Once someone is attracted then there are some inherent problems to overcome. Approachability is the first one, it's daunting to come along to your first event. My suggestion is that someone is easily identifiable as the help point at each event. Not hidden away, easily visible and friendly and welcoming. Hi Vis jacket with a big smiley face on it just like at Asda. Also anyone that has contacted a club before attending their first event should be buddied up with an existing member to take them through the process and introduce them to other members.
The other big problem, if not the main problem, is the anti-climax. If your like me, and I know most aren't, you spend 2 hours lumbering around a forest, ecstatic that you have managed to find your way round, only to get to the finish line and be greeted by a cold miserable marshall, who really would rather be somewhere else (I'm not blaming them, they do a great job, much appreciated). Where is the hero's welcome, the adoring crowd, the reward for all the effort? THere isn't one, only a sense of satisfaction in a job well done, or not. By the time I get back half the car park is empty and people are returning in dribs and drabs. THere is nothing to hold competitor or spectator interest, nothing to hang around for. It really is an individual sport in a way that most other sports aren't. What is needed is a way to condense finish times so that all competitors finish within say an hours window. That way everyone can be encouraged to hang around for a prize ceremony. What other sports put on a big event like a C4 and just let people wander away when they feel like it. Who knows who's won? What do they look like? Who am I aspiring to be like? It wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility to use data from electronic punching to have live updates of category leaders, and perhaps team competitions fed directly to a screen at the finish line to keep spectators there and build some excitement. Then a prize ceremony, with some boxes for people to stand on and be photographed on, you know, like a proper sporting event.
Regional team competitions over the season. Lets get some team spirit and club focus going. Give clubs a reason to encourage everyone to compete as often as possible. I know there are some big clubs that do a lot of hard work and great jobs. But how many stood at the finish line as a team cheering in all their runners at the club events? Very few is the answer. If my club had packed up the tent and gone home before I had finished I would have quit there and then. Surely it is possible to create a handicap system to have a fair competition between clubs over a series of events. Encourage clubs to put up tents at all events and have a focal point.
The whole sport needs a bloody good shake up if it is going to survive. Yes it will upset some old timers, yes some will leave because they don't like the changes, but if the sport is to survive and prosper it has to make some fundamental changes and address some fundamental problems. To be clear, price isn't one of those problems. I have been in sales and marketing for over 20 years. Price reduction is a last resort of a desperate brand (holding prices at 1980's levels is the same as reducing). People will pay a fair price if the perceived and experienced value of the product matches their expectations. So create a product people want and market it hard. Or just keep going along as now and witness the slow decline become terminal.
It is possible to make orienteering a great sport in the eyes of the general public because it is a great sport. It does need some serious changes. Forums like this are good to get ideas flowing, but it should be the responsibility of the BOF leadership to lead in a pro-active, dynamic, challenging and innovative way. I am relatively new to the sport so I genuinely assume that they are already doing this and that they will let us know what they are doing via the glossy news letter I get every now and then, my one comment about which is...why?
Gosh I feel much better now I got that lot off my chest. I'll just sit back now and wait to be flame grilled to a crisp.
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)to make people feel included. THere is a really weird feeling about orienteering events. Why after 2 years do I still feel like an outsider? I get on well and have a laugh with others from our club, and I say hi to people that I recognise, but I really don't feel included and excited about something bigger. It's still about me trying to improve my performance on my own. I don't believe I am on my own, and I don't believe that it has to be that way.
