Normally, going out to get a cache with the Girls is the biggest and most interesting thing to come from any weekend, but not this time. Yesterday was the last meeting of the team behind the upcoming Texas Challenge before the big show itself. It was a little smaller than usual because of some car trouble that kept a couple of people from attending, but otherwise it was a good attendance and we spent most of the time going down a list of last minute things. As we’re coming up to the wire, it turns out that a few things aren’t going to get done on time. Some of them were aspirational and others were great ideas that probably came to us too late to do anything with them. One was important, but the work already done in that area is more than enough to make up for it. Even as I write this, I’m remembering something I’ve always wanted to have for the Mega, but didn’t remember in all the details and it’s too late to do anything about it (maybe). Over all, I’m feeling pretty good about how things are going and, outside of a couple of minor hiccups that may just have to be ironed out when we encounter them, I think we’re ready to do this thing. That doesn’t mean I’m not still a little worried, though.
I’ve made some mistakes I wish I could take back (primarily communication based, both internally and externally), but you know what the hardest thing about all this has been for me? Everyone, myself especially, has things they like and dislike about attending Megas. There are certain things that I consider essential about the Mega experience and other things that I think are, well, kinda silly. Thing is, when you’re creating an experience for other people, you can’t just go with the things you like. You’ve got to incorporate a lot of things for other people who may not like the same things you do. This means that we have spent a bit of time and effort on things I myself consider, well, dumb, but I know from team members that other cachers and their personal muggles will enjoy.
My point here (and I do have one) is that you need a team. It is humanly possible that I may have been able to plan all this on my own if it was my full-time job for the last year, but I’m not entirely convinced of that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you can’t do this alone. At a minimum, if you don’t have other perspectives, you will pass over things you didn’t think of because you don’t care about them. More solidly, you need other people who can shoulder tasks so you can focus on big stuff. Having someone working on the cache hiding and someone else on Event planning left a lot of room for me to focus on big things like the venue and vendors and other high-level planning issues. So go get yourself a Gandalf and an Aragorn and maybe some hobbits to help you, because you’re not going to destroy that ring without a Fellowship.
All this said, I will be happy when this is all over and I can just go back to finding caches and doin’ stuff again. Yes, I’ll help out some next year because I want the next person to do a better job than me, but I just want this responsibility off my shoulders. And if it wasn’t for some really good folks, I’d have been crushed under it by now.
Geocaching While Black 