Talking about geocaching doesn’t often result in a whirlwind trip and a chance for national recognition, unless perhaps you’re Jim Bishop. Jim is known in the geocaching world as jcacher15. He’s a High School student in Washington State, USA.
Jim won competitions with a presentation on geocaching at the local and state levels to compete this weekend in a national DECA competition. DECA is a student organization for emerging leaders in business, marketing, finance, and hospitality. Jim will travel hundreds of miles to stand in front of judges and talk about a business plan for Geocaching.com.
Jim’s knows his topic well. He’s accumulated more than 3500 finds across three countries since he started geocaching in 2009.
He says, “I first learned about geocaching when I saw a TV advertisement for the GPS Adventures Maze exhibit at the Pacific Science Center [in Seattle, Washington] in early 2009. A few months later I was surfing the web and ended up on Geocaching.com. I got a membership and my first GPS device and was instantly hooked.”
Other geocaching experiences helped Jim choose his topic for the DECA presentation, including one of the more memorable trips of this life, ” I went with a few geocaching friends up to Canada for the weekend to do a 200 cache trail. It was a great weekend, we hiked many miles through the forests and hills of British Columbia and slept in a cabin each night. The trip was like nothing I had ever done before.”
Jim not only had to talk about geocaching to make it to DECA Nationals, he has to write about it. Jim developed a 30-page Geocaching.com customer loyalty plan. Presenting his plan for geocaching at DECA nationals requires Jim to step into a business setting. He says, “I will be discussing the implementation of a new customer loyalty plan addressing a situation related to the geocaching membership program. The presentation is 15 minutes and takes place in an office type environment. The presenter sits on one side of a table across from one or more judges.”
Whether Jim wins first place or not, he’ll will walk away with a powerful experience. He says, ” I hope to learn how to present effectively as well as how to make good business decisions. I also hope that this competition will help prepare me for the business world after I finish college.”
Leave Jim a message below to wish him good luck this weekend talking about geocaching for a grade.
