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Collecting Souvenirs

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Collecting Souvenirs

Souvenirs are virtual pieces of art displayed on your public profile. You can earn souvenirs in several different ways. Here is a link to help you to identify the many types available: Profile and Dashboard (geocaching.com)

Some cachers are highly motivated by collecting Souvenirs while others pay little attention to these “badges”. Personally, I like this aspect of geocaching almost as much as I like working on Challenge (mystery) caches! Both encourage me to get out there frequently and provide a nice sense of accomplishment.

Here are the upcoming new souvenirs for this year that have been announced so far:

  • 2024 hider: January 1–December 31
  • Leap Day 2024: February 29
  • Cache In Trash Out®, Season 1: March 1–May 31
  • Blue Switch Day: May 2–4
  • June Solstice: June 19–21
  • International Geocaching Day: August 17
  • Cache In Trash Out®, Season 2: September 1–November 30
  • World Postcard Day: October 1
  • International EarthCache Day: October 12–13
  • December Solstice: December 20–22
  • Farewell 2024: December 24–31

Spotlight Cache: Jeopardy! Series

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#NationalTriviaDay (January 4)

Spotlight Cache Series: Jeopardy!

Today we are celebrating National Trivia Day with a series of caches placed in honor of the late Alex Trebek, host of the long-running TV game show, Jeopardy.

This Jeopardy! Cache Series by TheColdedge and his TrustyNavigator will reward your knowledge and sometimes out-of-the-box thinking with coordinates for twenty-one mystery type geocaches. Winter is a great time to solve these at home and wait for a fair weather day to head out to the Winchester, Virginia area (and slightly beyond) to make the finds.

I asked TheColdege a little about what went into creating this series.

Q: What inspired you to chose Jeopardy as a theme? A: Alex Trebeck had recently died and I enjoyed the show as a kid. I also wanted to fit some strange trivia categories into a mystery cache.

Q: How did you come up with the questions/answers? A: There was a lot of testing with my friends. Usually I started with a category and then decided what fit where after.

Q: Besides the theme, is there anything that the caches in this series have in common? A: This series was a test for my 3D printed containers. I wanted a pretty muggle-proof cache series that would spend a lot of time in the field. Mystery caches are real good about not getting muggled, so this worked. Another thing about the caches in this series is that almost all of them have clues hidden in the cache page.

Be sure to start with the tutorial cache, so you can reduce some frustration. You’re likely to have enough challenge with some of the questions, so don’t make it harder for yourself than it needs to be by getting your Certitude grammar wrong.

All the caches in the series are micros and most are a terrain 1.5.

Jeopardy! Caching Series was nominated for Best Series in the 2021 NoVAGO Cache Awards. Congratulation!

2021 NOVAGO Award Nominee Badge

The Adventure Lab is lots of fun to play through. There is a hike to the cache, but not too far. You can bring the kids and dog. The cache is a size large. What’s not to love?

Cache Page SWAG for NOVAGO 2020 Award Winners

OLYMPIAD2020: Rhythmic Gymnastics (Adv. Lab Bonus) – cache award winner, Most Creative and Best Adventure Lab

Meet the New Board & Thank 2023! Event

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Northern Virginia Geocaching Organization is pleased to announce the 2024 board of officers and directors.

  • PRESIDENT – ThompsonKickers
  • VICE PRESIDENT – RufnRedy
  • SECRETARY – TrexM8s
  • TREASURER – freddiecrs
  • PUPLIC RELATIONS – hrothroc
  • DIRECTORS – (determined upon vote of first board meeting)

Every year, we host an event to let you meet our new officers (most of them will be there.) We also use this gathering to thank our outgoing board members and directors, as well as volunteers who have helped make NoVAGO great in the previous year. If you’ve hosted an event in the Northern Virginia area in 2023, we thank you.

Thanks 2023! Event (GCAHRY9)

January 21, 2023, 3:00-4:00 pm

Santini’s New York Style Deli*
3980 Corsair Ct
Chantilly, VA 20151

*No purchase required to attend event.

Presidents Favorite Points ❤️

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Giving Thanks to everyone.

As this year comes to a close with all the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, festivities, decorating and love I wanted to share my own little bit of love and appreciation.  Read on but don’t forget to join us on January 21, 2024 for our official NoVAGO Thanks Event GCAHRY9!

 

Geocachers, NEW Geocachers, COs & the Young or just Young at Heart

I have mentioned before, that it’s just not one person, nor is it just the officers or directors who make Northern Virginia an enjoyable place to cache and socialize.  It truly takes all of us for it to be fun and geocachers who find and hide caches are the driving force of NoVAGO.  In 2023 so far there have been 414 geocaches placed by fellow cachers in NoVAGO jurisdictions as of December 18th.  These have overall been found 8832 times!  The time and thought that goes into placing a new cache does not go unrecognized.  Geocachers need to find geocaches.   No matter if they may have struggled while searching or even had to PAF, in the end when they found the prize, they had a smile on their face and on their profile.

Where are all the young-un’s?  This year we have really exploded with younger cachers and families.  This youthful generation is the future of geocaching.  I would like to thank all the parents and family members out there who support these budding geocachers getting into the game.  Driving them around finding and hiding geocaches, helping them meet other cachers at events, and being 100% supportive of their growing love of geocaching.  To you, the young cachers, thank you for hanging out with all us older folks and jumping right in like you’ve known us forever. We love sharing our wisdom with you and are so happy to see you pursue knowledge & growing into great geocachers.  Your openness to learn is impressive.

This year 37 new cachers joined NoVAGO, so thank you to all of the Cache Owners this year creating new caching adventures for them.   AND WOW 37 new members that’s amazing, we must be really talking up geocaching in our travels.  Thank you to all of you who spread the NoVAGO word.  These new cachers are the perfect candidates for some of those tips & hints provided at events all around the region.

Thank you to those having events available for all to attend.  This year there were 225 events hosted and a total of 2381 logs posted on geocaching.com for just these events.  

Finally, thanks to you…The Geocacher, new and seasoned for being here to find those geocaches placed and attending those events.  

 

Keep’n it clean

Another great thing about geocachers is they like to take care of the community and where they geocache.  This is where CITOs shine!  This year we had 20 CITO events – great job to all who took the time to organize a CITO and collaborate with local parks and organizations to find areas that needed maintenance.  These collectively had 259 logs, that’s a lot of cleaning up, thank you to all who attended one or more of these events. 

 

Geocaching Community Volunteer Reviewers

I’d like to take a moment to thank the people out there who take their time reviewing ALL of the hundreds of caches, events, and CITO that we request to be published.  These cachers are the Geocaching Community Volunteer Reviewers and yes, that’s a long title because they are quite important. They have rules and cache standards that we all must follow in order to secure quality geocaches in our area.  They are readily available to answer questions about your cache, provide coordinate checks and give you tips on what you will need to adjust if your submitted geocache is for some reason rejected.  They must keep all caches within the proper location guidelines as well as making sure events don’t overlap and are within event rules and regulations.  They also monitor caches with low health scores and reports of caches that have been reported as missing or need maintenance, reaching out to COs for reminders when they need to check in on their caches for any overdue maintenance.

Our reviewers for all of the state of Virginia are YetAnotherReviewer (since 2017) and Cardinal Reviewer (since 2020).  Each of them have had many many many years of caching experience and a desire to keep the game live with caches that stick around for years to come.  Whenever you spot a reviewer at an event, they love to share their wealth of knowledge and hints in conversation.  This year YetAnotherReviewer will be retiring as a reviewer so if you know and see him, make sure you give him an extra pat on the back for an extra special thank you for all he has done over the last 6 years.

 

Donations Donations Donations

I’ve mentioned it before but would like to bring it up again because NOVAGO truly could not function without donations.  This year we had 65 donations, totalling around $800, that were received at the Fall Event and allowed us to net around $550 to support NoVAGO.  Thanks to all of you who donate to help the organization financially.  We would not be able to do what we do without funding.

 

Volunteer “WORK & PLAY”

It does not stop with monetary donations, fellow geocachers donate their own time.  This year we had the most recent series, MoviePalooza, led by a committee of three geocachers. SP4Fun (Susan) was the lead volunteer with help from Awesnap (Chris), and Freddiecrs (Freddie).  This task is not a quick, one day volunteer experience, there was planning, discussions, creation, ideas, collaboration with other cachers, TIME, and so much more.  This year Susan wrangled 21 geocachers to volunteer by creating a cache for the series.  These caches all had code words that are used to solve a mystery for the final, that she created & placed herself.  There were 23 total MoviePalooza caches placed that were a good mixture of cache types and each bringing their own personality. There were even three events!  I can not thank Susan enough for taking on this task and just running with it to make an amazing series adventure that now is out there for many finds to come.

We have some behind the scenes committees and volunteers who dedicate  a lot of time during the year helping shape NoVAGO into an amazing future organization.

You know those awards you hear about during the spring picnic, well a LOT of planning and organizing goes into gathering those nominated and out into the public eye for review.

During this time of the year, every year, fellow cachers decide who they would like to lead this amazing organization into the next year.  For this, we hold a members election.  To uphold the fairness we have a volunteer committee led by fellow members who are not on the ballot or the Board to organize the nominations, formalize a voting poll, and track all votes to determine a winner.  Remember – we are all winners no matter who is elected because those running have a heart and desire to improve NoVAGO and this committee shares YOUR vote for the following year.

Both of these are months long processes and not a quick simple task. In 2023 both the awards and election committees were led by Michael (Schwandt) and Jesse (MRPsyduck).  Thank you both for your dedication and time to NoVAGO.

 

Who else volunteers time?  

Well, Officers and Directors of NoVAGO of course

Each of us have our own personality and ideas that mix wonderfully together to get things done for you.  As President I’d like to thank each of them individually.

OFFICERS: 

VICE PRESIDENT – Radka/TheWanderesss, cacher since 2014 – Our newest officer as vice-president this year, she jumped in sharing ideas and great plans for the group.  We need a whole group of volunteers with ideas like hers.

SECRETARY – Monica/TrexM8s, cacher since 2006 – Here is your major logger,  being the keeper of all the meetings. Her notes are the minutes presented to the board and posted on line – for all of us cachers to see.  Monica also hosted our Fall Event this year, a task that is bigger than the average event and she jumped right onto the 123123 coins for extra NoVAGO funding and furnished an opportunity for the coins to be easily available to all.

TREASURER – Freddie/freddiecrs, cacher since 2015 – Money money and mo’ money, our cash counting queen.  She tracks every dollar that comes and goes our way. Without her we wouldn’t know how much money we can spend on all the fun stuff we do.

PUBLIC RELATIONS – Heather/hrothroc, cacher since 2016 – Everything you see and read from NoVAGO is her domain.  From our website, our Facebook page, to many events, she’s the one who keeps us all in the know and connects with the community to grow our presence. You really have no idea how hard she works and how much time and energy she contributes on your behalf!

DIRECTORS: 

Pete/Nothereeither, cacher since 2011 – Pete is immediate past president and has had years and years of NoVAGO experience and provides wisdom from that past and into the present.

Kirk/DePhogration, cacher since 2009, also has been around forever and a day.  Our fearless chef extraordinaire as you all know him, but here with the group he is another past president whose caching knowledge is unsurpassed.

Tom/CherokeeThree, cacher since 2001 and one of our rare charter geocache members. I am so glad to have him on our team. While he’s had a geocaching streak longer than most cachers, he is full of great caching experience and having that is needed when planning events and new series for all to enjoy.  Tom also hosted our Spring event this  year and it was an amazing location with a lot of new fun caches placed.

Patricia/Pfenix, cacher since 2004 – Former triple year NoVAGO secretary, an amazing team player dedicated, giving her all, whether it is donating or stepping in to volunteer, Patricia is team NoVAGO.

Cory/TheColdedge, cacher since 2014 – Representing the West-Side, Cory jumped in and being the youngest on the board he brought some amazing fresh ideas to the group.  He’s found just about every cache in his area, so if you ever are his way, he’s your best PAF!

Chris/Awesnap,  cacher since 2010 – I like to call Chris Mr. NoVAGO, I feel like he knows every cacher and every cache out there, he’s creative and helpful with ideas, cache designs, cache pages and willing to help wherever needed.

 

If you think I forgot YOU, I didn’t….

Everyone reading this has an interest and some level of involvement in geocaching.  So thank you, you and you for everything you have ever done, are doing today, or will do for NoVAGO, fellow geocachers and all things geocaching. Onward to 2024 we go, farewell 2023, but let the memories live on 🥰.

Happy 123sDay Trackable – have arrived!

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8:11 PM

Cachers who pre-ordered by November 15th:

The 123123 Trackables will be available for pick up at the MGS and NoVAGO 123123 events:

  • GCAGCH0: NoVAGO 123sDAY: 12/31/23 New Year’s Eve Event 2:00 – 3:00 Ledo’s, 8324 Old Keene Mill Rd, West Springfield, VA

Log your Will Attend!

NoVAGO Cachers may message Monica Lynch, TrexM8s if you would like to arrange for payment in advance.

Reminder: The MGS version will feature colors from the Maryland state flag. In the NoVAGO version, the trackable will highlight the blues and greens of the great Virginia outdoors. There will also be an American version featuring red, white and blue. These fundraisers will only be available through MGS and NoVAGO. You can purchase one trackable for $15, two trackables for $25 or three trackables for $35. Your trackables will be delivered during NoVAGO and MGS caching events on New Year’s Eve.

Say Goodbye to 2023 and Hello to 2024 with NoVAGO

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Members Host Events Before and After the New Year across Northern Virginia

As announced by Geocaching HQ, there are two opportunities to earn some souvenirs. Earn Farewell to 2023 by finding any geocache, attending an Event, or completing an Adventure Lab® Location from December 24–31. Earn Greetings from 2024 by finding any geocache, attending an Event, or completing an Adventure Lab® Location from January 1–8.

Thanks to all our volunteers who host these events so that the rest of us can get together and share geocaching stories. Here’s what coming up for you to earn these colorful souvenirs:

Moviepalooza! The Noveez Awards

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Annual Series Wraps up with Awards Event

This year our theme has been cheesy movies. We’ve named it Moviepalooza. Pre-selected members of NoVAGO have been busy hiding geocaches around the area since early October. Let’s call them the producers. The rest of us have been searching and (hopefully) finding all these great caches. We can call ourselves the audience. As the series comes to an end, lets get the audience together to give the producers an applause. There just might be some recognitions to give out for the audience members as well. You won’t want to miss it!

Woodbridge Monthly Meet and Greet is hosting the Awards!

Waters End Brewery, 12425 Dillingham Sq., Lakeridge

Saturday, December 16, 2023

2:00 – 3:30 pm

Be sure to let the host and hostess know that you are coming. Please RSVP on the event page: Woodbridge M&G December 2023 (GCAGR20)

Voting Open for 2024 NoVAGO Officers

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VOTING OPEN FOR 2024 NoVAGO Officers

Last month we asked our membership to nominate volunteers to fill the officer positions for the 2024 board. You can read that article with the job descriptions by CLICKING HERE. You can also find a link to our By-Laws here.

Thanks go out to our board members who are returning in one way or another for 2024. The following candidates will be automatically sworn into office on the first of January: Dave P. (rufnredy) for Vice President, Monica L. (TrexM8s) for Secretary, Freddie C. (freddiecrs) for Treasurer, and Heather C (hrothroc) for Public Relations.

The office of president is the only contested position this year. Please read a little about each candidate in the drop menu below before heading to the voting form.

What is your caching name?

My name is Gina T. (ThompsonKickers) and I have graciously accepted the nomination to become NoVAGO’s 2024 President – if all of you amazing cachers out there, yep, I’m talking to you, choose me for this role.

What is your caching background?

I’ve been a member of NoVAGO since 2016 and I’m not just a member – I’m a volunteer and geocacher! I love to promote and participate in the NoVAGO annual series, by hiding and finding the caches. (As President a goal of mine is to also bring MORE NoVAGO-themed caches or series in 2024 so everyone can be a part of NoVAGO in some way.) You may not know this, but I began caching in January of 2016 and found the NoVAGO website by chance for the photo contests. Promotion is so important to me because I would not have even known about the group had I not accidentally found it. At first I didn’t know much about the organization and had no idea how great it could be. Once I was told about a big spring event and that was the first I had attended, and I vowed I’d make new friends and participate as much as I could to be part of this amazing group of people. I jumped in with volunteering for projects such as the new and exciting Ice Breakers, Spring and Fall events, Tip Jar, rounding up nominations and launching the annual cacher/cache awards voting and more.

What is your NoVAGO volunteer experience?

After becoming a Director in 2021, then Vice-President in 2022, my ideas led me to President in 2023. Now I wish to continue on the journey in 2024. Together with the other officers and directors, I would like to continue to promote NoVAGO with every cacher in the area, spreading the word that NoVA is a great place to cache and all geocachers are welcome and wanted here.

What would you like NoVAGO to accomplish in 2024?

Who loves Geocaching? Who knows about Geocaching? Who is excited and would like to see more Geocaching events and collaboration with local parks and the public? If that’s you, then I’m all in because that’s what I want to do as well. I have been very honored to hold this position this last year. Just like caching, being President one year in, gets your feet wet. But not just wet, the “muddy, stuck in your socks” wet that you can’t get rid of. You get ideas that you didn’t have before, you start building on smaller ideas that you did have before you started. That’s where I am right now. My brain is full of so much excitement for the next year in NoVAGO.

What’s all the excitement talk about? I know you may have already read what we all did collectively last year, as I posted it in the President’s Favorite posts last week. For me, it’s personal, I love all of you and have the need to make sure everyone is involved and having a great caching experience.

I want to recharge those of us who have been around a while, get motivation to jump on board, and do some volunteer work for NoVAGO. One of my biggest goals is cacher involvement. BIG, small, in the middle, no matter where folks are in their wish to be involved, that’s where we want them to be, then help them step it up a notch by bringing great things to all cachers as a team of volunteers. I’m not saying I want everyone else to do the work, I’m in knee deep and together we can make the NoVAGO caching experience amazing and memorable and to keep cachers, well…caching here!

Continuing to engage new cachers is a big part of this as well. Last year I put a big emphasis on encouraging new cachers. I want to keep this rolling by continuing to reach out and invite them to events, helping them to feel welcome to our group of amazing friends. Bridging new cachers with seasoned to help them become more knowledgeable while caching, placing caches and learning how they can help and join the organization.  

Other ways to promote Geocaching is by growing the Geocaching 101 in local Libraries and Scout groups, which is another long term goal. When collaborating with these groups, we create awareness, but even more than that, when a local cacher is presenting or providing information for this fun activity for everyone it bonds them to the local community and our geo-family grows strong.

With the community in mind, I plan to increase the CITO events, this helps keep the earth clean and yet again bonds cachers to each other and the area’s they clean up. CITO truly are text book community care caching. Through CITO, not only do we clean areas up, but we work to grow connections with park management and local government to keep geocaching open to the community and to promote the geocaching hobby to the greater community.

Another goal is, working with the board, finding new ways to increase the available funds to provide great large group events for all as well as other projects in the works in the future. Having funds makes all the cool things happening. The budget is all set for now, although we just want to keep on building the bank.

I have truly become friends with so many cachers new to me and new cachers alike while being President this past year. Becoming connected with other geocachers and how they love the game truly fires my desire to do more in the area. I myself love geocacaching more every day and never tire of the excitement of an event, new cache, new friends and new ideas. Working together with the Board and Directors of NoVAGO in 2024, if elected, I plan to work hard so every geocacher feels like I do. Although, no matter the results of this vote, I will continue to enjoy caching in NoVA, meeting up with fellow cachers, participating in activities and will do my part to help others enjoy the game.  In the end I just want the organization to GROW!

ThompsonKickers loves geocaching and geocachers, and I want to make geocaching in NoVAGO better for geocachers like YOU!

What is your caching name?

My caching name is Effstop.

What is your caching background?

I have 10 years of experience as a geocacher, with more than 6000 finds. I completed the Big 4 challenges this year – placed date calendar, found date calendar, Fizzy D/T grid, and Jasmer calendar grid. I also accomplished a streak of 530+ days a few years ago.

What is your NoVAGO volunteer experience?

I served as NoVAGO Vice-President in 2020 and 2021 and as a NoVAGO director in 2022. I hosted the NoVAGO Spring 2021 picnic. Also, I have hosted more than 50 events for local cachers.

What would you like NoVAGO to accomplish in 2024?

During the coming year, I want NoVAGO to offer these opportunities:

  • 1.     Bring back the “Cacher Spotlight” feature to Facebook and the NoVAGO website, with a focus on newer NoVAGO members,
  • 2.     Have a NoVAGO Pathtag contest,
  • 3.     Offer many classes on geocaching related topics, such as Cachetur, GSAK, hosting events, Adventure Labs, and road trips,
  • 4.     Bring back the Valentine’s Day event,
  • 5.     Create a Wheelchair Access trail, perhaps in partnership with the Maryland Geocaching Society (MGS),
  • 6.     Offer “Spend a day caching with an officer” opportunities,
  • 7.     Continue the Spring and Fall picnics, and
  • 8.     Continue the annual NoVAGO series.

~Mike

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR VOTE

Voting is open now and will stay open through December 30th at midnight.

In order to have your vote count, you must provide your name, e-mail address, and the user name you log into this website with. 

Please forward questions or concerns regarding the election to 2023vote@novago.org

For assistance with website login credentials, contact admin@novago.org

Presidents Favorite Points ❤️

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2023 @ a Glance (Back)!

What happened this year in NoVAGO? Wow, the year has flown right by! I can’t believe the cold weather is upon us. Every winter I want the warm weather, until the green grows in, then I want the cold, then the leaves hide all the caches I want to find. Hopefully everyone had time while the weather was “perfect” to grab some caches this year, there certainly were a lot of great ones published.

Before I was elected as NoVAGO President last year I started a list of goals I would love to see happen for us. Our Officers and Directors group also had items on this year’s agenda and I’m happy to say we have accomplished many of those goals and have opened the doors to more! From the outside it may be hard to tell, but we have had many discussions, changes and growth as a group.

Cacher Involvement

To us, it seems like many cachers have really gotten involved this year and that makes me so happy. I feel that NoVAGO had a part in that connection since one thing we have been working on is awareness of the organization and how each of you can become involved. Reaching out to new cachers has been on our list and as COs collectively we made a pledge to message newbies when they find our caches. We have been reaching out to them, saying hello, welcoming them and giving tips and recommendations where to cache. (Speaking of recommendations, during the Fall picnic the icebreaker asked for the best of the best locations. We will post those for all to see soon.) We also ask who wants to be involved. Sometimes people just don’t know where to take the first step and that’s where we come in at gatherings. Just another part of how our ideas for events and activities come to life in real life caching!

Let’s talk a little more about new cachers. This year we’ve had several successful Geocaching 101 events at libraries and scout groups across our whole region. Many supportive, seasoned cachers came and welcomed new cachers with hints, tips and ideas on how to find and place caches to keep the game alive in fun and safe ways. The feedback has been great and more 101 events are planned for 2024 – including resurrecting some more advanced sessions!

Public Relations

Thanks in large part to Heather (hrothroc), the NoVAGO web site and Facebook page have had quite a lot of action. Conversations with cachers and cache logs have contained links to direct anyone into the action right before their eyes. NoVAGO board members were posting notifications of events and important information, including ABC’s of caching, spotlights on locations, caches and cachers. The excitement got members jumping on the page and sharing their experiences. It’s all right there at the click of a mouse or tap of your finger for everyone. NoVAGO has certainly grown together this past year.

Guess what? We are just going to keep on getting better so, make sure you don’t miss the next big event. How do you find those? Well on the web page of course! We have a full calendar of not just our events, but all local events that have been published. We also have upcoming event cards that are distributed at local events, with CO permission of course. So find an event and meet us and other cachers.

Events – Events – Events!

The major NoVAGO events have had an amazing turnout this year averaging 50 names on the logs! We’ve upped our game with amazing locations for the Spring and Fall events, provided master chefs (led by Kirk – dephogration & special guest ThompsonKickers geohubby, Eric) and unique icebreakers that were just as much fun to make as to play. We also published new caches, not just for the event days, but we worked with the parks to keep them for future cachers. We’ve created a play book/checklist for events to make sure future events go just as smooth. The fall Auction was outstanding and organizing this was a great task in itself. This year we even had a CITO before the Fall Picnic (thanks, Awesnap!) and have made plans for this to continue going forward. Having CITO events truly align with one of our objectives of partnering with and helping keep our parks clean. NoVAGO has made some investments to bring a better event experience to all – and by the talk of the town, it’s working!

Committees Making Things Happen

Another big thing we accomplished this year was truly adopting committees for our special projects. Having a specific team of dedicated folks working on these projects maximizes the outcome – and also helps the board have time to work on other tasks.

One of those teams is the Awards committee, Michael (Schwandt) & Jesse (MrPsyduck) who put together an amazing plan that resulted in lots of nominations and an increase in voters. The presentation at the Spring event honored winners with more than just their name. Our presenter talked about each cacher or cache and that really gave that personal touch expressing what they have been doing for the game and honoring them. If that wasn’t enough, new awards were personally designed and created by our amazing PR Officer Heather.

Right now are you enjoying the Moviepalooza? Well that’s another NoVAGO project. We have a team led by Susan (sp4fun) who selected the COs and together have made this an amazing Fall/Winter Series. I can’t wait to complete this one.

Another group of volunteers, led by Monica (TrexM8s) worked to create an outstanding fundraiser to mark the New Year. They designed – and many of you purchased the 123123 trackables that are available for purchase. It’s a win-win, you get a trackable and NoVAGO has some more funds to invest in our game.

Finances

Speaking of the budget, no organization is without the burden of funds – and fundraising. Do we have enough, are we spending enough, are we spending too much? These are all questions that we talk about every month and we have a budget that we collectively created for the next year and a full five years out. This information is available for all members to view on the member page of the website. You will see we’ve been working hard to find ways to increase our available funds for a better caching experience in NoVAGO.

Open Leadership

Don’t forget – being a member is completely free, we do all we do to keep it this way. So jump on in and see what’s happening to make caching in NoVA better! The meeting minutes are also posted, in case you didn’t know every member can be in the know, just take a look. Officer meetings are also open, and our web page calendar shows the dates of Officer meetings – along with all of those events. Anyone who wants to jump on and listen in – and can and should, especially if you have great ideas to share. Alternatively, you can email us directly at officers@novago.org or catch any of us at an event. The great thing about this organization is we all are here for the same reason and we work together to reach our goals.

And guess what, in case you missed it, Geocaching HQ spotlighted NoVAGO this year so we must be doing something right! So get involved, be a part of the action and find out how you can be part of NoVAGO (more)!


Working together for you. Whether it’s creating event pages or logos, working on the budget, organizing events, community outreach, collecting donations, updating social media, purchasing needed items, manning the grill, taking pictures, helping new cachers all while being a supportive geocacher. This is what we do and we’re not done yet! Thank you!

Attendees at geocaching 101 class in Winchester, VAMembers pose for a group photoThompsonKickers prepares for her Geocaching 101 class at library in Winchester, VA.Members check out the many auction items during the 2023 fall picnic.The CITO before the picnic was well attended.Members check out the many auction items during the 2023 fall picnic.Group Photo at the 2023 NoVAGO Spring PicnicMembers eating and talking at the 2023 NoVAGO Spring PicnicGeocachers from the event are on the trail looking for caches.

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Happy 123sDay Trackable

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To help you celebrate this New Year’s Eve and its doubly cool date – 12/31/23, NoVAGO and MGS are pursuing a joint fundraiser for area cachers. The two groups are working with Oakcoins/GeoSwag to produce three customized versions of the World Wide Group Project Happy 123sDay trackable (https://geoswag.com/product/123123-world-wide-group-project/).

The MGS version will feature colors from the Maryland state flag. In the NoVAGO version, the trackable will highlight the blues and greens of the great Virginia outdoors. There will also be an American version featuring red, white and blue. These fundraisers will only be available through MGS and NoVAGO. You can purchase one trackable for $15, two trackables for $25 or three trackables for $35. Your trackables will be delivered during NoVAGO and MGS caching events on New Year’s Eve.

By November 13, please share your purchase plans with NoVAGO or MGS. Payments will not be due until after the trackables are delivered in December. If you have questions, please contact Monica Lynch or Michael Schwandt from NoVAGO or Larry Potter or Cindy Shafer from MGS.