Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Merry Kwanza, Happy New Year…..There are too many so I will just say Happy Holidays and best wishes for the coming year. I hope you all hide easy caches for me to find and find the hard ones you have been looking for.

The Board of Director’s Election will close at midnight on Christmas Day. Vote for the most popular, the person who hid that great cache you like, the person you think can help IGO the most or just who ever likes the same color as you do, JUST VOTE! Results will be posted on the website when they are final.

Hopefully you have received an email about the newsletter going email. Well technically, you will just get a notice (if I remember to hit the link) when a new newsletter is posted. I hope everyone enjoys the newsletters and explores the site a little more. Hey, update your stats and you too might get your milestone posted in the next newsletter. There are people who have not updated stats for over a year.

Finally, this week’s profile is about me (3AMT your humble newsletter editor). I keep asking everyone else for profiles so I thought (Yes, sometimes I do think) “Hey, if I do mine, maybe I will get a few more people to do some.” So this week, there is no plea for profiles to be sent to “newsletter at iowageocachers.org” and no plea for cache highlights to be sent to “newsletter at iowageocachers.org” and no plea for event summaries or fun caching stories to be sent to “newsletter at iowageocachers.org”. There is just a wish for you to have Happy Holidays and Good Caching.

Mark you calendars now for the Geocaching 201 - A Tech Event on Feburary 17th 2007. The event is sponsored by the Johnson County Conservation Board, and will be held at FW Kent park west of Iowa City. The plan is very vague, and very subject to change, at this time: we will start with beginner stuff in the morning, take the beginners outside to find a few caches, return for a pot-luck lunch, then cover "advanced topics" into the afternoon.

We would like to cover at least four general areas in the advanced topics: Organization (Printed pages, GSAK, Watcher, EasyGps etc), Maps (Streets & Trips, Delorme, Google Earth, Expert GPS etc), Caches Along a Route and Paperless Caching (Cachemate, GPX Sonar, Spinner/Plucker etc ).

If you are willing to demonstrate something (or a portion of something) whether it is on the list above or not, please drop WindChill a note. We are looking to have the schedule of topics and who is presenting them set by the end of the year.

GC.Com Username: 3AMT

Number of Finds/Hides: 469 / 18

Occupation? I work at Iowa Public Television in the IT department. I have been involved in the conversion from analog to digital television. It is amazing how much IT equipment is now involved in television.

How you got your username? Actually my wife came up with the name. Our family is Allen, Ann, Alycia, Meagan and Trey. Three A's, one M and one T.

How long have you been caching and how did you get started? We started in August of 2005 shortly before my fifth anniversary. My wife heard of this and thought I would enjoy it and planned to get me a GPSr for our anniversary. She had a great vision of this being a fun family hobby but it turns out they all think I am obsessed (Me Obsessed??? Never). So off we trekked (me very skeptical) to our first cache located in a park less than a mile from our house. We found it (I found it) and I still felt this was nothing big. Then I decided to do Clogged Pipe (GCNVBG). It took me two trips and was such a challenging hide that it hooked me.

Favorite cache/why? As with most of the profiles, it is hard to say one favorite. Probably Creature At Walnut Woods (GCK18R) would be number one because of the creativity of it. I went with my wife and really enjoyed her reation to finding it. Wandering around Chinatown (GCMKZT) and Parrots Perch (GCJKQ9) in San Francisco were both fun because they took me to areas I would have never gone to as a tourist. Coddar's Woods (GCXMK5) was one of the best camo jobs I have seen in a long time and it was fun beating NVG to the find.

Least Favorite/why? Inter-Urban Railway (GCHPW2) hands down is the worst cache experience I have ever had. It was a fairly difficult hike into the area and you come upon a homeless shelter. Trash and garbage everywhere and as I was retrieving the cache, I heard someone coming into the area. Not a good area for a cache and not a fun adventure.

Current caching goals? Well, if I had done this in September, I would have said to get to 500 by the end of the year. But I have decided that my goal for 2007 will be to find a cache in all 99 counties of Iowa (I know, there are 2 counties without caches...yet) and to add 10 states to the list of states I have found a cache in. I also want to hold another Meet and Eat event in the Des Moines area with a twist on caching adventures for the event.