Senators

This page contains information specific to Geocaching Australia.

Senate Wrap Up

The Geocaching Australia Senate will be wrapped up at the end of April 2019.

Future direction for the website will be set and guided by the community. Goals will be set by the community and actions to achieve the goals will be guided by the community. Funding for the website site will be generated from sales or donations via the Geocaching Australia shop.

Geocaching Australia depends on you as a community to make the site successful. Be part of the success and direction of Geocaching Australia by joining in discussions, presenting ideas for consideration and discussion, setting goals that will help Geocaching Australia to grow and thrive, supporting the site financially by making a donation or buying some of the products from the shop.

With a community of hiders, finders and supporters we will continue to grow into the future and we hope you can be an active part of the growth.

Our thanks go the immediate and past senators for their senatorial roles.

2018 / 2019 Senators

• ziggiau - New South Wales
• PDecisions - South Australia
• Chwiliwr - Western Australia (stepped down 3/10/18)
• Laighside Legends - South Australia
• stainless-steel-rat - Tasmania
• crew 153 - Queensland
• J_&_J - South Australia (stepped down 4/9/18)
• WazzaAndWenches - Victoria
• Sol de lune - ACT

Senate (Post June 2018)

Our vision:
- Free and open, global geocaching.

We expect people who volunteer to become senators of Geocaching Australia and want to help shape the future direction of the site to be engaged, involved in the discussions and coming up with ideas to help the site grow and move to become a major player in geocaching in Australia. At the same time like any volunteer position we recognise that there may be times when people can't contribute due to personal circumstances, if you feel your absence is likely to be short term then please let the rest of the group know. If you think you will be unavailable for a longer period then consider if you should resign and let the position go to someone who can be more active.
- the senate is the body responsible for running the site, generating ideas and achieving the vision and goals of Geocaching Australia
- up to 12 senators not including the development team
- senators are not state based representatives but represent the community world wide but no single state shall be in a position to outvote the remainder of the senate
- senators are responsible for bringing ideas from themselves or the community to the senate for furthering the goals of Geocaching Australia
- senators are responsible for discussing ideas that are brought to the senate
- senators are accountable for the financial security of the website
- senators participate in all votes (polls will have an 'abstain' option) except where previous notice ob absence is provided

Our goals:
- challenge project-gc.com and become "the" Australian stats site which drives people to use our site
- people in good standing in the geocaching community to help be our champions / ambassadors
- hold games / engagements with the community to increase community participation
- more people hide at Geocaching Australia
- more people find at Geocaching Australia
- offer things to Geocaching Australia cachers that you can't get anywhere else
- increase our find rate to 2% of cache finds by end 2018
- increase our find rate to 5% of cache finds by end 2020
- increase our find rate by 1% each year after that
- redevelop the site to be more interactive
- change functionality to make it easier for people to do what they need to do
- upgrade the website forum

Votes

On 3/2/2019 the senate voted 4 to 2 to remove this goal with the questions answers as below.

- create new cache types to grow interest in hiding and finding geocaches
Remove new cache types from the goals
Yes (we have enough, they have been done to death, I'm not interested in new cache types)
No (they attract interest, they are innovative, they separate us from the secondary sites, they give more people more change to be involved)

On 3/2/2019 the senate voted on the following question with a final score of 2 for an 2 against. The results in a tie and therefore the status quo remains in place of yes we will offer prizes for games.

Do we want to offer prizes for games
Yes
No

On 3/2/2019 the senate voted on the following question with a 4 for and 0 again. This results in keeping the 100, 500 and 1000 find rewards in place.

Keep the rewards
Yes
No

On 25/11/2018 the senate votes on the following question. There were 4 votes in favour, 0 again and 1 abstain. The motion was passed and the NFC caches were put on the backlog. They were subsequently removed from the backlog based on the poll on 3/2/2019 which voted to stop the creation of any new geocache types.

NFC Caches
Yes, let's do them
No, let's not do them
Abstain as I have no opinion either way

Senate (Pre June 2018)

The philosophy of Geocaching Australia is "free and open" which is the desire of the founders for a geocaching website where there will never be mandatory payment for access to geocache data and the data of the website can be openly shared to other websites. Data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 deed. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ This is agreed to when a geocacher lists their geocache at Geocaching Australia.

Future development and game changing enhancements to the website are referred to the senate for a decision on the strategic outcomes presented by each new development or enhancement. Major decisions in terms of the direction of the website should be proposed to the senate who will help to formulate the acceptance or rejection of the position to be adopted and guide the website towards achieving that goal. This is done though the Geocaching Australia Senate forum. The role of Senator is not onerous and decisions are only likely to be taken a few times a year.

The senate will be formed by members from each state and territory in Australia as well as the North and South islands of New Zealand and the Geocaching Australia website developers. This will result in a maximum of 10 senators representing two countries plus the website developers. A state, territory or island need not be represented, but should a state, territory or island be not represented, they will continue unrepresented until the next election. In the event of a senator standing down, that state, territory or island will continue unrepresented until the next election.

Senators will serve a term of 12 months or until a new Senate election is held. Senators may stand aside at any time. Senators are eligible for re-election for every election. Nominations will be called for approximately 1 month prior to elections. Nominations must come from the nominee. If there are fewer than 10 nominations then one state, territory or island may be represented by more than one senator. If there are more than 10 nominations then a vote will be taken for any state, territory or island where there is more than one nomination. The senator will be elected on a "first past the post" result.

Governance of the website and the way that Geocaching Australia continues in the Australian geocaching space will be a collaborative effort between the senate and the developers. Voting in the Senate will be on a "first past the post" result. In the event of a tie further discussion and voting will take place.

When 50% +1 or more of the senators and developers choose an option, it will be considered a decision. Senators may "opt out" of voting, however their "opt out" vote will not be taken into consideration. Senators may not proxy their vote to another senator. e.g. If only 7 senators vote and there are 4 FOR and 3 AGAINST, then the FOR vote will be considered to the the decision even though there are senators who did not express a preference either way.

Enhancements to the functionality of the website where a function exists do not need approval of the senate. Enhancements to the functionality of the website where a function does not currently exist may be provided to the senate for review and discussion. Concepts for rewards programs shall be provided to the senate in confidence for review and discussion. Games do not need approval of the senate. Funding of the website will be via voluntary donations or from the profit on the sale of token goods through the shop. Items for the shop do not need approval from the senate.

Other administrative roles are not senatorial position although they may be filled by senators if the senator volunteers.

2017 / 2018 Senators

• Richary - New South Wales
• ziggiau - New South Wales (state of residence)
• dezzabills - Western Australia
• Chwiliwr - Western Australia
• J_&_J - South Australia
• Laighside Legends - South Australia
• crew 153 - Queensland
• WazzaAndWenches - Victoria
• firnsy - New Zealand
• Sol de Lune - ACT
• stainless-steel-rat - Tasmania

2016 / 2017 Senators

• LouiseAnn - Victoria
• Sol de Lune - ACT
• ziggiau - NSW
• Richary - NSW
• crew 153 - Queensland
• Laighside Legends - South Australia
• J_&_J - South Australia
• Chwiliwr - Western Australia
• firnsy - New Zealand

2015 / 2016 Senators

• LouiseAnn - Victoria
• Firnsy - Western Australia
• Richary - New South Wales
• crew 153 - Queensland
• Sol de Lune - ACT

2011 / 2015 Senators

• firesafe (South Australia)
• ruzzelz (Queensland)
• Cheesy pigs (Tasmania)
• Bewilderbeest (ACT)
• Big Matt and Shell (New South Wales)
• Papa Bear_Left (Western Australia)

2010 / 2011 Senators

• Bewilderbeest
• Big Matt and Shell
• Cheesy pigs
• firesafe
• Papa Bear_Left
• rhinogeo
• ruzzelz