School for planners?

[Oldman]

Does anyone else share my concern that there seems to be little training for planners?

The only training they seem to get at present is a fairly basic BOF course (if they get the chance to go on one, and use that chance), or mentoring from a suitably inclined controller. Whilst the latter should be beneficial, some controllers don't seem to see that as their role.

Is it not time we established more formal training for planners with some "principles of planning" content, including eg "armchair planning" and "what's the weakest part of this course" tests?

Yes, I know they're volunteers and sometimes in short supply, but training for them would encourage more to come forward and would also perhaps achieve a better minimum standard of course. I've seen some very weak courses recently which looked as though they'd been planned by a novice planner with apparently little appeciation of what makes a course difficult.

We could also eventually aim at only allowing trained planners of proven experience to plan certain events.

And we need more formal reviewing post-event to discuss with a plnner what was good, what not so good, and what could have been done about it. Make use of our good planners to bring the standards up!

[Ed]

we've had this discussion before:

http://www.nopesport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7348

[RJ]

Certainly anyone wishing to get involved with the planning side of the sport should have the opportunity to learn skills. Years ago when results booklets were published it was not uncommon to read that the planner "had enjoyed his/her first plan at this badge event". I am sure it is still the same, now, even though all results appear on the net.

Many clubs have a perfectly good system in place to train their first time planners. Many clubs have a whole series of informal events spread throughout the year. Often it is only one or two people running the whole show at one of these events, so they learn everything. A complete novice will often be paired with a more experienced person to help them through the process.

The most important part of the learning process is actually the attendance at the other regular events in the series. Each club has its own system, and this is a good starting point for new planners. Once a planner has had a go at a couple of informal events and has run at many others they are in a perfect position to read and understand the guidelines for, say, a colour coded event, and then have a go at a District event.

Formal classroom learning has its place, of course, but hands-on experience at informal events is invaluable.

[Adventure Racer]

WHat exactly do they teach you at a BOF course (said as a novice planner who hasn't yet been on one, but is trusted to plan local events!)

[PorkyFatBoy]

What exactly do they teach you at a BOF course?

Probably the contents of the Planners' Handbook. I thought someone had scanned this and made it available online (thought it was SimonE, but can't find it on his website (or BOF's))or the Nope thread where it was mentioned.

If no-one owns up, I did scan MarkC's copy of it which I have (but it's a massive series of files) that I could e-mail to you.

[distracted]

Planning handbook here:

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/D ... anning.pdf

and as the page warns you, 13MB in size

[Mr timE]

We in the Army run our own courses 4 times a year using a combination of civilian & military instructors and I would be happy to let anyone have sight of the course syllabus and programme. It is currently being rewritten anyway to make sure it stays up to date and it is based on british Orienteering guidelines. Our courses are Mon-Fri and held at Longmoor, but if there was anyone who wanted to attend so they could go back to their own region with some ideas we could probably find you a vacancy at a small cost, food and accommodation can be provided as well.