The Online Geocacher
Your Free User-Created Ezine for All Things Geocaching

By GEO*Trailblazer 1   Wed, Jul 9, 2008

Benchmarks are used by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) to mark precisely-known geographic locations, which are the basis for geo-location, used in everything from map-making to navigation to property description.

A new Benchmark is being developed in conjunction with Groundspeak's Geocaching.com and Waymarking.com listing sites, the NGS and geocachers around our nation.

Geocachers will be able to work with professional surveyors in their state who are members of the Professional Surveyors Association to define and set a benchmark which will live forever in the NGS survey database.

The Geocaching Benchmark has been given the NGS Identifier GEOCAC, now the official name for Geocaching benchmarks at the NGS.

This is the new GEOCAC Benchmark to be set:

BENCHMARK:

1. A standard by which something is evaluated or measured; a surveyor's mark made on some stationary object and shown on a map; used as a reference point; To measure the performance of an item relative to another similar item in an impartial scientific manner.
2. Levels of academic performance used as checkpoints to monitor progress toward performance goals and/or academic standards.
3. Reference point or standard against which performance or achievements can be assessed.
4. A test used to compare performance of hardware and/or software.
5. Something that serves as a standard by which others may be measured or judged.
6. A standard by which something can be measured or judged; e.g. "his geocaches set the benchmark of quality".

Geocaching has reached a new benchmark! It will now have a benchmark of it's own for each State (and a few countries if the plan goes as expected).

Missouri and Kansas are in a race now to see who gets the first-ever GEOCAC benchmark set. We have several other states interested as well, Alabama, Wisconsin, Hawaii, California, Alaska, North Carolina and South Carolina have all shown an interest.

You can help us reach our benchmark of getting this done. If you are interested in helping to place a GEOCAC Benchmark in your state please e-mail me at geoidchaser@yahoo.com.

To celebrate and promote this benchmark program Groundspeak, CoinsandPins.com and this author are developing a Geocoin!

This is an official NGS-GEOCAC trackable coin which will be available from CoinsandPins.com on July 11, 2008. All proceeds from the sale of this coin will go towards funding the GEOCAC Benchmark Project.

Why combine Benchmarking and Geocaching?
Geocaching offers the highest level of academic opportunities. One can set their own goals and standards to take every advantage of the many things Geocaching has to offer. From where I started to where I am today I can see that my experiences have greatly increased my Geocaching, Benchmarking and Waymarking capabilities. The things which I have learned are priceless. The people I have met are awesome, geocachers are a one-of-a-kind breed.

We all know that there have been many changes and upgrades to the game of geocaching and to the geocaching.com listing site since we first started geocaching. More people list and log online, and of course the forums have grown greatly. This parallels an interest and involvement in Benchmarking by geocachers. The NGS recognizes and appreciates geocaching benchmarkers and their involvement in the verification and recovery of benchmarks.

I have had the great fortune of being a leader in many projects. I walked in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark as part of the High Accuracy Reference Network (HARN) Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery II Commemorative Marker Events done in correlation with Geocaching.com and the NGS.

I now feel honored to be a part of this project and look forward to the many new geocaches and benchmarks we will create together.

C. Britton
GEO*Trailblazer 1

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A note from the Publisher: Here are some links that the author shared with me which I thought might be of interest. Some specifically reference Alabama but you should be able to find the links to your state.

Here is the link to the Alabama State Geodetic Advisor.
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/ADVISORS/Interest.shtml

Here is the link to the NSPS Geocaching project.
http://www.nspsmo.org/news_events/geocaching.shtml

Here is the link to ASPLS.
http://www.aspls.org/

Here is a link to the coin.
http://www.coinsandpins.com/index.php?cPath=25

Here's a link to the Groundspeak Benchmark discussion forum
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=180290

Have fun, and thanks to GEO*Trailblazer 1 for doing this!