"Orienteering Opportunities" League Table

[DaveK]

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?

My Concise Oxford Dictionary gives a definition of peripheral as 'of minor importance'.
All I can say Sean is that if you are coming to the final Kent Night Cup event of the season this Thursday at Millbank, then make sure that your batteries are fully charged.

[Big Jon]

I'm intrigued by Clyde's massive number of activities, then spent some time checking these out - they include "terrain runs" - Maroc organise these regularly - but don't bother registering them as they do not need insurance nor publicity. I'd like to see a more detailed breakdown of what precisely the "activities" each club puts on involve.

[andypat]

You could have saved the bother and just asked Jon!
Clyde have had a weekly terrain run on a thursday evening for years now, rain or shine (I'll admit I'm not a regular as its usually the night my wife works) . More recently we have a fortnightly activity on a tuesday too which involves some training then food. The terrain run usually has single figures on it - sometimes only 2 or 3. The tuesday night more often double figures.

I think the point of registering these as an activity is partly to advertise things are happening but also we were encouraged to do so for participation figures - clearly its working! We are aware that other clubs have more on than us but dont bother to register them as activities. As I mentioned earlier in the thread I am not sure how useful it is to measure these as even if noone happened to turn up an activity would still officially have taken place I assume.

[PKJ]

I was interested to see that at least one large and active club didn't hold any Activities.
Do some clubs register weekly "club-night" training runs as Activities?

I don't think this should be viewed as a ranking list - much better as a way of learning what's happening elsewhere. For a ranking list, you might want to weight events of different types, take into account participation, club membership, catchment areas (population & size)...and so on...

providing opportunities for some very dull discussions..

[aiming off]

Where is the evidence that participation is actually increasing, and mainly due to the efforts of British Orienteering? I'm not convinced. It would appear than the NGB's success has been in applying more and more pressure on clubs, which in many cases have being doing these "activities" for 30-40 years without their involvement, to now register them to help them make the case that their development initiatives have increased participation. Hence the nauseating pressure on the clubs in the footnote to play the game.

[smf]

I'm intrigued by Clyde's massive number of activities, then spent some time checking these out - they include "terrain runs" - Maroc organise these regularly - but don't bother registering them as they do not need insurance nor publicity. I'd like to see a more detailed breakdown of what precisely the "activities" each club puts on involve.

Where do you get your insurance from then? You can register activities & choose to have no publicity. The SOA also use the participation figures for funding.

[andypat]

Do you need insurance to go for a run with your mates?

[SeanC]

My Concise Oxford Dictionary gives a definition of peripheral as 'of minor importance'.

Dave - there are lots of definitions of peripheral. Perhaps I was thinking of the following

A peripheral is a device connected to a host computer, but not part of it, and is more or less dependent on the host"

a bit like when the M20 is blocked

Millbank - last KNC of the year, gutted. No night O for months. But having been told off by The Loofa for spelling "Harvester" "Harvesters" I did a search on the BOF event website and it's telling me BAOC are hosting it on July 1st near Aldershot.

[johnhrobinson]

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

sounds like a question from somebodies philosophy finals

a bit like" if there is a control marked in the middle of the forest and nobody can find it ," can it be said to really exist?

[Big Jon]

I'm intrigued by Clyde's massive number of activities, then spent some time checking these out - they include "terrain runs" - Maroc organise these regularly - but don't bother registering them as they do not need insurance nor publicity. I'd like to see a more detailed breakdown of what precisely the "activities" each club puts on involve.

Where do you get your insurance from then? You can register activities & choose to have no publicity. The SOA also use the participation figures for funding.

We don't need insurance - we decide a place to meet and a run to do - basically what many orienteers and runners do every day of their lives. Maybe you want every orienteer to register every time they go for a run - would look good in number of activities but is completely meaningless. Registration of these type of club "activities" is a waste of time for us so we don't bother.

[Gross]

Registration of these type of club "activities" is a waste of time for us so we don't bother.

I am seriously disappointed at this attitude from one of the UK's top clubs. BO have spent many man / women hours developing a system that will show the powers that be that orienteering is a really successful outdoor sport with large numbers of regular and committed participants and here we have a respected official of said club saying the effort is a 'waste of time' !!!

[Gross]

Just in case....

[Red Adder]

The table in Focus is proof they you can prove everything and nothing with statistics.

To actually rank clubs though without including information about level of participation and indication of the size of each club gives very much the wrong impression.

[AndyC]

Now I BOF Bash at times but in this instance they are trying -it isn't perfect but it is an attempt to support the clubs and create a positive atmosphere. Rome was not built in a day -give them a chance.

[Big Jon]

Just in case....

It won't work Gross - I now you too well! Now if you logged on under a another name I might possibly fall for it.