I am luck enough to live right next to a park (stone mountain, ga) that has historical hosted lots of gatherings, but it's been some years. Which means we have lots and lots of boxes, so many boxes I won't plant there. However we also have lots of boxes that haven't been touched in years...some have become fused in place because of growing trees, many are very wet, have damaged lids ect. I'm doing maintenance as I find stuff, but I have been told that most of the boxes have restrictions/dependancies that prevent me from looking for them as of yet.
It seems like a traditional gathering would create an even higher density of boxes, many of which may have long distance owners- which is great, but doesn't fix the box maintenance situation much.
Has anyone ever attended a non- traditional event where the primary goal is to find or revist as many older boxes as possible and make sure they are still in good shape? Would anybody be interested in that sort of gathering? Exchanges, travelers, tabletop boxes, and hitchhikers would all be very welcome... but folks who wished permenantly plant a box would be encouraged to do so outside of the pay park we gathered in (and maybe ferried to fee free parks near by)
Is this a thing I don't know about yet? If it where a thing would anybody want to attend? Particularly interested in the opinions of folks who 1. Have boxes planted at the big rock 2. Have attended gatherings at stn mtn park and 3. Have hosted gatherings at the same park. Or 4. Have never been to stn mtn but always meant to go

I think a group of Missouri boxers did something like that recently in one of their parks.

I think it's a good (and kind idea). I hope it works out! I've always wanted to go boxing there.. Haven't actually went boxing in a while, though.

I fall under #4--Some day......

I think it is a great idea--I have seen virtual events with a similar idea, but not live. Encourage everyone to bring maintenance materials, have a great event stamp and offer up table top, HIPs etc. along with a potluck.

Out of curiosity, you said:

but folks who wished permenantly plant a box would be encouraged to do so outside of the pay park we gathered in

Is it common in your area for event attendees to plant boxes for an event? When I have attended events, the organizers typically plant all of the boxes either permanently or for the event, or a combination.

Its always interesting to learn how others do things

Maintenance of boxes is often an issue in our community. There are also a lot of what I call "one plant wonders". They planted one and left the hobby.

I think your idea is a good one. I don't know how many local boxers you have. I'm afraid lots of people would not come from far away to "just" do maintenance. Hopefully I am wrong about that. The only way to know is to list it and see what happens.

As someone posted, if boxes are planted for an event, be they temporary or permanent it is the host who does the planting. Most organizers will post a tracker and/or request for stamps for their event, ask the carvers to mail them in time for them to be planted at the event location. The organizer can also carve if they wish to do so. People who don't even attend the event will very often send carves. People who come might bring some HIPS boxes (hidden in plain sight) and list them. Or of the event is held in a camp, people will plant temporary boxes at their camp site.

But for the most part at a so called normal event, (pavilion/building at a park type of event) the organizer plants boxes and prints up clue booklets to give to people when they attend. Hosting an event can be a lot of work.

folks who wished permenantly plant a box would be encouraged to do so outside of the pay park we gathered in (and maybe ferried to fee free parks near by

That's just complicating the issue. If people who attend want to plant something locally you aren't expected to "ferry" people. If people plant and list a box somewhere in the area, attendees will get there on their own if they want to. That's on them.

Again, I think your idea is a good one. Basically you are holding an event where no new boxes are planted at the park location, people can bring table tops (most organizers don't want hitchhikers at their event - they just get moved from box to box at the event and that's kind of pointless). If you want, you could have a raffle like some organizers do. Do the potluck thing.

I do think though that one helpful thing you should do in order to encourage people to come and make it easier for them to find the boxes is to print up a clue booklet for the boxes that need maintenance. Otherwise they will have to hunt down the boxes on AQ and print out the clues. That is a pain for a place that has a lot of boxes.

We've done something like this twice in the Houston area. It can be fun and helpful to the entire letterboxing community.

Texas boxers have 2 events a year. Our Spring event is a free for all where most attendees will make a box and plant it for others to find. We have a copier on site for copies of clues to be made.

Our Fall event is a little of both. The organizer loves to make stamps and hides bunches of them but the attendees also hide boxes to be found.

It is nice to see different carvers work and everyone gets to participant instead of just being a "finder"

I'm afraid lots of people would not come from far away to "just" do maintenance.

I'm not sure I would make a special trip of that distance "just to do maintenance" however I have heard that Stone Mountain, Georgia is a special place for letterboxing. I just ran a quick search on Stone Mtn, GA which returned almost 300 boxes within 10 miles. A "maintenance" event there would interest me. If even 1/3 of the boxes are still there and locatable it would be a fun time.

Think of it as letterboxing community service.

Think of it as letterboxing community service.

Oh, I totally agree!

Just my two cents. I think it would be a good idea to assign or let people choose individual boxes to maintain for the event. Maybe print up each box on a different colored piece of paper for each area and let them pick them out of a hat? That way you can ensure that every box get the needed maintenance and not have just the easy/close ones get checked a dozen or more times. Of course, people could always come back and stamp the easy/close ones later.

Been to Stone Mountain. Never attended an event there. I love the box maintenance event idea without planting new boxes. If the date worked for me, I would come!
Being a relatively new boxer, I don't know protocol, but the intention is wonderful.

Love the idea! I think you should go for it!

I think it's a great idea too. Several years ago (before I was addicted to this hobby!) a group did that for some boxes in a park near me in Charlotte, NC. I'd be interested in coming to Stone Mtn to help if the dates work!

The only major issue I see with this is that many Stone Mountain boxes have very tricky picture clues. You don't know where to even start, so unless you give the location of all the hidden, mystery-ish boxes, I don't see how this would work. But I don't know if that sort of defeats the purpose of them being brain teasers? It might be worth talking to the local community. I don't know if they'd want their box's locations just put out there for everyone easily solvable.

I know that if I was to plant in SM again, I wouldn't make it easy. I had someone throw my boxes out of my hiding places the day after I planted and I planted way out there, well off the beaten trails. It was a deliberate, aggressive thing and I had to find someone to retrieve them for me. The park staff actually alerted me to their vandalism. If muggles see a bunch of people carelessly stomping around at an event replacing boxes, it could lead to trouble down the road.

The idea would be to encourage folks to re-visit boxes they found years ago, ideally in small groups or alone in order to maintain them. (Possibly by awarding raffle tickets to folks who doctored the most previously logged by them boxes, or most difficult to find boxes)
Folks who wanted a box checked on could ask for there clues to be available for the event, or ask a trusted boxer to check them during the event, and folks who didn't want plants included for any reason could always create crazy high restrictions or use dependancies to hide there boxes some what effectively. (Maybe there are other ways to do this, but I dont know them yet).
planning an event like this would require alot of buy in from both local boxers and folks who planted while visiting to be successful. Im pretty sure I cant even see the majority of the boxes in the park yet, so trying to create a cluebook without the planters involvment would be not only rude but fairly difficult to do. The goal would not be to give away hints to anybodies clues, or to create a comprehensive list of boxes in the park (which doesn't exist for a reasson... if it did somebody would just plant more boxes immediately with strictly wom or impossible clues) but to encourage folks to check up on there favourite boxes from last time they visted, and maybe find a new favourite. (I mean if anybody actually has found all the boxes in the park I would love to meet them, but also I would totally go plant something first just to mess with them)

Maybe there should be a checklist of the boxes so that people can mark what they are going to maintain. I'd hate to hike out a couple of miles and realize someone had already done it before me. There are also some in pretty tricky places that you don't want multiple people going back out to look over. So it'd be good to assign those, so that they don't have repeat visitors.

I totally ran into one of those ticky places this week. Decided to go back for that box with better protection another time. A running rally of boxes or a checklist sounds like a great way to keep up with which boxes dont need care currently (or which one would be seeking primarily for the boxes its self)

Also a very similar thing was pulled off at the park by some awesome boxers three years ago...so its probably not actually time for this yet. Maybe early spring or late fall 2020ish

The idea would be to encourage folks to re-visit boxes they found years ago

Encourage them? Local people? Would they still be boxing? Or not? Are you going to contact all of them?

Folks who wanted a box checked on could ask for there clues to be available for the event, or ask a trusted boxer to check them during the event, and folks who didn't want plants included for any reason could

What if the original planters of the mystery boxes are no longer boxing?

I was not aware many of the boxes are mysteries. That was not mentioned in your original post. That kind of makes it a whole different ball game. You would have to contact all the planters of the mystery boxes and ask them if they want their boxes involved. If you can even get in contact with all of them.

Kind of sounds like the whole thing is getting pretty complicated if there are so many mystery boxes.

so trying to create a cluebook without the planters involvment would be not only rude but fairly difficult to do.

Again, **you didn't mention many of the boxes are mystery boxes in the original post**. If none of them were mystery boxes you could create a clue booklet but you as organizer would have to see if the clues still work (for instance is there a tree on a squashed box or not? Do you try to rescue it or not?.....and on and on and on.....) Or people would have to agree to accept the fact that the clues might no longer work.

Like I said, an event is a lot of work.

Oh...so you're gonna wait a couple of years.

Not so much mystery boxes as boxes with healthy restrictions...which is why recruiting boxers/planters/adopters with prior knowledge of the boxes would be so important.
But since a even better version of my clever idea has been done relatively recently it's probably unnecessary at this time.

Especially if someone hasn't boxed there. They could hunt boxes & perform maintenance if needed. Just a thought. Might need to get some extra hosts to help provide new log books for replacements if required. People might send extras or bring new baggies, laminated AQ box labels etc... for promoting box maintenance.

Maybe early spring or late fall 2020ish

That's not that far away for a complex event that you are suggesting. It would take a lot of work and maybe two or three assistants to help get the planning done.

My first thoughts were why try to limit it to boxes that need maintenance. Why not every box planted there?

As I read your posts I thought of dividing attendees into teams of 4-6 boxers with assigned boxes to maintain all within a specific area of SM (not having been to Stone Mountain I don't know how large it is or how many miles of trails there are).
I would think the box assignments would be segregated by degree of difficulty and area so teams could be assigned based on physical ability and desire.
Those "mystery" or all assigned boxes for that matter could be forwarded to the team (via a captain?) once decided upon so they could start research before coming to the event.
Certainly once teams are done with their maintenance boxes they are free to box wherever they want within the park or just enjoy the view or go back to the event and eat and chat, whatever.
This is doable. But it takes work, probably lots of it. Not every box will be serviced but most boxes will be. In the end, however, everyone attending will have a great time.

Our Spring event is a free for all where most attendees will make a box and plant it for others to find. We have a copier on site for copies of clues to be made.

Ah! I was getting hung up on the logistics. Contemplating it gave me something to do when the insomnia kicked in. I came up with a few ideas but never considered a copier on site. Seems like I need to attend a Texas event for the experience--although I am a lousy carver...

Thanks for sharing--it is always interesting to see how the same general concept gets implemented different ways.

Maybe early spring or late fall 2020ish

I'll be watching for this event-- seems as if you are putting lots of thought into the logistics and am getting some good feedback.

I agree with BBStacker--this will take some planning and work, but could be a successful endeavor.

Will be watching for this event--if I can't attend, I might be able to contribute in some way

Is it common in your area for event attendees to plant boxes for an event? When I have attended events, the organizers typically plant all of the boxes either permanently or for the event, or a combination.

It's common around here ( CA) for attendees to plant boxes, even series at events. Maybe we're just lucky!

I'm to new ti be sure...but based on the number of out of state planters I would gusse yes. It's also possible folks came from out of state and where event organizers. But if you map out the boxes by location you can tell when/where the events have been...the have l SSA the clusters of plants very near by and/ or share a picture clue/start point.

Yes, we did, but did not post it as an official event. Instead, one person (IDT) privately contacted others who might be available to help. She had all the clues to the questionable boxes printed for us. We split up the list and each went and checked on our list. For instance, I remembered where some were even though some landmarks in the clues were no longer there. Then we got back together to report and update the clues. Then those who hadn't found certain boxes were able to go back out and find those.

In our case, the boxes were all by the same planter, who had moved away. We had her permission to give her updates to the still-existing boxes. Then we even re-carved the missing images (from my logbook) and planted those as version2 boxes in new spots, which also gave us carvers the chance to find another box as well as newer people to find all the images in the series.