M/W 21 turnout.

[Gross]

I'm pretty sure the Round Table has (or had) an age limit with people getting chucked out at 40.

That's coz in King Arthur's day all the Round Table members were well killed by the time they reached 40

[Gross]

It'll all be solved soon.... BOF are appointing another participation manager to promote orienteering. Soon they will appoint an officer in HO to teach the participation team about what orienteering is....................

[mharky]

"Youth" Hostels... good mention Eddie!

If Orienteering in Britain was a type of accomodation, it would be a Youth Hostel...

Full of old people who are slightly wierd. There are sometimes young people, normally kids who are to young to have independance from their parents, or big school groups where they have to go.

Struggling for membership old people sit around thinking about what could get young people in these hostels. Oblivious to the fact that the young people of today don't want to go to hostels, so perhaps we shouldn't waste time and money trying to get them to...


British cycling has a far worse membership problem than BOF. Not only is everyone over 40, but they are also all male.

[mappingmum]

British cycling has a far worse membership problem than BOF. Not only is everyone over 40, but they are also all male.

Really?

Nicole Cooke, Victoria Pendleton and Rebecca Romero aren't (a) male or (b) over 40.

[SeanC]

Mharky's analogy makes me laugh - probably because it's not completely inaccurate...

But we are not the YHA. Most people don't know anything about the sport so haven't got any preconceptions. At the local level we can market and brand the sport how we please.

My opinion... with the right (probably local) events, marketing, coaching and good publicity people of all ages will try the sport. Many will enjoy it enough to tolerate the dodgy fashion and wierd rules. Us oldies just need some help to work out how to do this.

[EddieH]

MHarky alludes to what most seem to find an unplatable fact. The age group we are talking about are generally not interested in doing anything outside of their busy lives,and certainly not anything that takes the time to develop that becoming good at orienteering would entail.

There is however lads of evidence that our sport appeals massively to an older age range. The youngsters are needed to maintain an elite competitive profile, but apart from that the sport can get on very well with relatively few.

Are we forgetting the need to bring O into the awareness of the vast number of adults whose children no longer need constant looking after, and whose work life has settled down?

All competitive sports have a problem with the 21 age range. Few sports have such a good appeal to the 45s+ Why do we have to talk about all older people as though they have no significance. The young that do it forget that they will become old, and the old that do it - well I'm not quite sure why - maybe they are bemoaning their lost youth.

[graeme]

There is however lads of evidence that our sport appeals massively to an older age range. The youngsters are needed to maintain an elite competitive profile, but apart from that the sport can get on very well with relatively few.

Is there?

When I started, the sport was appealing to 21s. At my first BOC I was ranked too low to get an entry on either of the two M21B courses The nature of the sport hasn't changed that much - we still run round forests looking for flags.

When the 21 age group crashed about ten years ago, I heard a lot about it being fine, as the sport appealed to those over 35 giving up racing/football/having young kids ... whatever. At that stage I was skeptical - what if the sport is actually appealing to people like those already in it.

Ten years on, and the 35/40 age groups are also crashing. The idea that the sport is
appealing to that group isn't sustainable any more. Maybe it is intrinsically massively appealing an older age, and has somehow become more appealing over the years to the 65+s. But the facts suggest that my suspicion that it appeals to people like those already in it is nearer the mark.

In which case we can't afford to go on neglecting people who aren't like us.

[RJ]

But the sport does appeal to other age groupings..... just look at the clubs who have growing memberships. They are gaining ALL age groupings!

The sport has changed dramatically in the last five or so years...... Electronic punching, overprinted maps, park racing, urban/city races, sprint and middle distances.... etc. The image is changing and the perception by the 'audience' out there is changing. It just takes time. Just keep going.... keep offering all these things to the 'world!!'

Pay attention to clubs who have expanding memberships..... follow their examples and get your club moving. An active club has no problem making itself attractive to its local audience. Expansion of the sport will not, and was never going to, happen overnight. It is a long term process..... it is happening.... and it will continue. Clubs who ignore the situation will grow old and disappear..... bye, bye!!! Other clubs will grow, prosper and produce a worthwhile future for the sport, and their members will enjoy themselves along the way.

[SeanC]

Which clubs have expanding memberships? I am under the impression that these statistics aren't published by BOF (though the SE statistics are in the SEOA minutes).

[EddieH]

Unusually I agree much more with Roger than with Graeme.

I see NO Neveidence that the sport is in decline in this part of the world. Both on Deeside and in Moray participation is well up, and we are attracting new members (in all ages as RJ says).

Inovation is great and is helping - imposed innovation I'm not so sure about

[RJ]

Which clubs have expanding memberships? .........

There are FIVE clubs in NWOA who have shown a growth this last year. The star has to be BARRO..... a newly created club with a very strong junior membership...... a club that has just recently achieved Club Mark accreditation.

As usual NWOA leads the way..... try and keep up!!!!!

[NeilC]

There's not always a good correlation though between membership and participation. My own club has seen membership numbers static or declining slightly in recent years whereas participation has been increasing. I'd prefer it that way than a large inactive membership.

Participation figures for 2007 were published by BOF
http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/live/news/images/Levy%20Club%20impact.xls

I presume that the junior figures in this table include schools leagues or the like

[Paul Frost]

EckO has seen a big growth in participation in the last 18 months.
Most of them over 35 and evenly split male & female, possibly more female.
We have families and a number of current and ex mountain marathon/adventure racers.

A couple of the mountain marathon runners said they like orienteering because they don't need to go out training several days a week, they can just turn up and run. They can be competitive without it taking over their lives.

It would be interesting to see the statistics of how many members drop off the old end of the scale and what ages the new members are. I wonder if we don't have a problem with an ever increasing average age, but a steady number in the 35-65 group.
I'm sure the average age has gone up, but I suspect the quantity of fit 50 year olds in the general population has also gone up. So they are looking for something to do and orienteering appeals to them.

I also think that older people can compete in a race without any chance of winning, just taking part is enough. But when you are younger you want/need to be a winner, so you don't enter things you can't do well in.

[Scott]

Some quick membership graphs for the two regions for which I could find a meaningful amount of data. (Right-click and 'View Image' if they're appearing with silly scrolly bars.)

SWOA 2000-2008

SWOA Membership Trends 2000-2008

swoa.jpg (29.9 KiB) Viewed 4851 times

WOA 1998-2007

WOA Membership Trends 1998-2007

woa.jpg (30.34 KiB) Viewed 4847 times

Of course, membership trends are also a bit hard to read at the moment because of the spike in 2007 after the introduction of the £2 BOF member discount.

[graeme]

There are FIVE clubs in NWOA who have shown a growth this last year.
As usual NWOA leads the way..... try and keep up!!!!!

Congratulations

So to check (some of) what you're doing right, I looked at your website, for the CumbriaGalloppen.

I assume you have some good reason for not even listing age classes there? Why do you think this hasn't had the disastrous effects predicted by others in this thread?