BOF at its very brilliant best

[SeanC]

I think I've been on that golf course

http://www.miniaturegolfer.com/coate.html

[Adventure Racer]

Sports I do / have participated in:

Road cycling: club membership £10 a year, BCF membership £32 a year, racing licence £30 a year (you have to be a BCF member too, so total £62 a year if you want to race). Typical event £10.

Canoeing: club membership £60 a year (we do have a clubhouse with hot showers and boat storage at £20 a boat a year, so this is actually quite good value), BCU membership £33 a year (needed if you want to compete). Typical event £5.

Triathlon: club membership £5 a year, not sure of BTA membership as I never was and generally you don't need to be to compete. Typical event £20.

AR: club membership £0, NGB membership £0, typical event £60 - £500!

Comparitively I think orienteering is quite good value.

[Carnage Head]

For a fiver at an orienteering event you get the incredibly detailed map that takes days or weeks to make, teams of people spending hours and hours planning and organising the sport, the latest electronic timing gizmos, somewhere to park your expensive lump of metal that got you to the event and some of the best countryside in Britain to trample all over. All for less than the cost of a small plate of spicy food.

I agree. Orienteering, when it is less than a tenner for an entry (although I remember paying £11.50 for a late entry once, silly me), is excellent value for money. Especially compared to drinking. I also admire the payment structure for juniors and students, i.e. they pay next to nothing to keep them off the streets/out of the bars.

That said, I don't want to be seen as a light touch... so I say keep membership fee increases to a minimum...!

[awk]

For a fiver at an orienteering event ....!

Agree with all of that...local orienteering is a great bargain. It's when you get beyond that when it starts to escalate badly. Customer service also deteriorates badly too, as I've recently found out on more than one occasion.

[NeilC]

Only the big clubs can afford their own development officers and coaches. In the south east maybe only Southdowns. They don't need it, they win everything anyway! Maybe paid coaches and development officers are better at a regional level? For example there are lots of small clubs in the London area. Individually they don't have much manpower for publicity (which AIRE say is a main reason for their recruitment success - see the "orienteering in 20's and 30's" thread). A regional development officer could organise cross London publicity

What do mean by "afford"? Southdowns has a publicity officer (just one person can make a big difference), a few coaches and many other willing officers and helpers - but they don't cost us anything. All are volunteers and are certainly not paid anything for their efforts. As a club we also don't offer reduced entry fees for helpers at events (although as mentioned previously offer free runs to all our juniors).

As a region SEOA has a professional development officer who is available to help all clubs with their development needs. In fact SO make very little use of her, our development policy is based on getting individuals and families involved in our local event series and coaching members in house.

SEOA also has an excellent, volunteer, junior coaching set-up which again is available to juniors from all clubs.

As for the comment about SO not needing development and coaching.... As a lifelong Chelsea supporter I've heard these sort of comments a lot recently, rather sad I'm afraid. I suggest you make contact with Julianna asap and see what she can do for you.

[SeanC]

..... I must remember to proof read my posts more carefully.

Neil, I was not trying to have a go at your excellent club (Southdowns that is). Perhaps I should have written this sentance "They don't need it, they win everything anyway!" like this "They don't need it, they win everything anyway ". It was only meant as a humerous aside. Apologies if I caused any offence.

Firstly I wasn't really thinking about coaching, just development officers.

At risk of inflaming the debate let me try to explain my thoughts again.

My partners hockey club pay for a professional development officer and coaching. In a previous post I suggested that paying for more development officers might be a way of slowing the membership decline, and that quite a lot of us could afford this. Hocolite interpreted my suggestion as clubs paying for development officers, my response was that this is fine but only the large clubs could afford this.

What I should have said - to avoid causing any offence is that there is nothing wrong with the large clubs getting larger (quite the opposite), but to stem the membership decline we need to ensure that any development efforts are spread across the country, including to areas with small clubs - hence the regional development officer suggestion.

I know that we currently have regional development officers, but I understand that they are only part time. My suggestion is that we pay to increase their hours so they can do more good work and help all clubs be as successful as Southdowns.

[gross2006]

Funny how all debates go round in circles.... now someone is proposing spending more on RDO's yet some weeks ago most of the debate upto the EGM was against spending more on RDO's

[PorkyFatBoy]

Not quite Gross - we're talking about unpaid club based development officers fostering links with families, not the paid regional ones that are only aimed at fostering liks with schools.

[SeanC]

Not quite either of you.

I'm suggesting that we pay regional development officers to do club development work in addition to the work they do for schools development.

[Guest]

They are regional development officers and will do club development work. All part of their brief.

[SeanC]

I should have said

"I'm suggesting that we pay regional development officers to do more club development work in addition to the work they do for schools development."

[HOCOLITE]

It depends on the remit of the dev officer. I believe ones recruited from within the sport will provide a service more in line with what the rank and file membership want. (It's the same as with BOF personnel) There is an inherrant understanding, those who come from outside with impeccable credentials in areas like fund applications etc, don't seem to be able to reach out to the membership. The schools v club arguement is difficult clearly a balance is needed. I strongly believe it is important to give youngsters a great experience of Orienteering. In a lot of cases they may not become current members because their parents are not committed, but if the youngsters get a good experience they are likely to return at Uni or as parents themselves. This is long term development. Obviously what the clubs want is increased membership now so they want development officers to assist in the recruitment of family and individual adult members. It is conceivable that this remit will not suit the same person as the schools remit. Schools are a captive if diffcult audience to retain. Families are much harder to reach therefore publicity and advertising and one to one guidance at events are probably more important than site visits and introductory talks. Also schools are weekday work whereas club work is more likely to be weekend. There are areas of overlap that I shall not go into.

[SeanC]

Hocolite, these are very good points.

I modify my statement again.

"I'm suggesting that we pay regional development officers to do more club development work."

I have a strong gut feeling that paying the right development officers to do club development work is the best way to stem the membership decline. Any comments?

[Guest]

Clubs and Development Officers (whether paid or unpaid) might care to look at the notes from the workshop on 24th September at:
http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/D ... opment.pdf

If clubs want to stem a decline in membership, offer coaching to members to help to retain their interest/improve their skills or develop in any other direction a good place to start is to have a plan. Volunteer or BOF Development Officers could help to facilitate the writing of a development plan (it doesn't have to be complicated).