MnGCA

LucidOndine

The board is in contact with a GIS Analyst from the Geodetic Unit at Mn/DOT in St. Paul. They are looking at starting a project that would be used to catalog and recover over 65,000 survey marks throughout the state and are wondering what kind of interest geocachers might have in helping with this.

Put simply, he would like to know how many geocachers are looking for benchmarks and how many would be interested in helping out by going to an additional website to log your "find" in the interest of helping the state out.

So-- do you benchmark? If yes, would you be willing to "log" it once again on a separate website?
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The Lucid Network (tm)-- More Bars in More Places!

Pear Head · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject:

What exactly are they looking for from us? Just verification that the BM is still where it should be, as described?

It used to be that a large number of the BMs were loggable at gc.com, but over time that percentage has dropped as gc.com hasn't kept their database up to date. Eventually I quit looking for them (quit stopping for BM signs when I saw them) as everything I looked at wasn't on the site, so there was absolutely no point in looking at them.

I wouldn't mind reporting back to the state through a simple website that I found one, but I'm not clear what data they are looking for regarding them. I doubt I would pull over to find one or spend time just searching them out, but wouldn't have a problem with reporting what I came across.

LucidOndine · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject:

Keep in mind everything is very preliminary at this stage. They are in talks with Detroit Lakes geocachers to discuss project feasibility and we will know more after their December 11th meeting.

Though details were not made clear to me via email, I would guess that they will be looking for coordinates and verification though this is just my guess. I have directed the contact to this forum post to better facilitate gauging levels of interest.
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The Lucid Network (tm)-- More Bars in More Places!

Pear Head · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:12 pm Post subject:

Ok, then I would have no problem with reporting what I see, but probably wouldn't go out of my way to do ones that I'm not already out of the vehicle for.

The site would almost need to have a way of searching for the BM by county & disk stamp (if they are still in the designing phase). Any other way would probably be too cumbersome for me.

m&tcacheseekers · Geocacher Joined: 17 Oct 2007 Posts: 101

we just started looking more into benchmarks and we would be glad to help out.. going to another website to log them would be no problem with us
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Got GAS... (geocaching addiction syndrome)

sir_zman · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 6:15 am Post subject:

If they had a better way of looking up benchmark locations (I find their current map site hard to use) I would help out more, otherwise, if I find one, I'd be willing to report the disc condition.

I think it'd be great if they had a list of disc sites that they haven't found in a while and want someone to check up on them, listed in order of time since last found.

ArcherDragoon

Red_Devil35 · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:36 am Post subject:

Sure, why not? I don't know that I would go out of my way to look for one, but if I was in the area I would give it a shot.
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"We never seek things for themselves-what we seek is the very seeking of things"-Pascal

NeoAddict · Geocacher Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 189

If I find one when I'm caching I make note of it and try and find it. I'd be willing to log BM's I find in the wild.

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3655

I don't pay much attention to them unless I come across one in passing or if I am doing a KB puzzle.

King Boreas · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:32 am Post subject:

I stop for BMs.

ArcherDragoon · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:56 am Post subject:

firstbass · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:41 am Post subject:

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3655

Topic check, heh?

ArcherDragoon · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 8:44 am Post subject: