comlying with the new guidlines. So I urge anyone with an Earthcache either here or at the other site to bring them into compliance.

[chstress53]

My Earthcache event is now listed!! Please take a look and visit my Earthcache

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...cf-7c6a66bbf2e4