University Orienteering

[lucy]

Help!

I work for the SU of a large University (27000 students) I am also a keen orienteer and am trying to get an O club up and running. Has anyone started an O club at a Uni? Can someone give me some tips. At the moment I need 20 student to sign up to get the ball rolling by 22 March, are you or do you know of any Orienteers studying at the University of Plymouth. All help gratefully recieved, I can only do so much as it's not really my role at the SU.

Cheers

Lucy

[ba-ba]

20 people!
BOF's HE development officer Josh Jenner is your first point of call: contact is here: http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/about/staff.php

As for new Uni clubs, Bangor is the newest I know about - one-man whirlwind Fiach O'Rourke set it up a couple of years ago. No contact for him I'm afraid, but you'll find him on facebook.

You coming BUCS?
Nic, ShUOC

[lucy]

Thanks for that. I have contacted Josh and I am still waiting for him to get back to me, but will try your contact at Bangor. Thanks.

Not coming to BUCS this year but hoefully have a team next!!

[andypat]

Email Josh Jenner at BOF, Lucy - hes your man!

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/about/staff.php#Development

[xtophe]

UBOC was reborn 3 or 4 years ago.

I agree with ba-ba that 20 seems a lot. At Uni in France a friend started an O club, we were 4 the first year and 8 the second.

[Scott]

Sadly, a lot of university sports federations/athletic unions have a minimum membership number that is required before they will "recognise" a club, which normally gives access to funding and minibuses. From what I've heard, twenty is about standard - it's what Surrey have told me that I need to find (although here we have the added problem of those twenty all needing to be members of the sport union - at a cost of £80 each ).

Lucy - I can second all the other recommendations of getting in contact with Josh. I've found him very helpful with getting things moving at Surrey.

[ba-ba]

Thinking about it, with all the financial requirements of union sports maintaining a sports' club, 20 seems quite fair - I got wires crossed and was thinking about the 3 people you need to start a society - e.g. there's no Karate club at Sheffield Uni, but there's 8 or so Sheffield students who compete to very high standards - but not enough to start the club back up!
One of the positives for Orienteering is that it's fairly low-budget for the union to maintain compared to other clubs (e.g. US Football requires an obscene amount of money to keep going and it's not even a BUCS sport) so it should look more attractive to sports officers/managers as union funding inevitably gets hit due to overall university funding.

When I came to uni I though it's be like my mum said - 3 people started up a hand-gliding club and bought a kite with the money given them by the union. When they graduated, no-one else carried the club on, so they managed to get away with a 'free' hand-glider! No risk assessments, and no inquiry when she landed in a wall...

[Scott]

Of course, British Orienteering doesn't have any minimum membership number for its constituent clubs (as far as I'm aware), so if there are enough of you to scrape the £43 (plus association fee) together then there's nothing to stop you founding "Xtown Students Orienteering Club", and getting all your training etc safely covered by BOF insurance.

Since orienteering doesn't really need much in the way of uni sports facilities, the main benefit of university affiliation seems to be access to cheap/free minibuses (and maybe a some funding that you can use to subsidise your petrol costs). If you have small numbers, a bit of liaising with your friendly local open club might be the way forward.

[epocian]

When I came to uni I though it's be like my mum said - 3 people started up a hand-gliding club and bought a kite with the money given them by the union. When they graduated, no-one else carried the club on, so they managed to get away with a 'free' hand-glider! No risk assessments, and no inquiry when she landed in a wall...

Hand gliding sounds like hard work - I prefer hang gliding myself!

[madmike]

Sadly, a lot of university sports federations/athletic unions have a minimum membership number that is required before they will "recognise" a club, which normally gives access to funding and minibuses. From what I've heard, twenty is about standard - it's what Surrey have told me that I need to find (although here we have the added problem of those twenty all needing to be members of the sport union - at a cost of £80 each )..

I understand the 20-requirement is why ULOC and IOC are no longer recognised.

However, I didn't realise that there was a tax on Uni Sports Unions until this thread - how totally mis-guided is that? Thanking my lucky stars that I went through in an era of full grants, no fees and no tax on sports society members.........I shall become less of a grumpy old git and more sympathetic to current students!

[Scott]

To be fair, I think that if you don't use any of the university sports facilities then most of that money comes straight back to the club, but it's still a lot of cash to ask someone to commit to a sport in advance, particularly if they are new to it.

[ba-ba]

£80 to be able to join Union Sport before even joining a club? Jeez! So much for the usual 'sport for everyone' message...

[roadrunner]

I understand the 20-requirement is why ULOC and IOC are no longer recognised.

I think RUOK failed for the same reason - not sure whether the limit was 20 but it was something like that.

[lucy]

20 out of 27,000 should be achieveable, shouldn't it. It's just that first hook, so we might have to wait until freshers week, but it would be good to have someone on board before then. Have spoken to Josh and discussed a few ideas. Remember if you are sending your children to Uni next term then send them to Plymouth!!!

[DavidJ]

I think RUOK failed for the same reason - not sure whether the limit was 20 but it was something like that.

As there will be a new map of the Reading University Whiteknights campus available from May, if there are any orienteers at Reading or coming to Reading, the basic minimum requirement will be available to help anyone thinking of trying to get RUOK going again. As a member of staff, I can offer moral support but not much time.