With the arrival of the NEPAG coin on the horizon, it's time to start thinking about planning a little event in order to ensure everyone receives his/her coins in a timely manner. As Hound pointed out in another thread, it would be a shame if someone's personalized coins got lost in the mail, so we think an event may be the best way to distribute the coin. People who do not attend would have to arrange either to have their coins mailed or delivered to them personally via the NEPAG "ground delivery service."

A couple of things to consider:

1. We probably need to be able to be flexible with the event's date at this point, since we don't know for sure when they will arrive. In other words, don't go renting that fire hall just yet! We should, however, decide first whether we want to plan something for a Saturday, a Sunday, or a weekday evening, then try to find a place based on that preference.

2. We would like to have a locale that is as centrally situated as possible. Obviously, some people will still have quite a distance to travel, but NEPA is a large area and we'll have to do our best. Previous discussion on the old NEPAG site indicated that Luzerne County is probably the most central place, but we will be happy to hear other ideas.

3. We need to decide on how low-key or how "planned" we want the event to be. Do we want to simply meet in a restaurant's back room and order off the menu (easy, but could get awfully crowded depending on the turnout)? Would we prefer to have a potluck at a park (we'd have to arrange to reserve a pavilion if we do, just in case it rains)? Would someone like to be in charge and go all out arranging a raffle, the cooking of hotdogs/hamburgers on a grill, perhaps a few new caches, etc.? Or something entirely different?

4. Do we want to make it an official event published on the geocaching website or would we rather keep it private for just NEPAG members? If we make it an official event, we would have the opportunity to recruit new members for NEPAG, but we would also probably have to put a lot more planning into it. If it's a private event, we can expect a much smaller turnout, but it might be nice to be really casual and not worry about impressing anyone because we'd be "amongst friends."

Your input is needed, so please respond to this post!

Personally I'm all for a public event, let there be thousands!!!

I like option #4. Pot luck at a park would be nice.

MissKeeto wrote:
I like option #4. Pot luck at a park would be nice.

You can't just pick option #4...you have to consider each of the four points and then give us your opinion on each. But I do agree...potluck at the park is nice.

Argh....here is my THIRD attempt at a reply...let's hope this one makes it...

I think a pot-luck/cookout at a park would be fun. Moon Lake, Frances Slocum, Hickory Run?

Saturdays are great for me if it's to be a summer thing, though Saturdays are also busy park days, so if we go with a park we should reserve a pavilion as soon as we know when we'll have the coins to hand out and can pick a date.

I'm undecided on official event vs. small private gathering. I do like smaller groups and they are definitely easier to organize, and this is kind of "our" event, but with a posted event on gc.com we can reach out to more cachers, gain new members, sell some of the new coins, etc.

Potluck @ a park sound good to us too!

I think a public event would be a GREAT way to get the NEPAG name out there and have some more local cachers quit lurking and start posting in the NEPAG community!

I say park picnic is a great idea!

As we mentioned to Hound a few days ago, if we're going to distribute the coins at a "get together", then let's make it a formal "EVENT CACHE", and open it up to everyone. We even suggested that by doing an event like that we might get a few more people interested in NEPAG.
If we're going to make a longer trip to pick up our coins, we'd like to at least get credit for a cache, so an Event Cache would be just great.
Keeping it simple and easy would be the best. If someone centrally located in NEPAG knows of a place we can rent a pavilion (we can all split the cost)and have everyone bring a dish to pass, so no one has to be responsible for bringing or fixing burgers or hotdogs. That way we can get our coins and geochat with everyone for a little while!

Pointme2 wrote:
As we mentioned to Hound a few days ago, if we're going to distribute the coins at a "get together", then let's make it a formal "EVENT CACHE", and open it up to everyone. We even suggested that by doing an event like that we might get a few more people interested in NEPAG.
If we're going to make a longer trip to pick up our coins, we'd like to at least get credit for a cache, so an Event Cache would be just great.
Keeping it simple and easy would be the best. If someone centrally located in NEPAG knows of a place we can rent a pavilion (we can all split the cost)and have everyone bring a dish to pass, so no one has to be responsible for bringing or fixing burgers or hotdogs. That way we can get our coins and geochat with everyone for a little while!

Sounds like a great idea! I think I'm seeing a trend here... Too bad Matamoras is so far to the east, because Captain Math (where IS he, by the way) is a great event organizer.

It doesn't have to be a big "organized event"; if someone in the WB area (is that the central area of NEPAG ) knows of a big enough pavilion; that's the biggest concern. It doesn't have to have games and prizes, etc. - just a meeting place! The food shouldn't be an issue with 50 plus attendees; if each NEPAG member brought a dish to pass, that would be plenty!

EEKJeep mentioned Frances Slocum; that is a beautiful park, and maybe this would be a great 1st cache for you EEKJeep?! (hint,hint!!)

We know the location and time will not work out for everyone, but if we can at least decide on a location (and who will be "hosting" the event) before the coins arrive, that's less we have to worry about later!

At this point it seems all we need to do is decide on a location, then wait for Chris to give us a rough idea of when we can expect the geocoins to arrive. Once we know the coins are here, (or on their way) we can go ahead and list the Event Cache!