Leeds mght be Sheffield might be even EUOC might be

[stodge]

Cardiff was going great guns for many years and of course produced SPLOT.
We had our own area (Merthyr Mawr) and frequently took two minibuses to BUSF (BUSA) and infact organised it 10 yrs ago

I was around for the final few years on and off 1995 - 1997. The problem we found was that the red tape got too much and it was just easier for a few of us to informally jump in a car.
Eventually we all left and the club folded.

The Red Tape included.

Two minibus drivers over 25 (very difficult) even if you could get a minibus - no chance from Sept - April.

A first Aider

List of participants to the union a week before any trip

Risk asscessments etc

All the Welsh Language Translations for all notices ( These took ages and if your notices weren’t bilingual they were taken down)

+ we all started to get a bit old and lost touch with what the freshers wanted.
Its a shame as if the red tape was ad-hered to and you managed to get a minibus we were getting fully paid entries and fuel at the time.

I suspect that trying to start a club from scratch now would be very difficult without some very committed individuals, + a couple of mature students for the driving.

Oh and by the way the reason I went to Cardiff .....
Didnt get into Sheffield

[brooner]

thankfully we don't have the same ridiculous restrictions on our drivers, through the Uni minibuses drivers need to be over 21 and pass a Uni organised minibus test. They also have a deal with Enterprise who will also let anyone over 21 drive, although they are slightly more expensive than the Uni buses.

We too have to sumit a list of participants before trips, thankfully that is only 48hours beforehand, otherwise i can imagine it would have changed dramatically if submitted a week before! Our risk assessments are minimal, the SU seem to understand that its not your typical sport and we get quite it quite easy in that respect.

I think the problem with many sports unions, due to limited & ever decreasing budgets they are less supportive to starting clubs, especially ones which may have been in existance previously. Also they're unlikely to give you any funding until you've been active as a club for a year - tricky to do without any money! Wattok tried to set WATTOK up properly I believe and was told he could get a minibus for weekends away - as long as went wherever the mountaineering club was going!

[mharky]

It's all very well Orienteers gravitating to Sheffield & Edinburgh, I understand why, some feel the need, but for O to survive it needs to have a wide student base and be open to introduce others in. Perhaps there should be more initiatives like GG's where an orienteer goes and gets a uni club going. Or Orienteers go to somewhere like B'ham or Bristol and adds new blood to a long established club where numbers are dwindling.... blah blah punt punt

Are you suggesting that someone should go to a uni just to improve, or start, a uni o'club???

At the end of the day the course should come first, then several other considerations before the O activities

Well obviously we can't really do that, coz its the course that comes first, no really it is.

I know of two who have given up/reduced O activity to minimal level since going to Sheff

Quite frankly im dissapointed, dissapointed and shocked, and ashamed, i'm also ashamed, I dont know how ShUOC could have let this happen, but its really dissapointing, shocking and shameful.

So if we total the amount of people who have started orienteering at Sheffield (e.g. neil northrop), and the amount who have droped out of orienteering since being at sheffield (e.g. craney) im sure we will see the whole picture wont we.

What GG has done with Warwick is amazing. They have a bigger membership than EUOC. Fantastic. BUSA relays last year was awash with red and black.

I once introduced someone to orienteering, at the 6-days when it was at Fort William, got chatting to a local policeman, and he was loving it.

[mharky]

Warwick is UWOC aint it?

[Becks]

Northrop didn't start at Sheffield! He was on Lagganlia with me. He was just crap till then (Sorry Nails!).

[mharky]

i know

[Laura]

who are these two orienteers who quit whilst in sheffield? tessa still trains with me at least twice a week and came to shuoc xmas meal. i dont think her reasons for having a little break from o involve some kind of elitst scandal in sheffield (surely i would be long gone by now if that was the case!)

[lilywhite]

He was just crap till then (Sorry Nails!).

...implying he's really good now?

[SJ]

Warwick is UWOC aint it?

yup

[SJ]

we made it past 60 members the other week

[El]

agh, you go home to a land where you have to fight for the internet and thus don't get on nopesport for a few days and what happens? people start slating your club for being elitist. I'd just like to point out that I'm very much a non-elite member of ShUOC (who just happens to be captain) and I haven't given up o'ing in the last three years, in fact I've got steadily more involved. I went to Shef partly for the course, partly for the location and partly for the o'ing and I haven't been disappointed on any counts. As a club we put in a lot of effort to attract new people and to integrate 'experienced' orienteers who come up to uni - there's something for everyone here.

[Rach]

wow, 60 members is impressive. I think we've hit 40 this year. I agree with all the other shuocers that have been posting, we're not elitest at all and also we have quite a few people in the club who just come running or to circuits and several people new to orienteering this year. no idea who you think it is that's dropped out of o but i doubt its due to shuoc and maybe more due to them finding something else they'd rather do (drink beer, pull girls, play ultimate frisbee etc).

all a university club can do is provide the opportunities and enthusiasm, its up to the people to decide if they want to join in.

[ifor]

The original point in this thread is very valid and I think is a problem.

There are considerably less active university clubs than there used to be. The reason for this undoutedly is the predominance of the big few. They pull in the majority of the experianced juniors. This leaves the other active clubs in a very precarious position. Two years of bad recruting and they are in danger of folding. The only way I could see a club re-apearing now is for somthing like the GG senario, or some real hard work by the local club. It has not been happening.

I do not know of any solutions but interestingly there is a potential resource in the regional development officers we have around the country. Are any of them doing any work with regard to universities?

Ifor

[Jon X]

no idea who you think it is that's dropped out of o but i doubt its due to shuoc and maybe more due to them finding something else they'd rather do (drink beer, pull girls, play ultimate frisbee etc)

So it is true then...no good being a member of SHUOC if you want to drink beer or pull girls

[lilywhite]

I don't think too many people going to Sheffield and Edinburgh is the issue at all. I don't really think that many people are going to Sheffield and Edinburgh. The fact is there are less M/W 18/20s interested in continuing orienteering than there used to be. That's the issue. Therefore the dribs and drabs that go elsewhere aren't significant enough to make active clubs at other unis.

If you want a more diverse range of university orienteering clubs, you need more active juniors. That's what needs to be changed.

Discouraging current active juniors from going to the best universities for orienteering isn't the way to do it.