Event Safety, BOF Training

[mharky]

British Orienteering have recently informed us that event organisers and controllers will be required to undergo training in Event Safety. The first workshop for this will be held on Tuesday 11th January 2011

???

[madmike]

I suspect insurance requirements/litigation prevention strike again

mind you training is a very good idea although a licence scheme for organisers, like the existing one for coaches, might be counter-productive gusting terminal for the sport.

What choices we seem have in this country right wing loonies selling off our forests or left wing nanny state incompetents - I may go and live abroad for a while

[andypat]

Its starting to seem more and more like a job to do this type of thing and less like a hobby!
I wonder how much longer before we see professional Orienteering event organisers offering to do this for clubs?

[Sunlit Forres]

This was discussed earlier this year in the thread called "Why is it the organiser's job to do the risk assessments?". From some BOF minutes sometime around July....

"MH noted that British Orienteering were to be left with no choice but to demand
training of those volunteers holding responsibility at every level of activity or event e.g.
coach, controller, organiser etc… Insurance requirements were making it a necessity
for official training of volunteers taking responsibility."

It appears that insurance companies run the sport, not orienteers.

I'm organising an event in Feb and won't have time do do any safety traning before then. Will the event have to be cancelled?

[mharky]

BOF intend to make these online training courses in the future, a very good move

[EddieH]

I understand that I have already done my controller training. This despite the fact that I made no pretense at my total disdain for the whole idea at the event.

[SeanC]

I hope the online course is ready asap as finding a suitable real life course could be a big roadblock to development, as those with busy lives could find it hard to make particular dates, as is often the case with coaching courses. Also it will obviously deter some new organisers for local events who are looking for a low effort/committment/stress event as their first event which would be serious for club development.

However, assuming the online course is ready, it might not be such a disaster. The organiser from the insurance companies viewpoint, I assume just has to be responsible for safety? He or she can delegate all the work. So for local events, qualified "organisers" could work with an assistant organiser. The latter could do most of the organisation, eg sorting out equipment, sorting out which helper does what and any other tasks that the assistant organiser hasn't delegated further. The qualified organiser takes responsibility for safety which (and I haven't been on this course so I am speculating) means checking on road crossings, decisions on whether to make competitors wear cagolues etc etc. In other words the qualified organiser is doing a similar job to a controller or perhaps a series co-ordinator, and might happily organise several local events per year. The assistant organiser would do much the same job as organisers do now, but with the security that there is backup for safety matters. This might even be a good thing if it encourages more new people to be organisers, I mean assistant organisers, as I would imagine being responsible for safety decisions is a big deterrent for many people.

Can anyone see a problem with this approach?

[seabird]

I am dreading the final detail of this further "nannying" development.

It was disheartening/amusing (not sure which) returning last Sunday from my run in Ecclesall Woods, where you are never more than a few metres from the nearest dogwalker, to see the stricture "No whistle No run".

Thank goodness, as at so many races, that there was no-one checking. Never crossed my mind for a minute to take a whistle with me.

In 23 years of orienteering I've never heard one blown, although I've come across plenty of people who have been injured and required help - and received it in timely fashion.

I have been trying to collect risk assessments from all my club's near weekly small events for a couple of years. Despite a lot of chivvying - few have ever been returned by organisers or controllers. I doubt very much that they are done. But essentially I know they are resented by organisers. The non-existent list of untoward happenings is indicative that a commonsense approach to risk, rather than form filling, works.

I think this insistence of the insurers can only have two possible impacts -
their requirenments will continue being ignored,
or else there will be the removal of an entire programme of Level D events - the mainstay of most clubs.

The bureaucracy that now goes with the sport is becoming monstrous. I return from work and put in time every day on orienteering business; before moving to planning, controlling, practical organising, mapping; the real business of the sport. Enough is enough.

[EddieH]

The whistle thing is a perfect example of covering your arse for beaurocratic reasons
The fact is that the plastic whistles most use are pathetically weak and with even a little wind in the trees carries an incredibly small distance - a tiny fraction of a shout.

I have 2 definite examples of this where a person relying on his useless whistle failed to take other measures and thus extricate themselves.

The first was when I took school kids to a POC. One boy got mislaid and decided to sit tight and whistle. He was in fact less than 50m from a track I checked out, but beyond audio reach. Eventually he gave up the whstle and walked out - I found him on a path.

The second was at a moorland badge event. The control collector noticed a guy not moving 100m away and carried on collecting controls. Coming back he rfealised the guy had not moved so went to investigate. Only when very close did he hear the whistle that the guy had been blowing all the time.

There was also a controllers' course at Matlock where 2 teams were formed to search a pretty small area to find a "lost" competitor who was regularly blowing his whistle. From my memory it took about 1 and a half hours for the first team to find him.

On a more comical note at a British Champs in the Lakes on a beautiful day, the mountain rescue did hear a regular whistle. They pushed through the forest with their stretcher and arrived at the start

[distracted]

It's frustrating that the requirements of the insurers are increasing bureaucracy, but I'm not sure how much we can do about that. I'd guess that the premium would increase greatly otherwise, and people would be moaning that their membership fees etc were being increased - lose/lose situation...

So for all those volunteers out there - it would be good to hear what you think BOF should be doing centrally to help all of you? Do people want more support/training, any resources that could be provided, anything else to reduce the load/make things easier?

[denzil53]

Speaking from my own experience after many years of orienteering, I've needed assistance only three times. Once, when I inexplicably head-butted a tree. A kindly dog-walker found a hankie to stem the aggressive flow of blood. I found my own (dazed) way back to the finish, to find there was no first aid provision. I patched myself up, and drove to hospital on the way home. I still have the hankie. And a scar.

On the second occasion I twisted my ankle in a rabbit hole at the last control, within sight of the finish. Most competitors rushed past without a glance, hellbent on the finish line and their precious ranking points. I was spotted by the official team at the finish and helped into a car, and from there down to the car park. My companions that day took me to hospital. My wife was not impressed to open the front door to a sheepish man on crutches.

The third was another sprained ankle (another sprain, another ankle) in the depths of the forest. A fellow orienteer stopped, despite my protestations (it was a major event), and carried/assisted me to a forest road, from where I was stretchered to an ambulance, happy gas administered, and thence, in sweaty and muddy ignominy, to hospital. My profuse and embarrassed apologies were met with, "Don't worry sir. We see a lot worse than this." I never did manage to thank my unknown samaritan.


My point though, is that never once, despite extreme provocation, have I had the thought of dragging my plastic whistle out and summoning assistance with it. We orienteers pride ourselves on our qualities of independence and self-reliance. Whatever may happen to us, surely one thing orienteering teaches us is how to cope with trying circumstances.

[graeme]

Can anyone see a problem with this approach?

Apart from the obvious one of increasing the required organising staff by 33% per event and forgetting that volunteers only volunteer for what they want to do?

Boxticking "qualifications" serve only to give others a stick to beat us with. Supposing your local paper was ill-disposed towards orienteering , some whistleless W16s having a bad run at a L4 night event and bailing out on a safety bearing to a road and being collected in a car having used their mobile to call the organiser might be reported thus...

"Three children were lost in the woods alone overnight. The children were not carrying the required safety equipment and no check was made to ensure that they were before they were sent unaccompanied into the dark. No trained official had verified the suitability of the courses as normally required for such events, and the governing body's child protection policy and policy on child safety were totally ignored by the untrained organiser at the event who had failed to obtain the necessary qualification"

(If you don't think it could happen, try reading the reports from the 2008 OMM)

[SeanC]

I'm not trying to defend the insurers, nor am I saying I welcome the change, but just trying to figure out an approach that will make the best of the situation we are apparently soon to be in. Our local events do have a controller * who just checks safety as per recent BOF advice. Having a "safety organiser" and separate "other stuff organiser" doesn't seem a million miles away from this, so less of an upheaval than expecting novice organisers to volunteer for a 3 hour training course to organise an event which we try and sell as low key, low stress and < 3 hours work . Just wondering if it would be allowed?

* or coach, as coaches are allowed to do this job apparently

[seabird]

The just received email from Hilary Palmer says
potential attendees (at event safety training courses) who are likely to be your clubs' Level B and C event organisers controllers including those who will mentor Level D event organisers and sign them off as having received safety guidance in the organisation of informal events.

So we might , at least, be able to spare the humble Level D organiser too much angst.

Possibly just make sure they have a copy of your clubs Level D safety guidelines.

[ryeland of doom]

Those whistles - dead quiet.

They seem to have but one purpose - appeasing the Guardian of the Maps who can be found at the start of many WMOA events.

I have so far only needed assistance once, being carried off (up) the Lickey Hills, doubt I used a whistle then. It still hurts mind.

The CYA culture though is a real threat to the sport - we are a family sport with an almost unique all ages appeal. This sort of nonsense targets children, and I fear for their future participation in orienteering.