The least child-friendly event of the year?

[Big Jon]

After listening to the requests and thinking over options we have a change of plans - only for those with small children.
There will be parking available on the road immediately south of the river Dee bridge in Aboyne (wide road, no parking markings and fairly quiet). This is on the route between registration at the school and the starts. It is approx 800m to near start and 200m further to far start. Hope this helps for those with small children and split starts.

[Red Adder]

I've always felt that CRB legislation does nothing to address the real problem, which in at 95 % of cases the offender is a family member / close friend. Of the rest those with a record will already be known to the authorities and given the once over whenever any incident happens in their locality. The ones that haven't been caught yet are the real (though miniscule) danger, and of course will pass CRB. Ironically the very biggest risk to children from strangers relate to one of the things you don't need to disclose - driving offences - speeding drivers are a danger to children (and anyone else in fact).

[madmike]

After listening to the requests and thinking over options we have a change of plans - only for those with small children.
There will be parking available on the road immediately south of the river Dee bridge in Aboyne (wide road, no parking markings and fairly quiet). This is on the route between registration at the school and the starts. It is approx 800m to near start and 200m further to far start. Hope this helps for those with small children and split starts.

well done MAROC

[Olsoran]

Often things can be talked through and a solution found if someone takes the time to pick up the phone to the Organiser or organising club.

[King Penguin]

What a wonderful world it could be if only we had a Golgafrinchan Arkship

Need space for rather more than just telephone sanitisers and advertising executives .....

[madmike]

What a wonderful world it could be if only we had a Golgafrinchan Arkship

Need space for rather more than just telephone sanitisers and advertising executives .....

yep, lawyers, economist, bankers, politicians and petty bureaucrats too

"was that the year they executed all the lawyers?"

"my god, they executed all the lawyers - what for?"

"well being lawyers of course"

and now...

[CeeJayEll]

Olsoran is right..... Proactive and polite requests often get a great response; ranting usually just puts everyone's back up. And great news that a helpful solution has been found. Useful to air the issues of course.....

[Adrian]

Good points have come up in this thread and I hope BOF will address them. They should investigate how they could ensure all major events have a creche. And the issue of family-friendly Starts comes up all the time, so Event and Organising guidelines need to help clubs to make improvements in this area. There really is no excuse, for example, for making little kids walk 2k to do a 2k run.

I've already raised with BOF the issue of clubs making event details available to competitors before the closing date and they seem to agree.

[SeanC]

I don't think creche's are going to happen now, except perhaps at the biggest events, maybe just the JK and the Scottish.

But "parent with children" parking areas are quite doable, even at the bog standard regionals. As well as shorter walks to the start and better places for children to play, there would be lots of other benefits. Parents can meet other parents to let off steam about the difficulties of doing O with kids, parents can make friends with other parents and maybe over time trust some of them enough to look after each other's children, children can make friends with other children which will keep them orienteering even if they aren't one of the lucky few who get into a club or region "talent squad". This would particularly helps the just one adult orienteer family (increasingly common I suspect) or the family where just one child goes orienteering (ditto).*

Parent with child parking at O events won't cost anything, doesn't need a BOF committee to do anything, doesn't need any qualifications and courses. There are 180 level B and C events between now and Christmas... it just needs the organisers and clubs reading this to start providing it so it becomes as standard at O events as 3 minute call-ups and orange squash.


* ie me. Wife's hockey team is still in the Kent knockout competition again this year, meaning I miss the CSC for the second year in a row

[SJC]

Good points have come up in this thread and I hope BOF will address them.

It is not BOF that needs to address these points. They do not put on events, clubs do, and simply creating more paperwork will achieve nothing.

I've already raised with BOF the issue of clubs making event details available to competitors before the closing date and they seem to agree.

Similarly, they can agree as much as they like, but short of refusing to register an event they have no sanctions against a club that, for whatever reason, does not publish the details early enough.

Things will only change when club members themselves insist on their club behaving in the way they would like everyone to.

[Big Jon]

Well, Birsemore went off fine and the child friendly aspects worked a treat (as far as I am aware).
Creche - what's to stop club mates sharing the care of children - doesn't need to be formal or approved by anyone, it will give young non-orientering children some new friends to play with and will let parents do their runs knowing that their slightly older competing children have someone checking up on them after they finish their run.

[Sunlit Forres]

Allow me to be the first to congratulate MAROC on a great event. I lost count of the number of helpers I saw, and all of them with a welcoming smile and friendly word. I can't believe that nobody's been on yet to say "well done" and thanks for responding to the feedback.

[andypat]

Some of us had farther to go to get home!
I also really enjoyed the challenge of today's event - proper tough stuff (snow, mud, ice cold water and some nice runnable stuff too) that sorted the boys from the men...

[graeme]

Creche - what's to stop club mates sharing the care of children

We certainly used to do this. If the start interval + walk is too big it doesn't help, but with more than one early starter it takes some of the pressure off. Also, late-starting parents travelling together can save kids carpark time.
It might help if there was a designated place where this could happen (like the string course start).
Adrian makes another good point, continually forgotten. For a white course runner, 2km to the start + 2km is a 4km effort. So it would help if the white start were near assembly - like combined with the string course start.

[binman]

Going right back to the start of the post - I'm not sure the event was that child-unfriendly in the first place. Yes, a trek to/from starts but with significantly better Assembly facilities that many other events seems to balance that out to me.

The scenario painted by housewife involved parents wanting to compete as well. Now that's a different matter - maybe 'least orienteering family event' would be more appropriate? I say this not to be pedantic (although I'm often accused of that ) but to flag up an obseration of how Maroc (not my club) has achieved growth in junior participation.

Initially by the work of few commited parents who often sacrificed their own run/competitiveness to ensure their children got as much from the event as possible. More recently, many of the juniors now involved are supported by either non-orienteering parents or parents who are not as obsessed as the average nopesport-poster. The parents are actively encouraged to join the club at a social or organising level as much as for competitive sport. It seems to work. Should other clubs be trying to develop in this way rather than want every member to join for the competition?