Symantec GeoTeaming Memorial
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A cache to memorialize the first GeoTeaming event in Oregon.
Originally published in the Cottage Grove Sentinel
Corporate team building is an old fashioned concept that Springfield's Symantec was practicing in a new fangled way recently in and around the downtown Cottage Grove area.
Meetings are the traditional way to handle personnel or environmental changes within the corporate world structure. Rules and regulations are often imposed in an effort to rebuild a team around a new leader and encourage ways to reach consensus within the group.
A far more interesting way of doing this is to take employees off site and have them face physical challenges that require them to work together as a team. To do this they need (among other things) to use their brainstorming skills, clear goals, a leader, and to trust one another.
Symantec chose this latter method when they bused employees from their Information Technologies division to Cottage Grove to participate in a hi-tech treasure hunt. The group was broken down into 5 teams of 5-6 members. The separate teams were easily identifiable by their Survivor t-shirts in bright colors of light and dark blue, gold, and green.
Each team had one member who was a 'GeoTech.' This person was able to maintain radio contact with the other teams and was available for help with safety or technical problems.
The object of the two hour exercise was to accumulate as many points and keys as possible. To do this they needed to find 'caches' that were hidden in plastic containers and placed in interesting spots around town. A 'cache' in computer terms is information usually stored in memory, but the term is also used by campers or hikers for the place that they stash their provisions.
Each of the hidden caches held a key that was needed to unlock a grand prize container. Some caches also held prizes while others held clues to help move the team on to the next cache. The further away the clue was from home base the more points it was worth.
Each team was competing against the other but they were still working toward the common goal of gaining all 15 keys needed to unlock the group prize container at the end of the rainbow. It was necessary for them to collectively find all 15 caches to do this.
Using hand held Global Positioning Systems, two-way radios, digital cameras, palm pilots, map co-ordinates, and other clues, the teams fanned out across town. One team, the Beavers, were the ultimate winners. They boasted a diverse group of members from Bejing, China; Dublin, Ireland; Sao Paolo, Brazil; Toronto, Canada; and Springfield, Oregon - thereby building trust on an international level.
The teams were on foot and no running was allowed in the two mile radius of their search. Although some strategy was involved and the use of much technology was involved, there was also opportunity for the groups to use plain, old-fashioned, common sense. At one point, near Mt. David, there was even a National Geographic moment as a mother deer and her two very tiny fawns emerged from the brush on the hill.
Hot and sweaty, the teams persevered through 90° heat, city streets, dusty trails, and deep gullies in search of the nearest cache. Their hand held GPS units not only told them the direction they should be heading in, but how fast they were traveling. As they got closer to their destination, team members would call out coordinates in feet as they neared their cache's location. Much like the proverbial treasure hunt, it was possible to be so close to the target that you could touch it, but not see it!
At the end of the exercise, as the participants straggled back into base with their keys, they were clearly exhausted. Standing around, chugging down water, they exchanged war stories, and were elated with their success in working together and finding the elusive caches. But it hadn't been an easy task.
Slumped against a wall, Elaine Daily said, "Easy? Oh, my god, no!" Then she qualified that statement by saying,"It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't so hot!"
Standing next to her was Joe Das who noted that "It was harder than I thought. It was very hot and there was a lot of climbing."
Chuck Vanlue was soaking wet from the heat but still laughing as he recounted "We raced the dark blue team to one (cache) that was up in a tree." Then everyone nodded their heads as he said, "Everybody in town asked what we were doing."
The teams produced the requisite 15 keys to open the locks on the grand prize container. As the last key turned, it was opened to reveal cold bottles of beer. The bottles were passed around, pictures were taken and the participants began to relax.
Leaders of the trek were PlayTime CEO John Chen and Adam Hitch. Surveying the scene, Hitch said that he has "The best job in the world!"
The event was put together by PlayTime, Inc. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Washington. In 2002 it won the award for the Most Innovative Business in Seattle. It began GeoTeaming exercises two years ago, which is based on a sport called GeoCaching. They group has put on nearly 100 events in California, Washington, Texas, Oregon, and as far away as Florida. Their web site is www.playtimeinc.com.
Note: This cache is on Private Property. We do have permission to hide it here. Please be respectful in your search.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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