RE: [Az-Geocaching] Anyone can be a Geocaching member

Ken Akerman wrote:

"It only costs $30 per year."

What are you going to tell some kid that doesn't have any money but wants to
get into geocaching? If people start making all of the caches in town
"Members Only", how is that kid, who can't drive himself outside of town,
going to get into geocaching. I see your point with the potential to limit
damage to caches, but it also limits access to caches for people who would
only have a chance to enjoy geocaching if the caches around their house were
not "Members Only". I thought geocaching was something that was supposed to
be fun for EVERYONE. By creating "Members Only" caches, you restrict it to
people who have the extra $30/year as well as the money to buy a GPS unit to
participate. Some of these people with smaller budgets may not ever spend
money on putting gas into a geocaching vehicle, so you cannot argue that
point. I know several kids that are into geocaching and they would all be
discouraged or quit if "Members Only" caches were to start showing up
everywhere around their houses. Like I said before, geocaching is about the
caches and they should not be restricted.

-Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com
[mailto:az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com]On Behalf Of
ken@highpointer.com
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2003 10:35 PM
To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Anyone can be a Geocaching member


Brian of Team LeapLab wrote:

. . .that there should be limitations to the features on Geocaching.com
for people that are not members, but Geocaching is about the caches and they
should not be restricted to be accessed by a small number of people.

Anyone can be a member. It only costs $30 per year. That's less than a
full tank of gas for a typical geocaching vehicle (i.e. SUV, pickup, van, or
full-size car). (I know this to be true because on Saturday morning I paid
over $35 to put 19 gallons of unleaded gasoline in the gas tank of my Isuzu
Rodeo).

I don't want to lose my caches, I don't want to see travel bugs get lost,
and I don't want to see anyone write obscenities on log sheets. Making a
cache "Members Only" does not guarantee that those things won't happen, but
will reduce the chances of bad things happening to caches and travel bugs.

Ken Akerman