"Orienteering Opportunities" League Table

[Mrs H]

As published on page 22 of Focus - any thoughts?

[Marco Polo]

I like the well edited footnote- I can't think why WYE (or most of the other listed clubs) didn't organize any activities last year either

[AndyC]

In a bored moment while ill early in the New Year I started to work out a similar table based on number of results posted to BOF. That also made interesting reading as some clubs despite having Level C events didn't post any results which rather defeats the objective of the ranking system.

[King Penguin]

Two more examples of lack of knowledge of the sport at head office ?

"WYE organised nothing" - I thought they became dormant quite a few years ago. It seems the office still think they are an affiliated club - are they ? Is there anyone left to submit an affiliation ?

Many of the other affiliated clubs who organised nothing are closed alumni clubs. Given that BOF now only recognises one club per member and refuses to record second or closed clubs do these officially actually have any (first-claim) members ? You can't have it both ways - refuse to let members declare allegiane to such clubs yet still expect these clubs (with no members) to organise things !

[HarryO]

BOF now only recognises one club per member and refuses to record second or closed clubs

I've never understood this. We live on the border between two clubs and wanted to join both (and were prepared to pay both fees) but were told by BOF we couldn't do this. Can someone please explain their rationale behind this? The person I spoke to at BOF (a number of years ago) couldn't give a reason - 'computer says no'

[madmike]

Given that BOF now only recognises one club per member and refuses to record second or closed clubs do these officially actually have any (first-claim) members

BOF will recognise a closed club if that is the club that is your first club then they lose sight of your open club.

Can someone please explain their rationale behind this? The person I spoke to at BOF (a number of years ago) couldn't give a reason - 'computer says no'

Yes they "upgraded" the membership database but only included one field for club so they can't record 2nd clubs on their "upgraded" database whereas they could on the unupgraded obsolete database. Similarly when they "upgraded" the rankings database they lost the ability to see all your individual scores.

They didn't get the requirement right before starting coding methinks but probably were driven by the need to reduce hours work from staff as budget shrank, which is kind of understandable but no less frustrating for us 2 (or more) clubbers.

[mappingmum]

We live on the border between two clubs and wanted to join both (and were prepared to pay both fees) but were told by BOF we couldn't do this.

You might not be able to do this "officially" in the eyes of BOF but you can do this. I am a member of both my "local" club and the neighbouring club. All you need to do is touch base with the second club independent of BOF ie via their web and ask for a joining fee/membership form and join as a local member.

[mappingmum]

Back to the subject . . .

I really do not like the way this article ends "The clubs that did not organise any events or activities were . . . . . "

Approaches like this never result in any positive engagement.

[andypat]

Back to the subject . . .

I really do not like the way this article ends "The clubs that did not organise any events or activities were . . . . . "

Approaches like this never result in any positive engagement.

I suspect that was the point Mrs H was making. I'm pretty sure Linoc has approx 1 member so no surprise they arent organising many events.

Not sure number of activities are a good way of measuring anything at all. I know from our secretary that once you get into the swing of registering them you can pretty much do a full year at once. It doesnt tell you if anyone actually attended does it?

[SeanC]

That was clumsy wording. It might not have been meant quite in the way it reads. Perhaps someone might email Caroline Povey who edits the magazine? Normally Focus is relentlessly positive about everything.

I thought it was useful to publish the league table and perhaps it shows that it's best to leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions. What do they mean? Well I see we are one place "above" our neighbours SLOW, but the statistics don't show that one of SLOW's events was rather big . One conclusion that's safe to draw is that the majority of clubs are now providing something at least every other week and sometimes several times a week, not just the ones you hear about on Nopesport, so it was good to read the earlier comments re the clubs being largely credited with the participation/membership increase due to our hard work putting on all these things.

[Mrs H]

Well the thing that puzzles me about the table is that - given this edition of Focus is an entire celebration of increased participation - why is is not ordered by participation numbers? Some of those clubs in the top ten put on as few as 13 or 14 orienteering events last year while other do not seem to be getting the credit for the massive amount of effort they have made staging really big complicated events.

Obviously none of the Scottish clubs are being credited for their involvements in the S6D and I'm assuming that other major events are also being missed out - and yet doing one of those can exhaust a club for months if not years.

I suppose I thought when I looked at it - if you are going to produce something that looks suspiciously like a ranking list then you should give credit where credit is due. and the criterion should have been how many people actually took up these "Orienteering Opportunities"?

[mharky]

...if you are going to produce something that looks suspiciously like a ranking list then you should give credit where credit is due...

Like the BOF Ranking List, eh?

[SeanC]

Interpreting participation has its pitfalls too. Other neighbours Saxons generally get fewer at their big events as they are more peripheral. If an event is aimed at newcomers and club members but few turn up and 200 from neighbouring clubs turn up, is the event a success or failure?

I think what all this shows is that Focus isn't the place to comment on such statistics, CompassSport is. Mrs H - perhaps you or Dave Nevill or someone else reading this might ask BOF for the participation statistics breakdown, and write some interesting/controversial/thought provoking comments sometime?

[frog]

Geography affects your activity ability. It's easier to organise activities people will come to to train if you have 1 urban centre like Edinburgh or Nottingham. Tayside has members scattered over a large area and Fife has the same problem.
When I was a member of CLOK they put on lots of training despite being scattered, but they had a larger overall membership and it was still more densely urban than Tayside or Fife.

[andypat]

It's easier to organise activities people will come to...

But if you organise an activity and nobody comes - is it still counted as an activity...?