INCLUSION - PC over the Top

[awk]

My point in starting this was why on earth does the BOF equality policy need to be the first thing you see on a webpage 'governing body'!!

Well, actually Gross, you're wrong. The first thing on the page are the three paras that tell you as an intro what type of organisation BOF is, how (in very brief terms) it's structured, and that the sport is effectively run by the participants. A pretty good summary.

The reason the link/icon (not the policy itself) is where it is, is that it supports the next thing you see, which is the 'vision': all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

Like I said, I'm sure the vast majority of orienteers aren't overly interested in the ethnic or religious background of BOF.... and it certainly isn't a 'major concearn' to most

Maybe, but that's not what the equity policy is about.

Given how much you bang on about Anglocentric attitudes in BOF, I would have thought you would have been very concerned about equality of inclusion!

[johnloguk]

I know the idea is to try and show we're not being racist by coming up with stats to say so?

Blimey your even more cynical than me Fatboy I would really hope that there is more to it than that, but maybe you are right. We should be collecting these stats to give us an idea of where to direct future resources or set priorities, but time will tell.

It's a bit like standing by a busy road for days collecting stats on vehicle movement. You would hope that the information gathered would be used to inform future transport strategies, but maybe it is just to tick a box on a sheet of targets to look good on some propaganda press release. Bu**er I've come over all cynical again.

I really don't mind what data is collected, so long as it is put to good use. As for saying that collecting racial stats is divisive in some way, it only does that if you want it to.

[eddie]

the BOF equality policy is a requirement of Sport England as part of the funding.

[Nails]

I hope that there is a tick box for 'Other' or 'Jedi'....

[Gross]

Well, actually Gross, you're wrong.

No I'm not:) The link is so big in relation to anything else on the page it was the first thing I saw:)

[roadrunner]

I've no problem with BOF having an equality policy - it's a good thing - but I agree with Gross that the image link gives it rather too much prominence, especially since none of the other potential links (IOF, BSOA to name but two) have their logos displayed.

[SIman]

My solution to the overlarge logo is to view the page in IE7. It is not there on my PC.
Now that I have looked at Firefox I can see what all the fuss has been about - and I agree with Gross

[SYO Member]

Gordon's been out of the country for too long. This is what life is like in 21st century Britain. Endless regulation and control, and if it's not related to our own laws, it's from rigorously implementing EU directives, and with an army of staff from councils, government and quangos whose mission in life is to pore over documents such as this as well as monitor what actually goes on, to try and find evidence of any perceived indiscretion.

However, we should all be genuinely grateful to BOF for producing this document on our behalf if this is what has to be done nowadays, even though as has been said, the irony is why would orienteering exclude anybody when we specifically want to increase numbers? Aligned to this is the fact that Matlock is not a place that has a particularly high concentration of ethnic groups, so it's hardly surprising that all the staff at BOF HQ are white.

Although equality policies such as this always mention disability, gender, race, religion etc, in our case there was no need to include age. There couldn't be any exclusion of oldies given the orienteering age profile!

[seabird]

My solution to the overlarge logo is to view the page in IE7. It is not there on my PC.

A lack of inclusiveness in the equality policy it would seem, if we can't all access it. I too have been unable to see the icon, and hence the policy, that has caused all the fuss.

[SYO Member]

Seabird, you can see it on BOF news from (I think) last week. You need to Search history for August as it isn't now showing on the latest news page.

[Mrs H]

Mope - I can't see the logo either - this is outrageous - I have been denied the opportunity to have a rant about something or other through some sort of anti-Mac exclusivity - is that what the PC bit is about then - did they ask us what sort of computer we use?

[T5]

Going slightly off topic, but related to comments about prominence of icons on the BOF website, I've always thought the Fixtures page is particularly bad. You click on the fixtures tab at the top of the home page, then have to hunt for the next link to click on, as it really doesn't stand out. Does anyone else think this needs improving?

[mikey]

Going slightly off topic, but related to comments about prominence of icons on the BOF website, I've always thought the Fixtures page is particularly bad. You click on the fixtures tab at the top of the home page, then have to hunt for the next link to click on, as it really doesn't stand out. Does anyone else think this needs improving?

I'm guessing that the new BOF website with members' area will address lots of the problems with the current website. Certainly hope there will be a better search engine.

[roadrunner]

My solution to the overlarge logo is to view the page in IE7. It is not there on my PC.

Not just IE7 - for some reason it doesn't display in IE6 either (I thought it was my internet connection playing up at first). Of course, this means that there's no link to the policy document if you're using IE!

[seabird]

Bingo. Someone somewhere is reading this. The logo is now there, at least for IE7 (I think that's what I use).


Looking forward to Mrs H's rant.