GeoCaching NSW

It’s been a slow but steady start to the association in its first year, but I’m pleased to say we’ve made a number of achievements.

Our meeting with NSW Parks and Wildlife Service in January was well received and is likely to see a change in their geocaching policy. Due to workload and staffing issues, they have been unable to progress with the review, but they have assured us that it is on the top of their list. We expect to see some progress in the near future.

Once again, I ask all members to refrain from geocaching in NSW National Parks until policy review is complete. We must be seen to be doing the right thing if we wish to work with NPWS.

I am also pleased to see the number of people that have chosen to join the association. As of this weekend we had 27 paid members, more than half way to our target of 50 by year’s end. It shows that there are geocachers who support what we are doing. Thank you to Phil Marriott for assisting me in setting up our membership form and database.

Neil has worked hard on the Geocaching NSW geocoin, which looks fantastic. This will be our main fundraising drive effort each year and I’m sure it will be a highly sort after item. I thank Neil for his work on the coin and look forward to their release.

The association will aim to hold an event once every two months, with an emphasis on socialising and sharing, which form two of our aims. In the future, we hope to hold some of these events outside of Sydney and we will be working with regional groups to ensure this occurs.

On that topic, the committee has been in discussions with the Wagga Wagga mega event organising committee to explore ways that we can assist. We encourage all members to attend this unique event and ensure it achieve ‘mega’ status.

Another one of aims is based on cooperation.

Earlier this year, we assisted NPWS by participating in Clean Up Australia Day at Royal National Park. Events such as these help build trust between geocachers and land managers, and I look hope there will be many more in the future.

Last week I was pleased to announce that Geocache Store Australia will offer a discount to Geocaching NSW member and donate a portion of sales to the association. I thank Aaron and Zoe for their generous offer and hope all members that advantage of it.

An aim that has been neglected and should be addressed is education. Hopefully this will be addressed by improvements to our website and a regular meeting schedule. I encourage all members to contribute with ideas and content to help us fulfil this aim, which is important to geocachers ‘experienced’ and ‘new’.

Looking to the future, I look forward to the association building upon these achievements in our second year.

Our focus will be the geocoin fundraising drive, the NPWS geocaching policy and the Wagga Wagga Mega event.

Finally, I thank members and non-members for their support in the birth of the association and look forward to the next twelve months.

Safe geocaching,

Darren Osborne
President Geocaching NSW