White Rose - Post events comments

[bedders]

I'm surprised they were prepared to even use ASS OK as it's not a BOF registered club. I'm not sure if there are any rules re clubs, but I thought you were IND if not a member of a BOF reg club.

That was their team name, not club.

[Guest]

Question
When is a Coordinator not a Coordinator?

Answer
When he is needed in the evening and he has gone home to tuck himself in bed.
Fat lot of use he was.

[awk]

I have a list of 10 competitors who are known to have been out-of bounds....as certain members of his team are known to be dishonest and corrupt.

Quite the most pathetic post I've read on nopesport for some time. Dishonest and corrupt as well!

[Guest]

Guest wrote:
It apparently is not low key to the organisers.

They managed to declare me non-competitive on Day 2 for the heinous crime of registering for Day 1 on Day 1 and for Day 2 on Day 2. Apparently this gave me some perceived advantage of having unbalanced start times, despite my Day 2 start time being 10.31, which would have balanced with any Day 1 start, i.e. I would not have had two late starts. In fact I had an early 11.00 start on Day 1, something that a quick look at the start list would have confirmed. I.e. 2 early starts equal a distinct disadvantage, about which I have no complaints, as it was what I wanted.

I understand the organisers wanted to prevent any runner from having 2 late starts, but they seem to have adopted a very blunt instrument to acheive this.

Not sure how many other people were affected by this unpublished "rule", but there were a lot of n/cs in the results. This silly and unnecessary officiousness spoilt what was otherwise a pleasurable enough event.

Reply:
I suggest evryone affected by the power-mad officials of the event, who choose which rules to strictly adhere to, letter by letter, and which to ignore, or break themselves without consequence, do something about it (BOF?)
This is a strictly amateur sport, that should be friendly and informal, with an organising team with a flexible attitude. To adopt such stringent methods isnt good for the image of the sport or developing its popularity. No-one in the sport wants any kind of bad publicity, do they?

[Guest]

I also agree with the comments about the coordinator for this event.
When i asked to see him I was told that he had gone home to watch TV.
I always thought that a coordinator should be on site all of the time to help people, seems not and i got it wrong.

[brooner]

I also agree with the comments about the coordinator for this event.
When i asked to see him I was told that he had gone home to watch TV.
I always thought that a coordinator should be on site all of the time to help people, seems not and i got it wrong.

thats why you set up base in a caravan on site (while everyone's tents take a battering ), you can go home to watch tv and still be available to help people! Either that or get everyone to go to the pub.

[awk]

What is really beginning to bug me about nopesport is the way totally anonymous individuals are able to sling out all sorts of comments and accusations without taking any responsibility for them, hiding behind the name "Guest". What an inappropriate name!

Whilst personal abuse is unacceptable anyway, and is something that nopesport moderators should be doing something about according to their own FAQs, it's made even more so when the individual hasn't got the gumption to own up.

[gross2006]

I always thought that a coordinator should be on site all of the time to help people, seems not and i got it wrong.

Bollocks.... wasn't at White Rose, haven't been for years but you can't expect a volunteer who will have done a great amount of work in advance to be on site 24 hours a day. He / she deserves a break & a cup of tea in front of the TV.

Looking through the BOF events list never seem to have anyone known as 'Guest' involved in putting on events

[Guest]

point 1: An individual may wish to post anonymously for obvious reasons.

Point 2: I know of several officals who have organised or planned over the last 15 years who have also been 'guests' here.

Point 3: A person who volunteers to take on the major role of coordinator IS expected to be available at the event throughout in case of any problems etc. in the case of this particular event there is little evidence of the coordinator doing much before or during the event, leaving most of the work to the day organisers, planners, controllers and many helpers.

[gross2006]

Point 2: I know of several officals who have organised or planned over the last 15 years who have also been 'guests' here.

I have never seen anyone called 'guest' plan or organise an event anywhere in GB in the last 15 years

[LostAgain]

Is the complaining "Guest" actually moaning about not receiving a prize which he/she was due?

Or is there more substance to the complaint, the need for balanced start times was in the pre-event details. So I see no justification for this attitude.

As regards to corrupt! Please explain yourself, as there is no room in our sport for this. I'm sure if you have evidence of this Nev Myers (Club Chairman)would welcome your e-mail and ensure a full investigation.

Like much of the comment here, we should be appreciative of the voluntary work put in to our sport by our fellow orienteers. I see little substance or basis for the moan.

But I await to be shot down!

[awk]

point 1: An individual may wish to post anonymously for obvious reasons.

Point 2: I know of several officals who have organised or planned over the last 15 years who have also been 'guests' here.

Point 3: A person who volunteers to take on the major role of coordinator IS expected to be available at the event throughout in case of any problems etc. in the case of this particular event there is little evidence of the coordinator doing much before or during the event, leaving most of the work to the day organisers, planners, controllers and many helpers.

I never said people shouldn't post as guests. My argument is with those who hide behind that anonymity to abuse others.

On point 3: a co-ordinator is simply that - somebody who co-ordinates the event teams. In fact for large swathes of the event, they should have nothing to do with any problems that crop up, those being the responsibility of specific officials. If I was a controller/planner/organiser and the co-ordinator started interfering when a problem cropped up with my event I would be mighty dischuffed.

There may possibly be an issue over whether they have also taken on another role more directly related to the problem arising (e.g. campsite organiser), but if so, that is a different issue. As co-ordinator per se they should really not be particularly visible to participants, and the bulk of the work that you see being done should be done by the volunteers you specify.

[awk]

Hi LostAgain

The problem is that there is more than one Guest. The Guest who complained about being made non-competitive is (I'm pretty certain) not the same as the Guest(s) abusing members of Ebor or complaining about not being able to get hold of the co-ordinator. It's hard to differentiate: one of the other problems with this system.

[seabird]

Awk, I own up to being one of those guests. The one who griped about being declared n/c. I may not be the only correspondent who did not intend to be a guest.

Like you at times, I sometimes forget to log in. In fact I am so bad at using the system from work, that this is the 3rd time I've tried to post this response.

To answer another reply, of course I took the matter up in a civilised way with those members of the organising team I was able to find in the brief moments I was able to stay at the event. The "rule" I was quoted was not the rule in the pre-event literature. I was told, consistently by everyone I spoke to, that anybody who entered Day 2 on Day 2 having entered Day 1 previously would be deemed n/c. Unbalanced start times, whether advantageous or disandvantegous did not come into the matter. All I ask for is flexibility and trust within our generally friendly sport. This seems to be a common thrust in this thread. It is not pleasant when, as a competitor or an official you are made to feel that you are not trusted, as I felt on this occasion. I'm sure that was not the intention of the organising team. (The people deeming me n/c know me well enough to know that I am so slow that I would never be competitive in any real sense, even if I had drawn the map, planned the courses and had 2 last starts!)

Gripe or no gripe, the relay system sounds interesting (I wasn't there). Is there any more to it than appeared in the final details?

[awk]

From your private email to me earlier, I was pretty sure you were that Guest, but my comment about Guests abusing from behind anonymity wasn't aimed at you (I should have made that clear) - heaven knows I'm in no position to criticise posting as Guest in itself as I've done so myself (usually because I'm useless at organising logging in too). I was also sure you weren't the other Guest(s), hence my previous post.