University orienteering

[Scott]

I think it's probably best to start a new thread about the general "barriers" facing university orienteers/orienteering clubs and what can be done to address them, rather than taking over Mark L's Plymouth thread.

No whinging allowed.

I am generally concerned about the level of support being given to this demographic group.

We had a BOF University Development Officer for a very short time which I would consider a pretty essential post - and then we didn't. (and yes I have already talked to Ed about this whom I'm hopeful is going to do something about filling the hole).

I have felt for some time that the M/W20s are being actively marginalised within the sport, as of this year they no longer count for the YBT and what with the down grading of the FCC and the cutting back of various national junior tours, unless they are in the squad there appears to be fewer rather than more opportunities for them to encouraged be within the sport.

Perhaps some formal support of training opportunities like this might be a way of redressing the balance, as Spookster says perhaps from local club level, but perhaps also regional and BOF level as well.

[andy]

I think the big university clubs (looking at EUOC here) get a lot of help support, both from local clubs in the form of maps for events/training and in funding. EUOC have been winning lots of awards lately and this will have been doing wonders for their funding, they also help themselves considerably by organising their own weekend of events and it's one of the best weekends of the year. Because of all the excellent athletes they have they do get a lot of support in the coaching department and it's easy for the more experienced to coach the newcomers (something EUOC seem to be getting better at, they seem a very newcomer welcoming club - all the freshers were treated to a free weekend on EUOC last weekend...)

It's at the other end of the scale that it's hard. Our event in St Andrews last weekend highlighted this as the event coincided with their sports fair and started and finished among throngs of students performing various sporting activity. We had a number of students ask us if they could join, they'd orienteered before and would probably be interested in a club but a club would need a group of highly motivated individuals to get it started. The club there died out when I left in 2004 and I know of a few orienteers who've studied there but no club has been able to easily surface.

I definitely think a BOF organised student development person would do wonders, as long as they don't focus on the top few clubs. There are a number of clubs out there who have been doing great things and with that little bit of support/guidance they could do much better

[Scott]

Okay, some of the basic issues. Apologies that this ending up being so long...

Cost of events and equipment
Actually, not such of a problem. Since students are given junior entry rates, orienteering is a cheap sport for students to compete in - I can enter one of the UK's top events for about the same price as splashing around in the University swimming pool for half an hour. The only piece of specialist equipment you really need is a compass, and if you're joining a university club with a few established orienteers in it then someone will probably be able to lend you one.

Transport
More of an issue - getting to events can be both difficult and expensive. Very few students, particularly undergrads, have access to their own car; and very, very few orienteering events are public-transport friendly. There is the option of cadging lifts with local orienteers, but most 18-year-olds aren''t going to be too keen on spending their Sunday's getting a lift from some bearded M55 stranger with scary lycra. Much more fun to be in a car or minibus with your mates, but the cost of hiring a vehicle from the Student Union varies wildly between institutions - at some it's free, which is brilliant, while at others it costs over £100 a day (plus petrol) - you need a pretty big group to make that viable. And most places require you to find someone over 21 to drive it, which is not always easy for a club of undergrads. Private hire is normally even more expensive, and with more stringent age requirements.

SU affiliation
Of course, you can only hire a vehicle from the SU if you manage to get your club affiliated to them (or the Athletics Union) in the first place. Most universities have a minimum membership number for any "recognised clubs" - twenty students seems to be the standard level, which is a pretty big ask for a minority sport, and more so if they have to pay to join the Athletics Union first (£80 per person at my august institution ). Experience suggests that Unions aren't always massively enthusiastic about supporting a sport that won't make much use of any of their expensive sports facilities. Of course, there's always the possibility of setting up a BOF-affiliated "Student Orienteering Club" which has no affiliation with the university...

Finance
Apparently how much financial help you get from your SU also varies between institutions. Oxford get a yearly grant from their Sports Federation that is very helpful for subsidising minibus costs. It sounds like ShUOC, despite being a significantly larger club, get nothing from theirs, and I know this is also the case at some other places. Of course university clubs can try to raise some funds by putting on their own events, but that requires a fair bit of manpower and equipment that probably won't be available without significant help from the local open club. One possibility is for local clubs to "give" the students one of their Level C events to organise each year, and let them keep the profits, although that probably won't amount to that much.

Finding new members
A major difficulty. Freshers are generally bombarded with a choice of hundreds of clubs to join, and it is never going to be easy to convince them that yours is the best. Regular weekly training, decent socials, and offering people the chance to do some sort of orienteering each weekend all help, as do putting on an attractive Freshers' Fair stall, having an up-to-date website, and making good use of your maillist (without bombarding people).

Critical mass
In my short time in the sport I can think of two once-sizeable student orienteering clubs that now seem to be in terminal decline, and two others which have vanished completely. Often this is tied to one or two key, very enthusiastic orienteers leaving the university, and the clubs appearing to run out of momentum without them.

So, that's mostly not very helpful of me, but hopefully it will start a bit of discussion...

[mharky]

Ed Nicholas has already started work on trying to get help people at universities which don't have existing clubs. I'm sure he'll be doing some great work in his role as Development Manager.

[Scott]

Indeed. The following is from the report that Ed submitted to the Development Committee meeting on Saturday; Ed wasn't there himself so I can't give any further details.

The HE programme has continued to be developed. The programme is not intending to employ another officer in the short term with the resource being used directly to support projects. A meeting has been held with BUCS and Sport England and twenty one institutions have been identified that we wish to work with over the next three years. Five have been identified to work with in this first year and we (British Orienteering, BUCS and Sport England) are starting the process of working directly with individuals in the institutions and also the permanent sport staffing that exist in the Universities.

[SeanC]

Students Orienteering Club sounds like a good idea - or even broken down into regions (eg a Yorkshire Students Orienteering Club with a core of SHUOC + other uni orienteers meeting up at training weekends and events?)

I think most clubs would be open to lending out areas and also providing some expert help where needed (eg land permissions), but this often needs arranging a long time in advance, something a uni development officer could help with definately.

Finding new members is a major challenge for orienteering in general, not just for universities . Being a minority sport in an increasingly crowded market place. I think orienteers need to invent new ways of promoting the sport that utilises it's unique selling points.... and probably spend more time promoting the sport than in the past.

An interesting example .... One of our members who works at London School of Economics is putting on an event loosely based on orienteering with the aim of familiarising freshers with the various buildings on the campus (I guess it's expensive for staff to spend half their day directing bemused looking freshers to lecture theatre A or concorse B). She'll be giving out fliers for SLOW and DFOK orienteering events too. This idea came from LSE BTW.

[Red Adder]

Perhaps we are being a bit over enthusiastic to talk about University Clubs and should consider a different model. How about trying for a slightly less ambitious project of trying to set up O Groups at universities which then affiliate with the nearest club. Do it as a group rather than individuals to give a sense of identity, security and belonging. The O group then does not have all the expenses and organisational rigmarole but do have access to term-time events and training which they might otherwise not have. If strong enough the group may organise some of their own activities, using club equipment (eg a Wednesday afternoon league in local parks similar to the clubs' Summer Series).

All that might be expected of the group is a bit of organisation of its members to identify those wishing to go to various events and of publicity within the university. In return the club would have more members who may also help at the odd event as well. It helps the students orienteer (at low cost -I'm sure most larger clubs have people going to nearby events who would be prepared to take a couple of students for nothing - they would be going anyway), and mixing with other age groups probably wouldn't do students any harm.

It will mean a bit of organisation within the club and possibly some CRB checks and BOF might need encouragement to relax some eligibility rules but potentially we have a win-win situation at virtually no additional cost.