District and Council Activities
Geocaching
events are fun and relatively easy to put on for quite large groups. One prime
location for a District, Council or Inter-council event is at one of the
Council’s summer camp properties. We describe a simple event themed for Boy
Scouts, with the objective to find “Merit Badges” to reach Eagle rank. These
can be hidden at the actual sites where the event occurs at camp – swimming by
the lake, Rifle at the range, etc. Care must be taken in placement of the
caches, as described in the safety rules – for example, one could hide a cache
OUTSIDE of the rifle range but never in an area where Scouts should not cross
without a Range-master present.
It is
recommended that 30-50 caches of varying difficulty be hidden for a 3-4 hour
long event. Additional “finds” above the 21 required for Eagle rank count
toward Palms. This type of event can easily accommodate hundreds of
participants.
This type
of camp location has the added advantage of showcasing the Council’s properties
and camp facilities to encourage summer camp attendance as well as off season
use.
The Website will describe other games and Team
building events for Troops, Districts and Councils. For example, we have
supplied the rules for an easy version of the “Win all you can” type game that
uses geocaching to reinforce the concepts of planning, team communication,
cross-team communication and the “win” for the larger group. This has been
piloted for adult trainers as well at the Western Region Area 3 Training Conference
with rave reviews.
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