GIS Events in Illinois
15th Anniversary Geocaching Contest (July - October, 2010)
ILGISA is holding a geocaching contest to celebrate its 15th anniversary. For those of you not familiar with geocaching, it is an outdoor activity in which one uses a GPS receiver to find hidden “treasure” called geocaches. The “treasure" is usually hidden in a watertight plastic food container or a surplus ammo can or a magnetic hide-a-key, depending on the location, and consists of small trinkets or toys for kids to trade. Geocaches also contain a logbook for the finder to sign in the field. The geocacher then logs the cache online once they are home. Geocaching is a way to get outside and utilize some of the technology you use in your everyday job to have fun. The geocaches to be found for this contest will be located near places of significance in ILGISA history.
There are a few sites that publish geocache information. For this contest we will be using existing caches from www.geocaching.com, which has some good tutorials on how to get started. Sign up for a free membership, download coordinates to your GPS, and go out to find the geocache. Many new phones can also be used to geocache, if you don’t have a GPS receiver.
View the list of geocaches in the contest.
Here are some resources to get you started:
Wikipedia entry for geocaching
Geocaching.com
Geocaching.com’s “Getting started with Geocaching” page
Geocaching.com’s Resources page
Geocaching.com FAQ
The Rules
We have tried to keep the contest simple. ILGISA has been around for 15 years so we have picked 15 caches spread throughout Illinois near places of significance to ILGISA.
The winner will be the first ILGISA member to find all 15 caches or, in the event that no one finds all the caches, the member that finds the most caches. Prizes will be awarded for 1st ($75), 2nd ($50) and 3rd ($25) place. If two people have the same amount of caches, the prize will go to the person who found their final contest cache earliest. All other ties will be broken with coin flips. The contest will end 10 days before the ILGISA 2010 Fall Conference. All finds must be logged on geocaching.com by October 10th. All contest caches previously found by a person count for this contest and do not have to be re-found. ILGISA reserves the right to modify these rules at any time during the contest.
To compete in the contest you must register for a free basic membership at geocaching.com and submit your chosen username to mvarner@cityofevanston.org. Your geocaching.com username or “handle” is how we will track what geocaches you have found.
Good Luck and Have FUN!
ILGISA 2010 Fall Conference
October 20-21, 2010
NIU Naperville Campus at 1120 East Diehl Road
Naperville, Illinois
ILGISA 2011 Spring Conference
April 19-20, 2011
I-Hotel & Conference Center at 1900 South 1st Street
Champaign, Illinois
ILGISA 2011 Fall Conference
October 18-19, 2011
NIU Naperville Campus at 1120 East Diehl Road
Naperville, Illinois
ILGISA 2012 Spring Conference
April 18-19, 2012
I-Hotel & Conference Center at 1900 South 1st Street
Champaign, Illinois
ILGISA 2012 Fall Conference
October 16-17, 2012
NIU Naperville Campus at 1120 East Diehl Road
Naperville, Illinois
ILGISA 2013 Spring Conference
April 17-18, 2013
I-Hotel & Conference Center at 1900 South 1st Street
Champaign, Illinois