Connect 2016 Issue 2: Do You Know Why Backing Our Kickstarter Day One Matters

This issue of CONNECT was sent to our mailing list on January 14, 2016.

Hi Quest Scouts!   GOAL- Get as many Quest Scouts as possible to back our Kickstarter on Day One of our Kickstarter Campaign- January 18th!    That's our goal, and this is why. Let's get real- I've written this e-mail more than once. Each time I write it, I feel like it focuses too much on struggle. This time around, I'll keep it short. A little more than a year into Quest Scouts, money is tight. While we plan to hit enough subscribers in 2016 to be sustainable, we're not there yet. It is almost vital that we hit $1500 in our upcoming Kickstarter, and it would be AMAZING if we could blow that goal out of the water. The more money we raise, the better set up Quest Scouts will be to win big in 2016.   Plus, we're offering great swag for those who pledge! (Read the tale of the t-shirts from last week's email.)     4 Reasons to Back Day One   1) High Numbers ---> Getting Noticed   For those of you who aren't familiar with Kickstarter, they choose a select few campaigns to be featured as "Kickstarter Staff Picks." This is HUGE for projects. Getting chosen as a staff pick could mean excellent exposure for Quest Scouts.   Rumor has it that the higher your day one numbers, the more likely you are to be chosen as a staff pick. But wait- there's no way we can compete with other campaigns that will pull in thousands of dollars in a day, right?   WRONG! There are two numbers that matter:  "Amount of $ Pledge" and "# of Backers." While we can't compete with dollars, we can compete with numbers. Every person who pledges even $5 contributes to backer count.   So be there day one to stand up and get counted!   2) Backer Psychology   As funny as it may sound, a person browsing Kickstarter is more likely to back a campaign that is close to or has met its goal, than one that looks like it may not fund. YOU, the person reading this, are someone who knows Quest Scouts can deliver. By displaying your confidence through backing day one, you're showing people new to Quest Scouts that you trust us. That trust will help show those who are on the fence know that we're a safe bet.   3) You Aren't Charged Until Our Campaign Ends   While you do put your credit card information in when you pledge, you are not charged until our campaign ends. So really, your back is a promise that you'll pay us the last day of the campaign, regardless of when you pledge. No need to wait for payday!   4) Don't Miss the Member Designed Quest   During our Kickstarter we'll be designing a 2016 quest from start to finish. That's right- From the theme to the objectives to the design, Kickstarter backers who pledge $5 or more will collectively submit ideas and vote on their favorites. Be there day one so you don't miss any of the action! "This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy."   ~Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Will you be there day one of our Kickstarter? (Hit reply and let me know!)   Best Wishes, Dylan Waller Founder of Quest Scouts Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences  *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

Connect 2016 Issue 1: The Tale of the First Ever Quest Scouts T-Shirt (PLUS, Changes to Micro Quest you SHOULD know about!)

This issue of CONNECT was sent to our mailing list on January 7th, 2015. 

Hi Quest Scouts!   Gather round the digital hum of our collective computers as I tell you the story of how our Quest Scouts T-Shirts came to be.   Starting a few months ago, many of you began asking where they could buy a Quest Scouts T-Shirt to show off your affiliation. So, we went to work designing the shirt, and are happy to report that the first ever T-Shirts will be available starting January 18th! These shirts, available exclusively through our 2016 Kickstarter campaign, will be grey and feature our logo. The back of the neck will say "2016 Backer," serving as proud reminder that you helped Quest Scouts continue thriving in 2016.   Designing the shirt was the easy part. Finding a printer to do a small run of T-Shirts has been a bear! Our original quote for t-shirts meant that they would cost you $60! I asked you on Facebook, and several of you were willing for pay that much to help keep Quest Scouts going in 2016. Thank you! However, the price wasn't sitting well with our team. It just didn't feel right.   Why were the shirts so expensive? The short of it is that doing such a small run of shirts means we miss out on bulk order discounts. However, we've found a company that does something pretty unique. Instead of screen printing, they use a digital printer to print directly onto their t-shirts! This means that our cost per shirt is, while still not cheap, significantly lower.   I've ordered and received samples of the shirts, and while the printing is not a nice as a screen printed shirt, they're still very nice. On top of that, the T-Shirts themselves are soft and durable. I am satisfied with the shirts and I think you will be too. PLUS, if for some reason we end up selling more T-Shirts than we anticipated, we'll be able to upgrade to screen printing at little cost!   And that, my friends, is how your future T-Shirts came to be. The last part of the story involves you ordering a T-Shirt through out Kickstarter on January 18th. It is my hope that as many of you as possible will be there on day one of our Kickstarter campaign. (More on why that's important in next week's e-mail.) The way we present micro quests has changed, and I don't want you to miss out! While more details will be released later, here's what you need to know for now.   1) Micro quests are now being released on our CONNECT page.   Yep. We've got a new page, and it's a good idea to visit it once a week. Why? For starters, we post at least one new micro quest there a week!   2) These micro quests don't last long!   Every micro quest posted on the CONNECT page has an expiration date. Most micro quests will last two weeks, while others may exists for a little more or less time. Don't miss them. 3) Collect your stars   While in the past micro quests have been assigned point values, most micro quests will now be worth between one and three stars. Why collect stars? We're not revealing that yet, but trust us- If you're into badges, you'll want to make sure to catch as many stars as you can. 4) Personal Quest The first few micro quest of the year will help you come up with your Personal Quest! If you haven't checked out the Personal Quest yet, now is a great time to get started. A Question for You Our next e-mail about the logistics of our Kickstarter and why it is important to the sustainability of Quest Scouts. Our question for you is:   Do you have any questions about Kickstarter? Hit reply and let me know!   I hope to hear from you soon.   Best Wishes, Dylan Waller Founder of Quest Scouts Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences  *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

5 Reasons Geocachers will LOVE Quest Scouts

Hello! My name is Dylan, caching name Mannard, and I'm the founder of Quest Scouts. I've been caching since 2006, and was inspired to create Quest Scouts while going for my goal caches of the 2014, (GC9614) Halfdome and (GC2JWK8) Rim to Rim of the Grand Canyon.

1) Geocachers are always up for a challenge. 

Each month, Quest Scouts issues a new quest with its own theme. For instance, we recently released our first ever monthly quest, "All That Came Before," which is all about history. 

Each quest has a variety of objectives to choose from, in categories like travel, visit, art, DIY, literature, media, find and more. Completing objectives earns you points, which vary depending on the amount of time and level of difficulty of the objective. Earn the required amount of points and you'v completed your quest! 

2) Geocachers love badges of achievement. (And ours are real, physical badges!)

One of the great things about geocaching is being able to look back at your achievements. I for one am a huge fan of looking at geocoins from past events or coin challenges and remembering what it took me to "earn" them. 

Badges from the Mission: Kickstart Special Quest. (Now retired.)

The first page for the 2015 badge book! Place your badge in the dotted circle once you've completed the All That Came Before quest. 

Every quest in quest scouts has its own, uniquely designed badge! The Quest Scouts Code dictates that while you can buy a badge at any point, you should not display it until after you've completed your quest. Every quest's badges come in two forms, sticky and tag. 

The sticky badge is meant to be adhered inside your badge book. Our 2015 Badge Book has a place for every monthly quest, as well as the four "special quests" we'll be offering. Tag badges are metal tags slightly larger than a nickel. They've got a hole in them, which makes them perfect for hanging! 

Badges "retire" after the quest expires, so make sure to collect what you need while they're available.

Want to be the first to get our badges, a Quest Card and other goodies sent to your door each month?

Consider becoming a subscribing scout pack member! 

3) Because Quest Scouts brings you to locations that are perfect for caching!

The Mission: Kickstart travel objective asked us to travel to a place of relevance to space travel! We ended up at an awesome rock museum and found a meteorite. (And yes, there was a cache there!)

When I started caching in 2006, the thing I loved most about it was the places it brought me. Sure, I love moving travel bugs and searching through swag as much as the next guy, but what I really love in hiking to the top of mountains, exploring city art installations and finding amazing locations I never would have known about. 

Meteorite!

As I explained before, monthly quests have recurring objective themes. Two of the objectives geocachers will absolutely LOVE our "Visit" and "Travel" objectives. The travel objective asks you to road trip to new, interesting locations. For example, this month's history themed travel objective asks you to find historical landmarks. 

The visit objective is similar to the travel objective, but usually involves admission of some sort. This month we're visiting history museums and sharing what we learned there. 

While I still find new, interesting places while geocaching, with the cache density of 2015, it's hard to know whether or not a cache is placed because the location is awesome, or because somebody saw a blank spot that "needed a cache." (To each there own! I'm not judging.) Let Quest Scouts travel and visit objectives help you choose which locations you should visit, and make sure to cache while you're there! 

4) Because it's all about the find!

Ok, ok, it isn't ALL about the find. But as a geocacher, there is something satisfying about finding and signing the logbook. 

One of our monthly objectives is called "find," and focuses on location based games. While not always the case, a lot of the time our find objective will involve geocaching. The history find objective for the month asks you to find a geocache hidden in 2000, the year Dave Ulmer hid the first original geocache. 

So, if you were to complete this month's find objective, you would not only fill in a Jasmer square, you'd also get 300 points toward the All That Came Before quest! 

5) Quest Scouts is about community.

Posing for an Earth Cache in Tuolumne Meadows with my long time caching buddies!

I love my geocaching family. The friends that I cache with will be friends for life. Quest Scouts embraces the geocaching community. While not all Quest Scouts are geocachers, many of us will be! As Quest Scouts grows I hope to meet many of you at caching events all around the world. We want to be at events like the Geocaching Block Party, Midwest Geobash and Geowoodstock, offering event specific quests and badges. 

 

 

Are you in?

If you're interested in getting involved in Quest Scouts, check out our currently active quests! Also, consider following us on Facebook, as that is often the first place we post about what we're up to. We also have a mailing list!

questscouts

12 Months of Badges! (Badge Book Preview)

The Cover (Front and Back) PLUS All 12 Monthly Quest Pages.

(Click to scroll)

Pre-Order your Badge Book at the Scout Store now!

2015 Quests Revealed! (PLUS Membership and Badge Book Update)

Happy New Year Quest Scouts!

January 1st is always a time for fresh starts and new beginnings, and at Quest Scouts Central the new year is especially significant. Last year, we introduced Quest Scouts to the world in a small way. We offered two special quests, 31 Micro Quests & Mission: Kickstart.

With the confidence of two successful quests under our belt (Mission: Kickstart has expired, and 31 Micro Quests expires February 1st,) we are moving into the new year with our official launch! What does this mean? First, it means MORE QUESTS! Quest Scouts will plans to bring you twelve 2015 monthly quests and four special quests.

Announcing our 2015 Quests!

2015 Monthly Quests

All That Came Before (Now Active!)

Epic Proportions

Cardboard Adventure

Prism & Light

Park Explorer

Kingdom Plantae

Such Great Heights

H20

Brush Strokes

On The Menu

Paper & Ink

Atlas

2015 Special Quests

Personal Quest

Postcards & Places

Connection

Micro Quest BINGO

Memberships!

We’re excited to reveal these quests over the next year, and hope that you will join us! As always, participating in Quest Scouts is free. However, signing up for a membership (starting at $4.99) will help us to continue making Quest Scouts awesome. Members get a Scout Pack delivered to their door each month*, access to a monthly 50 point micro quest, and printer friendly quest cards.
*Scout Packs delivered to “Scout Pack” and “Scout Pack+” members only.

Badge Books

As many of you know, we ran a successful Kickstarter to raise funds to print our badge books! Our graphic designer is finishing up the details of the books now, and we’re on track to deliver them in February. The badge books will have a spot for every 2015 badge, as well as our two 2014 quests. Use one side of the book to record your points and other notes, and the other side to place your badge. If you missed your chance, don’t worry. You can currently pre-order a book while signing up for a membership.

That’s all for now! If you haven’t yet, don’t forget to check out All That Came Before, our history themed quest.

Objective Spotlight: Rocks from Space!

Mission: Kickstart- Travel

This weekend I focused on the "travel" objective. Actually, I did a double dose of travel, first by completing my objective at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals on Saturday, and then helping Tyler to complete his on Sunday. While I had searched to see if it was feasible to travel to a meteorite impact site, after some research I realized that wouldn't be possible by the expiration date.

Click above for an interactive meteorite map!

I had written the idea of seeing a meteor off, but then was inspired by Quest Scouts Melissa and Josh, who posted an amazing photo of a meteorite from the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Michigan. Of course! A museum! (Not sure why I didn't think that meteors would be moved from their initial positions.) It turns out there was an impressive display of meteors in Hillsboro, OR. My friends Emily, DL and I checked it out, and wow! 

The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals did not disappoint me. If you're ever in the Portland area, it is definitely worth a visit. 

The only thing better than a weekend that involves a museum, is a weekend that involves TWO museums. Tyler and I headed over to OMSI to complete his travel objective. They have a replica of the Gemini Space Capsule. And yes, Tyler's travel objective photo is the best I've seen so far!

As I write this, there is only a few days left to get your Mission: Kickstart objectives complete! Get going. As always, we love seeing your photos and comments pop up on the Scout Board when you use the tag #questscouts on a public Instagram, Twitter or Facebook account. Keep them coming!

Objective Spotlight: Spreading the Word, One Geocache at a Time

Mission: Kickstart- Find

Last weekend Tyler and I set out to complete the "geocache" objective for Mission: Kickstart. It had been a while since I'd been geocaching and really enjoyed finding and logging new caches. We ended up finding two caches and walking several miles. Good exercise, good company and 300 points in the bag!

Check out what Gerry, founder/leader of Quest Scouts Michigan did! (Below) Instead of hand written notes, he designed and printed up business cards to spread the word. Awesome work! 

Want to have your photos and/or story featured? Next week we'll be spotlighting the "travel" objective. Send us a note at questscouts@gmail. 

Have you dropped a note about Quest Scouts in a geocache yet? If so, let us know about it in the comments below!

Quest Scouts now has a regular schedule!

(Note: This post was originally sent through e-mail to our subscribers.)

Hi Everyone!

One of the things most important to Quest Scouts is CONNECTION. We realized that while we’re continuously posting online, you may be missing us because we aren’t following a discernible schedule. It’s time to change that! For the next few weeks, this is what you can expect from us:

Tuesday, 2:00 PST- New Micro Quest!

Every Tuesday we’ll be posting a new micro quest. Micro Quests are like objectives. They are help make up a quest and provide points to be used toward the completion of that quest. The difference between micro quests and objectives is that micro quests are revealed not when the quest is revealed, but instead on a specific date. Look for micro quests for Mission: Kickstart underneath the objectives.

Wednesday, 12:00 PST- QUESTION OF THE wednesDAY

Every week we’ll be posing a question and we hope you’ll take a moment to answer it. Questions will range from simple to thought provoking to serious. If we need feedback from our members in order to help shape the direction of Quest Scouts, this is where we’ll ask for it. For now, our QOTW will be posted in the comments section of our Kickstarter page. We’re posting them there in hopes of getting a conversation started on Kickstarter. (Last weeks question is up now if you'd like to check it out.)

Thursday, 2:00 PST- Objective Highlight

First off, the name needs work. (Any ideas?) That being said, every week we will highlight an objective in an active quest. Objective highlights will (most often) feature me (Dylan, founder of Quest Scouts) and my crew completing an talking about an objective and letting all of you know how it went. This is an evolving idea so stay tuned to see how it ends up.

Friday, 12:00 PST- Check-In

This is a chance to let your fellow Quest Scouts know where you are! Each week we’ll post a check in asking how many points you’ve earned toward the most current quest. Feel free to share with us what objectives you’ve finished as well as stories of the adventures you’ve been on. For now we’re posting the check-ins on our Facebook Page, but may soon be moving them to our website. (We'll keep you posted.)
 

We hope to see your comments in some (or all) of what’s to come. You know where to find us!

Objective Spotlight: Poster Party!

Hi Quest Scouts!

As I'm writing this it is Thanksgiving morning. I am at home and still need to start making my mom's famous "once a year potatoes." I hope all of you are well fed, happy and surrounded by friends today. 

This is the first of many "objective spotlights." (If you can think of a better name than "objective spotlight," please let us know in the comments below!) Objective spotlights will be released here every week and will shine light on one or more objectives from currently active quests. We never ask you to complete quests that we wouldn't do ourselves, and are right here with you learning, creating, connecting and discovering. Check here every Thursday at 2:00 PST to see what we've been up to!

Mission: Kickstart- Craft

The photo is a little grainy but look at those happy faces! 

This objective asked you to help us spread the word about Quest Scouts through creating posters and hanging them in public areas. I decided it would be more fun to do this with a group, and invited my friends Maura, Kendra and Tyler (you'll be seeing a lot more of them) over for a "poster party." A couple beers and a lot of laughs later and our posters were done! Well, half done. We still need to put our posters up in order to collect our points. I'll be sure to post a photo on our Instagram when the objective is 100% complete! 

Have you completed this objective? If so, how was it? If not, do you plan to? Let us know in the comments below!

At some point this happened!

That's all for now!

Dylan

Even $1 Makes A Small Difference

31 Days of Micro Quests

What is it?

This October, Quest Scouts wants to disrupt your routine. Don't worry, this is a good thing. Too often, we get stuck in the same patterns. We wake up, get our work done for the day, and then spend the evening trying to relax and recover from the work we did. We do the same things over and over, and it all becomes automatic. Quest Scouts is about NOT going through the motions. We provide quests with objectives that help you step out of your routine and LEARN, CREATE, CONNECT & DISCOVER. Larger Quests are coming your way soon, but for October we're starting off easy.

Each day we will suggest a micro quest. Micro quests will take less than twenty minutes (think lunch break) and will be simple, fun activities that disrupt your daily routine (on a very small level) by introducing something new to the mix. 

The first micro quest will be introduced October 1st, so don't miss it. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Ello and through our mailing list to make sure you don't miss this opportunity.