Growth of O in schools, how do/should we link to clubs?

[Nottinghamshire outlaw]

AWK has hit the mail on the head with his comment:
'We're also talking very local' - whilst there are some good schools leagues which get good participation figures at events which may be held monthly the Ilkley Harriers example which AWK gave is related to regular (weekly) local activity which is FUN. I do not believe that we will get any meaningfully large increases in participation until we have a culture change in a large number of orienteering clubs which focus their participation development projects in very local areas. Satellite club development with weekly activities for all ages and with excellent publicity is the tried and tested format.

It may be that this is too much to ask of volunteers and that paid coaches may have to be employed; a combination of club funds and grants from British Orienteering and other funding agencies will be needed to get these sort of localised development projects started - again there are examples of this.

Advice over the past few years to School Sport Partnerships as to how to introduce orienteering teaching and simple school grounds competitions means that there are now such a high proportion of schools offering the sport in the way we want it to be seen (as an exciting running and navigation sport) and many young people and their families want to do more at a local club - but where is the local club? We can no longer expect newcomers to drive a distance to an event in what seems to be in a 'remote' forest and then go somewhere else for their next event a few weeks later. Newcomers need easily accessible activities and do not mind going back to the same place - 'accessible' also means easy to understand and whilst the sport continues to speak in complicated jargon about M12s, W14s, JM/JW this and that it is all a mystery. Also - why not put out a network of controls (all on one map) and let people do what they want at informal events instead of having set courses? I mentored a new planner recently using this format and it cut down on work and was well received.

[Mrs H]

I do not believe that we will get any meaningfully large increases in participation until we have a culture change in a large number of orienteering clubs which focus their participation development projects in very local areas.

Oh I wish I'd thought of that - we might have got in the top 3 of Club of the Year with an idea like that - especially if we'd managed to prove that it works

[awk]

Oh I wish I'd thought of that - we might have got in the top 3 of Club of the Year with an idea like that - especially if we'd managed to prove that it works

True, but then the clubs that did get in the top 3 might have come up with some things that work too!

[Mrs H]

Work better? Bollocks

[awk]

Work better? Bollocks

I didn't say that though! These things don't just take a single project like MADO, however effective, but look at all the things the club is doing. So whereas HOC will have scored big time with MADO, the other clubs could well have been doing something that could even have not been as effective on its own, but have scored higher on other things.

I know that when we got various clubs (e.g. Walton Chasers) up amongst the prizes at the national competition for all sports, it was no one thing, but a wide range of projects, activities and successes, that got them there.

[Mrs H]

other clubs could well have been doing something that could even have not been as effective on its own, but have scored higher on other things.

oh you mean like the 51 event we staged during that year - including the British schools champs - the permanent course that was opened - the re-establishment of the Hereford and Worcester Schools Champs - the introduction of (proper) coaching into several schools (by demand of the pupils) the specially laid on coaching sessions with several scouts and guides groups (and special needs groups) leading to the staging of the District Guides Challenge...
and of course not mentioning an influx of over 50 paid up and active new members many of whom are now organising and planning events.

Well I'm sure you're right Awk - we made the cardinal error of not actually employing a professional sport development officer to deliver this and relied on poor deluded volunteers like me - well don't worry I've learnt my lesson - I'm not volunteering any more!

.......and of course a year later SROC win Club of the Year on the back of a MADO-style initiative which they were kind enough to acknowledge the origins of and good luck to them.

[awk]

oh you mean like .....

Well, actually, yes....in the time I was working with BOF I saw quite a few clubs doing exactly this sort of work,and other things too. That's not to denigrate what HOC achieved - far from it, that sounds absolutely brilliant - but it's not to run down what other clubs do either.

well don't worry I've learnt my lesson - I'm not volunteering any more!

That's a real pity. After all, what you were doing was surely nothing to do with BOF and what was thought centrally. Yes, the awards would be good to win, but they are only icing, and surely neither they nor BOF were the reason you did it . What really matters I would have thought are those 50 new members, your membership more active than ever, and the programme of activity and development. Frankly, whatever I do in my club, BOF doesn't come into it.

[Mrs H]

BOF doesn't come into it.

Well they do when you are being asked to stand as a BOF Councillor/director - heaven knows why they would think that was a good idea when they plainly don't like anything I think, do or say.

I undertook MADO originally not simply for the good of my own club - but to show other clubs there was another way to develop the sport outside the profoundly irritating and comparatively fruitless school development mode which was BOF's main thrust at the time (it was basically the only thing the development officers were interested in).

Now even BOF think going local and targeting specific areas is a good idea - and it's funny how "satellite clubs" are suddenly the in thing with BOF - not that they'd ever let on it had anything to do with MADO.

[awk]

Well they do when you are being asked to stand as a BOF Councillor/director - heaven knows why they would think that was a good idea when they plainly don't like anything I think, do or say.

I understand now: sorry, I read your post as saying that you wouldn't do any volunteer work. I hadn't realised it was targeted specifically at a suggestion you volunteer at BOF level.

Now even BOF think going local and targeting specific areas is a good idea - and it's funny how "satellite clubs" are suddenly the in thing with BOF

Well, that was all stuff I tried to get off the ground in my time, with varied success. It's interesting how the concept of satellite clubs was so negatively received in some areas at the time, and how it's now so much more accepted. Maybe partly as a result of MADO?