GoSA Grapevine December 2016 - Down Time & Service Time

Down Time
Service Time
GoSA Committee

Down Time

It's the end of another year. Travelling somewhere new? Take the chance to go geocaching. Travelling somewhere you have been to before? Take the chance to go geocaching. Stuck at home with some annoying family? Take the chance to go geocaching. Holding the fort at work? Sneak out early and ... yes.... take the chance to go geocaching.

Whatever you are doing this festive season, GoSA wishes you a fantastic festive season, travel safely and make sure you find some geocaches. Hopefully you also get a chance to attend one of the many events to celebrate the end of the year and the start of another one.

Service Time

It is the responsibility of any cache owner to maintain their geocaches. One of the volunteer reviewers has started a process to work through all the disabled caches and those with long strings of needs maintenance or DNF logs.

Should you be contacted about any of your geocaches, we encourage you to work with them, and arrange to either maintain your geocache, or archive it and remove any remnants that may be at ground zero. At the end of this process, old geocaches owned by inactive geocachers should be removed from the game, opening those areas for active cachers and making it less likely to get DNF's.

Did you manage to get to one of the GIFF screenings and watch the films and earn the souvenir?

If not, you can now watch the entire film reel here.

At the recent GoSA AGM the new committee for 2017 was elected. The committee is:
Chairman - Erik Lear (Fier)
Treasurer - Lucia Rodrigues (LuciaMPR)
Secretary - Claudia Magno (ClodsM)
Member - Bruce Pantland (Pte Curb)
Member - Graham Thomas (ThomasFamilyZA)
Member - Delbert Botes (Delbadore)
Member - Carlo Henrico (scubie999)
Member - Chris Booysen (ChrisDen)

We are always on the lookout for photos from events or cool caches, as well as any fun, interesting, unusual or exciting geocaching stories to share with the geocaching community. If you want to share yours, send it to us by emailing it to our webmasters.

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Movie Time
Favourite Points
GoSA Annual General Meeting

Movie Time

At long last, the finalists for the 2016 Geocaching International Film Festival have been chosen. On November 3-7, thousands of geocachers will take part in a global geocaching movie night. The GIFF 2016 reel will contain an hour of carefully selected finalist films made by geocachers, for geocachers.

5 Lesser-Known Souvenirs | Skimbosh
A Cacher’s Worst Nightmare | gasgoose
A Life of a ‘Change’ | cth-ulhu & DidaAnastasi
Do you know GEOCACHING? | moramora1
Geocaching, Orchestrated | Stingrayabbray
Geo-Medics! | 4 boys explore
It's not about the numbers | Lifechooser
No Hints | DFurt
NYC Caching: Muggle Madness! | LinedUpLikeLemmings
Spitting the Dummy | Seemyshell
That’s Not Trash | DNF Hound
The DNF Squad | TheWanglers
The FTF-Hunter | treasurehuntergd
Traditional’s Experiences | NaxoMenX
Trinket or Treasure? | cache4kings
When I Geocache | MohnschnitteFortunen

These films stood out above the rest for their creativity, production quality, and contribution to the global geocaching community.

Attend a GIFF event from 3-7 November 2016 to watch all 16 films and earn the GIFF 2016 souvenir. Find an event near you.

Did you notice that the Favourite Point icon on geocaching.com had changed from a blue ribbon to a blue heart?

The South African cache with the most favourite points is Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel which was placed by CapeDoc, and currently has 420 favourite points. This cache also recently won the Groundspeak 'Geocache of the Week' award.

See all the South African geocaches with the most favourite points here.

We also have all the details of the various 'Geocache of the Week' winners here.

Our final bit of Favourite Point trivia is that family Behrens are the team with the most favourite points across all their geocaches, an amazing 1150 and counting.

Interested in joining GoSA and contributing to the geocaching community overall? GoSA is always looking for volunteers and helpers to:

help organise and coordinate events across the country
manage the website, newsletter and social media accounts
handle queries from the muggle public on geocaching
support the Mega committees when they are organising Mega events

The GoSA Annual General Meeting to elect the 2017 office bearers and volunteers is scheduled for the 27th November 2016 at Joos Becker Main Lapa at the Joos Bekker Caravan Park in Pretoria from 11:00-12:00, and will be followed by the GoSA end of year braai event (GC6WBMW).

Please join us at the AGM if you are interested in joining or supporting GoSA. If you would like to connect to the AGM by Skype, please email us at beforehand so we can set you up on the day.

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GoSA AGM
International EarthCache Day
Geocaching International Film Festival
Adventure Lab Caches

GoSA AGM 2019

As a formally created Association, GoSA has a responsibility to ensure that it complies with the governance requirements of its constitution. As such, this is a reminder that the Geocachers of South Africa Annual General Meeting will take place at 13 Norfolk Avenue, Craighall Park, Johannesburg on the 12th October 2019 at 3:30pm. The committee thanks BruceTP in advance for hosting the AGM this year. If you want to Skype into the meeting, please email us on to organise the details.

At the AGM, we will discuss what activities took place during the past year, and it is a formal opportunity for the members to contribute to the direction setting of GoSA for the next year.

We will also spend a little time electing members onto the coordinating committee to manage the running of GoSA for the period 2019-2020.

After the AGM, we will also host a social event, GC8E3YZ - GoSA Social, and more details are available in the listing.

International EarthCache Day

An EarthCache site is a specific geological location that people can visit to learn about a unique geoscience feature or aspect of Earth. Visitors to EarthCache sites can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage resources, and how scientists gather evidence.

Get ready to rock over the entire weekend of Saturday 12 October and Sunday 13 October 2019. Find and log any EarthCache to earn the International EarthCache Day souvenir.

Geocaching International Film Festival 2019

This year, the GIFF 2019 souvenir weekend will be from November 7 to November 17. That's right, GIFF 2019 will extend over two full weekends! We are already seeing some events published, as local geocaching communities start planning the popcorn for movie night to watch the best geocaching short films of 2019.

Find out how to host your own local event here.

Adventure Lab Caches

After all the recent activity with new Virtual Caches, we decided this month to highlight another "newish" aspect to Geocaching, Lab Caches. Although initially allowed only at Mega Events, recently Groundspeak has allowed for some lucky geocachers to also publish their own series of Lab Caches.

Lab Caches are an experimental geocache type that count towards your geocaching statistics and total finds. In contrast to other cache types, Lab Caches are not required to have a container and can also be located indoors. This allows Lab Cache owners to innovate and test new ideas to make geocaching even more fun.

Currently there are 3 Adventure Lab Cache series in South Africa:
• Greensleeves, with 8 locations in Johannesburg
• Exploring the Cape Town Waterfront, with 9 locations in Cape Town
• The Company's Garden, with 5 locations in Cape Town

To get the Adventure Lab app for your iOS or Android device, and find these Adventure Lab Caches, visit the Adventure Lab site.

Cache of the Month

October's Cache of the Month was for the best Earthcache. With 428 Earthcaches in the country (and counting), there's plenty of opportunity to learn about our local geology. We are proud to announce Bokkeveld Fossils, GC336KY as the COTM this month. A unique lesson with fossil hunting involved!

Don't forget that 12 and 13 October is International Earthcache weekend.

Next month we will be back to general nominations so please send your nominations for any cache that you believe deserves the title of Cache of the Month. Please send your nominations to .

Mega Merchandise

The GoSA Store still has some Jozi Jol Mega 2018 Silver Geocoins for sale, you can place your order online. We also have some stock of geocoins from the previous Mega events available. There is also very limited Jozi Jol Mega 2018 stock left, check the GoSA Store for details of what is left in stock.

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GoSA Grapevine December 2016 - Down Time & Service Time

Down Time

Service Time

GoSA Grapevine November 2016 - Movie Time

Movie Time

GoSA Grapevine October 2019 - Governance and Geology

GoSA AGM 2019

International EarthCache Day

Geocaching International Film Festival 2019

Adventure Lab Caches

Cache of the Month

Mega Merchandise