Friends,
After some recent (and not so recent) issues have crept into the MGS, the Directors wanted to make sure that we addressed these and reminded everyone of what a great organization the Maryland Geocaching Society really is. You are all extremely lucky to be a part of this, as there are areas of the country without an organized club, and many that do have a club that isn’t anywhere as organized and proactive as this one.
There is a concern that an individual (not saying there’s just one), whether intentionally or unintentionally, could turn away valuable members -– every member is valuable -– through their words or actions and that’s not something that should be taken lightly. The MGS is about geocaching in Maryland first and foremost, but also about friendship and camaraderie –- and anyone who has attended an MGS event knows that it may be that friendship and camaraderie can outshine the geocaching aspect of the club!
With that said, we felt it was important enough to remind everybody that this sandbox is plenty big for everyone, and a code of conduct built on respect is needed from everyone (admin, officers, directors, and general membership are all accountable), and deserved by everyone. “There’s one in every group” certainly applies to us as well, and we’ll do our best to address those the best way we can.
There is no need to mention names publicly, so please keep that to private discussion. But any discussion about our comments above is welcome. You can email us at 2013directors@mdgps.org, PM any one of us, or post here if you'd like.
Thank you,
Robert (robert), Dwight (Snurt), Tiffany (The9Searchers), Jeff (JPatton), and Chuck (sircurly)
The MGS 2013 Directors
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A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
- robert
- MGS Site Admin
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A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
-robert
MGS Site Admin, MGS Director, former Officer
Need to change or edit your username? Send me a PM!
Link to the MGS | Visit us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | robert@mdgps.org
MGS Site Admin, MGS Director, former Officer
Need to change or edit your username? Send me a PM!
Link to the MGS | Visit us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | robert@mdgps.org
- OhMelli
- MGS Member
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- 11
Re: A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
Can I just say that I feel very blessed to "miss out" on any ugliness that goes on around here?! I LOVE this place and think you all do a SUPERB job! And I THANK YOU!!!
- zekester
- MGS Member
- Posts: 361
- Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:00 am
- 17
Re: A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
No idea what this may all be about, but here is some feedback for you:
Simon and I started caching together in New England in 2005. We belonged to a few informal groups in Connecticut before moving to Maryland late in 2006. Almost all of our caches in Connecticut were adopted before we moved, and many are still active. Caching in Connecticut then was a lot more informal than it is here in Maryland now. There were fewer cachers, fewer caches, Conncecticut has no county level of government (just towns and the state), and at that time, there were no town or state guidelines regarding geocaching that we were aware of. As you might imagine, it was a bit of a shock to move to Maryland, where there are many additional governmental and organizational guidelines that we were not used to.
Fortunately, we found the MGS early on, and the guidelines and resources available on this site have been of great assistance to us as we have found our way into caching in Maryland. While we have been somewhat slow to socially engage, we have attended a few MGS events now, as well as events put on by local cachers, and we have slowly been getting to know many of Maryland's more famous (or infamous!?!) cachers. This year we have started hosting a monthly event in Eldersburg, and have ramped up our pace of placing hides, in the hopes of engaging with more of you.
The MGS has been a useful resource for us, but there is always room for improvement. We have cached in 48 of the 50 states, and have had the opportunity to make liberal use of many of the resources offered by other statewide organizations. We would offer that a prominently posted mission statement or vision statement might help to directly and immediately introduce the values of the organization to newcomers. A search of the MGS website reveals some of these ideas are outlined in the bylaws, but a more direct, concise and obvious statement might serve to promote the values of the club better.
Some good examples can be found here (posted in no particular order):
http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index. ... de=welcome
http://vb.texasgeocaching.com/content.p ... dcf1aafd88
http://www.floridacaching.com/index.php ... &Itemid=25
http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum/ht ... ission.htm
Additionally, while you make mention of a "code of conduct" there is not one posted on the site (likely because no one felt it was necessary to have one up to this point). If issues have gotten to the point where you feel it is important enough to the membership to provide behavioral guidelines, perhaps the establishment and posting of a formal code of conduct might be in order.
While we may not participate in every MGS activity, and we may not agree with everything the organization does, we are grateful to have it as a resource, and look forward to a warm, rewarding and developing relationship with all of you as we continue to explore all of the possibilities that geocaching has to offer here in Maryland.
Happy hunting -
Z&S
Simon and I started caching together in New England in 2005. We belonged to a few informal groups in Connecticut before moving to Maryland late in 2006. Almost all of our caches in Connecticut were adopted before we moved, and many are still active. Caching in Connecticut then was a lot more informal than it is here in Maryland now. There were fewer cachers, fewer caches, Conncecticut has no county level of government (just towns and the state), and at that time, there were no town or state guidelines regarding geocaching that we were aware of. As you might imagine, it was a bit of a shock to move to Maryland, where there are many additional governmental and organizational guidelines that we were not used to.
Fortunately, we found the MGS early on, and the guidelines and resources available on this site have been of great assistance to us as we have found our way into caching in Maryland. While we have been somewhat slow to socially engage, we have attended a few MGS events now, as well as events put on by local cachers, and we have slowly been getting to know many of Maryland's more famous (or infamous!?!) cachers. This year we have started hosting a monthly event in Eldersburg, and have ramped up our pace of placing hides, in the hopes of engaging with more of you.
The MGS has been a useful resource for us, but there is always room for improvement. We have cached in 48 of the 50 states, and have had the opportunity to make liberal use of many of the resources offered by other statewide organizations. We would offer that a prominently posted mission statement or vision statement might help to directly and immediately introduce the values of the organization to newcomers. A search of the MGS website reveals some of these ideas are outlined in the bylaws, but a more direct, concise and obvious statement might serve to promote the values of the club better.
Some good examples can be found here (posted in no particular order):
http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index. ... de=welcome
http://vb.texasgeocaching.com/content.p ... dcf1aafd88
http://www.floridacaching.com/index.php ... &Itemid=25
http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum/ht ... ission.htm
Additionally, while you make mention of a "code of conduct" there is not one posted on the site (likely because no one felt it was necessary to have one up to this point). If issues have gotten to the point where you feel it is important enough to the membership to provide behavioral guidelines, perhaps the establishment and posting of a formal code of conduct might be in order.
While we may not participate in every MGS activity, and we may not agree with everything the organization does, we are grateful to have it as a resource, and look forward to a warm, rewarding and developing relationship with all of you as we continue to explore all of the possibilities that geocaching has to offer here in Maryland.
Happy hunting -
Z&S
-
- Former MGS Officer
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Re: A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
Wow! I hope that you all address it with the member. I love every member of MGS and I feel so lucky to be a part of the group. It would be a shame if someone were to discredit the organization. They'd have to be crazy!
-
- MGS Member
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Re: A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
Also glad I missed the drama. Thanks to the directors and officials who do a fantastic job! If there's one thing life has taught me, it's this: One person does not speak for an entire group, so do not let one bad experience turn you away. More importantly, it's necessary to let negativity just roll off your back. As necessary as it is to handle it with these less than positive members, it is just as important that everyone remembers to take negative comments with a grain of salt... in case my two cents means a whole lot.
-
- MGS Member
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Re: A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
Just a little sidebar before I reflect upon the intial post. I have not been very active in caching due to time restraints. It has been a few months since I have had the opprotunity to atttend any events but I do greatly value the mgs. Some of my best experiences and friends have come from mgs events. I have no idea what brought this about and frankly I really don't care. I don't get into politics of the organization and have no interest in it. We are all grown ups here and need to act accordingly.
I have found myself a little put off by reading this thread. I highly disagree with any post sent out to the general membership that has threating overtones.
"You are all extremely lucky to be a part of this, as there are areas of the country without an organized club, and many that do have a club that isn’t anywhere as organized and proactive as this one."
I find this statement as very threating and overbearing. Every member of the mgs is a member because we want to be and if we did not we would simply not participate. Sure there are going to be conflicts of personalities and ideas. That is life. From the outside looking in on this post (as I have no idea what this thread was started over) this post by our elected leadership would and will put off potental members from joining. It gives our orgainzation a bad face by putting up threating posts from our leadership. I feel that what ever situation this post was inspired from was/is being handled inappropiatly. Please keep all of these arguements going via private messaging and off of the general forum. If the problem involves less than 2% of our current membership please keep it that way.
I appoligize if this post offends anyone but it is a rare occasion that I get the time to cache or attend a geocaching event and post like this one are very discouraging. This post is not inteded to insult anyone. But from the outside looking in this thread is not appropiate.
Thanks
Adam Pape
I have found myself a little put off by reading this thread. I highly disagree with any post sent out to the general membership that has threating overtones.
"You are all extremely lucky to be a part of this, as there are areas of the country without an organized club, and many that do have a club that isn’t anywhere as organized and proactive as this one."
I find this statement as very threating and overbearing. Every member of the mgs is a member because we want to be and if we did not we would simply not participate. Sure there are going to be conflicts of personalities and ideas. That is life. From the outside looking in on this post (as I have no idea what this thread was started over) this post by our elected leadership would and will put off potental members from joining. It gives our orgainzation a bad face by putting up threating posts from our leadership. I feel that what ever situation this post was inspired from was/is being handled inappropiatly. Please keep all of these arguements going via private messaging and off of the general forum. If the problem involves less than 2% of our current membership please keep it that way.
I appoligize if this post offends anyone but it is a rare occasion that I get the time to cache or attend a geocaching event and post like this one are very discouraging. This post is not inteded to insult anyone. But from the outside looking in this thread is not appropiate.
Thanks
Adam Pape
-
- MGS Director
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Re: A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
I would like thank zekester for providing feedback to the recent global message.
The following is from that post:
I would encourage Members who have thoughts / ideas / opinions on the subject to share them.
The following is from that post:
I think the suggestion made here has merit. Currently, the closest statement we provide suggesting Mission is on the Homepage under the heading of "About Us." And as stated, the ByLaws touch on values and mission, but the ByLaws are intended more for operational and procedural direction. Perhaps the time is ripe to subplant "About Us" with an "MGS Mission Statement," and provide a succinct statement defining Our Mission, Aim and Core Values.The MGS has been a useful resource for us, but there is always room for improvement. We have cached in 48 of the 50 states, and have had the opportunity to make liberal use of many of the resources offered by other statewide organizations. We would offer that a prominently posted mission statement or vision statement might help to directly and immediately introduce the values of the organization to newcomers. A search of the MGS website reveals some of these ideas are outlined in the bylaws, but a more direct, concise and obvious statement might serve to promote the values of the club better.
I would encourage Members who have thoughts / ideas / opinions on the subject to share them.
- TheWeatherWarrior
- MGS Member
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Re: A letter to the MGS members from the 2013 MGS Directors
There is no mystery. The "individual" is me. I don't have the time to get into the details and background just yet. Likely will be after the move. I will have my own "statement". It will center around the officers mostly as 99.5% that makes up the society...the members...are fantastic. I will also release my blog in case there is censorship here (it will be PG rated, but criticism, as it was requested, will be given). Additionally, the blog will include detailed history of circumstances those wanting more, where here many may not care about those details.