A few days ago I received a BOF email with a link to a pdf with the above title and a request for feedback on the paper. After submitting my opinions it struck me that there doesn't seem to be any plan for any debate about the paper outside the inner circle of BOF, so I decided to post my unsolicited prejudices on here. Please feel free to disagree with everything I have written here and then tell BOF what you think that they need to know.
Q 1 How can this strategy benefit your club, new and existing orienteers in your local area
A 1
Having read the 22 page document I have no clear idea what the “strategy” is. I just see a lot of buzz phrases and feel good aspirations. As far as I can see there are no concrete actions listed.
I am concerned that page 7 appears to identify Parkrun as competitors rather than more successful allies. Our competitors are commercial "adventure running" companies who offer a similar activity but do not contribute to our organisation and "Bowling Alone" type social media runners apps which divert potential recruits away from us.
Page 15 contains the phrase, "Develop the customer service mindset throughout the sport." What on Earth does that mean ? Orienteering is a game among equals; there is no place for a master/servant "mindset" in it.
The distinction between "competitors" and "volunteers" is artificial and divisive. The tradition that everybody who turns up at an O meet is encouraged to have a go is one of the great distinguishing features of the sport.
Q 2 What ideas do you have to support the new strategic priorities?
A 2
I do not know what the “strategic priorities” are; there are several pages labelled “strategic actions” and one labelled “goals” but these appear to just be vague motivational slogans. The phrase “strategic priorities” does not appear in the document until the last page, where it lists the questions on this survey. There is no published list of ordered priorities.
We need to be seen by the public as a good value, fun, adventurous, activity for complete family units as opposed to a minority “elite” glory hunting sport for “international athletes”.
We need to develop national level relationships with the PE departments of education authorities, Schools Active Sports departments and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme.
We need a national relationship with Parkrun. They document that many participants drift away from them after 50 runs; we could be offering a development route to those people. Locally, here, there is some overlap in membership between O and Parkrun and I expect that is true throughout the UK.
We need to stop offering orienteering instructional training and accreditation (Tops, IntrO and Recognised Centres) to people who are not orienteers; this is institutional self harming on quite a large scale. These people create a poor impression of orienteering. Participants on any BOF course should be a minimum TD4; that is not difficult and can be documented through the “Star Award” scheme.
We are giving undue prominence and authority to coaches. Organisers, Planners, Controllers, Mappers, and Welfare officers also need help, training, and organisational status. The methods and techniques that work for these tasks are not spread through osmosis. As well as the specific training already offered for the non-coaching roles we could do with a combined introduction to all of these roles for the intermediate orienteer who wants to contribute more to their club; call it perhaps a Club Development Award. The existing on-line Event Safety Award would be a good model for this if it wasn't for the gratuitous plugs for anti-navigation company "what3words" embedded within it.
The current coach training, based on the UKCC/SQA model, is acting as a deterrent to club development. Allowing institutions which know nothing about the subject to set the model for orienteering training is a massive mistake. It is far too bureaucratic and prescriptive about method and theory while being light on actual instruction. Teaching basic navigation to keen beginners isn't that hard and doesn't need a lot of bureaucratic form filling, outdated educational theory, debatable advice about nutrition and elitist ideology about "athletes". The National Navigation Award Scheme have a good handle on navigation training.
We could do with training resources for the free or cheap software packages; Open Orienteering Mapper, Purple Pen, SI-Droid, Òr, MEOS, QGIS etc. We need to migrate away from expensive software packages.
We need national level help with gaining access to new areas to map, particularly in the large open cast coalfield regeneration projects in the North of England and South of Scotland, shooting estates, private forestry companies and utility companies.
As an organisation we should absolutely not get involved in delivery of Government targets of any kind. Taking tasking instruction from Local Government people who are not orienteers, and who never attend events, is time wasting and damaging to orienteering.
The biggest contribution that BOF could make is to advertise orienteering as an attractive participation activity, like a more refined Parkrun.
Q 3 What is working well for you that we could share?
A 3
Close contact with the local Schools Active Sport staff can be productive. Our local Active Sports staff wouldn't talk to us at local level until they had been contacted by SOA.
Participation in and cooperation with the local Parkrun group is useful.
Facebook can be a cheap way of advertising but it needs very strict monitoring and moderation otherwise counterproductive Facebook activity can quickly escalate.
Putting in a lot of time can not be avoided. In the last year our club, as a result of exhortations from BOF and SOA, has collectivity put in over a hundred hours setting up Maprun and permanent park courses which have had negligible recorded use and have resulted in no new attendance at club activities which (through a lot of time consuming work) we have tried to maintain fortnightly while being Covid compliant. We should support work streams which might be productive and popular, not those that outside agencies might like.
We have done training courses for trail running and similar groups which have generated income to allow us to buy equipment but which have not recruited new members. Be clear on what offering training to non members is supposed to achieve. Do not expect people who are already members of a different group to switch allegiance.
Using electronic scoring at an early level is popular.
Maprun can be a handy tool for training sessions but for that to be efficient then the Club needs the "local admin" authority to create and delete courses and disseminate maps; going through a level of BOF or SOA bureaucracy for every use makes it very unwieldy. Maprun currently is not suitable for complete beginners or serious competitions.
More maps generates more interest.
Encourage families to attend together and not drop children off for an activity.
Wear clearly marked orienteering t shirts when jogging or doing Parkrun, be friendly towards anybody who stops you to ask about it.
Be reliable and friendly.
The top priority should be that everyone has fun.
Thriving Clubs for a New Generation
Moderators: [nope] cartel, team nopesport
4 posts
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Re: Thriving Clubs for a New Generation
I agree about the concrete actions. British Orienteering is small and clubs are many. It would be better to present a plan containing a small list of achievable, easy to understand things that BO can do. I've suggested BO create a photo bank of photos clubs can use for publicity as an obvious example.
I didn't sign up to the 'focus groups' as I couldn't see what they would achieve.. but happy to be convinced otherwise by anyone here. Also British Orienteering have groups already which are better placed to discuss things that clearly need fixing such as the coaching qualification, but with the exception of the trail o group, don't seem to have met for a long time. Here are the dates of latest minutes on the BO website....
Coaching Steering Group - June 2016
Development Group - Nov 2018
Events and Competition - Nov 2019
Event scheduling - Oct 2019
Talent and Performance - May 2019
Trail O - Jan 2021
I didn't sign up to the 'focus groups' as I couldn't see what they would achieve.. but happy to be convinced otherwise by anyone here. Also British Orienteering have groups already which are better placed to discuss things that clearly need fixing such as the coaching qualification, but with the exception of the trail o group, don't seem to have met for a long time. Here are the dates of latest minutes on the BO website....
Coaching Steering Group - June 2016
Development Group - Nov 2018
Events and Competition - Nov 2019
Event scheduling - Oct 2019
Talent and Performance - May 2019
Trail O - Jan 2021
- SeanC
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Re: Thriving Clubs for a New Generation
I read the document when first released, and didn't think it had anything of real substance. I did think about listing what I saw as the missed opportunities and lack of learning from the last umpteen years. I decided I couldn't be bothered.
- spitalfields
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Re: Thriving Clubs for a New Generation
I actually thought it was quite good.
It identifies the fact that clubs, as opposed to a central bureaucracy, make this sport happen (progress, in my view). And that the lack of recruitment / retention of young people is the biggest long term threat.
Then it proposes a solution, which is to help clubs attract and retain young people. And some ways of making that happen.
Yes, some more detail is needed behind that (although some is already there), but as a strategic focus I thought it was pretty crisp.
It identifies the fact that clubs, as opposed to a central bureaucracy, make this sport happen (progress, in my view). And that the lack of recruitment / retention of young people is the biggest long term threat.
Then it proposes a solution, which is to help clubs attract and retain young people. And some ways of making that happen.
Yes, some more detail is needed behind that (although some is already there), but as a strategic focus I thought it was pretty crisp.
- Arnold
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