How to Make Orienteering Fashionable

[redkite]

It was mentioned earlier on this thread that O should get on the obesity/unfit Brits bandwagon.

HTV have a series of half hour programmes early next year where they try and get unfit people fit over an 8 week time frame. One of the programmes has an orienteering theme.

This coming Sunday a special orienteering event is being filmed by HTV at Cwm Likey for a group of dart players from Newport, Gwent. The event is being organised, planned etc by James Clemence (SWOC) and will be a proper O course (yellow/orange standard) using SI etc.

The orientering event will feature for about 10mins at the end the programme. We will have to keep our fingers crossed that O is portrayed in a positive light.

[tim sleepless]

It was mentioned earlier on this thread that O should get on the obesity/unfit Brits bandwagon.

Maybe give out pies at each control?

[FromTheGrassyKnoll]

We will have to keep our fingers crossed that O is portrayed in a positive light.

Someone needs to make them run!

People slowly moving around a Yellow course probably isn't going to do much for the fashionable image!

A pie for the fastest.

[tim sleepless]

And Wilf's veggie chilli for the slowest. That'll learn em.

[tim sleepless]

Going back to some of the earlier thoughts, this weekend near Toronto we have an afternoon event (civilised or what?), following a morning introdution clinic run with the local triathlon club, and lunch with sprints to finish!

http://www.orienteering.on.ca/events/cn ... O2006.html

[MikeWinter]

There have been some great suggestions on this thread about advertising and better atmosphere at events etc. I wonder how you all became orienteers? I suspect that in reality, many of us got into this sport because we were invited to an event by someone we knew, rather than 'cos we saw an advert for an event....

I first went orienteering in the 1970's as a kid with my family, but we stopped going in my early teens.. I could have got back into it when I went to Uni, but didn't. I started orienteering again this year after a 22 year gap 'cos a friend asked me to go to a local event with them and I went. Had a great run and realised how much I had loved going as a child. The thing that helped to keep me going, apart from the fact that I love it is that members of the local club have made an effort to get to know me and made me feel welcome.

Perhaps if we want to see more people going, we need to ask those we know who don't orienteer to come along to a local event, perhaps some of the informal ones in a local park or something, so they can see what it's like? Walk a white course with them, teach them how to do it? It is really hard to just turn up somewhere knowing no-one or what is going on...

[MikeWinter]

BTW, the atmosphere at the finish at the CSC last weekend was brilliant, with runners being cheered on the run in and there was a real spirit of camaraderie as well as competition. IF we can replicate that a bit more it will add to the overall positive impression that newcomers receive.

[Tessa]

This thread is interesting reading for us at Birmingham Uni. We are trying hard to develop and orienteering club which has always existed in theory but hasn't always been very active. Already in a month of term we have doubled our membership and we may even reach double figures soon!! There are a few main things that have helped which may be of interest to others.

1) lower fees - if you want to get students, you really have to make rock bottom entry/membership fees
2) creating a club atmosphere - meeting up outside of orienteering, for students its nights out or a pub quizes is a less intimidating alternative
3)doing more than just a weekend event - we have running training twice a week where ALL abilities run together. we jog to a park, others continue to jog, others do intervals, some do half the intervals. but its all inclusive.
4) publicity drive! - we're trying to compete against effectively proffessional sport at Birmingham Uni and getting newspaper space against the Rugby teams isn't easy but worthwhile. Also going on the radio station next week. Posters are great, but they have to be right for the audience. For us, I think they need to show elite sport (fast runners in decent kit) as a picture of the sport, but the posters that say about Team GB achievements are uselss. It doesn't put off people who want to walk, but shows what the sport could be and doesn't limit it.
5) good kit. The whole Uni has a deal with Kukri and so our kit is very similar to other sports kit and works fine. We don't stand out as the club that wears rubbish baggy things or brightly coloured lycra. They also say orienteering on the back, so its raising awareness we are active around campus.

But its all different in a University to trying to get schools or families involved. A great poster or catch phrase can be great in some situations but totally useless in others.

Not sure what other Universities have found...

[ifititches]

great to hear what's happening it Birmingham Tess; you're making me quite nostalgic!

My experience is that 30+ years on my contemporaies in BUOC have been involved over the years at practically every level of the sport, and that goes just as much for the ones who started at Uni as for those whose families had involved them. In fact, I think I spot one of the founder members (or his namesake) organsing this year's YBT final

Contacting 200-300 ex-BUOC members for the re-union in 2000, it was striking how many ex Uni orienteers had stayed close to the sport and dipped in and out over the years all over the world, so I'd say it's always worth putting in the effort to get a Uni club up off the ground again. Uni clubs were mostly started by true enthusiasts with boundless energy to begin with and would be brilliant if you could get back to the numbers of the 70s and 80s

[SYO Member]

Opening up this topic again and commenting on some of the postings, I wouldn't object to a change of name for orienteering. Even now, when I tell friends or colleagues that I am an orienteer, some associate it with not necessarily enjoyable school or scouting trips to the countryside with rucksacks, bobble hats and 1:25,000 OS maps. They are often surprised to learn that it is a competitive running sport for all ages on varying terrain.

I also wouldn't object to a specific distinction between non-elite and elite orienteering, to which I would give the new name, to get any media attention. Problem is, what is a good fashionable name that isn't already used elsewhere? My suggestion would be Ultra Orienteering or simply Elite Orienteering. So how do we get this across to potential new orienteers? If TV is the obvious medium, this may have to be either head to head running or mass starts. And what would be the best o-type for Ultra Orienteering? We might expect this to be M/W21E foot-o in a tough forest but telly land may want a series of sprint-o events in parks which to purists might be difficult to describe as Ultra-O. Whatever was decided, if it was run on a mini UK-Cup type basis, there would be loads of other things to arrange, not least who would organise the events and where would the expected spectators and atmosphere at the finish come from? Maybe discussing the practicalities of portraying UK orienteering on TV, assuming TV is interested, needs its own topic here.

In trying to make orienteering fashionable, we must remember that orienteering is unique in a number of ways. Firstly, unlike many sports, you and others can't just turn up in say a park, and immediately orienteer competitively without a certain amount of preparation and setting up on the day, let alone permissions. Contrast this with sports that only need a playing field or permanent fixtures such as gymnasium, running track or pool. Secondly, its venues are generally away from centres of population. Thirdly, it has competitors who are expected to be voluntary officials unlike most sports where only when participants retire do they become coaches, organisers etc. And aligned to this, it is probably the most complex of all competitive, amateur, individual sports with regard to the staging of an event.

Another thing to bear in mind is that many people just can't read a map. I know a few otherwise intelligent people who are completely fazed when presented with a map of any scale. And this month we were told in an RAC survey reported in not just the tabloid press, that when presented with a road map, 30% of under 35 year old drivers thought the River Avon was the M40! Although I would normally not give much credence to space-filler surveys such as this, the impression was that many people just can't or don't want to use a map. If they did try orienteering, the first thing they would find is that traditional 'green' woodland is shown as white and 'white' open land is shown as yellow.

With regard to socialising after an event, this is fine on a nice sunny day where everyone is in the same field. It's a bit different when parking is along forest roads either side of assembly on a rainy day in winter. And socialising is often just
making contact with other club members to agree organizational aspects of your club's next event. Also, who bothers looking at not very up to date results at the event, assuming results are being put up? You know your own splits and you'll see the full results a few hours later.

I realise I am coming across as negative here which is rare for me, but like most of us, I have often thought about how the reduction of Under-35 orienteers can be stemmed. However, I endorse most of the views of EddieH on Page 4 who reckons it's not all doom and gloom. To confirm this, the statistics given in this year's AGM papers show that the decline in BOF membership over the last few years has levelled out and participation of both Seniors and Juniors is on the increase. From my knowledge of what is currently happening in YHOA, the efforts of the Regional Development Officers may be starting to have a direct influence on this and something that happened last week to me reinforced this.

I took a day off work to finish off the map update of one of our woods around Barnsley. In the late afternoon I came across a man and his daughter walking their dog, and after exchanging the usual pleasantries that only mappers are familiar with ("I'm updating an orienteering map", "Have you ever done orienteering?" etc), it turned out that the daughter had not only tried orienteering recently at school, she was looking forward to doing it again. I'm certain this is entirely due to the work done by the YHOA RDO.

[Nails]

Well Pieman I don't know who told you that -but i'm nice, come and talk to me.

Perhaps at the next SYO Local event on the famous walkley map before the AGM -evening Monday 23rd? -check the website for details.

Just thought your comment was a little strange as SYO has children, parents, pensioners, vets, elites and teens, and socially they all seem to get on very well. Pity you missed the autumn bbq.

[Carnage Head]

I know it's come up before, but I tried advertising orienteering as 'Sport Orienteering' to launch a club at school, and once people had joined, the 'Sport' bit was quietly dropped.

The charity angle has got to be worth a try - pehaps this is one aspect of publicity that could be spearheaded by BOF. There is a London Marathon, and a London Triathlon - why not an event called 'O-London'? Not a fairly costly and/or corporate event (no disrespect to Rat Racers - I still hope to try one!), but a long street/park-based event. It could even be sponsored by a SatNav firm (on second thoughts, perhaps they would be suffocating their market by showing them that they can navigate).

Finally, I agree that word of mouth is still the main way forward - hassle and keep on hassling your friends, especially your running friends!

[Gnitworp]

why not an event called 'O-London'?

Remember that no one outside orienteering has the least idea what 'O' means. It's rather like advertising hockey by saying come and enjoy 'H'.
The BOF website is the worst offender with their 'New to O' 'button'.
It's all part of the 'mystique', and inappropriate when trying to attract newcomers.

[tim sleepless]

Please disregard my idea of Sprint O at the end of a normal O event. Having tried it today after a 90 minute score, my sprint was more like a waddle.