Orienteering and young families

[Mrs H]

So it's fine for parents to leave their kids in the care of other parents, who they may have never met before and who may or may not be CRB checked, but if it's organised as part of the event then you have to meet all sorts of rules?

Effectively yes. If you have a club tent and leave your kid playing with her/his gameboy (do they still have them) and say "stay put - you know who you can ask if you need something" * you're okay - it's just an extensions - obviously the idea is that parents who know each other form a sort of cartel of child care.

* I once come hidiously unstuck with this when I told the kids never to accept lifts from strangers and tried to instill some risk assessment on thier part with the rider "try and think who you can trust" when Young Neville arrived home early and when asked how, blithely explaned he had got a lift with Betty down the road - that was nonagenarian, partially sighted very kind and trustworthy Betty who found her way by bumping her car off obstacles Hadn't foreseen that one

[graeme]

A string course or similar activity for very young children should be provided.

Well done Claire for starting this

Actually, Mrs Lard started it.

[andypat]

A string course or similar activity for very young children should be provided.

Well done Claire for starting this, Frog for noticing the rule and Graeme for fixing the omission. Now all we need is people to read the rules.

One of the problem with the SOL rules is enforcement. This came up before a few times with regard to the fees being charged for adults novices doing TD<5 courses.

21.Entry fees for all non TD5 courses should be charged at the student/junior rate (entrants are likely to be juniors, newcomers or injured).

Its not that clubs are deliberately flouting this I'm sure - clearly when it happens organisers are simply unaware. But nobody is enforcing the rules. So are they really just guidelines. Or is it the role of controllers to be more proactive in this area? Its not something that affects a lot of people but when it does, the people that it affects are the newcomers to the sport who we should be trying to encourage.

[smf]

A string course or similar activity for very young children should be provided.

Well done Claire for starting this, Frog for noticing the rule and Graeme for fixing the omission. Now all we need is people to read the rules.

One of the problem with the SOL rules is enforcement. This came up before a few times with regard to the fees being charged for adults novices doing TD<5 courses.

21.Entry fees for all non TD5 courses should be charged at the student/junior rate (entrants are likely to be juniors, newcomers or injured).

Its not that clubs are deliberately flouting this I'm sure - clearly when it happens organisers are simply unaware. But nobody is enforcing the rules. So are they really just guidelines. Or is it the role of controllers to be more proactive in this area? Its not something that affects a lot of people but when it does, the people that it affects are the newcomers to the sport who we should be trying to encourage.

Both, the first 6 are the rules the other 22 are guidelines, so adding the string course to the guidelines won't make any difference.

How many clubs follow guideline 11 "Final event information should be published at least 7 days prior to the event."? Final info is usually only published in the last 4-5 days!

and as for guideline 20. "The award of SOL status to a club will be made by the SOA Fixtures Secretary in consultation with the Competitions Convenor at least one year prior to the competition season" This never happens, eg only 4 SOL's registered for 2013.

[frog]

Having it in the guidelines will bring it to the organiser's attention, and I think often the problem with string courses is that they get forgotten about with everything else going on.

[graeme]

and as for guideline 20. ... This never happens,

You are right, and this is quite a change from when the rules were first written. It has always been harder to get 7 SOLs in 6-day years, but until recently there was competition in even years, and the CC has, if not vetoed, "advised against" certain proposed areas.

[JennyJ]

At the moment string courses are always (?) free. Would parents be happy with small payments/donations because if so I would expect it could be something the local regional squad juniors could be encouraged to run at events where there aren't enough club volunteers to do it, the cake stand could be there too then.

[frog]

That's a good idea. If profits went to local juniors then maybe parents wouldn't mind paying.

[housewife]

I would have no objections to paying. Seems like a good idea.

[smf]

At the moment string courses are always (?) free. Would parents be happy with small payments/donations because if so I would expect it could be something the local regional squad juniors could be encouraged to run at events where there aren't enough club volunteers to do it, the cake stand could be there too then.

You would have to be careful as BOF would be after levies! Donations for sweets/drinks as prizes may get around it.

[Big Jon]

Also why do orienteering club members insist on running at their own events? Why cant they just give up a few Sunday's a year and just concentrate on putting on a great competition for other orienteers?

In the case of Maroc we organise about 20 local and district events each year - asking club members to not run these would mean they would half their events in a year.

[graeme]

... the easiest course is usually a yellow...And maps are super complicated for younger juniors.

Why no white course? Often its because it would compromise the start, but the solution is often to have a *free* white course starting and finishing at the *string* (i.e. nearby).

Every parent knows that the *actual* distance of the white course includes walk to start and finish. Even 3k white course is less effort than a 2km walk to start, "correct" 1km course, and 1km walk back. A lap of the carparking field on a non-super-complicated map would be better. Further advantages are that newcomers can try out the white course before starting and it's less likely to overlap technical courses.

[Arnold]

Often no White course because not enough interest in White courses - as a parent they're great (if there isn't a 2k walk to the start) but as a planner they're a pain - 10 extra controls and often you get 3 starters so the effort/reward ratio is huge.

I'm sure to some extent it's a circular argument but the truth is at least in the South East, White courses get barely any takers. So can't really fault planners for not putting them on at smaller events. And if in doubt I'd rather have a string course / something similar as that will cater for a wider age range than the White (though I may be biased by having younger kids!)

[andy]

Often no White course because not enough interest in White courses

So true, at our most recent local event (which graeme was at I think) there were 7 entries on white/yellow out of the 60 or so at the event. We concluded afterwards it would have been better to have an 'easy' course that was somewhere between the two.

[PhilJ]

Did I read somewhere that children participating on a string course need their details/parent/guardian to be recorded for BO on some form? Or did I dream it? I cannot find anything on the BO web site