Poll: Potential changes to CAM coin distribution

[hostanut]

Janji posted "CAM participation as risen greatly over the last few years."

I was also told by a Director that cachers are coming from states farther away (New York was mentioned).

Cachers (myself included) like to receive FREE geocoins and pathtags.

Is giving CAM geocoins to non-Maryland cachers from states that do NOT border Maryland a financial drain or benefit to MGS?......Is the national appeal of CAM costing MGS more than it can sustain financially?

[MersonMonkeys]

I know I am pretty new but I just wanted to give my opinions in all of this.

I have no issues with a membership fee and would gladly pay it but to only create a fee due to CAM is wrong, in my opinion.

MGS is so much more then CAM, although that is pretty much all that I am involved with.

I very much enjoy CAM and everything it has to offer. The issue is not whether or not MGS core received business cards, shirts, that there was an after party, or where we hold CAM year to year. The root issue seems to be the CAM coins.

As the people that complete CAM each year rises the CAM coins will also increase.

I would have no issues paying for my coin. I don't need a free coin as my gift in completing CAM. I just want that coin Paid or otherwise. Also a second coin in a different finish for purchase is a great idea (as long as it worked well this year!).

So yes, I am voting to just have us pay for the coins or/and to have a second coin. This will make it fair to those of us who only do CAM, so others are not stuck footing my bill. I would have spent plenty of money at the CAM after party but was unable to make it.

Keep the CAM cost to those who complete CAM.

[Calvertcachers]

Corfmania mentioned that there was a transfer of supplies from GWS to the MGS. We have sold or gave away some at the Afterparty. We currently have the following in stock:
Water bottles: 12
Geocoins: 112

WOW, is this all that is left from everything that was donated???
There has only been 1 official MGS event, CAM, and as part of the GW team, our hopes for this merchandise was for it to be available to MGS members at MGS events as door prizes and fund raisers. Some folks didn't get to attend GW and I know there are people who were wanting to purchase some of the left over items.
Disappointed

Inventory transferred on 5/1/2016:
40 water bottles
103 cachekinz
104 silver geocoins
115 backpacks (more or less)
Shirts:
2-L
3-2XL
2-3XL
3-4XL

[barbershop2010]

Since the coins seem to be the biggest expense, my thoughts are to charge those who have completed CAM (including those who could not go to the picnic, but completed CAM before the picnic) the coin at cost, any special edition coins should have a slight up-charge. Any CAM completions after the picnic should then have an up-charge. Continue with the auction to also raise funds & have a "donation" bucket at the picnic. I'm not sure what the expense is for any pavilions that may be used, but with the growth of CAM just $1 per person could end up offsetting a portion of that expense.

Thank you,
barbershop2010- Patti

[CacheNCarry45]

I want to thank everyone for the responses. Again we are gathering all this intel to provide the proper answers.

Share this with other members and keep the responses coming.

[lpyankeefan]

Wee Nellie! Lots of responses so far from all sides of the spectrum...now that I've opened with a half-hearted attempt at a joke I'll jump right into the meat and potatoes of this thread. Be prepared, you're in for quite a bit of information.

I'll start at the top of the thread and go down response by response where needed.

First of all the title of this thread "Poll: Potential changes to CAM coin distribution". There's a word in there that says POTENTIAL. That's all...this is the biggest issue that the officers face each year. CAM...Cache Across Maryland. Originally it was begun directly after the officers were sworn in each year, however this creates quite a few potential problems, setbacks and issues due to the time crunch between officer turnover and CAM kickoff. I'll come back to this issue as needed further down.

nighthawk700 and rmnedrow both mentioned the possibility of membership fees. We're lucky to belong to both one of the oldest continually operating statewide organizations in the country AND one that heretofore hasn't charged any membership fees. I for one think this is great. It allows for anyone and everyone who wishes to to become a member of the MGS...for free! Nada! Zip! Zilch! What a bargain!

TeamRedOak made the commment "I'll admit we don't really participate in any of the picnics aside from CAM. So do we need to have them all? Perhaps only have CAM in the Spring and then a late summer or early Fall gathering." Not a bad thing by any means, but are you aware of what you're missing? The Summer Picnic originally (and still does) serve as one of the largest fundraisers of the year. Items are donated by geocachers, manufacturers and even Groundspeak so that they can then be raffled off via silent auction or ticket sales and drawings. In addition to this method of fundraising we routinely use 50/50's and have in the past raffled GPS units donated by various entities. The Fall Picnic is routinely held somewhere in Western Maryland to showcase the beauty and splendor or the mountainous region of Maryland. Overnight camping, firepits and s'mores can usually be found at this event. In the past few years cornhole has become a staple as well. The CITO event is a way for the MGS to 'give back' to the various parks throughout Maryland. Lastly the MGS Holiday Gift Swap... This event was started way back in 2007 by coupleocachers. I'm not sure of particulars but do know that in the year(s) following it's become an end of year tradition for many a cacher and the 'stealing' of gifts can become quite heated. I DO hope that you consider adding these events to your calendar.

Always Lost 00 asked "Is there a place to see where and how our money is spent ? I know as members of the American Legion we could have rented a Hall for the After Party, Cheap." Yes ma'am there is...the treasurers report is posted annually to the forums. As to the American Legion Hall...many venues were indeed scouted for this event but most of them were unavailable due to other events scheduled for the same date as CAM.

Sue of Calvertcachers posts quite a bit and as a former officer, director and geocacher I'll attempt to answer them from both sides of the curtain.

"We have completed every CAM since the beginning in 2004, and yes, CAM has grown by leaps and bounds every year. I have also been involved with the planning and organizing of CAM and MGS events since 2005. The CAM coins became very popular, and the purchase and award of the coins have been self sustaining by our members through MGS member fund raising efforts; summer auction, donation jar and through the sale the of the extra CAM coins. Actually, in most years, the sale of the extra CAM coins covered a good amount of the coin expense. Basic geocoin production generally costs between $7.00 to $10.00. Example, the 2013 MML geocoin cost $7.20 each x 250 coins = $1,800.00."
and
"As a former officer of the MGS, we would discuss our events for the year, expenses, budget and fund raising, and to be honest, it has always worked out and plenty of funds were left over for the next year. There were a few years where one of the MGS Officers would pay the CAM coin minting deposit just so we would not drain our funds and would get reimbursed after the sales."

Coin costs have steadily risen since the inception of trackable geocoins in 2005 when Groundspeak decided to allow for geocoins to have their own individual icons. Always being at the fore of geocaching the MGS was either the first or second statewide organization to mint their own geocoin. With the help of Dancingfool who underwrote the minting costs I believe 4,000 2005 MGS coins were minted. At the time this was astronomical! Due to such large numbers the coin costs including a special prefix as well as icon costs were kept to @ $5.00 each. After everything was said and done Dancingfool was even able to donate some of the excess collected to the MGS. Alas, time marches on, designs become more complex and factory costs rise. As you've noted minting costs are now generally between $7.50 and $10.00 with some coins north of those figures. As to the comment "There were a few years where one of the MGS Officers would pay the CAM coin minting deposit just so we would not drain our funds and would get reimbursed after the sales." Yes, yes there were and to those officers I say "Thank you!" Thankfully due to the hard work of officers and membership in the years since then this 'shouldn't' be necessary anymore.

"Do we really need to purchase CAM coins in two different minted metals?" I can only answer this based on my experiences. In 2012 the MGS was celebrating it's 10th Anniversary of existence. After a successful CAM 2012 and hardwork and fundraising there was talk of minting a 10th Anniversary Coin. Mrs. Bocco was kind enough to donate a design that potentially lent itself to being minted in two different platings. I say potentially because there were innumerable e-mails, changes and designs sent back and forth between myself and the coin company. In the end we succesfully produced two versions of the coin. A black nickel and a shiny gold. The shiny gold sold out immediately upon release. As an officer, this was great. The MGS was able to immediately recoup the costs of minting two coins within the same calendar year.

Fast forward to this year and a design that also lent itself to multiple platings and enamel variations. The decision for two platings was similar to the way that we minted the 10th Anniversary Coin. Give one away and then create a demand for the 'limited' one time only minting of a second 'companion' piece. Oooo....ahhhh! Must have the precious! <--- you get the idea!

Yes, it was nice to have the CAM event at Antietam but knowing NOW that the venue was truly not set-up for an event and took a lot of extra funds & effort, why wasn't an NPS site like Greenbelt Park or another NPS location that is better equipped for a large event selected? Also, how much extra did this costs the MGS? I am not privy to why this location was chosen over another in the NPS system in Maryland. Since this years CAM was a collaboration between Cindy Chance and deepdish23 they'd be the ones to ask. As to Greenbelt...perhaps it might have worked. Thanks to spikep and others a VERY successful CITO event was hosted here in 2012 that was mutually beneficial. They donated camping facilities and a picnic area in return for months of volunteer time that was provided by the MGS and it's members. I don't recall seeing a pavilion within the park that would have accommodated a group of 250-300 people but I might have missed it. Mark? Care to weigh in here?

"The MGS Cafe Press account for CAM gear and Pathtag sales raise a few dollars for the MGS." Yes, yes it does...a very few dollars. The high costs associated with Cafe Press items and the low profits associated with items sold through Cafe Press means that officers both past and present have suggested that it might be better for the MGS to consider looking elsewhere for clothing options.

"Did the CAM pre-launch and after events cost extra and IF so, was it really needed?" The pre-launch events...no, not a penny. I for one thought they were very successful and would welcome them again in the future. Something a bit different then the 'Night Before CAM' events that have been held in the past and more of a shotgun start that also allowed folks who don't cache by phone to have their GPS'rs loaded and held until official start time. As also noted prior...yes, the after event did cost money. Since the NPS didn't allow fundraising of any sort on NPS property this was a way for the current core to recoup costs associated with the event, strike while the iron was hot and also to wind down with something a little different...a geocaching trivia event similar to what Going Caching has done at it's Mega Event in Georgia.

"Since the inception of CAM in 2004, the picnic is consider the final destination of CAM, and to be considered as completing CAM, you must attend the event. CAM coins were awarded to event attendees, one per geo-name and we had set an age limit years ago." Yes...and no. You are correct that in order to be considered as having completed CAM you MUST attend the picnic. I know that each year geocachers ask for 'exceptions' to be made even though they are unable to attend the picnic. As time has gone on this line has gotten harder and harder and answers become more firm. As to the age limit...I'm unaware of one. I was under the impression that individual accounts each got a coin, therefore a family of 'X' members with 'X' individual accounts each received a coin as long as they logged the CAM caches, attended the picnic and said "Pretty please." Yes, this also created it's own set of problems as each coin given gratis meant that the MGS had to recoup those costs. It's one of the reasons the membership was made explicitly aware of exactly what CAM cost the year I was president. I can also say that the membership responded admirably when asked to purchase coins, donate items, 50/50 raffle...etc.

I noticed in meeting minutes that business cards and name tags were ordered for officers, was this really needed? (We use to make our own at home IF we had to go to an event where business cards were needed but most often we used the MGS brochure with our contact info on the back).
We also noticed that officers were wearing MGS shirts with names and titles, IF, I am saying IF these were purchased with MGS funds, this is wrong. I'm pretty sure that the t-shirts were paid for by the respective officers. As to the cards and tags...would any of the current officers care to weigh in?

Lastly (for this evening anyways)...

In my experience with managing the MGS, the biggest expense of the year was the CAM coins but like I said, some of the funds were recoup through excess sells. Other major expenses were the pavilion rentals for the 3 main events; CAM, Summer and Fall. The event rental for the CITO is generally negotiated in exchange for the park clean-up. MD State park rentals can range from $150.00 to $500.00 for a pavilion. The holiday event was added several years ago and has been a big hit. Members donate the items for the events; plates, cups, utensils, charcoal, food, drinks, etc....

You are correct with most of this. In order the events currently hosted by the MGS are:

1. Meet The Officers Event - FREE at a host restaurant
2. CAM - Pavilion Rental at a 'Centrally Located' park.
3. Summer Picnic - Pavilion Rental at a 'Centrally Located' park that occasionally skews more towards the Chesapeake Bay.
4. Fall Picnic - Pavilion/Park Rental in Frederick, Washington, Garrett or Allegheny County in Maryland.
5. CITO Event - generally an event wherein the park in question donates a pavilion or picnic area in exchange for park cleanup, trail work, removal of invasive species...etc.
6. Holiday Gift Exchange - Hall Rental in a centrally located area.

As time has gone on and MGS membership increased we are tending to skew more towards the high end of the figures that you cite. Generally speaking there are few pavilions in the state for groups of our size anymore. I know that we used to try to host events in parks we had never visited. Alas, this is becoming harder and harder to do. Events are now starting to be hosted in parks we've visited prior.

Noting the events above and averaging on the high end we'll say that the costs for the four events which generally require paid rental at somewhere between $1,600 to $2,000 per year. This before any other associated costs are added in. CAM coins are now costing upwards of $2,000 plus to both award successful folks as well as sell excess inventory to recoup costs. This means that in an 'average' year in the MGS the officers will spend over $4,000 and (hopefully) raise at least that amount during fundraising.

That's it for tonight folks...I'm tapped out and will continue this response further down tomorrow evening.

[deepdish23]

I apologize for such a late posting, but I just recently realized that people were posting to the poll with thoughts and questions. I do not have time today to post a reply, but hopefully will have some time this weekend to gather my thoughts and I will share my thoughts on CAM, answer some of the questions that are probably best answered by me, and share any thoughts and/or concerns I have on CAM and the MGS in general after being a member of the Core for the last two years.

[deepdish23]

I want to thank the current MGS Core for the job they did with CAM 2016. It was an extremely overwhelming experience to go through and they had no idea the magnitude of what we were trying to do for CAM when they took over. The previous Core decided to form a CAM committee of ourselves, Danny, (GR8Caches), and Dave (Hixon), before leaving office to help with transition of CAM this year. The new Core joined that committee and we worked together in creating CAM 2016. Adric took over from myself and in my opinion did an excellent job with CAM.
I have seen there has been discussion on where the CAM picnic was held this year, The Pry House Barn, and I wanted to go over the process in making that decision. First off, I want to stress that the decision to hold the CAM picnic at the The Pry House was made by the 2015 Core before the 2016 Core came in. In terms of the various factors needed to pull off the CAM picnic there, (Shuttle bus, renting table and chairs, not being able to sell merchandise on the grounds) was all known factors and accepted by us (last year’s Core), before this year’s Core took over.
When looking for a picnic location for CAM, the decision was made to look for a National Park location if at all possible to put the icing on the cake on having CAM 2016 take place in National Parks. Looking at all the options in the state of Maryland, there was really only two places that could host the size of what the CAM picnic would be, Antietam at one of the farms, or Fort Washington. Because of various factors such as the history of Antietam, coming back to the area of Geowoodstock, etc, we went with the decision have Antietam be choice number one and Fort Washington Choice #2. An additional factor in having these two locations as choices, is that a member of the Hagerstown CVB had contacted last year’s Core right after GeoWoodstock, and mentioned that she would be willing to help in having an MGS event at Antietam, and, in one of the meetings I had with the National Park Service, the Head Ranger for Fort Washington was there and said that they would not have a problem hosting the picnic there. One of the factors in placing Antietam over Fort Washington is that Fort Washington does not have pavilions, so even though their picnic area can hold 300 people, we would have had to rent some fairly large tents which would have cost much more than all the rental equipment we purchased for the picnic this year.
The permit process for hosting the CAM picnic at Antietam took a long time, and during that process, we saw some of the issues that could possibly arise; we had to submit a parking plan, we would told about the ban on sales on National Park Property, etc, but we felt we came up with solutions to the various issues. The Hagerstown CVB covered the cost of the Bus Service, Danny was asked to become the facilities coordinator as he was for Geowoodstock and we got the best deals possible for the rental equipment. We received a discount on the cost of the Pry House Barn rental. Once we were given approval from Groundspeak Headquarters to allow us to have Lab Caches at Antietam, with approval from Antietam, we felt it was a done deal. As a side note, when Sue Kelley and I pitched the idea of Lab Caches to Groundspeak, once we were approved, we were told that one of the reasons they were allowing us to have Lab Caches, was because of the picnic being at Antietam. We would not have gotten approval for Lab Caches if the picnic was being held at any other location including other National Parks.
When we received our approval from the NPS for hosting the CAM picnic at the Pry House, we saw that we would not be allowed to sell merchandise on the premises, but would be allowed to have a donation jar. At the turnover meeting, we recommended that the MGS have some type of after event where people can buy coins and pathtags. The current core took that suggestion and ran with it by having a Geocaching Trivia and Geocoin Event. I attended that event and it was one of my favorite MGS events ever, and I hope it is not the last time the MGS holds a trivia event. Our group of cachers sat next to some cachers from Pennsylvania who I have never met and we had a blast. There was a constant line at the MGS booth of cachers buying MGS merchandise.
Looking back on it now, I would not change the location for the CAM picnic this year as I believe there was not a better location for the picnic than having it at Antietam, and I think the after party event was a great idea that allowed the MGS to help pay for CAM this year.

I have many thoughts from being on the MGS Core the past couple of years, but I will share three of them. 1) Before Geowoodstock occurred, I would talk about the possibility in the near future of not being able to give away the CAM coin due to rising costs. Currently, the MGS is the only organization that lets you earn a coin for completing a “Geotrail”, that does not receive any money from a municipality, county, state, or any other organization to help cover for the cost, and we do it every single year. So, we have to recoup the cost of the coin in which the two main ways we do that is selling the left over coins, and holding the silent auction at the summer picnic. With our hope that those participating in CAM increases every year, one of the results of that would be more geocachers receiving a free coin, and less coins remaining to sell to cover the cost. In addition, a larger CAM picnic means looking at places to hold the picnic in which the price would dramatically increase from the range we look at now, and currently we only look at the ‘Extra Large’ pavilions when searching for a CAM picnic location. So, we are striving for an outcome with CAM where we want to give out more coins because of more people participating at a more expensive picnic location, with which the MGS would take a bigger financial hit. Then, we have to figure out the right number of coins to purchase, so that we have enough to sell, but not have a lot unsold that takes a couple years to finally sell. We made an educated guess with having a booth at GeoWoodstock last year, that we could sell a lot of merchandise, and we ended up purchasing more coins and pathtags than we should of. We sold a lot of CAM coins at Geowoodstock last year, but as much as expected, so we have a lot left. This is a yearly decision that is a difficult one to make.
Spikep mentioned in his post about how low the funds are every year just before the CAM picnic, I can verify that that is very true. Last year, even though I knew we would recover a lot of money because of GeoWoodstock, we were down to our last few dollars just before the CAM picnic, and actually had to get the money we donated to GeoWoodstock back to make sure we did not run out. With everything we have received from Geowoodstock, and from other sources, we do not have to worry about this in the near future, but I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibility that there will be years in which the MGS will end up with less money at the end of the year than then it started even though the Core did everything fiscally possible it could. There is a good chance that this will be the first year in a while that we end up with less money at the end of the year than we started, but much of that has to do with expenses that had not been paid yet for the CAM 2016 picnic, but were forced upon the current Core. If you remove those expenses, then I think the current Core is doing a good job with the cost for the year. If you want to assign responsibility of the extra expenses on CAM in terms of the location, rental equipment, and not being able to sell merchandise, put that on me. I knew from near the start of planning for CAM 2016, that we would spend more money in 2016 than we would receive and I felt that there was not a problem with it due to the special circumstances of CAM this year.
With all that being said, my opinion is that the MGS in good financial shape and I believe that in the near future, we can continue to give a CAM coin away to each person that completes CAM and then ask for donations if you feel that you wish to contribute because your family is receiving multiple coins.
2) With the rise of the Megas in late summer and early fall, it is becoming increasingly difficult to schedule three of the 6 MGS events: summer picnic, CITO, and the fall picnic. Last year, before we even gave the official date of the CITO, we moved it once because of a conflict, and it still ended up on the same weekend as the Metro Mega. From now on, the Fall picnic will probably be the week before or week after the Going Caching Mega in Georgia, which many consider their favorite Mega and this means we are hoping that those MGS members that attend Going Caching will then want to spend the another weekend away from their home to attend the fall picnic in Western Maryland. This makes the decision on where the Fall picnic should be at even more difficult. (If we don’t go out to Western Alleghany or Garrett County, people will complain we aren’t truly going out West, but we may not get a lot of attendees), verses not going as far out west, more attendees, but complaints of missing out of the beauty of Garrett County. In addition, the new policy of the State Park in the West turning off their power to much of their facilities and pavilions after October 1st, limits the number of potential locations now that we even had just a couple of years ago. To myself, the more important concern is the number of attendees to the summer picnic and the quality of the items up for auction. The less people attending the summer picnic, the better the chance we do not get as much money from the summer auction. I know one of the main jobs of the Public Relations officer is the silent auction, but there are some things that can occur that are out of their control. Last year, we saw the good and the bad of this. The MGS was fortunate enough to receive 4 high end items in last year auction, (Complete set of MGS coins and Pathtags, the famous Ape Geocoin, a high end GPS device, and the Orioles from Geowoodstock). Having these 4 items helped with the fact that we only had two geocaching merchandise companies, (GXPRoxy and Cache Advance) donate to the summer picnic because the companies believed that donating to GeoWoodstock was donating to the MGS. Before we started receiving the high end items, we were concerned that the summer auction would not help up generate the money we usually get from the auction. I see we have gotten a good selection of items from geocaching companies for this year’s auction, but to assume this will continue year after year may not be correct.
3) While in office the last two years, one of the concerns that I have personally felt is what I see is the lack of participation in the MGS. It has been a long time since there has been more than a couple of officer positions being contested in an election. We can barely get a full slate of positions filled with even one person per office without having to ask several people behind the scenes if they would be interested in running. I decided to run for Vice President two years ago because I wanted to give back to the MGS and the geocaching community in general for the enjoyment that geocaching has given me, and knew that taking on that position would mean I would not have the time to geocache as much as in the past. I had no intention of running last year, but changed my mind because of what was started with CAM 2016 and to help be part of the Core that kept the MGS running smoothly while the rest of the MGS was involved with GeoWoodstock. Being an officer is a lot of work, (in many ways it is a full time job), at some time it is a thankless job, but for me, it was an exciting two years, getting to work with some great people, and help organize great events. It did take a toll on my family, but Kristen and Aaron have been very gracious for the past two years. If you ever have thoughts about possibly volunteering for an MGS officer position in the future, I would say go for it. You will have a large group of previous officers that would be willing to help you with any question you have. I will not name them, because I don’t want to exclude any, but in my two years in office, not only did I ask advice from my fellow officers, I would ask advice from previous officers too and received excellent and timely advice. And if a previous officer had some advice or suggestion, I would gladly listen to it.
For all the squabbles and disagreements we have as an organization, other geocaching groups wish they had the ‘issues’ that we deal with. As I stated before, I believe that we are the ‘best’ geocaching organization in the entire country. GeoWoodstock XIII is proof of that and Cache Across Maryland is proof of that.
Facts about the MGS:
1) Only geocaching group allowed to sell more than 400 pathtags on pathags.com at one time. We usually put up 700. Other groups are only allowed 200-300 and they do not sell out when we sell out in a matter of hours.
2) Only geocaching group that has ever been given approval to put out Lab Caches at a non-mega event. Not only that, but be allowed to test out a new prototype of Lab Cache.
3) Only geocaching group that gives away a Geocoin for completing a Geotrail without receiving additional funds to cover the trail from an outside entity.
4) Been able to pull off a state wide ‘Geotrail’ (Cache Across Maryland) every year since 2004.
5) One of the first, (if not the first) geocaching organizations to make inroads with the National Parks and geocaching, (a major goal for Groundspeak), which includes:
a. Captain John Smith Geotrail
b. Star Spangled Banner Geotrail
c. 2012 MGS CITO in Greenbelt Park
d. 2015 MGS CITO at Piscataway Park
e. 2015 CAM cache at Thomas Stone National Site
f. 2016 Cache Across Maryland all in National Parks to celebrate the NPS Centennial
g. 2016 CAM Picnic at Antietam at the Pry House
h. Lab Adventure at Antietam Battlefield which included participation from National Park Employees.
6) Had volunteers help in the following Geotrails:
a. Captain John Smith
b. Star Spangled Banner
c. MML 2008 and 2013
d. Wicomico GeoBashes
e. Washington County Geotrail
f. Hagerstown City Geotrail
g. West Virginia Civil War Geotrail Region 1
h. Berkeley County Geotrails

In closing, I want to express the sentiments that Spikep did in thanking all the volunteers that have been officers since my family attended our first MGS event, 2011 Meet The Officers at the Golden Corral in Frederick. I know the hard work that is involved of which much of it ends up being criticized, but I know you were all giving the best effort you can. So, thank you to:
_JohnnyCache
EagleBlazer
The9Searchers
Trainbug
Sircurly
Lpyankeefan
Corfmania
WVKiwi
Spikep
Decafsaysmoof
Calvertcachers
Cooley1103
Eissak
KSullivan
BethanyInWonderland
CacheNCarry45
Alzarius
Shenanagan
tazscouter

[cooley1103]

Thank you to everyone who voted and posted so far.

We will close the poll on June 25th, and will discuss the results at our next Core Officer meeting. Expect an official statement the following with the final results.

[Hixon]

Thanks deepdish and everyone who has contributed great information to this thread.

I appreciate the many volunteers in this community for many reasons, but here, I really appreciate how the Core reaches out to us and seeks our input, like in this poll/thread. I'm glad you are willing to say that the current way might not be the best, listen to constructive criticism, and endure the inevitable not-so-constructive criticism that is sure to come along as well.

I thank you, regularly, but am grateful to also have the space to say more than just "thank you" and participate in the growth and evolution of the organization. I'm glad folks care enough about the continued success of the MGS to have these discussions.

[cooley1103]

The poll is locked and we developing our final response.

Expect a reply in the coming weeks. (Sorry, work and GW is stealing our time).