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!