Road Signs

[the duncan]

Why, when there is so much talk about getting people to continue orineteering, and promoting the sport to the wider world, do we insist on using the smallest crappiest little signs for our events?

Last weekend, i almost crashed the car trying to read what the signs said, but i knew they were about orienteering.

There have been ,masive signs made saying 'ORIENTEERING' the only time i saw them used was on the way OUT of the car park!

this really pissses me off, why as my dad would say do we need to sign our events like it was a Masonic gathering!

we should be proud of the sport and let everyone know who is passing that there is a huge internationl race going on, you never know they might look it up on the net intrigued and come along to a race one day!

Lets sort this problem out, it has been going on for years, we have the signs, USE THEM

the weekend was great, the races were good, i think the flower ceremonys were good, the prizes were useful. BUT it was another meeting of the O secret society!!

[stodge]

Did you not see the two feather flags on the entrance on day two?
our plan is to now use them to mark the entrance to all our events to show the public where we are and what we are doing!
http://www.jk2005.org.uk/photos/day2/target75.html
Agree with you though - the road signs were a lttle small.....

[harry]

i was impressed the week before the JK i went training on brocton and as we were driving there I saw a big professional looking roadside sign promoting the JK. it was somewhere between stafford and rugeley. it reminded me of the sign by the road as you drove through vasteras about WOC2004 which was there a year before the actual compeition. They do this for the swedish champs as well but i've never really seen it done in britain before.

[stodge]

Has anybody seen anything about the JK in the press, local or national or web?
I did a press release with a few action photos on both Friday and Monday and am wondering whether it did any good.....

[ryeland of doom]

Big signs - what a great idea..

I remember when the modern estate agent style signs came in.. Went off to a night event at Wyrley and was totally unable to find the event. Looking for the standard flag and missed the new signs (subconciously ignoring them as builders signs)

I like the look of the feathers. What is important is that a message should be sent out to curious passers by that they are welcome to pop in for a look and a try and that a great family day out lies behind the sign. Not some private gathering .

You wont grab many, but the few you do get will probably be grateful.

[ryeland of doom]

Just looked up JK orienteering on Google news and only got Nopesport.

I spent Easter near Brown Clee (did not run - cannot last two days at moment) and the local press carried nothing.

This was the biggest sporting event in the Ludlow area for years .. and nothing.

On the subject of Ludlow.. Here's one for all you HOCites out there...

Why not map the town..A hill top town with a maze of streets -l its the nearest thing we have got to those Italian towns beloved of PWT and has a cracking park (Whitcliffe) too.

Of course this is probably impossible due to red tape and how do you convince the Whitcliffe Common Committee - but worth a thought. Wish I had spotted such good terrain under my nose when I lived there.

[EriOL]

Remember that there is only one internationally recognized symbol with the meaning "orienteering competition nearby". This symbol should be incorporated into all road signs to make it easier (especially for foreigners) to find your events.

[Guest]

I was disappointed at the lack of clarity of the signs, the size was OK but the colour balance was wrong. My first JK was 1994 in Hereford they had big signs I still remember them, on the approaches. These are great as long as the local councils don't remove them. Ours would!
Hocolite

[gg]

Who has those big feather sign things? Can we borrow them for BUSA? Anybody got anything else to add to the atmosphere next weekend?

[Stodgetta]

The one between Rugeley and Stafford was in the assembly field and had been there for a few weeks.

There was a big sign on Day 2 if you were approaching from Stafford, not sure about coming from Lichfield, but hopefully the feather flags helped (unless you arrived before the flags ).

[the duncan]

they are great, but only at day 2, the relays had nothing but A4 sized pieces of paper which is inexcusible, doesn't take much to make large signs and say what the race is about.

the signs for both sunday and monday were poor, sunday was better, but still no info really.

Please next year or for other big races mae a big sign, doesn't have to be fancy, just a bit of info about what is happenning, so the general public don't think its a Car Boot sale!!

[Domhnull Mor]

Thanks for bringing up this subject, Bruce. It is ages since anyone commented on it. Funnily enough it is something that we have been talking about here after the Spring Cup where the sign posting was also pretty crap - tiny wee signs and not many of them. Up here in northern Sweden we have a problem with reducing numbers of competitors and the comments made about signposting apply just as much here. Sure, the massive posters etc for the O-Ringen etc are very obvious but your bog-standard event normally just uses kites. You could say that more people here know what they mean but is that really the case? It would be interesting to hear if anyone has experience of someone "happening" on a sign and actually ending up taking part. It is very easy for us in the know to head off and find an event but I also know of people who could not find the car-park due to inadequate sign-posting and have turned round and gone home. The "secret-society" is alive and well but for how much longer?

[Ed]

not really relevant, but JK '92 had yellow AA signs on the A590 (the main road through south lakes) - I think they said "JK International Orienteering" and the dates or some such.

Obviously they were noticable though since in the Westmorland Gazette the following Friday was a comment about how come if they're all good map readers they need these signs to find their way to the event... boom boom.

[the duncan]

i do know of a chap, who is a member of Walton Chasers who saw something going on in a field and went in for a look, and a few years ago he was the club captain, so it can happen.

i think that all future event organisers should be warned that this is a hot topic, and now with this easily accessible forum, i will name and shame any event that i attend/hear about that fails to pull its finger out and advertise about our secret society!!

[bendover]

i will name and shame any event that i attend

better start going to some events then brucey boy eh?!