I should get the word out to attract designers for Thesaurus Canada. But I'm having trouble making myself do it. It's time to list the things that could go wrong.
 
 

Where is the prize money, i.e. treasure, coming from? I might be naive about that. A bunch of money has to come from somewhere, or the project will fail.

How am I supposed to get the word out?

I would have to assemble a group of designers from all five provincial regions. Preferably able and dependable. French has to find a place too.

Getting a book published and sold is an obstacle course that will probably lead to failure. There is the whole process of getting a set of approved hunts. Then a publisher, in Canada, would have to agree to publish it, and also shuffle over prize money. Few book submissions are published. Normally only a few people will buy a published book.

Timing, dependencies and group effort worries me. Basically a step will not be done unless a previous step is done and a subsequent step will be done, so everything can easily seize up or otherwise fall apart.

A creator makes a treasure hunt, and publishes it. Fiction authors contribute to an anthology book. Business people work together on a project. But an anthology of treasure hunts from different creators is not like anything else.

Group communication for this might be an obstacle course. Schedules, secrecy, time zones, languages. And that's before we get to group dynamics and different perspectives.

I don't stay awake at night worrying about secrecy, but it's wise to take measures to keep things secret. Group communication means bits of information can spread. With the classic, classy Masquerade treasure hunt from 1979, the designer had a girlfriend. He split up with her, she told secrets to her new boyfriend, who then picked up the treasure, spoiling the whole hunt. Devices should be secure. People should be secure.

History shows that something or other could go wrong with a treasure hunt that's out there. Multiple people died looking for the Forest Fenn treasure. Maybe a treasure is never found.

Treasure placement is a hole in my game. Can someone take a treasure chest from a provincial park? Proxy treasure has been known to be washed out of its spot by weather. Someone could spot you messing around at the treasure location. Someone (with a dog? a metal detector?) can come across a treasure chest or something small without even knowing about the book. I don't know if we should establish standards (proper, neatly communicated) or not (options). For example treasure may or may not be buried.

Proxy treasures means rules, customer service and delivery.

I don't think designers should be expecting much money for their work, even if it is published.

One speed bump is I don't know if there are programs that can solve ciphers with brute force. Other puzzles too.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Where will the money for the treasure come from?

It could come from a combination of sources.
I assume the publisher should pay.
Treasure hunt designers pay for the treasures. That might sound a little odd, but it is normal for treasure hunts.
Some hunts have a prize that varies by the amount of books sold, starting with zero. This could be money or bitcoin Justin Posey bitcoin wallet. That silly bitcoin has advantages. Anyway, the advantage of this is publisher and designers put down $0 when the book is published.
Corporate sponsorship. Maybe more for a follow up book. A great prize would be $30,000 gold macaroni - look it up. What could be doable is a $500 Canadian Tire gift card, which I wouldn't mind anyway. Skip the Dishes, other gift card, whatever is appropriate for the treasure package.
Someone you know may be willing to pitch in. Like Aunt Ralph.
A rich person may be willing to finance Thesaurus Canada. I would.
 
 

How much will the treasure amount be?

Nobody knows. But here are some considerations:
I've settled on total $40,000. But that's just me.
A big bucks prize is great for creating buzz, leading to book sales. $50,000 is a memorable number.
Regardless of what is desired, the amount of money available limits things.
The number of hunts is unknown. 5-10. I settle on eight.
The treasure amounts for different hunts could vary. I prefer it that way, yet another kind of diversity. One treasure is worth one million pazoozas*. At least one humble hunt ("popcorn hunt"?) with a lesser prize, like a $500 Canadian Tire gift card or a gold coin.
A prize for a particular hunt worth a certain amount just feels right to me. So if a multimillionaire offered a million bucks I would be in no rush to change things.
South of the border they say $100,000 is the number where it brings the crazies out, and unwelcome things happen.
 
 

I like having one treasure worth one million pazoozas. But for which hunt?

Whichever designer requests it.
I see the advantage of having it in a random hunt. Looking for treasure for any of the hunts would involve the exciting possibility of getting the big one.
It makes sense to have the big prize associated with the most difficult hunt. It would be an appropriate reward. More importantly, there would still be excitement, book sales, late in the game.
I note that Ontario has a lot of bodies.
It should go to a responsible designer.
 
 

* $10,000
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Regarding that product from Kharkiv, it has delightful packaging, and somebody is going to get something out of it. Traditional? Kharkiv, in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east, is under pressure these days. Again, delightful packaging (confetti?).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

(I've been hit by smoke/virus/both) I was sitting in the car with the window open in the sun, while my dad was in the suit store. A man said "You have a flat tire". I came out the car door to check out the situation. A native fellow said "Just kidding".

In my experience, the local native/indigenous sense of humour involves bluffing, including absurd bluffing. I went to university with one fellow when I was into special forces. I encountered him years later and he said he had joined the Rangers, sniper. When at Safeway and working at getting a coin in a shopping cart, a bummy native guy told me "I invented those".
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I was going to delete this because of broken links. I can repair the links with new links for these continuing contests, but I think I'll ditch the page because of my dweeby comments.

Genre contests like these can't please everyone, so you get discussions and controversy. Here someone has negative things to say about the fantasy contest. Also nerds like to argue about the fuzzy definitions of science fiction and fantasy.