how others see us

[Neil M35]

"orienteers in general are a very inconsiderate, discourteous, self important group of people."

Not my opinion but that of a lady whose Sunday was disrupted by orienteers being parked on her doorstep at Royds Hall. She took the trouble to post a message on the EPOC website - and since she was unable to walk along the pavement outside her own house because of parked cars she probably has every right to be upset.

Are orienteers in general self-important, discourteous and inconsiderate? Or is it just the people who post on Nopesport?

[Fratello de Pingu]

you could start a poll:

QUESTION

Are orienteers self-important, discourteous and inconsiderate?

ANSWERS

I am:

Self-important
Discourteous
Inconsiderate
Two of the above
All of the above

[HOCOLITE]

Those at fault ought to stand up and be counted. Was it an informal event? If not the organiser and car parking team should be chastised. Having said that at the Midlands champs there were those who parked in the area left for Joe Public, they either did not look for the chap on the parking gate or just assumed they could park anywhere, the parking was not full so there was no excuse. Perhaps there are a number of orienteers who just don't think about others when they are going for their fix. Actions like the above looses areas for clubs.

[Neil M35]

I don't think anybody needs to be chastised. The car park ran out of space and the organisers struggled to cope but these things happen with orienteering - it is not easy to predict the numbers for a district event in winter. The point was that the attitude of individual orienteers towards the general public made the situation worse (at least, the lady in question thought so).

[richardm]

by the sounds of it, shes at least "discourteous" and "self important". there are worse things to worry about than having some cars parked outside her house for a few hours at the most, surely she could have walked around them, and its a bit much to complain publicly about it if its a one-off

inmy expereince, most orienteers are nice, and will do whatever they can to help you

[Fratello de Pingu]

by the sounds of it, shes at least "discourteous" and "self important".

inconsiderate too, that is to all the people who are now going to spend so many hours following up this complant

[Adventure Racer]

Glad I'm not the first to think "pot, kettle, black". I've met this sort of person before, and I presume what happened is that the people with the open doors didn't notice her coming, she made a big point of forcefully slamming the doors (when she could have just asked), and they understandably got a bit upset (if normal middle class - see other threads about O demographic - children were being rude to her, then I'm afraid she must have done something wrong). Also liked her "people shouldn't be running round having fun where I can see them" comment at the end.

OTOH she does have a point - these things would of course all work better if everybody was a bit more thoughtful. I'm not convinced there is any excuse for illegal parking on the pavement, which is where the problem started in the first place.

[RJ]

Before we start dissecting what this lady has said and the validity of the parking, it is worth noting that one person has taken the trouble to locate the people responsible for her upsets and to post comments on a website. I would say that it is quite unusual for someone to go to that amount of trouble.

So.... what we should be more concerned about are the unseen, unknown members of the public who have come across our activity, found it a nuisance, disturbance, annoyance or whatever and have not found a direct way of letting us know.

It is not just the landowners (private or otherwise) that we need to nurture and behave in front of, it is the wider public we come into contact with as well. I'm sure we would all say that we behave really well and do not cause concern to other members of the public when we are running about enjoying ourselves. We might have had reason to believe in ourselves.... that is.... before now.

Should we be embarking on proactive PR, offering a point or person where complaints could be made? Should we be making the rest of the orienteering fraternity aware of these potential 'crises'?

[Oldman]

I support RJ's comments: any complaint (yes, even from someone who turns out to be a "nutter" as someone succinctly but perhaps a bit unfairly put it) is useful prompting to take a look at ourselves.

For every person who took the trouble to find out the club, then the web site, and then post a comment (a techno-nutter ?), maybe there are 100 who had similar concerns.

[bedders]

At an MDOC event at Bosley Cloud in december we had a the National Trust turn up to the car park to see why we had taken it over, and used the surrounding roads. Someone had complained but our organiser quite rightly that day had all the relevant paperwork, so technically we weren't breaking any rules as it was above board with the NT. But again, un needed trouble caused by a 'nutter' as Gaz put it.

Some people do things that other people don't like, fact of life. deal with it.

[ryeland of doom]

It may be worth reminding such people, that on Sunday afternoon we leave the venue and may not return for a very long time.

I would suggest that the local clay pidgeon or autocross clubs should seek venues near there, then self importance may appear to be a good trait.

No excuse for crappy parking however , if that was the case, but this sounds like a typical "EEEk folk having fun , something must be done about it" type who has run out of mountain bikers. Worth remembering that these types can hurt us.

[awk]

Interesting to see the swingeing assumptions and jumped-to conclusions being made here in response to Ms Ramsden's post on the EPOC board. By the sound of her post this is not the first time that orienteers have caused her and people she knows some concerns. She may be a "nutter" or a pot calling the kettle black, but from the comments she made (and as yet no alternative view), I would have been equally dischuffed if that sort of parking had been going on outside where I lived. Of course, we have only read her viewpoint, but it is one that needs considering, not an immediate jumping into aggressive defence mode (if that isn't too oxymoronic!).

[awk]

(if normal middle class - see other threads about O demographic - children were being rude to her, then I'm afraid she must have done something wrong).

Being just as rude myself, but codswallop!!!! I teach 'normal middle-class children', and there are plenty who are hopelessly rude, often because their parents are.

There are also plenty of very polite children (and I do agree that most regular orienteering juniors I have come across are generally polite), but to conclude that because 'normal middle class children' were being rude meant that she must have been doing something wrong is a major failure of logic!

[AndyO]

I agree with AWK. Some of the posts are displaying the very traits that the lady is accusing us of. Perception is reality, and she clearly was not happy. I was not at the event, and it would be good to hear from someone who was, but parking cars on public roads in a village is not the ideal. My own club had a similar experience at a local event last year, and got some criticism from residents who found they could not park outside their own house. Not a big deal, maybe, but it does not take a large number of cars to cause problems for residents in such a situation. Better to find alternative car parking away from houses if at all possible, rather than risk upsetting people who may well be able to influence approval for your next event.

[RobL]

I wonder if she tried to discuss the issue with people mid-race?

My personal policy is to try and ignore absolutely every distraction when I'm running. Occasionally members of the public try and engage me in conversation about what we are doing and I must admit I haven't often taken the opportunity to try and sell the sport at that particular moment.

I guess 'blanking' someone does make you look somewhat discourteous, self-important and inconsiderate..