Freefall wrote:With 33 different courses and relatively small numbers the costs are very prohibitive - it costs nearly twice as much to print the few litho maps as all the other maps. We did everything to keep costs down and would be happy enough to share our finance figures. We might just make a small surplus but I mean small.
A cost being X times a very small amount does not make it prohibitive. I'm all for keeping costs under control, but the most important feature of an orienteering competition is the map - and if I am paying the same entry fee as the elites I don't see why I should get a poorer quality map.
Why so many courses? If there is a small entry then it would make sense to merge classes rather than provide more than the 27 specified in the rules. For example I am running course 19 with 58 entries. Course 18 also has 58 entries is all of 100m longer. Do the 23 entries for M16A really need a whole course all to themselves? and there appear to be no entries at all for course 25.
The rules do allow for the very short veteran classes, where there is a small entry and no way to merge classes, to use laser printing and an enlarged scale to compensate. It would also be reasonable to laser print the cheaper non-championship courses (but are they actually different courses anyway?)