Regional Development Officers

[Mrs H.]

We had a lively debate in committee last night about the work of the newly appointed Regional Development Officers. It seemed there was a difference of opinion about what their jobs actually involved.

Some thought that they were exclusively to do with the promoting of orienteering in schools and the fostering of club/school link, and others thought that they were for whole club development.

I've had a look on the BOF website this morning - thanks to MarkC excellent directory - and found what appears to be a discrepancy in the job description which explains this difference of opinion. The job adverts which went out on the news page talk exclusively about club/school development and yet the Strategic Plan talks about school development AND club development (I'm sure you agree these are not necessarily the same things).

We as a club have yet to hear from our regional development officer (in post since August) and she seems to be learning the ropes under the auspices of the School Development Officer - which rather suggests that whole club development is not going to be the priority.

As the clubs are not now funding the post - have we lost the right to say what we want the regional development officers to do? What is happening around the Regions? Who is telling the regional development officers what to do? What is happening in you region?

[PorkyFatBoy]

No answers, I'm afraid, only the same questions. Mark C or Blanka will probably enlighten us further....

[Clare]

I think that if the aim of the development officer's work is to improve school/club links, there will inherently be some club development work involved in this - there is a need to send school children into good quality clubs - I am sure most orienteering clubs offer a quality experience (debate this on another thread!) but to benefit from the school development work a club will need to show that it can offer a safe environment, possibly with more structured competitions in a local area to get children involved - basically, working towards clubmark. A lot of clubs will need help and support with this - which I presume will be provided by the development officers....

Also, aren't the development officers just one or two days a week? Is this enough time to realistically make a big difference? It could be that areas of work are targetted, so not all clubs will benefit.

[Neil Crickmore]

How about asking your RDO directly? In my experience they are happy to assist clubs with any ideas they may have concerning promoting orinteering at whatever level.

[Mrs H.]

We shall be asking her - as we have invited her along to a meeting presently - i just wanted to get a feel for what was happening in other regions as our RDO was one of the last to be appointed.

I would be disappointed if the job was confined to schools/club development as in my opinion, given the enormous amount of time and resources that has been poured in that direction in the past, the returns appear to be very small; and even if that number was to change - as you say clare - there would need to be some club development to cope with the influx such as suitably trained coaches, suitable events, mapped urban area etc.

[Toni]

Interesting conversation as I am currently doing some research with coaches from a variety of sports who are working with School Sport Partnerships. Many of them have commented on the bottle neck that is being created by development officers working in schools and then the young people have nowhere to go because the clubs aren't ready to cope with them! I'll ask the coaches in the next set of the interviews that I am doing!!!

[Mrs H.]

Yes Toni - this is the problem as I see it. There seems to be a general assumption that clubs are sitting back waiting for the hoards of youngsters to arrive. Clare uses the expression:

a club will need to show

but our volunteers are hard pressed as it is. we operate a long standing and relatively successful series of low key events but we seem to get more club members from the individual families who come along than from the schools that attend. The meagre band of people who run these events could not cope with many more than attend now.

If schools are the founthead of all future membership then how come clubs like CoBOC, which has worked so hard to foster schools orienteering in Birmingham, has so few members of its own surely they should be bristling with yougsters.

[Blanka]

Mark C or Blanka will probably enlighten us further....

Sorry, I can't be of much help either. We haven't discussed the RDO that much at the last regional meeting, but there should be a meeting with him and representatives of each club at some point.

[HOCOLITE]

Interestingly, we had a very similar debate at the BSOA committee meeting, we were going to ask a representative to come and give us a presentation on the job, as we felt we did not know what they were supposed to be doing and did not want to 'reinvent the wheel'

[MarkC]

Mark C or Blanka will probably enlighten us further....

I'm not sure how we became the experts on RDOs but here goes...

The confusion about the role of RDOs has arisen because their funding source has changed. As Mrs H. says, the Strategic Plan gives two basic responsibilities: "(a) Schools/Outside Agencies - Club Links and responsibility for increasing membership, and (b) Club Development - Clubmark, helping Clubs appply for grants, project work for Clubs." But it also cites a range of funding sources - "contributions from Sports Councils, the Federation, Associations and Clubs." The Strategic Plan timescale saw this year being spent persuading Clubs and Associations to sign up to the proposal, with all RDOs in place by late 2005, though not all "appropriately qualified and operational" until 1st April 2007!

[quotes from BOF Strategic Plan 2004-2009, 1/4/04]

Soon after this had been written, Sport England asked orienteering to be part of the PESSCL (Physical Education, School Sports and Club Links) programme which provides a grant.

"This grant covers £20,000 pa for staff costs and £45,000 (providing we meet targets) over 2 years for project work in developing school/club links and is in addition to the existing development money that Sport England provides for Schools Development Offices (SDOs). The plan is to incorporate the three existing SDOs into the new system which in addition to work required under the PESSCL scheme, will allow the RDOs to undertake more club and Association work.

By adding the new grant to the existing Sports Council funding we can afford to employ the three remaining SDOs at their current rate of 480 hours pa plus a further six RDOs for 400 hours pa. We have already started the process of recruiting for the three Northern regions as a replacement for Stuart Igoe who left in February. The jobs were initially advertised at 240 hours pa but this will be increased to 400 hours immediately."

[quote from RDO Implementation Plan (circulated to EAOA committee), 19/4/04]

Hence the RDOs could be appointed immediately, but the central funding is essentially for schools work - the PESSCL programme is based on targets for numbers of formalised School/Club links. Robin Field attended an East Anglian committee meeting at which the role of our RDO was discussed:

"The PESSCL funding will pay for an RDO for 400 hours, or 50 days, per year, with this time committed to work with schools. There are several possible ways in which these hours can be increased for other development work - firstly it is hoped that further central funding will be obtained for an increase to 750 hours per year; secondly the RDO will assist clubs in application for local funds, from the Awards for All programme or county sports offices; and finally the RDO can be paid by clubs and the region for specific tasks, via BOF as their formal employer."

[quote from minutes of EAOA committee meeting, 14/5/04]

i.e. while the RDO can do Club-specific development work it must be paid for, either by Clubs themselves or by further government grants.

I hope this helps - if you're still unsure it's probably better to ask either Hilary Palmer or your RDO themself!

[Steler]

I was at a meeting recently which was attended by top members of BOF where nothing was mentioned about RDOs being employed to do schools work. The emphasis was put onto club development work, which is what is required if the sport is to survive. The meeting was fairly heated and it makes you wonder if the facts were slighly distorted, it would not be the first time.
Mark, if your facts are right and I am sure that they are(another person involved with ROs very recently said the same), I feel on a personal front that head office have tried to deceive the membership once to often. I will do some inquiries and if you are right then I will be pulling out of all committee work at the end of my office for this year. I have lost all trust in head office and feel that until there is new management that listens to what orienteers want my time can be better spent elsewhere.

As far as I am concerned the only light at the end of the tunnel is Nopesport. I wish it all the best and will help out in any capacity if asked.
The end of rantings from one pissed off Steler.

[PorkyFatBoy]

Thanks for a comprehensive reply MarkC - your expert status was because I know you attend regional meetings.

It's interesting to note that the apparent emphasis is on schools work - when I contacted our RDO about doing schools work (e.g. when the school contacts the club to do some O) - he said that someone would have to pay for it (i.e. not BOF) and that obviously his time is limited so he couldn't help all schools. So, back to me having a day off to do it instead.

Hilary Palmer said in an e-mail to me about the new RDO's role that "We hope that he will be able to help clubs to develop their work with schools, young people and their families." Seems it is to help the clubs develop their work with schools - which is obviously difficult if your club does not see any value in doing this (but that's another story )

[Mrs H.]

Our club does see the value of working with schools and has consistently done so - choosing the schools themselves where they have personal connection and can see definite club potential - but it has to be seen in the context of what we can realisitically provide. surely a good pace for the RDO's to start would be at the club end to take an audit of what the club can cope with before going into the schools - is that happening?

I also have grave personal doubts as to whether spending large amounts of time and energy on schools - say in the centre of Birmingham - is actually going to produce any quantity of club orienteers and i don't want to see our hard pressed volunters wasting their energy giving school children "an experience" unless there is something in it for the club just to make the RDO and SDO look good. I have the sinking feeling that this initiative - like the BOF membership proposals - is just another ploy to meet the agenda set by the sports bodies and actually has very little to do with helping clubs.

If what Mark says is true then it would seem that the goal posts moved when the funding shifted - I'm not sure this was made clear to the clubs at the time and i think that a number of clubs will now feel little ownership of the scheme/

[harry]

The model being provided to RDOs of school club links and programmes to attract juniors at all levels does work. If RDOs can get something similar to the Nottinghamshire model of youth games, sports training schemes and club feed in, club level activities and onto regional juniors squads, working in their region that would be a great start. It can't be that difficult, this was all set up by volunteers. 2 days a week isn't much to cover whole regions and make a difference but it is possible. A current start squad coach AND a JWOC medalist both came into orienteering on this route, along with countless others. The DOs are working with schools an clubs on many levels and asking clubs what they want and how they can help. Surely this is a good thing?

[Mrs H.]

The Nottingham model is certainly one to envy - but i know it benefits greatly from its geographic centralisation on the city with some council support as well (and some very well informed and energetic members ) - it would be interesting to know if our regional squad has had any contact from the RDO's. I guess we have to wait and see what our RDO has to say at the meeting - It is entirely possible that our RDO is concentrating her work in an entirely different part of the region - and I'm sure in due course we'll find out. Perhaps it is just the communication which is lacking.