BUCS 2009

[Tessa]

First I want to say congrats to all those who did well at BUSA. I would say that BUSA for us at Birmingham was all about the results, even though we barely had a complete team. With our non-complete team, our aim was to beat as many Warwick people in as many races and hopefully overall as possible. It was great fun, they had no girls, we had no boys, so we had our own little battle. (It was even better because we could have this battle at local races as well). This competitive tactic certainly got a few members very keen and developed a good team spirit! It also allowed a small club to be able to make more friends with a neighbouring uni club.

Its not to take anything away from Edinburgh who do so well on a regular basis (and congratulations to them again this year) or Oxford who have improved so much over the last few years. I think the results from both those unis show not only great performances but great organisation behind the scenes.

Going onto recruitment, we tried hard in Brum. But its not easy. Our particuar issues were competing against other sports, and being a sporty uni this was not easy. As sport was almost treated proffessionally in cases, the membership fees were set at a stupidly high rate and it took a lot of negotiating to prevent newcomers paying 50 pounds to even start the sport. Every uni will have their own problems to face. But it took a huge amount of work both before the competitions and at the races, especially with a small membership base to start with.

Lastly, just want to say why I think brum uni has not grown since we had a bit of a boom year in 2007/2008. 5 key members who did nearly all the voluntary work in the last academic year all left summer 2008 this included 1 member who had a car and 1 member who was the main link between HOC and BUOC and the Birmingham Sports Athletic Union.

Basically this has left 3 members. I think they are still doing a great job, they got to BUSA this year, they have had 3-4 new people try orienteering this year, but its not easy.

The club would have continued much better if we had handed over more responsibilties before we left. The problem was, the 3 members left were all first years (1 a completely new recruit to orienteering) and so it was hard to do that straight away.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is every uni is different in what the problems are. But competition and results are what motivates people, even if its not top of the results list. The good thing about BUSA is that relative newcomers compete on the A B and C courses and so there can be lots of individual competitions rather than just the "big guys" at the top of the lists.

[Tessa]

oh and harry - your norwegian is definetely more impressive than you say. But i never noticed your noglish - probably speak it myself. probably have spoken dodgy english for most of my life. And as for my accent, who knows what I sound like, but if it distracts people from the huge number of mistakes i make, ill keep it going!

[lakesorunner]

Sorry to be a bit of a prude, but the last post by Mrs H is quite unacceptable on ANY type of forum. I personally have no opinion of university orienteering one way or the other, but comments like this are just downright offensive, and not particularly eloquent either. It would be good for the moderator to remove such comments ASAP (and then you can delete this reply also...)

[Mrs H]

Now everyone's having a look to see what I said that was so shocking

[Laura]

Junior orienteers flock to Sheffield or Edinburgh because it is EASY to do so. They will know people there already, or be going there with current friends. It is easier to motivate yourself to train, because your friends are doing the sessions too, and there is enough critical mass of people that you can get to a fair few events.

One of the best decisions I made was to go to Sheffield for exactly these reasons. I never lived with orienteers whilst studying (not that living with them is a bad thing anyway) had as much fun as I would've had at any other uni probably with the added bonus of having people to train with. Its the best of both world's.. why settle for less? looking back my decision was based mainly on orienteering and have never regretted it.. the only other place I really considered was Edinburgh for exactly the same reasons

I would encourage people who are keen on orienteering to go to one of these unis (sheffield ) as they offer the whole package.

[Copepod]

I hadn't discovered orienteering during my first degree at Newcastle University, and did only a few races after graduating, then did my MSc at Imperial College, London, with research in Belfast, so not much chance then, either. However, I returned to work for a year at Newcastle University and thoroughly enjoyed the orienteering with NN and NATO in such good areas (I had chosen Newcastle first time around for proximity to mountains and sea, as well as the course I wanted to study) - and made contact with uni club to offer lifts when possible. I have also given lifts to various Cambridge Uni orienteers. So, I'd suggest selecting your ideal university, then make friends with local non-uni orienteers, who are more likely to have cars and be able to offer lifts.

[Patrick]

Clubs that I remember turning up in particularly large or vocal numbers were Manchester, Leeds, Wales, Southampton and ULOC ...

In my eight(!) years as a student, BUSA was organised by the following Unis (possibly in collaboration with others - apologies for any omissions):
1989: St Andrews
1990: Southampton
1991: Sheffield
1992: Manchester/Liverpool
1993: Durham
1994: Cardiff
1995: Lancaster
1996: Edinburgh

More than half of these have disappeared. Aside from all the other issues, at the moment BUSA seems to rotate around about five clubs, which isn't at all healthy.

The biggest problem now is the lack of juniors in orienteering. There used to be sufficient juniors going to university to help maintain clubs at most universities and recruit newcomers. In Scotland there used to be active clubs at Glasgow, Strathclyde, Herriot Watt, St Andrews, Dundee and Aberdeen.

As far as I can tell, Scottish juniors who are keen to get on in orienteering go to Edinburgh, while those who aren't go elsewhere and give up. Glasgow has had three ScotJOS members arrive in the last 18 months, none of whom orienteer regularly any more. As Harry has pointed out, Glasgow has plenty of positives for orienteers (hell, we were winning BUSA back in my day), but that only helps if there are interested students. I agreed a couple of years ago to be the local contact person for students at any of the West of Scotland Unis who wanted to develop orienteering in their institution. Sadly, so far this has entailed no effort whatsoever on my part. Still, maybe having a new superstar postgrad will encourage people...

Cheers,

Patrick

[Big Jon]

Glasgow puts on very very few orienteering events in quality areas (mind you Edinburgh puts on even fewer). If Clyde got off their a**es and organised a frequent regular series of local events they might even attract a few students along.

[Calum]

I chose Glasgow with the intention of keeping orienteering.

Being in Glasgow rather than Edinburgh has had no influence on the orienteering I've done. I have stopped only due to a long-standing injury, I would be orienteering if I could, among other things. Another of the three has probably done more orienteering while studying in Glasgow than while studying in Edinburgh and just competed in BUCS.

Glasgow is awesome for Orienteering, lots of local maps and easy access to others. The local clubs have been immensely helpful when asked for info or help.

The Uni is good, the city is great, the running club is amazing(large interest in hill running aswell as road and XC). I'm sure there are other Uni's like it where it would be just as easy to keep orienteeing.

I have no doubt that when I start again I will have no major troubles.

If I was still orienteering I would still choose Glasgow.

c

[graeme]

... very very few orienteering events in quality areas (mind you Edinburgh puts on even fewer).

Pretty much every quarter-decent area INT/ESOC/EUOC area near Edinburgh gets used at least every two years, most annually. If your definition of quality excludes all our local areas - which is reasonable enough compared to Deeside - then it's an empty criticism.

Anyway, better get off to plan tomorrow's quality event

Graeme

[Patrick]

Calum, thanks for your positive response. I wasn't trying to have a go at anyone, and I hope you're back running as soon as possible.

If Clyde got off their a**es and organised a frequent regular series of local events they might even attract a few students along.

We do run a series of local events. Not as frequent as they could be, perhaps, but we have neither the terrain nor the manpower available to some other clubs. As Graeme points out, we have no control over the quality of our local areas so it seems pointless to criticise us for it.

Anyway, once I'm done planning our next (high quality!) event I can finish mapping the Glasgow Uni campus, and maybe make a start on the Strathclyde Uni one.

Cheers,

Patrick

[Big Jon]

"Pretty much every quarter-decent area INT/ESOC/EUOC area near Edinburgh gets used at least every two years, most annually"
most of our areas are used 2-3 times each year......

[Snail]

Its the best of both world's.. why settle for less? ... I would encourage people who are keen on orienteering to go to [Sheffield or Edinburgh] as they offer the whole package.

But for most people the academic course, entry requirements, career prospects, etc should come first. If after taking those into account Sheffield & Edinburgh are still on your list then by all means apply there because of the added bonus of the orienteering

[Kitch]

....but on no account are you to enjoy yourselves.


remember, that one day you will be middle aged, so whilst at university you might as well get some practise in and spend your time worrying about middle aged concerns, such as recruitment, retention and you should probably all be striving for Clubmark too.
Oh and while you are listening (!!!)
have you sorted out a pension yet ?

[RJ]

The most important thing to think about would be where YOUR children are going to go to Uni..... you don't want them making that decision do you?!