Moncton launches The Geocaching Scavenger Hunt
Looks like Moncton is joing Saint John in the use of geocaching and tourism. Below is the official press release found on the City of Moncton’s webpage. I have omitted the portion unrelated to geocaching.
June 3, 2011
MONCTON – The City of Moncton is happy to be celebrating National Tourism Week from June 6 -12, 2011. At a press conference held this morning at Moncton City Hall, the Geocaching Scavenger Hunt was launched along with a coupon booklet, in partnership with the local hotel association and a new tourism video. The Times & Transcript will be publishing a special tourism supplement on Saturday, June 4, 2011 that will highlight various activities happening for National Tourism Week and this summer.
The City of Moncton unveiled its very first geocaching coin which can be obtained by completing the scavenger hunt. The Geocaching Scavenger Hunt is a collaboration between the City of Moncton and Maritime Geocaching Association. The scavenger hunt will take people on a journey to some tourist attractions in and around the Greater Moncton area. Interested participants should go to www.geocaching.com and search for GC2B8EJ to find directions to the first cache. This site goes live on Tuesday, June 7, 2011.
“This initiative is a wonderful way for tourists and residents alike to explore Moncton and the surrounding area in a fun and adventurous way,” says Rob Durdle from Maritime Geocaching. “Geocaching is becoming a popular world-wide activity and it is so amazing to have Moncton on board.”
It isn’t the first coin the city has made, Irishtown coin came out 2 years ago. I discussed this exact thing with them two years ago and had a plan done up, I guess he was talking to someone different than me. I have been setting up caches for the city for the last two years for some of their youth programs. Nice to see it though.
GC2B8EJ doesnt seem to be listed yet. Does anyone knows if it will be a real geocoin, a trackable one?
It is supposed to be published on the 7th, I would assume it will be trackable the first one they wade was.
“Geocaching is becoming a popular world-wide activity and it is so amazing to have Moncton on board.”
Wonder why it’s so “amazing” to have Moncton on board? Even in the early days, Moncton was relatively dense with geocaches.
Yep In the early days, Moncton was a hot bed of geocaching with the number of cachers and the number of caches.
However I think dragoon is making a normal press release statement and is referring to the City of Moncton being on board
Amazed that Moncton was duped so easily maybe… I guess it’s not to hard to do when the past is erased and everyone forgets so easily. It’s unfortunate and pretty much insulting to those who invested so much time and money into maritimegeocaching.com
Yeah, you’re probably right, Pa, I missed the context.
I wonder how the “real” MGA feels about the “fraudulent” M-GA using the maritime geocaching association name? Nice to see they took association out of the lower half when quoting Mr. Durdle as they sure don’t run like an association. Hard to believe that the city of Moncton would collaborate with such a “sketchy” group. Definitely not something I’ll be partaking in…
Tetagoucher, I’m not at all familiar with the issues, and if you read any of my posts, I tend to avoid controversy ;). But the ACGA, MGA, and M-GA play with the word “association” fast and loose. I don’t remember the ACGA having a members discussion on whether to do the caching partnership with FNP. A true association should have a board of director and an AGM to discuss major issues. Otherwise, its just one or two guys running the show thinking they speak on behalf of all cachers in an area, or giving the impression to others that that is the case when it is not.
The ACGA is a registered non profit association, we have a board of directors, I have been on it for 3 years and it has a bank account. We have annual meetings, for the last couple of years they have been via skype and all members are given plenty of notice to attend. I can send you the link to the minutes if you like. CacheupNB and the MGA are not associations, no board, meetings or registered. CacheupNB has never called or considered itself an association.
My wife never really understood this whole debate (neither did I actually) but put out like Rev Slippery and forestfauna just did makes it very very clear ie real association vs something else. I am thinking, should someone post something on this subject, to explain for newbies or weirdos like me what all those associations or single-person entities are? Just a thought.
Nemo, it’s a very long story and one that should be kept for “offline” discussions.
I appreciate the extra info about the ACGA Rev. Its too bad we couldn’t do a face-to-face AGM as a fun time to gather as well as handle business.
Cache Up NB has promoted itself as an open forum for discussion, not an association, which I appreciate greatly.
As for the M-GA, I find that a tougher pill to swallow, because as far as I know, Dragoon runs it and there is no board, meetings, etc. You try to look up info on the M-GA itself on their own website and it is a generic “what is geocaching” schtick. Anyone could start up a website and do what he is doing. I don’t know how he can say he actually represents anyone but himself, in my humble opinion.
This idea may be good for Moncton and good for geocaching. Only time will tell. I suspect Dragoon has put quite a bit of time and effort into this Scavenger Hunt and I wish him luck. We will likely be participating. The only negative I see so far is the quality of the article in the newspaper today.
And it is nice to see that the coin will be trackable and that a copy will be on display at tonight’s event.
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We usually do not look at who organized an event or hid a cache when we geocache.
Many many many years ago we were strong supporters of the old MGA and we were not involved with the ACGA website. However that did not stop us from attending their events and socializing with the cachers.
I have no problem with idea, I like it, it has been done in many other places before and I will go find the cache and probably get a coin as well. My only beef is the inaccuracies in the story, this has been done before in Moncton, I guess they don’t all talk to each other at city hall. I am still in talks with the Parks department to expand to the other parks for another coin. The more coins the better as no one seems to be making coins much these days. If I can win the loto, Rev Slippery coins for everyone….lol
Woot! I’m buying you a lotto ticket!
In all honesty I’m totally cool with all of this. It’s an awesome idea and I’m thankful that Dragoon put the effort in to making it happen. I would also be fully supporting it if it was Dragoon’s New Brunswick Geocaching Association or The East Coast Geocaching Association etc. However, its his Maritime Geocaching association and that I have a problem with. How are we to know that it was not the Maritime geocaching Association that Moncton wanted to collaborate with and what they got was his Maritime Geocaching Association. Just like half of the members now who think they are part of the Maritime Geocaching Association are actual part of his Maritime Geocaching Association. Maybe to all you there is no difference but to me there is and I find it to be insulting to all the maritimegeocaching.com members…
I can only imagine what a Rev Slippery coin would look like…
Potatoe, Potatoe… I have known the details reported of stories reported in the news before, and I can say, I’ve NEVER seen an article or report get the whole story correct.
I would love to see how many coins will go to true tourists as opposed to the local geocachers from southern NB. I wonder if they are taking names and addresses to see when people are coming from to do the tour around town. It is a good idea but I wonder if it will attract enough to cover the cost? Geocaching is something that can be done anywhere so I don’t see if the possibility of a coin will get people to come to Moncton from far away. Many of us do travel but it is usually the cache density that makes us go somewhere, but if there was a coin involved I would definitely go for it. When I am looking for someplace to go for vacation I look for local attractions that are different from what I have at home, geocaching is not one thing I look for because I assume there will be caches to get. If the city advertises it properly and gets it out there in the right places it will attract people but like I said how many? The first 100 or so coins will be staying in our area. Hopefully it goes well and they can do more coins in the future.
Woot! I just got my geocoin today, they’re quite nice. I think it’s a great initiative…the coins are trackable, but they don’t have their own icon (yet, anyway)
Check that…they DO have their own icon… the City of Moncton logo! Nice.
Got our coins. Very nice. I now also know all kinds of hotels in Moncton area.
I think the concept of this is great, although I think any tourist who sees this and does it to see all that Moncton has to offer will be disappointed. Hotel parking lots are not all that interesting for me when I travel to new places. I think with some tweaking, this could be very fun and exciting for people visiting the city.
Agreed. They really could have done better when selecting the “tourism” sites.
Thanks for all the positive feedback folks! We really appreciate it 🙂
Due to the feedback, changes are already in the works for the next hunt.
Have a great day, and see you on the trails!
-Rob
(Dragoon)