The Punch March 2003

THE PUNCH March 2003
Chairman’s Chat Spring has arrived and it was good so see so many Suffolk members at the SOS Broaks event. Most were the usual suspects so where was everybody else ? As a Suffolk member you can go to events through out East Anglia. The contours of the North Norfolk costal areas event contrast to our forest whilst Epping forest is another challenge. Committee members are happy to share transport. Thanks to Martin Hoare for planning, a well received event, at Knetishall Heath, in January and for all of you who helped on the day. As the last competitor out some of the paths were starting to freeze. The next Suffolk event is at Ickwoth Park on Sunday 30th March. Good luck to Julien Dean and Paul Lowe. It is Julian’s first event as an organiser, so please give him as much support as possible. Our events have now been planned for 2004. Planners and Organisors have been found for nearly all events, but we still need assistants. Andrew Elliot


BOF News Chris Brasher, one of the founders of British Orienteering. It is with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Chris Brasher earlier today. Chris was BOF's first Chairman and our Honorary Vice President for many years. He was someone who got things done. Where other people saw barriers and obstacles he only saw opportunities. Getting the Army to erect a suspension bridge over the River Findhorn for the 1976 World Championships was perhaps his finest orienteering moment. But his life was full of achievements, orienteering in Britain was just one of them. The British Orienteering Federation is very excited to announce that Great Britain has been given the go ahead to host races from the 2005 World Cup series by the International Orienteering Federation. BOF will not be able to formally accept the event until UK Sport confirm funding, we hope to get this by March 2003.The successful staging of the event will assist in the development of Orienteering as a sport raising its profile to a wider audience. We are hoping to attract teams from over 30 countries and gain media attention from several countries. In a move, seen by some as groundbreaking, the Council of the British Orienteering Federation voted overwhelmingly to adopt the Ageless Badge Scheme, currently being piloted in the North of England and already adopted by Scotland, Federation wide in September 2003. A comprehensive review to include all age groups will take place once the scheme has been in operation for two years.

For those of you who have not renewed your membership this will be your last Punch. For BOF members who did not re-new due to the high subscription charge there was an error. This was due to the East Anglian chair replying to an e-mail late at night and a change of personnel at BOF. The East Anglian chair is very apologetic about the error and anyone who over paid should have had the overpayment refunded by John Webb. The correct fees for 2003 are
	Senior Junior Family Group	Club Only £7.00 £4.00 £7..00 £7.00	BOF & Club £22.00 £7.50 £29.50 £37.00

COMPASS SPORT CUP Many of you ran for the club last year in the Thetford Forest. This year all East Anglian clubs were given a choice of Mansfield or Lieth in the first round. Due to the considerable distance this would have involved travelling, the committee decided not to enter the competition this year. The final strangely is being held in Thetford in June. FUTURE FIXTURES 30th March Ickworth Park, Horringer, bury 15th September – Shrubland Park 2nd November – Tunstall forest 2004 1st February – Knetishall heath 17th March- Rendlesham Forest Sutton Common and Ickworth Park will also be re-mapped for later use in 2004. Assistant planners and organisers are needed. How did you start orienteering? One afternoon whilst at college I learnt how to use a compass. I ran a few courses and vaguely remember something about pacing 100m. The rest of my orienteering has been learnt by just doing it. In this newsletter you have been advised about the clubs falling membership. The committee has debated as to whether we should recruit more juniors or try to recruit from local running clubs. Any new member is good for the club, but ensuring they enjoy the sport is more important. Not everybody may have the confidence and enthusiasm to keep going to events and so will become a loss to the sport. The club needs a coach is a simple answer, but then a coach has to guess what they think is appropriate. This could hit and miss. In order to start a debate on how the club become more accessible perhaps other members of the club could share how they started orienteering. Members new to orienteering could say how they have found orienteering in East Anglia so far. Andrew Elliot

Points East

Chairman's Chat

First of all an apology. Back in November I opened an E-mail late at night - those that know me well realise this is a normal occurrence. It was from BOF asking for a reply by return for the membership fees for EAOA. Due to a tired brain, slightly ambiguous wording and the fact that I had just looked up SOS membership fees for something else, I banged off a reply with the SOS figures when in fact EAOA membership fees are zero. Our region includes EA membership in the club membership fees and the club pays a capitation levy to EAOA. The result was that all East Anglian membership renewals from BOF went out incorrectly. BOF were unable to correct these although they did adjust the direct debits to take the right amount. Word got round and many people deducted £7 for individuals and £11.50 for families from the total. If you didn't and just paid up, a refund will come to you from EAOA via your club. If you haven't renewed your BOF membership, then deduct the excess and send your cheque to BOF. Please note that the renewal reminders that will go out in March will be for the correct amounts - these will vary depending on club membership fees so I won't confuse matters further by quoting figures!

The busy autumn programme has given way to a busy programme stretching ahead into the spring - with a brief respite for Christmas and New Year celebrations. Theoretically I was due two weekends off. One of those was spent at BOF council and the romantic weekend in France turned out to include 'O' as well. More of that later.

The biggest news from BOF council is that the Junior Ageless Badge Scheme is to be adopted nationwide. For those of you who don't know anything about this scheme I will explain. It has been running in the north and across the border in Scotland for a couple of years. Basically there are five levels of technical difficulty (TD) - corresponding to TD of colour-coded courses. At TD5 (the hardest) there are different course lengths. The idea is that Juniors choose the course suitable to their ability and are not restricted by age. It is popular in the areas where it has been piloted and is designed to encourage wider participation. I believe the scheme has some merits especially where teenagers take up the sport. In particular, there was a strong representation from BSOA in support of the scheme.

The predicted BOF deficit for 2002 looks like it has turned into a small profit. Some of this is due to differences in the way lottery funded programmes have to be budgeted to include matching funding but then this doesn't necessarily get spent. However, it is also in part due to the decline in membership not being as great as the pessimists feared. This is good news although I hope that the increased fees this year do not reverse the trend.

The BOF Child Protection Policy is proceeding. Council has decided that those working with Juniors and vulnerable adults should go through the Enhanced Disclosure process. I have done this and have a Certificate of Disclosure. It didn't prove too complicated although it took a bit of assembling all the relevant paperwork to prove who I was. If you have opened a bank account recently, then it will be no problem! The question to be addressed is to what level should this be applied. All coaches and instructors will be required to go through the procedure when their qualification comes up for renewal. The EAOA committee feels that the Squad Managers and Coach should submit themselves but that regular parent helpers should not. The basic process is probably sufficient. Clubs should consider where they stand on the policy. The issues are mainly around those involved in coaching Juniors especially those going into schools. However, many schools now ask for Disclosure anyway. It does not need to be applied, as some have suggested, to all helpers at events. A little common sense needs to be used. Alex Ross is authorised by CRB to countersign the forms. Alex or I can supply details of how to apply. As no-one is keen to entrust their identity to Royal Mail, Alex has asked for regional reps to check the documents on his behalf and I have agreed act as EAOA rep. If you need me to do this, contact me to arrange an event where we can meet up. I then forward the form (but not the documents) to Alex for countersignature.

Now I'm sure many of you are asking why so much money is being wasted on this and related issues such the recently launched Equity Policy. In short the answer is funding. These are required by the major funding bodies. This will have benefit to Clubs and Associations who apply for grants for local projects. Almost certainly the application form will contain questions about child protection and equity policies. All you need to do is answer that you subscribe to the relevant BOF policy and if necessary enclose a copy (available via BOF web site). However, I think we should not be ostriches about this. If, heaven forbid, a complaint was made, then orienteering would be crucified in the press if we had no safeguards in place. We would be foolish to assume it could never happen.

On a lighter note, back in the forest, the Juniors have started the Future Champions Cup series and the first tour selection race has taken place. Their schedule is packed for the next couple of months. For the rest of us, SMOC staged a successful East Anglian Championships. I thoroughly enjoyed my run at Silverstone - the sun shone and the woods were a delight. Thank you to Keith and his band of helpers. Congratulations to all our Champions - worthy winners all. It was a shame that the older Juniors were thin on the ground. The event clashed with the first selection race. The regional round of the CompassSport competition looms, rapidly followed by the Midland Champs at Chatsworth (EA members are eligible for trophies), the JK at Easter and the British Championships in May. The JK being based in Berks./Bucks. is not too far away and is well worth the trip to experience the largest event in UK.

For those less adventurous, there are plenty of events in East Anglia so check out the Fixtures List. I hope to see you in a forest soon.

Lyn West (SOS)

Orienteering for Everyone

One of the nice things about orienteering is that there is always something for everyone. On a cold and frosty morning in January I was able to help with data input for Sport Ident at Knettlesham Heath and then when my family joined me, we went off on a course, two daughters armed with their dibbers ready for action, baby boy in the backpack.

We usually have to find a “biscuit bush” to keep them going, but once they’ve found their first control to “beep” they love it. After we got back, I went out on my own to collect in a few controls at the end of the morning and enjoyed a little bit of orienteering on my own.

This month we had a lovely day out at the SOS event in Essex - definitely glad that we took the wellies this time, there was mud, mud and lots more glorious mud! “Don’t drop your dipper”, I told the girls and we’d made it all the way to control 10, when “Daddy, I’ve dropped my dibber!”. Luckily for us we found out that dibbers sometimes float, and back-tracking a few hundred yards, found the bright orange electronic finger!

Later this month we’ve got Ickworth Park to look forward to. I’ll help for the first couple of hours and then maybe run a course, or perhaps go around with my family. If you’ve thought about helping out at an event, please do, you don’t have to give up all your day, and will get the chance to do a course too. It’s interesting to see what’s involved in running an event, and makes you appreciate those who do give up the day and spend hours before planning.

Ian Price

“Sport Ident: Would you like to get involved?”

I am trying to get together a list of who has had what experience with using the SI kit.

Please will you help me by putting answering YES or NO by each of the following statements. Just delete whichever does not apply and post back to me. If you want to add any comments at the end. Thanks

1. I hate computers and don't want to be involved. YES/NO
2. I work with computers all week and don't want to see one at the weekend. YES/NO
3. I have computer experience and I would like to be involved. YES/NO
4. I have limited computer experience and I would like to be involved. YES/NO
5. I have experience of LANs and I am keen to be involved YES/NO
6. I am familiar with the data input procedures YES/NO
5 I have entered competitors' data at at least one event. YES/NO
6. I am familiar with the downloading procedure. YES/NO
7. I have done downloading. YES/NO
8. I know how to deal with competitors whose dibber is not in the system. YES/NO
9. I know how to deal with a competitor who has been entered on the wrong course. YES/NO
10. I know how to deal with dead, missing or replaced controls. YES/NO
11. I know how to print results. YES/NO
12. I would be interested in a training session on a weekday evening. YES/NO

John Webb - Treasurer & Membership
john@sproughton.flyer.co.uk
17 Church Lane, Sproughton, IPSWICH, Suffolk IP8 3BA

Changes to the EAOA SportIdent

First of all, SportIdent are coming over from Germany during April to upgrade the software in the SI stations. They are very kindly offering to do this free of charge provided all the units can be delivered to a central location in early April and collected at the JK.

The benefits of this upgrade will be:
* The new SI-card 6 is fully supported
* The battery usage as displayed by SIManager will be more accurate
* Training Mode is modified and improved
* A foil shield will be fitted to protect from radio interference.
* A Battery Voltage Tester will be fitted. This gives a clear audible indication if a battery is exhausted when the unit is turned on. This is an extra cost which EAOA has agreed to pay.

Fortunately, the region was not planning to use the equipment close to Easter so we have an arrangement to deliver the equipment to SportIdent after the HAVOC event on 6th April and to collect it from the JK.

The second piece of news is that the EAOA has agreed to purchase a fast thermal printer of the type NOR already have. This will be ideal for printing competitor split times at download. This will be a great help at the CompassSport Cup Final which we are hosting on June 1st.

Bruce Marshall
SportIdent Equipment Manager

Stump or Stock?

At Day 2 of the Thetford Thrash at Warren Wood, there was a rather peculiar complaint about my map - that the features I had marked as rootstocks couldn't have been rootstocks because they were fallen trees which still had the trunk attached! Now apart from stating the obvious that said fallen tree was the most prominent feature where the green cross was marked on the map, and that there also happened to be a nice red and white flag next to it, I wondered whether it did have some sort of pedantic foundation.A little investigation reveals the following, from the current draft IOF Control Descriptions:

Tree stump - The stump of a tree.Root stock - The upturned root of a fallen tree, with or without the trunk.
(The version in the 1997 BOF rules has the latter definition only)So am I in the clear? At first glance maybe, but the official version uses two words rather than one, whilst in a dictionary a rootstock is a synonym for rhizome, and I can't find a definition for the two word version. I'm sure that someone told me that the two word version actually arose from a mistranslation, and doesn't really mean anything in English at all! In summary, I think my heinous crime was to omit the space in the legend :-) Aside No.1 from Points East

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