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Candidate Profiles
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Candidates/Nominees for the IGO Board of Directors have recently been asked to send a brief (text only) profile of themselves for publication here. Profiles are published here in no particular order.
Name: Bret Ford
Geocaching Name: UNIBear
Home: Cedar Falls
Allow me to introduce myself and tell you a bit about me ~
I'm a 46 year-old husband and father. My wife and I just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary in May. We are the parents of three teenage boys - fondly referred to as Son #1, Son #2 and Son #3 on any logs of caches they've hidden or found with me.
My work career spans 19 years with the same company - Hawkeye Corrugated Box Co. in Cedar Falls. That's right, I make empty brown boxes for a living. Seriously, I'm the plant manager at Hawkeye after selling for them for the first nine years. It's a great place to work - in fact, the first GPS I used was an old Eagle that I borrowed from my boss.
I was born and raised in Iowa and am a UNI Panther by education. I served a 3 year enlistment in the Marine Corps right after high school (Cherokee- 1978) because I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up....still don't! After the Marines, I attended the University of Northern Iowa, where I received a BA in Communications. That's also where I picked up the nickname of "Bear"...
Geocaching has been my primary hobby for the last 4 years. My wife says I'm addicted though encourages me to get out. I'm not sure if she's trying to get rid of me...or truly just wants me to get out! My boys have participated to varying degrees and have all participated in at least one of my 21 hides and many of my finds. I'm trying to average about 100 finds a year, which so far I've accomplished. I'd cache everyday if I could. I just enjoy being outside and exploring places I haven't been before.
In addition to caching, I'm very involved at Prairie Lakes Church - (see GCTRVY - "On This Rock"), was my boys'Scout leader for years (no more Pinewood Derby cars!), along with all the band concerts, football games, soccer matches, choral events, etc. I can squeeze in. I also enjoy camping and exploring this great country of ours. I've cached in 14 states so far and hope to get to more this year.
IGO is a great organization with committed leadership doing great things for our sport. I would be honored to serve on it's Board of Directors in order to further introduce and educate folks about this great hobby.
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Board of Director Profiles
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Some of the IGO Board of Directors posted the following profiles.
Geo Name: The Northwood Goonies
Real Name: Shane Buenzow
Location: Northwood, Iowa (that little dot all by himself in the top central part of the state)
I have been caching with my team which consists of my wife Angie (who hates to go caching, but always finds the cache first), and our new little boy Grady (3 Months) who did attend his first geoevent in Mason City, and my nephew Tyler 12 and neice Alissa 10. We have been at it since April 27, 2003.
We got our name since of course the Goonies was taken and since we are from Northwood, there oyu have it. Plus when Ty and Ali come to stay we watch the movie all the time, about 200 times give or take a few.
I work for the Worth County Conservation Board as a conservation technician. I first heard about geocaching from our naturalist who read about it in a naturalist magazine, and I thought to myself before I read the article, I could use a little "CASH". Well so far I have only found a $20 FTF prize and a Where's George Dollar so I am not getting rich soon. Thanks Reding!! I have 118 finds and hid 7 caches, and hosted 2 events.
I have helped our conservation board write their policy as well as give a presentation to the Winnebago County Conservation Board to write their policy. I am presently helping out Chickasaw County. I also help our Naturalist with his Young Naturalist geocaching program. Also I gave a presentation to WartBUG's class from Wartburg about geocaching and got them totally soaked to the bone.
What I hope to get out of being on the board of directors or why you should vote for me is that I believe that it is the youth that is the future of geocaching. It gets them out of the house and off the couch in front of Playstation2. This not only gets them some excercise, but to also a better understanding and respect of the land and environment.
I also have a bunch of connections with other counties and the DNR to help out our sport be allowed in some of the parks, as in the case of Winnebago as they just told Joe Tulips, "NO." Well now they have a policy. All it takes is some eduaction. I also look forward to helping out all new cachers answer questions thet they might have and get them "ADDICTED" as well!!
I want to help IGO, and our sport thrive and develop into a professional class act so please vote for me!!
Name: Jay Lash
Geocaching Name: WindChill
IGO Office: President
Home: Vinton, Iowa
I've been married forever (just ask my wife) and have a couple of great kids. Steph is in middle school and enjoys caching with me as long as her brother isn't along. Matt is a typical pre-teen boy (according to a good friend of mine, the definition of a boy is "noise, with dirt on it"), he enjoys doing anything outdoors. The whole family enjoys camping, though we never seem to get out as much as we would like.
I am an electronics technician by training, and a software engineer by trade. Most of my work is in embedded (i.e. non-desktop/laptop) systems so the electronics background comes in handy. My company currently does a lot of show cars and research vehicles for auto industry, so I get to play with some neat toys and work on some very cool new cars.
I am very active in the Cub Scouts; in fact it was an article in the November 2002 issue of Boys Life magazine that introduced me to geocaching. I was hooked before I even finished the article. I was amazed to discover that there was a cache about three blocks from my house (thanks Welch!). The kids and I walked up there one evening, found it and havn't stopped since. Normally my pace is slow but steady; I broke the 200 mark in early April of this year.
In early 2004, a few eastern Iowa cachers got together to discuss starting a more formal group. When I asked if the group should have officers, Rooboy (or maybe it was BlueDeuce) jumped in and said "Sure, and I nominate WindChill for President. All in favor?". Before I knew what was happening, everyone else had said "Aye". I was railroaded I tell you....
It has been a lot of fun getting the group to where it is now. I'm looking forward to seeing where it will go in the next year.
Name: Mark McFate
Geocaching Name: Summitt Dweller
IGO Office: Vice-President, Webmaster and Forums Admin
Home: Toledo, Iowa
I am a 40-something resident of Toledo, Iowa, and I live there (on the "Summitt") with my wife Christine and three kids: Morgan (14), Mackenzie (10) and Ian (7). Oh yeah, we have two cats and about 10 fish in our little pond out front.
I'm a Civil Engineer (Iowa State '82 and University of Kansas '95) and IT professional while my wife (Kansas State '85) is a music teacher in the Belle Plaine Comm. Schools. I am fortunate to work from my home as a telecommuter for EDS. Before moving to EDS I worked for 20+ years for Black & Veatch, a global engineering and construction firm headquartered in Kansas City, MO. I'm now on the EDS' Black & Veatch account.
I started geocaching in February 2002 with a DNF at "Mallards, Mergansers and Geese". That real cache was missing and later became a virtual cache. Not a very good start! My first find was one week later at "Vine By Me" in Marshalltown. I was hooked from that moment on. Since then I've posted 750+ finds across about 18 US states and I'm now a bonafied geo-event junky. I have posted about 18 caches of my own including one virtual, one locationless, two micros and a handful of mystery/puzzle caches...in and around Tama County.
My hobbies/interests: Computing, Outdoors and Computing Outdoors. I currently webmaster a number of not-for-profit sites and am active in a couple of trail development projects in Tama-Toledo and the Iowa River Valley (the Ioway Trail project).
Name: Jan Anderson
Geocaching Name: Boasark
Home: New Virginia, Iowa
I am a 56 year old Grandma from New Virginia, Iowa. My husband Dean and I live on 20 acres of timber - lots of hickory and oak trees. This has been a dream of ours for a long time and we finally bought this place 5 years ago. We see and love to watch all the wildlife that almost comes up to our doorstep - deer, turkeys, coyotes, fox, possums, raccoons and lots of beautiful birds and other critters.
I work for Girl Scouts of Moingona Council as an outbased Field Director. That means that I am director over 11 field areas (service units of Girl Scouts). I cover all of 8 + counties in Iowa. I have an office in my home so only go to the GS office in Des Moines 2 days a week. I mainly work with the leaders as the liaison between them and the Girl Scout office. I have been involved in Girl Scouts for 32 years - 8 as a girl and when my daughter got old enough, the rest as an adult. After she graduated, I continued working with the Girl Scouts as a volunteer. In 1997 I started working as a professional Girl Scout at the Girl Scout office. I still love to be involved in anything that the girls are doing. I am also an Outdoor Trainer for the Girl Scouts. Each year we put on a "Survivor Tent Training" for Girl Scout leaders. They should have a progression of outdoor trainings ending with this if they want to take the girls camping. The training lasts all weekend and we have just as much fun as the trainees do. The same bunch of us that do this training go to Camp Sacajawea each summer for 1 week and do a session called Camp Survivor with the girls. They learn all kinds of outdoor skills and we also have a blast with that. This summer we are going to introduce them to Geocaching. Iowa Copper and I have set up 30 + caches at our Girl Scout camp for leaders and troops to use. Just wish we could post them on the website, but for safety purposes, the Council won't let us. We have also put on a Geocaching training for GS leaders and have a few hooked from that training.
My husband works for HyVee Food Stores in Des Moines on the night stock crew. He has worked there for 34 years. Hates the job, but just can't retire yet. We have 2 kids - Jason who is 31 and Jenny who is 29. She has two little girls who we love dearly. Ali (Ali'sark) just turned 9 and absolutely LOVES geocaching. She had to have a GPS for Christmas and of course Grandma would rather she had that as anything else. I can't think of a better way for kids to get them out from in front of the TV and outside. Our youngest granddaughter Abi is just 5 months old. We do have a snuggli so before long, I will probably have her out caching with us - at least to some easy ones. Dean doesn't really care for all the walking, so doesn't like to cache with me, but doesn't want me to go alone. Oh, I guess I have a Granddog - Jason has a Boxer named Bailey. We also have 4 outside cats and 3 guppies. I am allergic to cats and dogs, so nothing inside but the fish.
Iowa Copper and I met through Girl Scouts and in September of 2003 we got to go to Edith Macy Training Center (our GS training center) in New York for an Outdoor Trainer's Conference. One of the sessions we did was Geocaching. They only gave us a couple of hours to learn to use the GPS and go out and find as many caches as we could. We were hooked - or addicted as my family and friends say. After we were done with all of our other classes, we went back out to find some more caches. We really weren't too smart, as we didn't take a flashlight and it did get dark on us. To make matters worse, it started raining - but we didn't let that stop us. We found all but 2 of the caches - these were clear up a big hill so we decided to go out before breakfast the next morning to find them. We found out later that we were the only ones who found ALL of the caches that they had put out. I knew my son-in-law Brian has a GPS and didn't use it. They picked us up at the airport and I asked about it. He said it didn't work for what he wanted (he hunts in Colorado in the winter and it was too cold for the GPS) so he gave it to me. It is a Lowrance - several years old. I did a few caches with it - my very first cache was "Bridges of Madison County" in October of 2003. We also took Alisark to this one. At that time she didn't have a cache name and wasn't logging the caches. Didn't really get to caching until that next summer - Iowa Copper got a new GPS and we went out as much as we could. Just kept getting more often all the time. Finally got to be every Saturday - that is our day and all we do is cache if possible. I have also had to lose weight because of health problems. I hate to exercise, but this isn't exercise - it's fun. Have lost 45 pounds and feeling so much better. We even cached all winter (think it's better to do then - no skeeters, PI, spiders or snakes! and don't have to fight the hot weather). We only missed 2 Saturdays all last winter. We are running out of caches to do. They are just not getting new ones out as fast as we would like.
I got to talking to the only guy at work about Geocaching and he knew what it was. He said maybe we could get some GPS's donated to the Girl Scouts - got 2 Magellans and he gave me one to try out and use. I am still using it, but am saving my pennies and all the "cash" I get out of caches to buy one of my own.
I have 2 caches of my own out - 1 multi and 1 Letterbox Hybrid. We decided to try a couple of letterboxes along with the caching. A little different mindset to do them. Did 1 in Des Moines and emailed the owner that it was wet. She emailed me back and said it was so weird as she was only in DM 2 days a year and was there then. Wanted to meet us for coffee and we agreed. Talked Letterboxing and Geocaching. Decided we needed some Letterbox Hybrids in our area. I think there are only 3 in Iowa, so now there is another. Have plans to get several more caches out. Haven't had time to get it all together. Out DNR is not real receptive to the idea yet in Clarke County. Maybe being on the IGO board would help get them involved and we could get more caches put out in southern Iowa.
I have 349 finds thus far. Have a few DNF's in there, but we usually persevere and look till we find them. We are really trying to get more women involved in caching, and of course we need to have a woman on the board!
Jan aka "Boasark"
HI! My name is Matt Bolster. I go by the handle of "fishpounder".
I am 37 years old and work for Wilson Cadillac Toyota Scion in Ames. I have been a resident of Ames since 1988. I spent the first 18 years growing up (someday I might even grow up) in Carroll. GO TIGERS! Did a little schooling, then settled in Ames.
I am an auto mechanic by trade and have been for over half my life. I am ASE master certified, and have GM and Toyota certification also. That is kinda what got me started in Geocaching. For 20 years, the long days of standing on concrete were starting to wreak havoc on my feet. I found that by walking, my feet didn't hurt as much. Caching gives me the drive to walk.
I had purchased a Lowrance Globalnav212 wayyyy back in 96-97 for my hunting and fishing. A few years ago the thing started giving bad info. The altitude function was consistantly reading ~ 50 ft below sealevel, sun rise and set were usually about 5 minutes apart ( I visually checked, and most times the sun was directly overhead when it said the sun just set, I think it was lying to me!) So I looked for a replacement. Finally decided to go big- a Garmin GPSmap76CS, saw the geocaching option after I got it and checked it out.
My first find was Marden's "Draggin Around". I actually had to go twice to claim it. It was July 4, 2004, and about 30 minutes before the fourth of July parade started, so I had to wait for a couple of hours to go get it. Next one was a DNF in Ontario on the way to a fishing trip. I did a few here and there after that. I was at around 75 or so around February. I then purchased a Garmin IQue 3600, GSAK and Cachemate. The rest is history. I was at 382 on my 1 year anniversary. I recently passed 600. I got a congratulatory e-mail from Schnider. He suggested CA (Cachers Anonymous). Hmmm...... I wonder if they have a 12 step multi........Somebody stop me!! This is one serious addiction. And I've only had a couple of near-disaster experiences!
This year I have gotten in the Event thing pretty heavy, I try to hit as many as I can (Thanks to Summit Dweller for the Geoboji accomodations!). For the IGO Hike and Seek, I was part of the 5 person team of cache placers. I plan on helping hide caches for the CacheBash 2006 also.
I love caching and try to promote the IGO the best I can.
Remember folks:
Vote for Schnider!
Vote for Pedro!
Vote for Fishpounder!
Thanks!
Matt
Fishpounder
~ <'{{{{{><|
Name: Chad Chapman
Geocaching Name: Schnider
IGO Office: Candidate for Board Of Directors
Home: Clarion, Iowa
Well, two days after the end of this election will be my four year wedding anniversary to my lovely wife, Raejean. Two days after that I will turn thirty-something. Okay thirty-two to be exact. We are happily married with no children, at least not at this time. We would like children, but the doc says it just isn’t in the cards for us right now. So, we have a lot of fun harassing our two cats instead.
My official title is Information Systems Technician for a rural electric coop named Prairie Energy Cooperative. The biggest reason I love my job is that it has many duties. I get to: work on our IT network, fix computers, answer computer related questions, work on our phone systems, write the employee newsletter, install satellite TV systems, and install WildBlue satellite internet systems. Plus I get to do some plumbing, electrical work and whatever else needs to be done around the office. Hence the Geocaching name Schnider. (If you remember the 80’s sit-com “One Day at a Time” it may make sense.) I know the correct spelling is Schneider, but when I registered with Geocaching, that name was already taken.
In early November of 2003 a buddy told me about www.geocaching.com. I remember him saying, “It looks like it could be addictive.” Wow was he ever right. To date, that friend has only found a small handful of caches. As for me, it has been addictive because in that short year and a half I have found 336. Because of Geocaching, I have seen some of the neatest places in the eight different states that I have cached in. I hope some day to find a cache in all fifty states. I currently own three caches, and I was the first one to gain permission and place a cache in Wright County.
I’d like to be elected to the IGO board of directors for many reasons. I feel we live in the greatest state for Geocaching because you can pretty much do it year round. It is an inexpensive form of entertainment that can have a great impact on the whole family, from the newborn to the great-grandma. I guess I would say that Geocaching is probably one thing in my life that I have been very passionate about, or as my wife would say obsessed, and I guess there are many worse things to be obsessed about. With that being the case, I’d like to be elected so I can encourage other people to become obsessed with: spending time with family, spending time with friends, making new friends, learning something about nature, exploring, going outdoors, exercising, and just having some fun. Memories are the only thing you can take to the grave, so why not go out and make as many memories as you can.
I would really appreciate your vote!
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