3 Easy Tips to Get the Most of Geocaching Friend League

So Geocaching.com has been successful in launching the 2017 Summer challenges; the Mary Hyde Pirate-themed adventure, and leveraging that to move their game platform to an increased state of social media impact. 

That's where Friend League comes into play. By now I'll assume everyone has heard of Friend League, but perhaps we don't all know how to get the most from it. So let me provide you with 3 quick and easy tips to help you get the most out of it this summer.


Tip 1 - Get Rewarded Quickly 
It is apparent that the goals for achieving points in Friend League will likely change weekly, much like they have for past summer souvenir earning programs. 

But right now, the best strategy seems to be to build a team of at least 10 friends and monitor social media for early posts from Geocaching.com, Geocaching bloggers, or podcasters for early tips on what the following weeks' point strategy will be. 



 
It does seem that the points earning period will always include a weekend so that is also helpful to make sure you can earn the minimum points required. 



Tip 2 - Make Friends Responsibly
Since you really shouldn't need more than 10 active geocaching friends to gain your souvenirs there's no need to reach out to people you don't know with undefined friend requests. So what am I asking you to do here?

When you send your friend request, by default it will say "I'd like to become friends on Geocaching.com." 

Consider adding a bit of your own text here, ideally how do you know the person? When did you last meet? Why do you want to be Geocaching.com friends?

In a recent Twitter survey I conducted, about 70% of Geocachers asked said they would not accept a friend request from someone they don't know. So let's respect each other and take the extra two minutes when sending a friend request to make it meaningful.


Tip 3 - Everything is Awesome When You're Part of a Team 
Remember that officially the only thing you are working towards as a League is to earn the souvenirs. Unlike "Clans" in other geolocation gaming, you aren't competing against each other within the group or against other groups for redeemable prizes. 

One of the things I think Geocaching.com is trying to avoid is the aggressiveness that comes into play due to competitiveness to earn in-game credits. This is not the case in Friend Leagues; you are only collaborating within your league so that you all get the souvenir available that period. And that souvenir is available to each as long as you gain the minimum points required.


So tune in to the bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters for fast updates, focus on building a team of friends you know, and leverage teamwork, collaboration, and fun, rather than competing against each other to get the most out of this summer's Mary Hyde geocaching adventure.

But most importantly remember to cache safely, and cache often! 
The LANMonkeys.

4 Podcast Giveaway - WitzEnd's Favourite Freemont Spot

You've waited so patiently, it's time you were rewarded!

In order to be entered into the drawing for the 2015 Block Party "4 Podcast Giveaway" contest you'll need to listen to four different podcasts and hear the favourite Freemont spot from the four hosts who met up at The 2015 Block Party.

Well, here's the answer from Caching in the Northwest host, WitzEnd!



Now remember, to be entered into the contest, Listen to this week's episodes (starting Aug 30) of
PodCacher, GeoGearHeads, LANMonkey's Geocaching Adventures and Caching in the NorthWest

to find out which iconic Fremont, Washington landmark each host found to be the most interesting.

Yes, you must listen to all 4 shows!
Title an email "Fremont Landmarks" and in the body of the email, write all four landmarks and who chose it.
Address your email to feedback@cachingnw.com
Deadline: September 6th, 2015 at midnight (PST)
Winners to be chosen at random from all correct entries.

A Cookie Comes Home...

You may have heard that last week I was down at the Lilypad (Geocaching.com HQ) for a tour and to record some interviews for Caching In the Northwest. What you may not have heard is the neat story of the trackable I brought home.

Many of us have sent out trackables, and help others along their "missions" and for the most part, we really don't know what happens to them. Some arrive at their intended destinations after many detours, and many just "disappear."

This story is about a trackable "cookie" that went on an exciting worldwide adventure, and then through a series of coincidences made it's way back home again - and I'm so excited to have played a small part in making that happen.

Local geocachers may know Dave The Best (the guy who gets everyone's attention at CITOs and Flashmobs?) - well he's the owner of the "COOKIE!" trackable. In his story I've copied below for you to read, I'm the "fellow cacher" he was Tweeting with who brought "COOKIE" home for Dave.

Dave tells this story so well, that I'll quote him instead of retelling it myself:

"On April 28 2014, I dropped this a cache in Cuba. It was then picked up and traveled all around the world to Austria, Slovakia, Cyprus, Poland, France, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Portugal, Luxembourg, Japan, and Belgium, before being brought back to North America and dropped in the Groundspeak HQ cache. 
On April 21, 2015, I noticed a fellow cacher post on social media about heading down to the HQ. Less than an hour later, I get a notification that my TB was dropped off there. I tweeted at the cacher asking him to pick it up, and he replies with a picture of my TB! Today we met up at a CITO and I got my trackable back after it's long adventure around the world. 
This is such a fun game, and so many different things can happen. When I released this into the wild, I never set any goals; I just wanted it to travel from cache to cache, and see where it went. I think it's a super cool story that it traveled the world and then came back to me. 
Thank you for discovering my TB, and don't forget to be awesome!"

I thought you might enjoy hearing a happy tale of a TB coming home after a world-wide adventure. If you have interesting TB stories to share feel free to post them to our Facebook Page!

And remember:
Cache safely, and cache often!
The LANMonkeys

LANMonkey Visits the Lilypad

This Tuesday I had the exceptional opportunity to drive south to the Freemont neighborhood (also known to the locals as the "Centre of the Universe") and visit the good folks at Geocaching.com headquarters - or "the Lilypad" as it's called.

I arrived early and had some time to grab a quick lunch and stroll the neighbourhood - what a quirky place! We've been to two Block Parties and have had a "rushed group" tour of the area doing the GeoTour and lab caches before, but it's fun to check it out at a more relaxed pace. 

I was greeted immediately by smiles and a fun attitude from the moment I walked through the door until I left to make my way home. It's really clear that the people who work here love working here, and are really passionate about what they do. What a great office environment and team.

My guide was Eric Schudiske, the PR and Social Media Manager for Geocaching.com. Eric was kind enough to tour me around the office, make several introductions, and also set up an interview for me with Jayme - the User Insights Analyst from Geocaching.com. She has a fascinating role, and if you'd like to hear more about that, make sure you catch episode 92 of Caching in the Northwest when we'll play that interview on our podcast.

On the tour I got to see a number of the cool spaces set of for people to work, chill, recharge, and work some more on making the website and apps everything they can be. I also met the social media team and had a quick chat there. I found out where the Signalbrau flows from; the inspiration of my favourite Geocaching mascot variant! (mental note... need to order myself the Signalbrau shirt sometime...)

In checking out the development areas, I also met up with Moun10Bike, and he showed me the very first geocoin!

Eric & I spoke about a number of things including the reasoning behind two major recent cache guideline changes (minimum time for events and 1 year moratorium on challenge caches), the 15 Years of Geocaching celebrations, souvenirs, and a hint of what's to come in May, as well as a couple of topics near and dear to the hearts of Canadian geocachers as well as those planning to attend the MVG Summertime Winter Games event.

Before we were done I also spent a bit of time chatting with Bryan Roth, one of the founders of Geocaching.com. I've met Bryan in passing before but never had the chance for a bit of a chat. It was great to meet him and I must say I have an enormous amount of respect for the organizational culture he has built here.

If you want to check out the Lilypad yourself, follow this link to arrange a visit - they love having people come and see them and treat you like family when you're there. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and look forward to a future opportunity to come down and see the team there again.

Thanks Eric, Jayme, Bryan, Jon, and everyone else I'm forgetting to mention (so sorry!) for an amazing and fun visit. I'll be back!



Some more photos from my visit are below...

One of the cleanest server rooms I've seen in a long time.

"The Creek" one of the areas for lackeys to meet, chill, and plan.

Mobile development team - with a sense of humour!