Cache Up NB’s Future As A News & Community Portal

This article was originally published on Cache Up NB. It has been mirrored here for archive purposes only.

Now that the dust has settled and folks are getting used to the new look around here, I thought it was a good time to bring up something that has also changed but really hasn’t been addressed. I’m hoping to get some feedback from folks here as I feel it is important to know what the general consensus is.

When Cache Up NB was originally conceived, one of the things I wanted to avoid was becoming an “association”. Cache Up NB was something I was starting and I had a very specific goal in mind with it. I wasn’t interested in getting involved in the politics of geocaching associations, nor did I want to become involved in the volatile debate about geocaching associations in this region. Anyone who has been around long enough knows exactly what I am referring to.

As a result of this, I chose to target Cache Up NB as more of a “news and information” website for geocachers in the province of New Brunswick. Folks could come here, read the news, gather bits of information, and share their own stories and commentary on whatever the latest news happen to be. For two years, that has been going very well and thanks to our growing community, the users more so than us admins, drive the content on here now.

Last December when the ACGA approached myself and Rev Slippery about taking over the ACGA caches, and possibly the Fundy Park work, I was extremely excited for the opportunity. It made a lot more sense for us locals to manage this stuff than an association based out of Halifax. It did however present one little problem. The moment Cache Up NB adopted those ACGA caches, we became more than just a news and information site. We now became responsible for certain aspects of caching within our own province. It is to this that I wish to solicit your feedback.

From my perspective, Cache Up NB is not myself, or the admins, it is the community itself. However, when it comes to dealing with things like Parks Canada, or the Town of Riverview, etc, someone has to be the person that represents the whole. Right now, that person is myself and Rev Slippery as we’ve been the ones managing this stuff behind the scenes. We’ve always reached out to the locals when we couldn’t handle things ourselves but for most of the visible stuff for CUNB, it’s been us doing the work. It is this specific concern that I am trying to get feedback on. This responsibility has fallen to the two of us as we are the two folks who started and currently run this site. No one elected us, or chose us to do it, we just do it because we love the NB caching community and want to help promote and grow it in any way we can that makes sense.

With our takeover of Fundy park in moving forward, and with a few other opportunities coming in, I feel compelled to be completely open with our readership here as you are the community and if me and Rev are out there doing things and putting the Cache Up NB name on it, we want to make sure that you as the readers and members of this community are alright with what we do and how we do it.

I am looking to find out what people’s opinions are on how best the Cache Up NB community should be represented. Are you content with how we are doing things now? Do you feel that we provide adequate means for you to provide feedback on what we’re doing and use your feedback appropriately?

Bottom line: Has the time come for Cache Up NB to elect a “board” to make decisions about how we interact with municipalities and other companies (and thusly push us one step closer to becoming an association)?  Or, do you feel the model we currently employ works for this type of community and we should just stay the course?

It is VERY important to me that readers be honest. If you like the way things are run, say so. If you have concerns or suggestions, post them. If you have an opinion but don’t want to share it publicly, use the contact form to email us directly.

With us having grown and become as visible as we are now we need to figure out how best to move forward. Please share your thoughts and opinions.