paid 'jobs for the boys' in Orienteering

[MarkC]

I wouldn't mind paying £2 for a decent event, but this was a wee C5 on a country park and not nearly as enjoyable as the two CC's i had at the weekend which cost me a grand total of £3 for two days racing in quality terrain.

I think you need to look at it the other way round, and enjoy being able to run in quality terrain for just £1.50 From some parts of the country it costs much more than that just to get to some!

[MarkC]

we at chasers are nice enough not to require proof of membership at everying we do, so we dont charge people for training who are not members, we are pleased at the fact that some new faces are there and try to get them to become part of the club without asking them to hand over money.... that will come with time ....

Actually I was thinking of members of other clubs, rather than potential recruits to yours. I've recently begun to join in CROC's training runs, which they've kindly invited me to do without paying, but I wouldn't expect to get a free run at their evening events.

I'm sure your welcoming attitude will do you good in the long run though!

[Stodgetta]

Steler,

Does last years JIRC's not count for commentary experience? Stodge has known Chris for getting on for 20 years, too...
As for multi-day events, have a look at http://www.challengerworld.com/event_story.asp?o=30
Stodge does the SI for this event (9-10 events over 4 days) and others professionally for SportIdent, and has done for the last 3 years.
As for numbers, Chasers badge events get 1500 over a 2 hour spread, no different to 3000 over a 4 hour spread in terms of IT.

But let's not get personal about it, it's the principal of paying someone when there's someone willing and capable of doing this job and others for free. It all comes out of our entry fees, which are going up and putting people off the sport. This is not a personal vendetta.

[Guest]

Just a question. GG has kindly posted the timetable for WOC 2005. As it is on all week and I believe a fair number of Volunteers work will this be professionally manned. Can't see I'd want to battle with the M25 to volunteer to man a crossing or operate a clothing dump or park cars. Also where is the Projected JBOC supposed to fit in the programme. Not on the rest day I presume as Kids are at school!

[Steler]

I was certainly not trying to put down stodge and I appologise if it sounded that way. I was not aware of what he had done outside of orienteering. I had been told that the only person in the sport with the experience of an event the size of the JK to include relays and commentary was mike napier. I had heard from a member of the committee that they wanted to play the safe option. Maybe they didn't know of stodges experience.
We are very fortunate to have so many willing helpers but unfortunately their numbers are falling so I do think that we have got to look at the professional aproach be it now or in the very near future

[badger]

It's quite interesting that one of the reasons why Mr Napier is used is because he has lots of 'experience' at multi day events. How exactly does anyone else gain any 'experience' in these major events without actually being involved? (Perhaps or BOF could purchase a multi day event sportident simulator to train any potential 'experts' in the field to Mr Napiers obviously unparralled standard).

[awk]

where is the Projected JBOC supposed to fit in the programme.

I think it's intended for the first weekend along with the Long Distance qualifiers.

[awk]

the JK 2005 committee made the decission, he's not on it.

Interesting the amount of flak flying about this decision, given that this committee are all volunteers, giving up a huge amount of time......

[ic]

the situation whereby only one person is perceived to be capable of handling the electronics/computers crucial to any large orienteering event in the country is dangerous insofar as it leads to a monopoly which we all know is bad for the obvious and straightforward reasons. in addition, it seems to be a ludicrous situation given the huge number of IT-savvy people within the sport.

[Guest]

G and Stodgetta. Absolutely right.
Been to numerous WCH events, results are always handled efficiently. By the time I get home results are ready and waiting on their web site (along with splits). Cannot understand why Stodge was not given the opportunity to at least put his case and his expertise to the committee prior to them making a decision. Got no problem with Mike Napier but £3K against a free results service and someone else to break the monopoly has surely got to be worth considering. Too late now for the JK I suspect but next time???

[mharky]

is that how much he charges??? king'el
was napier doing results for 0007?

[brooner]

i don't really know how to price a results service for orienteering and how much these things cost but for 3k i'd quite like a results service with full internet coverage as we saw at things like woc03, tiomila, jwoc03 etc...

[FatBoy]

I've been in IT for 9 years professionally, virtually all as a freelance programmer. My credentials for doing the software wouldn't be an issue if I decided to go in to competition with Mike, and as for experience running the IT at JK is small fry compared to some of the stuff I've done in the past.

Why don't go into competition then? Because I volunteer for events, and indeed have written various bits of software over the years for free. OK we all have to make a living and charging for a polished bit of software is one thing but £1k a day is not a consultancy rate we can afford!

[Lil' God'rs]

BOF 'News' website: they've put up the scores from the SHI - can't remember how many weeks ago that was

[graeme]

i'd quite like a results service with full internet coverage as we saw at things like tiomila etc...

I'm still waiting for my TioMila result to appear; or a reply from them to my query

Graeme