Why is O in Portugal thriving?

[EddieH]

Just back from Portugal. Orienteering is growing massively there from a very small base a few years ago. Why?

A few reasons stand out why people would NOT wih to continue.

1 There seem to be no courses below TD4 (light green) standard.

2 Every member of the club seems to help ALL day. At POM that meant 4 days in perishing temperatures with start lists up to 6.5 hours including setting up the arenas, and then on 2 days driving an hour to a town to set up a night race!! They were exhausted.

3 Family members are NOT allocated similar start times - 6.5 hours apart happened at POM.

4 Car parking (at least at POM) was not friendly with long walks in freezing weather, and no information provided as to which way to go.

So why do they do this and keep on coming, particularly the youger age groups that Northern Europe is foinding hard to keep?

I think it is that everything seems to be very club based and the weekends are great social events. Many clubs appear to own their own buses, although there are still hundreds of cars.

All multi day organisers are required to provide free floor space for whoever wants it. This was not only cheap but I found the atmosphere great fun, dozens of plug adaptors with power cables going everywhere to computers, heaters and cookers etc (In the UK??) Plenty of play but no drunken disturbances in the night. Could we do it in the UK? I doubt H&S would allow it - would people want it? - I guess yes loads would.

Whatever it is Portugal has something going for it that makes so many young men and women wish to keep going.

[SeanC]

If you follow this logic, this implies trimming the number of single day regional events and replacing with more multi-day events with socials on a saturday night. I've always thought that this sort of weekend would appeal to the 20-40 age group, particularly outdoor types stuck in London during the week.

[Gross]

Similar situation exists in Lietuva... lots of kids, school floor accommodation, parties etc etc.

Was amazed at Portugal when I first went to the Mafra O Meet (now POM) in 1994... lots of those kids will be young seniors now...

[Kitch]

Sounds to me like they're simply not spoilt.

Portugal
Question - did we have a good time ?
Answer - Yes

UK
Question - Was the event absolutely perfect in every way ?
Answer -
well, I'd have thought that M50 should have been about 185 metres longer and with 25 metres less climb and a few less re-entrants on W40 would have been better and couldn't the portaloos have faced east so that the wind didn't catch the doors so - I nearly got my arm hurt - then what would the welfare officer have to say and how would we explain it all to UK Sport and keep our funding we'd better have a committee.

[johnloguk]

Nice one Kitch

I suspect if an "outsider" was to visit the Scottish 6-Days, JK, SinS or similar they would go away with a positive impression. Lots of people have great fun, loads of other people putting in huge effort to ensure that fun etc. I sometimes wonder if this need to unpick every detail, and cross check everything against guidelines that few people can even agree on, is another odd British condition? I've been guilty of it myself so I'm talking from experience

[Axel]

Just reading through the minutes of the last 2 BO meetings and all they seem to be worried about is have they got everything PC and perhaps that whats wrong with everything about our fair land these days. You go abroad and join our european neighbours, are they worried about PC, no in most cases they jobby (I didn't write that), shave, shower and sleep together. Don't worry to much about H&S, have fun, do not have lengthy diversatity plans and do not have an over cautious child protection agenda thats stifling youngsters needs to play sport, keep fit and enjoy life.

In fact I'm not sure if anything was worth reading in the minutes if you were just a plain run of the mill orienteer. Because there was nothing in them to enhance our orieteering challenges. Nothing to suggest we would ever get an age group middle or sprint distance championships for the masses, however our elite friends are more than well catered for.

Oh yes I did see the bit about the city sprint challenge series but again an Elite Class and an Open class but nothing else. Have our masters all forgot that it is the 45 and upwards that are maintaining our sport. We are the paying membership majority and are the people that are sustaining and keeping orienteering afloat.

[Toni]

I think that if you actually went and looked at the minutes of meetings for other European Orienteering Federations you would find that they are governed by many of the child protection laws that UKSport is governed by.

Aside from that point - I was at the development committee as a councilor (but not at management so I can't comment) and the agenda was not focused on things being PC - if it was I would have been bored out of my mind and never going again!

[SeanC]

Thinking about EddieH's original post, lets assume that O in Portugal is thriving because its more sociable, what could be done here?

The local events I stick to are always very sociable events because they are small enough and local enough for everybody to know each other. For those like Eddie who wish to travel, there is not much chance of organisers of your average regional or perhaps national event putting on accommodation and entertainment. They have too much else to do and it could become increasingly hard to find organisers of large events in the years to come without giving them more responsibility.

But there is something easy that could be done: Those that do like to travel (and in my club its a very small number) could organise themselves into informal internet based groups using mailing lists (Google or Yahoo groups etc - they're free). All thats then needed is for someone in the group to organise the accommodation and/or entertainment for a particular two day event. Each member of the group takes turns to "organise" a weekend. The group doesnt even have to meet or have a website. I guess this is passing the buck back to you Eddie

If a group wanted to stay in the UK, more multiday events arent needed. There seem to be many reasonable quality saturday local events that could be combined wiht a sunday regional event. Though Portugal does sound more exciting