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November 2020 Photo Contest Entries
Winner Selected by EC and BoD Members using a Blind Ballot

Slideshow
Photo Contest November 2020

Welcome!!!!


You have reached the homepage of the Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO). The purpose of our organization is to promote the sport of Geocaching in Michigan via improved communications and to provide information to the public about our activities and the sport of geocaching. Please spend some time on our site. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us or visit www.geocaching.com for more details.

Join MiGO Today! Membership gives you many benefits. MiGO is one of the oldest and most respected Geocaching organizations in the country. Since our inception in April, 2002 we have grown both in size and stature. In 2007 we were granted an organizational land use permit by the Michigan DNR. This permit is paid annually by MiGO and enables all our members to place caches on permitted DNR lands, with the appropriate permit where required, at no fee. This is just one of the many benefits of your membership. You'll also become part of a local and tight-knit Geocaching community with an active interest in caching in our state. Our forums are very active and are a great place to meet cachers and learn.

To Join, renew or upgrade your membership, pull down the Membership Menu.


Announcements

MiGO Holiday BiNGO is now active. 
Scroll down to December Promotions to enter.

November 1, 2020:  Photo Contest Entries and Winner are in the Photo Scroller above. 
December 1, 2020:  Photo Contest OPEN!  Scroll down to December Promotions for more.

Another MSPCGeoTour Milestone Reached! Scroll down for more...

2020 Lake Superior Coin Announced

At long last, the design of the Inaugural Lake Superior Member coin is ready for your eyes, just in time to make one final drive to sign up Lake Superior members.  This beautiful coin is a Chris Mackey design and contains an amazing amount of detail of things found in and around Lake Superior.  Please note that this is a draft, not the finished coin, but it is close.  Metal colors have not yet been chosen (Black Nickel shown) and will be evaluated from samples.  There will be more news coming on the next couple of weeks.  

Extension to Inaugural LS Membership Window

As a Lake Superior member, you will receive one of these 2020 coins and down the road, other annual LS Signature items.  In normal years the window for becoming/renewing as a Lake Superior member to get the current year's signature item will close November 30th so we would be able to get the coins in time to distribute them at our Winter Social.  That was our plan for the inaugural year as well, but Covid reared its ugly head.  Since there will not be a Winter Social in 2021, we decided to extend the deadline to December 31st this year. If you think our organization is worth supporting and this coin is worth owning, Please go to the membership menu and join us as, renew as, or request an upgrade to the Lake Superior Level (see the Membership menu).

Time is running out for your MiGO Jacket Pre-order. Click here to jump to the page.

MiGO Store News & Promotion Holiday 2020

The first 25 members to Join as, Renew as or Extend your current Lake Superior Membership by the end of the year will get one.


LS and LH members participating in the MiGO Holiday BiNGO contest are automatically entered in a drawing to get one.


The First thirty orders, over $25 (before sales tax and shipping) from the MiGO Store will get one.

2021 MiGO Calendar is in stock, ready to ship from the MiGO Store.


MiGO Store

The Bad News:

 

It is with great difficulty and much sadness that we have to inform our membership and the Michigan geocaching community that there will not be a Winter Social this coming February.  The last couple of years, MiGO has strived to make Winter Social bigger, better and longer as an entire weekend of events in the middle of winter.  We do not want to get away from this type of Winter Social. We do want to grow it even more. The Winter Social is our annual fund raiser through the Silent Auction. That, too, will be postponed and/or modified.  

 

This decision hasn't come easily. It takes months of planning and preparation to put on a weekend of fun like Winter Social. We would all like to believe we are going to find our way out of the Covid situation, hopefully soon. Not knowing what the situation will be is hard on us, but much more so to potential facilities to hold such an event, the caterers who would provide our meal, and other facilities that would host Friday and Sunday events. No one wants to commit.  A decision to hold a large indoor social event in the middle of Winter is not prudent at this time and may not even be allowed, based on past and future decisions by government officials in Lansing and/or Washington.  We, therefore, have decided to not hold our beloved Winter Social in 2021 and resume in 2022.

 

The Good News:

 

In lieu of the Winter Social being AWOL for 2021, we are planning a one day, outdoor event in Southeast Michigan (where WS 2021 was supposed to occur) to help us get through the long winter doldrums. We plan on having a series of new Adventure Labs activated on the day of the event. We hope to practice social distancing in a place that will allow us to have a bonfire or fireplace. Stay tuned for more announcements as the new plan come together.  

 

Winter Social will be back in 2022 and will be held in the Southeast Region as was planned for 2021. We hope it will be even bigger and better than in 2019 and 2020.

 

The Bottom Line:

 

The Winter Social is our annual fund raiser through the Silent Auction. We are looking at alternatives.  Without our annual Silent Auction, we will very likely be a little short on funds for the year. What can you do? Upgrade or renew your membership to the Lake Superior level. That will help keep us moving in the right direction with regards to events, promotions, contests, etcetera.  

 

On a final note, the annual meeting required by our 501(c)7 status will likely be held using a Zoom call. This will be announced and placed on the calendar when the details are worked out.  

 

 

Thank you for understanding.  

The MiGO Executive Committee and Board of Directors

2021 MiGO Scholarship

In memory of one of its past members, the Michigan Geocaching Organization will be sponsoring a $300.00 scholarship aimed at assisting our next generation of Michigan youth in their studies of outdoor recreational activities, in hopes of helping them gain an appreciation of the outdoors while learning to be good stewards of Michigan's land conservation and the environment in general. 

Any active MiGO member, their spouse or their child or grandchild, who will be attending a college or university, is eligible to apply for this scholarship.  Details and a link to the application can be found on the MiGO Scholarship Page.

MiGO Scholarship

2020 MiGO Election

The Self Nomination Period for electable positions on the Executive Committee and for Regional Vice President for the purpose of election was open October 1st through October 31st.  As of December 1st, The Executive Committee is full for the first time in several years.  The Southwest Regional Vice President position is open and the Northern Lower Regional Vice President position will be open at the first of the year.

We welcome Dan Cable, former SE RVP, to the EC as a Member At Large.  We also welcome Laura Lisiscki as the new SE RVP.  Lou Ann Cousinaw has assumed a new position as the Compliance Officer. 

The MiGO Executive Committee has seven elected positions that serve two year terms.  The five Regional Vice Presidents also serve two year terms.  Approximately half of these positions are open to fill each year.
 
The EC is responsible for supporting the goals and mission of MiGO, promoting geocaching and running the day to day operations of the organization.  The EC reports to the Board of Directors through the MiGO EC President. The EC has seven elected positions that serve two year terms.  Approximately half of these positions are up for nomination/election each year.  Specific EC positions are decided on by the new EC after the nomination/election period. 
 
RVPs are responsible for supporting the goals and mission of MiGO, promoting geocaching, being the liaison with members and park managers, and supporting local events and CITO's within their region.  RVPs will be given a budget for the purpose of supporting events.  RVPs report to the EC Vice President.  The five RVPs also serve two year terms.  Approximately half of these positions are up for nomination/election each year.
 
Being an officer in this organization has been a very satisfying.   If you think you might like to play a part in it, we would welcome you.  NL RVP and SW RVP positions will be/are open.

Promote MiGO on your Geocache Page


MiGO members are encouraged to identify geocaches as being owned by a MiGO Member. We have had a page containing sample logos and other graphics for MiGO Cache Owners to include on their own cache pages. Recently, HQ tightened their security, breaking many COs links to graphics and other pages. Neither our old host or our new one were included in the acceptable list.


The good news is, we have placed the graphics on our own Google Drive space and updated the page with the logos and code to go with them.


The bad news is, we would like all of our members to update all geocache pages that used our older host with code for the new location of the graphics.


Click the link below to see what is available and copy the new code to your cache pages.


Add a MiGO Logo to your cache page



December Promotions

Entry is now open to sign up for your MiGO Holiday BiNGO card. Your BiNGO card will be delivered only after you enter. This contest is open for all MiGO Website Members. If you are not a member, please join and play. Trial members may play but need to upgrade their membership prior to turning in their Completed scorecard.



The link to enter and all of the rules are on the:


MiGO Holiday BiNGO Contest Page

Zoom... Focus... Click!

We are introducing a new regular feature on the MiGO Website, a Photo Contest. The photos on this website, especially those on the scroller at the top of this page, are in need of a refresh. The MiGO Board and Executive Committee thought it would be a good idea to give our members a chance to provide some new photos and have a chance at winning a "fabulous prize" in the process. It is our intention to keep this an ongoing feature, so dust off your Nikon, wind your Pentax, Charge your Lumix, or just point your phone at something interesting and geocaching related.

 

The initial contest runs from December 1st to December 31st. The THEME for this first contest period is:

 

Holiday Caching 2020

 

Click the button above to submit a photo. You may submit 1, 2 or 3 photos per contest period. Please submit only current photos.

 


November Promotions

Zoom... Focus... Click!


Eighteen photos were submitted for the November MiGO Photo contest.  They are being judged blindly by the world's finest MiGO Executive Committee.  Results should be posted in a day or two., 

In the mean time, notice that the December contest has been activated!  See December Promotions.

 


September Promotions:


MiGO Signature Jacket Preorder


MiGO Jacket Sample
At long last, the opportunity that some of you have been waiting for.  You can now submit a pre-order for your own personalized MiGO Signature Fleece Jacket in two different styles.  This opportunity will be open for a short period of time so we can get jackets ordered and in people's hands hopefully by early to mid November. 

In order to get the prices shown, we have to have a minimum of ten jackets pre-ordered.  If you want to stand out at cool weather events, order yours now.   We can place an order when we have a minimum of ten pre-orders.

Charges for the jackets do not include shipping from the MiGO Store to you.  Shipping charges are estimated to be $8-$10 per jacket, perhaps less for multi-jacket orders.  You may be able to pick up your jacket at an event, but that may not be until next year, depending on our old friend Covid-19.  To have the jacket shipped, you will get an invoice through your MiGO account.  Once paid, your jacket will be sent to you.   LS Member Coupons can be used for the jacket but do not apply to shipping costs.

The jackets can be personalized with your trackable number but do not include a trackable number in the price. 

Jackets are 10.3 oz. 100% Polyester Fleece.

Click to see selections and/or preorder

The Latest from the GeoTour

November 29th, 2020.
It has been eighteen months since the kickoff of the Michigan State Parks Centennial GeoTour, Memorial Day weekend, 2019.  A lot has happened since then.  During 2019, cachers went crazy to qualify for one, two, three or all four regional pathtags and one or two of the DNR's GeoCoins.  2020, for unfortunate reasons, got off to a much slower start. Over the summer, the search for these quality hides is definitely back on.  As of November data from Project-GC, November 29th Favorite Point data from Geocaching.com and from our own tracking of coins earned, here are the latest stats:
Logged
 Finds: 
35,256
Individual
Cachers:
4,814
Favorite
 Points:
6003
Geocoins
Earned:
Silver: 130
Gold: 102 
News from the DNR:  With a Covid-19 induced furloughs and a spending freeze, the annual renewal of the GeoTour was in some doubt, but Groundspeak worked with its GeoTour partners and gave a four month extension, pushing the renewal into the next fiscal year. Also, the DNR members of the GeoTour team have been furloughed part time, working from home, and do not have access to their offices or accounting systems to send out official mail. Earned geocoins will be mailed eventually, but not until the crew is allowed back in their offices.

On November 26th, 2020, geocacher

jennajoy5

awarded the 6000th GeoTour Favorite Point at

Algonac State Park (GC801E8).

As many of you know, our own "Kneel More" is an avid and prolific filmmaker with regards to the game of Geocaching.  Kneel and his friend Bob Billy have dozens of informative and often hilarious videos in his YouTube collection. Kneel has created a series of videos while caching the MSPC GeoTour.  To view the videos, click on the images below.



A humble beginning
Part 2
Waterfalls
History Preserved
Cold Hard Cache
DNR News Banner


Adopt-a-Forest cleanup challenge is still looking for volunteers. Click this button to go to the site:

DNR Adopt-a-Forest

For more DNR bulletins, visit this site:

DNR News Bulletins
Get Ready for the #BattleOfTheDailyLogs

This is a little late, but still worth your look and participation.  

The Tick App is a research study in which you can contribute as a Citizen Scientist.  Join the Tick App Challenge:

The Tick App
Latest Covid-19 Information from DNR
The latest information from the DNR can be found at this link:

DNR Covid-19 Update


October 1, 2020:  Six Months in to the new Membership Tiers


Trial...    Lake St. Clair...    Lake Huron...    Lake Superior...   

We are pleased to report that 93 members have upgraded to the new Lake Superior level and many Lake St. Clair members have upgraded to Lake Huron level as well. Thank you all for your help. We have attracted new Trial members several of whom have signed on as Lake Huron and Lake Superior members after seeing what we have to offer. Take a look at the "scoreboard" below to see who is helping. This is a terrific start. We still have work to do. More members than we thought would are still renewing at the Lake St. Clair level. Perhaps they have not gotten the word as I can't imagine many members would not want to support the organization. MiGO is asking all free members to help support the organization and is asking members already supporting to up their game. No active membership is free to MiGO. We pay our web service by the number of active members we have. A membership that is free to one member is being paid by other members. In order to increase our funding level to bring you many more fun things to do, we need to maximize the number of paying members at the highest level. Membership has its privilege. Paid membership has its rewards. We are hard at work coming up with some fun new things to do.

 

The new member tiers are named for the Great Lakes that we know and love. We are (almost) all Michiganders, so we used three three lakes on our international border to name the regular member levels.

 

The Trial member is a new level available for new members to try out the organization for thirty days. It is open to anyone who is not currently a member and has not been a member since January 1, 2017. Any time during your trial, we hope you take the option to renew as one of the following three levels:

The Lake St. Clair (formerly Member) membership level is the free membership. It is only available as a three month renewal and has a limited view of the website. It is intended for those that simply cannot support the organization financially, but still want to be associated with the us.

The Lake Huron (formerly Supporting Member) is $10 per year, renewed annually. This fee covers just a little more than the cost of your membership on our web service. Lake Huron members have access to and eligibility for many things not available to Lake St. Clair members. Lake Huron members that upgrade to the Lake Superior level before they are up for renewal level will have their remaining membership prorated at the new level.

The Lake Superior level is a new, premium level. It is $30 per year, renewed annually. Renewing or upgrading your membership to this level demonstrates your commitment to the organization. Your contribution allows MiGO to expand the promotional activities we offer our members and our caching community. Lake Superior members are recognized and rewarded at the highest level.

Refer to the Member Levels page found on the Membership Menu for details of the various levels.

Refer to the Renewal page in the Membership Menu for instructions on renewing and upgrading when your membership is within the 30 day renewal window.

Refer to the Upgrade page in the Membership Menu for instructions on upgrading when your membership is not due for renewal.

MiGO is a 501(c)(7) organization and 100% funded by our members! Thank you for your help and support. We want to see your name on the Lake Superior Member Honor Roll.


Notable Membership Activity over the Last Two Months

Trial Members

  • Adventures Unplugged (welcome)
  • HaleTribe (welcome)
  • xpird (welcome)
  • ekotus (welcome & thank you for upgrading to Lake Superior)
  • Holmer4Manistee (welcome)
  • juleezon (welcome)
  • Sky'sRiders (welcome & thank you for upgrading to Lake Superior)
  • bobwandaholmer (welcome)
  • ValliePerry (welcome)
  • sneekybee (welcome)
  • BigBucknasty (from FB Group)

Lake Huron

  • marshajean (renew)
  • waytag (renew)
  • theveens2405 (new)
  • Pugchaser (new)
  • bbwalkers (ren&upg)
  • Team Nix (new)
  • GHBuccaneers (renew)
  • AlphaRK9 (ren&upg)
  • iMerge (renew)
  • Pluvs2hunt (renew)
  • Princess&Dutch (renew)
  • K&A Enterprises (renew)
  • kirtlandii (renew)
  • Ranger4+1 (ren&upg)
  • Geo Acer's (new)
  • Roland Kent (ren&upg)
  • candzsloot (renew)
  • bostonamboy (renew)

Lake Superior

  • Merlin1392 (ren&upg)
  • Acker3Family (new)
  • loumeister (ren&upg)
  • grizz-rider (new)
  • ekotus (new)
  • Robriki (new)
  • Harrise1 (ren&upg)
  • Grinner6 (new)
  • indenyl (new)
  • JHBDFamily (ren&upg)
  • The BlueDog Team (new)
  • laker91 (ren&upg)
  • Sky'sRiders (new)
  • jordand30 (new)
  • Farmchickadee (ren&upg)
  • RDC4106 (ren&upg)
  • HelloLola (ren&upg)
  • GHBuccaneers (ren&upg)
  • ScouterSteve (ren&upg)
  • periwinlke128 (upgrade)
  • 4KClub (ren&upg)
  • candzsloot (upgrade)
  • Kneel More (ren&upg)
  • usyoopers (ren&upg)
  • Rj_toot (ren&upg)
  • RedhedMary (upgrade)
  • Mermaidish (upgrade)
  • N8theGR8 (upgrade)
  • GEO-BUM (renew)
Lake Superior
Honor Roll

At the risk of embarrassing her, MiGO is proud to announce that the 100th Lake Superior Member is Farmchickadee!. Thank you, Donna, for supporting MiGO!

MiGO Store

Big News in the Store:

MiGO is now an official distributor of Shop Geocaching (geocaching.com) and now has select items available in the MiGO store.  Also, we are adding our own new items to the store soon including a trackable MiGO walking stick medallion pictured above (coming November '19), a MiGO Name Badge available for pre-order and a new transparent window sticker.


MiGO Store



We are looking at new items to put in the store and are always interested in your feedback.  Is there something you think that the store should have for sale?  Please let us know.

The funding to support our organization is derived through member contributions via donations, purchases in our store, and supporting memberships. We appreciate your interest in our organization and our store and invite you to look around. If you have any questions, you can email us at store@mi-geocaching.org

MiGO and You


This is the home of the Michigan Geocaching Organization or MiGO. Geocaching is closing in on 20 years of existence and MiGO has been a part of most of that. Our goal is to promote the activity of geocaching by helping geocachers and those looking to get into geocaching. What can we do to help you? Take a look around and let us know what you think. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions. Happy caching!

MiGO Leadership Update 2/2020

Welcome the following:

Executive Committee
At Large member:
Jodi Spalding (LiteOnCache)


MiGO Member

BIG things are going on at MiGO, and I just wanted to take a minute to let you know what some of them are:

New Membership Tiers were announced April 1st. in an effort to expand MiGO's budget so we may bring you more fun and interesting things to dol

The Executive Committee and a new MiGO Challenges Work Group is working on new basic and premium challenges for our community and membership.

  

August 2020

Come to Camp MiGO the weekend of August 22nd.  Watch the panel on  the home page for more information.

MSPC GeoTour
The Spring of 2019 put Michigan on the world geocaching map with our first official GeoTour!  MiGO and the Michigan Department of Resources continue working together on this GeoTour celebrating the 100th anniversary of Michigan's State Parks.
The GeoTour has been an amazing success and is already one of the most popular GeoTours in the world.  Thank you to the entire team for a job well done.

There are more things to announce, but they're not quite ready yet.  The Executive Committee is working hard to keep bringing you fun things to do.  Your support is much appreciated.  We can't do it without you. 

We have new merchandise in the pipeline for the store.  We have unique and exclusive path tags for you to acquire, we will have a bigger presence at events around the state and be making donations in cash and in-kind for events of all types and sizes.  Let your RVP know if you have an event coming up that you would like MiGO to help with.

We have made big strides in the number of people supporting the organization, but we still have a long way to go.
 
Susan Kay Schug Educational Scholarship 

2021 applicantions for this scholarship will be available in the fall.  Applications will be due January 1st, 2021, with a recipient announced at the 2021 Winter Social.  Any active MiGO member, their spouse or their child or grandchild, who will be attending a college or university, is eligible to apply for this scholarship by filling out the form, and submitting it per the instructions outlined in the application form.
Learn more

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