Freshers 2004

[brooner]

you're probably going to be a fresher somewhere tho, we'll have to try and attract you to take up orienteering.

[mharky]

someones going to have a hard time at the freshers fair

[MarkC]

I get the impression that most of the contributors to this thread were regular orienteers before going to university, so I'm going to try to come up with some ideas from my experiences as a fresher who had done little more than local schools events before.

Firstly, don't give up on freshers if they don't turn up every week straight away - if they aren't committed to orienteering already they will probably be trying out a range of activities to start with. I wasn't a regular until the second term.

Secondly, social events with a good turnout of the existing regulars are just as important as the orienteering events - start making friends with the newcomers and you're half-way there. I found CUOC to be a great bunch of people, unlike some other clubs where I always felt like an outsider (confession time: the first one I joined was the chess club... I'm now very glad I got away )

Thirdly, what really got me hooked was our training tour to the Lake District just before Christmas - not only was it a revelation to train on technical areas, but you really get to know people when you're staying together for days. Do whatever you can to get freshers coming to your multi-day trips!

Fourthly, make sure you don't ignore people who aren't likely to trouble the selectors for your top relay team - encourage everyone to improve at their own level, and remember that they are just as capable as anyone else of filling your committee positions.

One other point, though this is probably more relevant to Cambridge than anywhere else - the chance to get away from the city to somewhere a bit less flat was a great attraction!

Hope this helps someone, somewhere...

Cheers, Mark.

[MarkC]

just seen this thread and thought i'd add my thoughts. we at Leeds have just had our agm, and due to lack of participants it would appear that there will not be much of a club next year. Of our existing 10 regular members, 1 is going to America for a year, 3 of us graduate, 3 never orienteered before uni. Which basically leaves a few people to do everything. Having been the captain this year, i know that this is a rather large task, and as such it was decided that if there were any keen orienteers at uni, then people with cars would arrange it between themselves.

I'm sorry to hear about this, we need as many universities as possible to have active clubs. I would urge you to try to keep the club alive, even if it's largely in name only, with your six remaining regulars - if you don't appear at the fresher's fair and in the official list of societies then there's a chance that you'll miss out on interested people who just don't realise that you exist. Have you asked your local open club for support, such as arranging lifts to events with other local orienteers? CUOC have had close links with WAOC for several years now and it has benefited both clubs.

Don't discount the potential contribution of your members new to the sport either - when I came to uni I'd never heard of a badge event, by the second year I was organising one!

[Mrs H.]

I recently attended a BOF stategic plan workshop (one voice singing in the wilderness) it which the question of university orienteering was raised in part - one of the problems clubs seemed to encounter was Fresher Overload. Apparently the new kids are so bombarded with bits of paper and the like in their first week that most of the stuff ends up in the bin. Given that you are unlikely (outside Sheffield and Edinburgh) to have a viable club without some novices - it may be worth paying some special attention to the timing of the initial approach and the immediate follow up - It was interesting to hear Mark say it was the trip which clinched it for him - perhaps an early trip for socialising and light training(in that order) would be bonding - and the more experienced among you could look on it as a long term investment for the future of your clubs ( a bit of pay back so to speak) Just an idea - what do you think?

[the duncan]

yeah, that was my thought when i was captain of the legends, everyone gets so many bits of paper whether they like it or not, so they just throw them all in the bin.

i tried a different approach, and got people emails and sent out all the info on that, so they wouldn't loose it and they would get a few emails reminding them of what the craic was.

it wasn't too successful, but heh, we tried.

the only time that most freshers are going to be in contact with all the clubs is the fair, so you have to do the hard sell there, but i agree a weekend away early is good, prob 2nd/3rd weekend in, with a alc-o at the end of freshers week

[brooner]

alc-o at the end of freshers week is certainly one to be recomended, (remember to ask for permission first! ) as we had loads of folk along who hadn't tried it before. Unfortunatly perhaps there was too much alcohol & the throwing up put some folk off ever seeing us again!
I had a good time tho

check out the carnage from a couple here:
http://02-03.euoc.photos.me.uk/c136946.html
http://03-04.euoc.photos.me.uk/c136933.html

We did a series of loops (0.5-1.5km) with a drink at end of each one like
start:
random shot
loop 1
can of lager
loop 2
alc-o-pop
loop 3
mulled wine?
loop 4
pint of cider
loop 5
pint of punch (mmm very tasty it was too!) + a handfull of marshmallows at same time

it worked a treat although our swiss import continued his unbeaten run in all alc-o's, i would have had him if I hadn't had to stop for a good 5 minutes to talk to the park ranger about what was going on and convince him that we weren't using metal stakes in the ground or climbing the crags (he didn't seem to care about the blaring music and drunken antics!)

[distracted]

Chris Millard who did pretty well in the bloke's BUSA was snatched from Cross country

well maybe that's partly it - you have to advertise in the places that are most likely to have people wanting to orienteer, so set up something with clubs like cross-country so they point you in the direction of orienteering and/or other similar sports. at least that may get you more interest from people who may actually want to orienteer & will carry on orienteering, rather than those who think "Oh, that seems interesting, I'll put my name down" and don't have the foggiest what it actually involves.

I know for a while we at Oxford had to emphasise to those who were running the Fresher's fair that we wanted to be put in with the so called "proper sports" and not with the walking club etc - I think that is still to much of a preconception of those who don't know what orienteering is

on the point of retaining people, the other clubs that have been mentioned have a lot of people who have tried them once or twice before, enjoyed them and see university as an ideal opportunity to get more involved. that's what happened to me orienteering wise, but yet again it goes back to people's initial experience and if it has been bad, then they won't want to do it again. so I suppose we're going back to how orienteering is introduced to people at an early age, and how many people are exposed to it...


we don't seem to have had many people on this thread saying if/where they are going Uni wise, so come on, let us know!

[mharky]

not sheffield, or leeds or oxford or cambridge or warwick

[brooner]

heriot watt or napier then?

[mharky]

Queen Maggy's aswell...

[andy]

well, i've just applied for a 4 year PhD course at Edinburgh, which will start this september if I get in.

[gg]

hope its not true about the hair, was planning on cutting it sometime soon
all i do at warwick is give people the opportunity and i've found that pretty soon, loads of the newbies are helping out a lot and organising stuff for themselves. the guys before me did loads of work too (the club came out of the canoe polo club for some bizarre reason)

as a freshers trip we were thinking of applying for funding from various places to go to venice to do the street race in november
any other unis interested?
[/quote]

[Dan]

I am going to cambridge if i get the grades, if not im off to edinburgh (for maths)

[bendover]

venice is a great idea, would be a really good way to fire up new members. imagine the party.... i know some of the italian orienteers and they are loonies!