British Orienteering Governance Review

[Scott]

And actually, now that BOF have the results from most events including the BOF numbers of those who were there, and a postcode district (at least) for every event, there's the potential for an interesting study of how far people in different parts of the country are prepared to travel to go to different types of event. Although it would be an awful lot of work.

[SeanC]

Could you do a Ph.D on this? Geography? Sports Science? That used to be a cheap way to fund a lot of research.

[Paul Frost]

I didn't know Sport England funding can now be used across the entire UK? What is this marketing you talk of? What is this "funding" that now comes with strings? And how do you know what all new members want from the sport? - if we knew this we'd be overrun with newcomers pretty quickly!

The first section of the newcomer's guide on the BO website is Community Orienteering. All talk I have heard out of BO board and staff is about promoting community O, thats marketing.

I'm talking about development funding from British Orienteering to clubs not Sport England.

If your club does not offer community O it appears that it will struggle to get development funding from British Orienteering (anecdotal).

I don't know what NEW members want from orienteering, but I think I have a reasonable idea what existing members want. I personally think that existing members needs/wants should be met before those who don't currently orienteer. Then I would look at how to entice others to try our sport.

Just because this isn't orienteering as you know it doesn't mean that the approach will not work. If the current product is so good, why are there so few of us?

There are so few of us because it is a unique sport that doesn't appeal to the masses. It requires a fair amount of commitment in time, gaining the skills and fitness and then travelling to events that may be several hours drive away.

[SeanC]

Paul - grants have certainly been given for non-club night related projects this year.

What do members want? It depends what you ask. You might get better maps, more accurate ranking list or more vegetarian options at Wilfs. If you asked "Do you want your club to exist in 10 years time?" "Do you want to travel further and go orienteering less often when there are half the number of events?" you might get different answers.

If it's all about people's individual motivation why is it that in the South East 25% of orienteers live in or near Sussex*, yet Sussex has about 5% of the population of the South East? What clubs do can make a massive difference IMHO and personally I believe the sport could easily double in size or more, with all the benefits that brings, or it could easily shrink to a quarter of it's current size if it adopts "business as usual".

*ie members of SO

[EddieH]

SO are clearly doing something very right, (and they put on a very good British Champs weekend as well).

Plenty of clubs up here, ours included, are doing plenty right as well. I am sure that a study of what these successful clubs have in common would be an excellent project. I suspect that the main thing you'll find is that they happen to have one or two very dynamic positive individuals that drive things forwards - not something that all clubs can have - it requires commitment, personality, self confidence, drive, charisma ...

On another point, I cannot see the doom and gloom merchants commonly stated view that our sport is in terminal and rapid decline - compared with other activities it looks pretty healthy up here.

[distracted]

If your club does not offer community O it appears that it will struggle to get development funding from British Orienteering (anecdotal).

If you are referring to the BOF development fund, the minutes from the development committee meetings are on the BOF website, and detail all applications and the awards which have been made from the fund. Plenty of money had been already been given out and there's still more in the pot for clubs to apply for - next deadline likely to be late August.

All of the applications from the January meeting were supported at least in part, although in some cases not immediately, as specific details of the projects was sometimes lacking and the relevance of the projects to the circumstances of the area where they are focused was unknown. Some fact-finding and consultation with the clubs was carried out and awards made - definitely not a "one size fits all" philosophy.

One of the assessment criteria is the sustainability of the proposal - money is not going to get thrown at projects which do not have long term benefits associated with them. So running a 4-week stint in a school and then leaving the kids to flounder because the club isn't running any events within 20 miles for the next two months isn't a great plan. This means that funded applications may involve community-O type projects or focussed, regular series of local events as these are seen as easier stepping stones for newcomers than jumping straight into the bigger club events - evidently effective from Mrs H's MADO initiative, for example. But that's not all there is to it - many applications involve funding for volunteer training, mapping, equipment and coaching courses to sustain activities and much more besides. To put some figures to Paul's "anecdotal evidence", just 2 of around 30 applications for funding have been outright rejected in the past 3 years, and one of those was from a club that has three community O projects within its area...

[Paul Frost]

I don't want this to become a stream of "he says this, he says that", but I have just gone to the British Orienteering website, clicked on Development and the whole page is about community O.
I then went to Funding and downloaded the "Funding grant application form" and got the "participation funding grant application form".
Under the heading of:
Examples of projects which are most likely to attract a Development Fund grant:

• Setting up a satellite club.
• Costs towards providing regular low key activities/events in a focused area to increase participation by newcomers – leading into or as an extension of a weekly satellite club / after school club / links to other organizations.
• Employing a part time coach who will provide taster sessions at selected schools in a focused area – leading into a regular satellite clubs or series of low key events.
• Setting up new permanent orienteering courses in a selected number of parks in an urban area / district which will be used for a series of low key events / out of school hours clubs / school competitions.

As I understand it, the major drive behind this is that the targets set by Sport England in return for their money are not likely to be met, and so there is a rush to get the participation numbers up by any means.
I happen to be in Scotland, so the Sport England money isn't for us, we get ours from Sport Scotland, and I believe their measurement of success is based on membership.

We have recently invited comments on the proposals on the Scottish Orienteering website, where there is some concern about how Scotland will fare under them. We don't have a Scottish representative on the board at the moment and there is no way to ensure that will be in the future.

[distracted]

We don't have a Scottish representative on the board at the moment and there is no way to ensure that will be in the future.

Given that (apart from now Development Manager Ed Nicholas) a member of a Scottish club has never stood for election as a director then a good start would be to make sure you get some nominations in for next year's AGM, which is coincidentally on your home patch!

[SeanC]

I think it's true that the development pages have a lot on club nights, but to be fair the first sentance says

"To increase participation we need to provide a better pathway for beginners to take up the sport and increase the frequency of the orienteering opportunities available to them. One of the best ways to do this is through ‘Community O’...."

ie one of the best ways... not the only way.

However I'm sure the website before the recent facelift had more non-clubnight/general development examples under "success stories"? I'm sure MADO was there, and POW, and SLOW? Perhaps they have been lost in the move so I will raise this point. Or has my memory gone hazy?

I think a section on "converting participation to membership" would be of particular benefit to the Scottish targets and to all clubs in general.

[Gross]

a member of a Scottish club has never stood for election as a director then a good start would be to make sure you get some nominations in for next year's AGM, which is coincidentally on your home patch!

Some years ago the SOA made an unofficial policy decision not to send people to BOF council / committee meetings etc etc. A stupid idea... if you do not seek representation then you have no right to argue against any particular policy.

If Scots travelled to Development / Coaching etc etc then the SOA could claim representation & argue it's case instead of bleating on like Dick Carmichael on the SOA website that BOF Board has no-one north of Sheffield. I look forward to seeing Dick's nomination as a director at the JK next year....

And for the recors I am all in favour of an independant Scotland / SOA etc etc....

[Taybank]

NC asks - "What Hoops?"
As I understand it (perhaps wrongly) if I want to organise a training night for our club members, I must first-
1 Go on a coaching course (up to light green standard).
2 Carry out a series of training sessions at that standard over 1/2 years and keep a record of these.
3 Go to a class 2 orienteering coaching course to take me up to green/blue standard
4 Write to the land owner for permission
5 Notify BOF that a training event will be held on such and such a day
6 Complete a safety audit and send to BOF
Then of course I have to organise the event as well.
By comparison if I want to organise a group outing with either of the two running groups I belong to, in any of the same areas, I send out an e-mail, we meet up and we go for a training run, on path and/or off.
One group - we meet up on a Thursday, ask where are we going tonight, pick a circuit and go for a training run. No doubt running clubs all over the country do the same thing.
Simple, isn't it.

[NeilC]

Perhaps we will be getting a phone call from BOF soon because 5 is the only one that we comply with (and that takes less than 5 mins per week). We fit the running club model except participants get maps and have to do things en route. Next week involves crossword puzzles
http://www.lifesci.susx.ac.uk/home/Neil_Crickmore/SARC/Crossword%20run.htm

[Angry Haggis]

And actually, now that BOF have the results from most events including the BOF numbers of those who were there, and a postcode district (at least) for every event, there's the potential for an interesting study of how far people in different parts of the country are prepared to travel to go to different types of event. Although it would be an awful lot of work.

I would be happy to do this if BOF would like to send me the data. This is pretty much my day job (spatial analysis).

I'm not so convinced the results would be that interesting though - but you never know...

[Nottinghamshire outlaw]

Gross said: If Scots travelled to Development / Coaching etc etc then the SOA could claim representation & argue it's case instead of bleating on like Dick Carmichael on the SOA website that BOF Board has no-one north of Sheffield. I look forward to seeing Dick's nomination as a director at the JK next year....

Sorry Gross - poor examples to choose: Lynne Walker very ably represents SOA on the Coaching Committee and when I was on Development Committee Roger Scrutton was on (may still be as I think he is the SOA Development Lead) - so two very good committee reps from SOA

[Gross]

Sorry Gross - poor examples to choose

guilty as charged