Latest CompassSport magazine

[Roomungous]

I think the sad thing is that I suspect (and chaps from Moray can correct me if I'm wrong) that if the local Elgin and Forres chaps turned on the telly to watch this thing that was going on in their back yard they wouldn't have understood the commentary either.

In the last 5 years, Orienteering has had a significant amount of coverage in the local Moray newspaper press and via social media, so anyone that switched on out of interest, probably had an inkling of what to expect. Judging by the upsurge in MOR membership before and after (our membership is just short of 300!) and INVOC after, it has all had a very positive impact on local participation. Whilst much of it is junior, we are also seeing a number of 'newcomer' parents really taking to it, as well as some younger adults.

In the last 2 weekends, both INVOC and MOR have run Level C events with nearly 200 runners at each, many of whom are newcomers. MOR are also regularly getting over 100 people at Level D events on Saturdays.

Bottom line is that WOC has had a major positive impact on the sport in the region. Holding on to that interest is the next challenge, which I am sure we are up for.

[Tatty]

That is great news.

[JK]

That is great news.

Agreed - that is the sort of "impact" / "legacy" that I like seeing.

[Sunlit Forres]

There's not much Gaelic spoken in Moray and Nairn but I know there are pockets of it. Millbank Primary School in Nairn, which allowed use of school grounds for the sprint model event, has a sizeable Gaelic medium class (and they have done some orienteering which they loved). Although not involved myself I've heard that there's an upsurge of interest in orienteering amongst the Gaelic-speaking community with real development possibilities on the West coast (Lochalsh, Skye etc).

As far as Moravian goes, there have been 13 new adult members joining in the last week since new memberships reopened. These are a direct result of bringing their kids to events. Approx 0.28% of the Moray population are club members although we are yet to see the impact of the inevitable membership churn when existing 2015 memberships expire. As Roo says, INVOC has also had a surge in membership, particularly from the Nairn/Inverness area. BASOC has grown significantly too.

Although WOC has had a lot to do with it, there's no way this would have happened had these clubs not worked incredibly hard to keep up the momentum after WOC when they could have been excused for wanting to take a breather. Loads of locally-focused events, coaching, publicity etc to keep up the interest and hopefully engage and retain the majority of newer members.