Note: This is a locationless geocache! There is no box to find here. Rather, you will search for a BOCES center in your city, somewhere in New York State. Along the way, we hope you will learn more about the educational services that BOCES centers provide.
BOCES is an acronym for Board of Cooperative Educational Services. BOCES centers are school districts just like your neighborhood school, with classrooms, teachers, students, and a board of education. As such, BOCES is a non-profit, tax-exempt, educational institution recognized by the New York State Department of Education. Vocational education programs are offered for both high school students and adults. Perhaps you already knew that, but...
BOCES is also a collection of programs and services that assist local school districts. The key concept is that BOCES services are shared between two or more school districts, which makes those services possible and more affordable for all the districts that participate in the service. A list of BOCES programs would include financial services, grading systems, student information databases, staff development, technology integration training, technical support for computer networks, library services & online reference databases, printshops, and computer repair, and more!
For example, we are on our way to the annual NYSCATE conference to present workshops on GPS use in school. There will be about 2,000 educators there from all over New York. We're looking forward to giving some of them a hands-on lesson with a GPS receiver. If you'd like to know more, here's a link to the organization that sponsors the conference:
NYSCATE - New York State Association for Computers & Technology in Education
Below is a link for the BOCES website in Syracuse, New York that will serve as a model for this geocache theme. Become in informed taxpayer, and take a few minutes to explore our programs and services. We bet you'll be surprised to learn just how much goes on here!
OCM-BOCES - Onondaga Cortland Madison Board of Cooperative Services
Complete List of BOCES Centers in New York State
Please follow these rules to log this locationless geocache:
1. Use your GPS receiver to mark the location of a BOCES Center. Since I made OCM BOCES on Thompson Road in Syracuse the model for this locationless geoacache, you will need to find your own BOCES building. You must be able to show that your cache location is a real BOCES. The simplest way is confirm this fact is with a photo of a sign on or near the building. A link to a website with supporting information will help, and it shouldn't be hard to find.
2. The GPS coordinates used in your log must be for a specific location at the BOCES building, preferably at the spot where you took the photo of the BOCES sign.
3. Take a photo of the BOCES building that shows you and your GPS receiver at the spot where you mark the coordinates for your log report. This should be in front of a BOCES sign. Please wait to submit your log report until you are ready to upload your GPS confirmation photograph in jpeg format and under 100kb. This file format and size limit is set by the Geocaching website. Read the rules carefully, and plan your trip to be succesful.
4. Submit a log report that includes the coordinates and some descriptive information. Describe the location, and please include the street address and city.
5. Then immediately upload the required GPS confirmation photo in order to log this cache as found. The usual locationless cache rules apply: one log per geocacher, and each BOCES center may be logged only once. Please read all the logs to be sure your BOCES center hasn't already been logged. All photos must be originals and logs without GPS photos will be deleted.