Respect for National Flags

[Gross]

There was some banter on these pages about the late sourcing of National flags for Euromeeting last week. Banter is banter & I'm sure no harm was done.

However looking through some on-line pictures from the competition I noticed something I hope will NOT BE REPEATED in future international competitions in the UK.

The flags of the competing nations were hung on barrier fencing half lying on the ground / grass / mud. I wasn't there so can't comment if this was the intended location or not but whatever it was it shows complete disrespect to the national flags of guest nations as well as to the host country. National flags should not be placed like this.

This would seem to be a UK issue as there is little pride in flying the National flag. Other nations (orienteering... Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania etc etc) all have National Flag days where the flag should be flown with pride. If the National flag of Cuba was hung like at Euromeeting the organisers would be in jail.

Please for WOC2015 & Highland 2015 ensure flags are displayed with respect and not left in the mud......

[Freefall]

Gross - thank you for your observation. We had never used flags before at a S6D and it was very much a last minute decision (of mine) to order the flags (which had been used at WTOC). I sent a list of participating nations to BOF and they mentioned 7 nations missing from what they had in store. I quickly ordered these up and on Saturday night with help from Per Forsberg we strung the complete collection up in IOF protocol order. It was only at this stage we discovered that the Union Jack was missing. Helen Errington confirmed that the Home Nations flags (and Union Jack) were in a different box at BOF and I arranged for these to be posted out first class. Hanging the flags is a problem - we used 2 flagpoles (separated into 4) on Day 1 to raise flags above the ground. Unfortunately when these are all strung together there is considerable weight and strain and the eyelets were ripping out of the side of the flags. Day 2 was sheltered and this method worked again but given the strong winds on other days we elected to string along barriers (which as you observed are not high enough).

I would like some practical and sensible ideas as to how best we could hang flags - you obviously know that nothing disrespectful was intended. At WOC 2013 they had a huge problem sourcing and hanging flags and they had to spend considerable sums of money (from a budget that greatly exceeds WOC 2015).

Could flags be hung horizontally - maybe punched to go on crowd barriers for example?

What was successful were the new Scottish 6 Day tarp banners - these had velcro either side and wrapped over the crowd barriers. They had the advantage of being readable from both sides. Flags like this would be great.

[Gross]

I would like some practical and sensible ideas as to how best we could hang flags

I would suggest speaking with the organisers of the 6D in 1999 which was also combined with WOC. There would have been flags on display.

[Adrian]

I think people are a little more relaxed about flags than Gross suggests - you could see at the World Games that they were just hung over the fence, and there were no diplomatic incidents. http://reentrant.files.wordpress.com/20 ... gstand.png

[Freefall]

WOC 2011 - one arena, no moves.

flag hanger.jpg (248.53 KiB) Viewed 5504 times

Moray 2013 - 7 arenas, 7 moves. WOC 2015 - more than one arena, more than one move.

[NeilC]

Someone will probably be able to remember about the systems used for the Surrey Hills World Cup in 2005. A combination of flag poles and half logs for some days
http://www.pbase.com/eiger/image/42839429
http://www.sloweb.org.uk/Photos/wcup05/ ... get11.html

and draped over fences on others
http://www.flickr.com/photos/owls-count ... et-1172789

[Electrocuted]

If the National flag of Cuba was hung like at Euromeeting the organisers would be in jail.......

Only if actually taking place in Cuba. Thankfully we live in a democratic country where I didn't hear anyone complain about flags escaping their supposed positions in near gale force winds certainly towards the end of the week. I'm sure the organisers on Saturday were more concerned by the marquee taking off, thankfully when most competitiors had already left.

Thanks to everyone for a huge amount of work last week at a great 6 day event. The volunteer effort is always outstanding and is going to be massive going into 2015. I'm sure a lot of people are now back at work having a rest.

[Gross]

about the systems used for the Surrey Hills World Cup in 2005.

Nothing wrong with any of these methods.... at least they weren't lying on the grass

Anyway.... thought raised so the 2015 guys will be able to add this to the fine detail planning

[mharky]

It's interesting to note that all the pedants on here vigorously comment if a British flag is flown upside down, or indeed if the IOF use a completely incorrect one all together, but don't mind when flags are left on the ground.

I noticed the photo of flags draping on the floor and thought it was disrespectful.

I don't understand why flags have never been used at the S6days before, if you go to any other large (or even small) multi-national event you'll get national flags representing the nation of every participant. Sometimes they use slightly dodgy versions and even hang ours upside down, but at least they are trying to acknowledge and welcome their foreign competitors.

The examples from the Surrey World Cups are the most common, and shouldn't cost much to make at all (as long as you do them yourselves). The are also easily transport from location to location.

Of course, for any IOF event such as WOC the IOF protocol for flags should be followed. I'm sure the WOC 2015 organisers know all about that.

[Gross]

Only if actually taking place in Cuba. Thankfully we live in a democratic country .

Completely away from this thread but since it was mentioned - Cuba is democratic - just not in the same way as the UK

[PhilJ]

at last year's CROESO I tried to get the national flags flown at each day but the logistics etc were too great for such a small team, instead I put the flags up in the event centre (21 countries) and "decorated" the event centre with national flags and Welsh ones. I think i went with 6 x 3 flags from Mr Flag in Swansea, for an assembly field they would need to be bigger for full effect. At all the overseas events I have been to the national flags of participants are flown, Oringen, Czech 5 day etc. I even managed to tag on the back of the official ceremony at the oringen one year and joined the many swedish clubs flying their club flags and me proudly flying the Welsh flag.

[daffdy]

Would it be practical to display the flags on the same 'building site' fencing used to display results? I like how it was much easier to get close enough to read the results because of the extra space and it was probably more straight forward to set up than the other methods, but the fencing was a bit ugly - especially in comparison to the excellent run-in fencing covers. It could use some decoration!

Perhaps it's a UK thing, but unless the flag is actually on fire I usually notice the effort and sentiment behind the gesture before an opportunity to be insulted anyway.

[EddieH]

Being nitpicky I noted that the banners attached to the barriers meant that when the wind blew so did the barriers, potentially crashing on a finishing competitor which might be deemed a H&S issue. WOC probably needs a firmer fixing method.

As indeed it needs a more robust speaker system. The ones (presumably hired) looked very battered and on day 6 were generally blasting out to an empty field as they seemed to be incapable of coping with the wind - (except of course when they were broadcasting to the sky at prizegiving).

I don't know how best to place speakers, but these very unidirectional ones blast out those they point out, and are inaudible if you are not in line.

[Meat Market]

I went to an event in veliko turnovo in bulgaria in march and was quite amused at first to see bulgarian, romanian, ukrainian flags... And a union jack just for me! I imagine that most of my 8 euro entry fee for 2 events went towards just buying the flag.

After I had spent 5 mins soaking up the atmosphere I was actually quite proud. Its not every day a punter like me gets recognised and it was a nice touch by the organisers to make me feel welcome along with the free pints when I finished each race! We should definitely do more of this since it is a big thing the further east you go.

[King Penguin]

To be fair, on day 6 the fences with the flags were stood up again on several occasions, and some additional sections were added at right angles to try to support them. It was the additional wind resistance generated by the flags which caused the fencing to be blown over - intially away from the run-in and later towards it.
Personally I appreciated the effort being made even if it was not entirely successful. It is all too easy to gripe, esp. when not there to see what actually happened. When viewed as a dry-run for 2 years time I see it as a useful experiment.