Making "orienteering" more accesible

[mharky]

yes, BAOC

[Tatty]

WE must be sadder still in our house!! Our maps go back to 1971

[Rookie]

Apart from being allowed to take the controls in any order, this is identical to SLOW's trail challenge races...sell our races to the triathlon and adventure racing markets

any reason why you can't put details on something like Runners World website so non-orienteers see it?

I'm quite in favour of allowing "professionally" organised orienteering where people are out to make a profit, but I suppose that's really what Adventure Racing is (Nopesport advertiser Open Adventure for example)
...but these unofficial events shouldn't be allowed to compromise proper orienteering.
Taking Ed's example about football, the FA might complain if someone organised a competitive Football tournament (and called it football) where the aim was to play in random people's back gardens and the rules were fundamentally changed (ie. throwing the ball). It is the NGBs job to protect the sport's image and see that it is developed correctly

[Rookie]

also, how about the local club going along and setting up a stand and trying to drag people who enjoyed it along to a real orienteering event (and making sure our interests are protected) - Mole Valley area?

assuming it is insured, and has permission (which i'm confident it does), the best promotion opportunity would be for orienteers to enter it and do well. But only people from clubs with nice new kit!!! try lose the rucksack image, have people running around with "Orienteering [Club]" on their backs

just glanced at the photos on the site, the second from the left is definitely from an orienteering event (the kit is a bit of a giveaway)

[roadrunner]

I have a map of Hawley and Hornley Commons from an event in feb 84 (how sad is that?) which doesn't have a club ID on it - is the area still used, and whose map is it now?

Not just BAOC, as mharky says - the map copyright is BAOC and BKO, the last major event there was the BKO Concorde Chase back in January.

[openadventure]

QUOTE Rookie

"I'm quite in favour of allowing "professionally" organised orienteering where people are out to make a profit, but I suppose that's really what Adventure Racing is (Nopesport advertiser Open Adventure for example)"

Profit? More like expensive hobby! Nice to be regarded as professional.

QUOTE Rookie

"but these unofficial events shouldn't be allowed to compromise proper orienteering"

Ummm proper orienteering - is that navigating with a map? not sure how you can police that.

Your idea of promoting in Runners World is a great one, its free advertising - running fitness even has a section for orienteering events yet it rarely has more than one or two events listed.

People should go along to one of this guys events see if there is anything clubs can learn. Might even allow you to put out flyers if you ask before you go.

No worries
James

[awk]

Problem is that the word 'orienteering' was around well before the sport started here, and has a distinctly non-competitive meaning. If we had adapted the word to indicate the sport rather than a route finding activity involving map and compass, then we might be able to protect the name, otherwise not much chance I would have thought.

[Carnage Head]

This sounds like the kind of event that would attract 20-30-40-something 'fun runners' - including some pretty fit ones, I reckon. Just the sort of thing orienteering needs.

I have thought about another way of promoting orienteering - handing out leaflets to finishers at the end of trail races and 'undulating' 10ks - using the kind of non-technical language employed in the ad for The Orientator.

Does anyone have any examples of clear ads/leaflets that they have used which almost eliminate jargon, for the first-timer?

[Rookie]

Fair enough, OpenAdventure, I've never done any of your events so don't know your fees or what a competitor gets for them. Just seems that adventure races seem to be put on by companies rather than clubs.

In the running world there are definitely people out to make profit. Me, gg and Harold went to a (proper) cross-country race and won actually everything but still didn't make our entry fee back (at £18 pp)

The "proper orienteering" bit was meaning that as the NGB Brit-O have a responsibility to make sure nothing an "unofficial" event does negatively impacts what Brit-O and its clubs do.

[Ed]

The "proper orienteering" bit was meaning that as the NGB Brit-O have a responsibility to make sure nothing an "unofficial" event does negatively impacts what Brit-O and its clubs do.

there is no "official" and "unofficial" events: there's events registered with BOF and other events.

Even some orienteering-type (long-O) events organised by orienteering clubs are not registered with BOF!

[Gross]

Brit-O have a responsibility to make sure nothing an "unofficial" event does negatively impacts what Brit-O and its clubs do.

What is Brit-O ??????

[Adventure Racer]

Description of map would suggest it's not an O-map - they mention trails, and presumably all checkpoints will be on trails, as is often the case with AR. If I was organising this I certainly wouldn't use an O-map, as it would likely lead to confusing more people than it would help.

ISTM the only reason this event is attracting any attention here is the use of "orient" in the title - otherwise it is just another AR (which is what it describes itself as).

[Oldman]

What is Brit-O ??????

I assume a quite nice abbreviation of British Orienteering

[Oldman]

Even some orienteering-type (long-O) events organised by orienteering clubs are not registered with BOF!

That worries me as a competitor! Are you aware that Clubs can register their events without them being placed on the national fixtures list? Without registration, there would be no British Orienteering insurance cover, and potentially as a competitor I could be sued for damage it was alleged I had caused: that would mean I would never enter such an event!

Should Clubs be required to confirm they have insurance cover at events (e.g. by saying they have registered the event with British Orienteering)?

[Vidalos]

That worries me as a competitor! Are you aware that Clubs can register their events without them being placed on the national fixtures list? Without registration, there would be no British Orienteering insurance cover, and potentially as a competitor I could be sued for damage it was alleged I had caused: that would mean I would never enter such an event!

This seems a very risk averse view for someone who goes orienteering. I would have thought there was a much greater chance of personal injury during an orienteering event than me causing injury to others. Yet only a few people insure against such personal injury and wouldn't most insurance policies exclude orienteering/adventure racing as a dangerous activity anyway!