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Controller's Notes
FROM THE EDITOR
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Thanks to all who submitted content for this newsletter. Send your articles, pictures and ideas to newsletter@orienteering.ca by the submission deadlines listed below. The newsletter will be published within a few weeks after these dates:
Submission deadlines: June 15, July 15, Aug 31, Oct 15. Nov 30
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Orienteering Canada welcomes Icebug as a Sponsor
SPONSORSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT
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Orienteering Canada is excited to announce a partnership with Icebug. Icebug is a global leader in creating innovative shoes for trail and off trail activities. Icebug makes shoes specifically designed for orienteering, OCR and trail running.
Icebug is sponsoring Orienteering Canada’s High Performance Program: a support system for many of Canada’s top and up-and-coming elite orienteers. Icebug is also sponsoring National Orienteering Week (NOW) in conjunction with o-store.ca with the goal of increasing awareness about the exciting sport of orienteering. 2015’s National Orienteering Week is June 6 to 14 and orienteering clubs across Canada will be putting on beginner friendly orienteering events to encourage people to try the sport.
“We are excited to have Icebug as an Orienteering Canada sponsorâ€, explained Brent Langbakk, Orienteering Canada’s High Performance Director. “We love that Icebug is sponsoring our High Performance Program which focuses on developing elite orienteering and National Orienteering Week which focuses on bringing newcomers to the sport. Their sponsorship mirrors the diversity of the Icebug line of shoes in that they have great shoes for all levels of orienteers.â€
“We at Icebug believe that orienteering has huge potential for growth in Canada because it combines the thrill of adventure running with the added mental challenge of route finding. It would be great to see more people give this really fun sport a try! We look forward to supporting Orienteering Canada’s programming for developing to elite orienteersâ€, said Ian Lowe-Wylde, President of Rock Gear Distribution, the company that represents Icebug in Canada. “We are also pleased to now have Icebug shoes available at the o-store.ca, Canada’s premier supplier of orienteering equipment.â€
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National Orienteering Week
JUNE 6-14, 2015
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National Orienteering Week (NOW) is upon us. Clubs across Canada are putting on beginner friendly events from June 6-14. Here's the full list of NOW events.
Here is what YOU can do to help make NOW 2015 even more of a success:
- Encourage someone who is new to orienteering to give it a try.
- Bring a friend to an event.
- Pass along info about an event through your channels (word of mouth, social media, etc). Post great photos.
- Add the hashtag #orienteerNOW to your social media posts on facebook, twitter, instagram, etc.
- Create a video where you fill in this sentence "Orienteering is a great sport because..." Send it to Orienteering Canada or post it on our social media
- Do you work on your club's promo - talk about NOW on your club's website and social media. Put the NOW logo on your website. Share, share, share and like, like, like.... Help us build a stronger web and social media presences for NOW.
- Make sure that your event website has lots of relevant info for beginners. Try not to use too much "lingo" and try to include information that would be helpful for someone coming to an event for the first time.
- Look at the Orienteering Canada NOW promotions tool kit for ideas to enhance your club's NOW events (and send us more ideas too)
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Icebug has generously provided a number of coupons for $100 off a pair of Icebug shoes, purchased on-line or in person at o-store.ca. There are 3 ways to win.
- #orienteerNOW - post on facebook, twitter or instagram between June 3rd and June 15th, 2015 using the hashtag #orienteerNOW. Helps us promote NOW through your social media channels. We'll select some coupon winners from people who use the #orienteerNOW hashtag to promote National Orienteering Week, orienteering in general, or a specific NOW event.
- Video submission - make a video where you finish the sentence "Orienteering is a great sport because..." Send us the video (now@orienteering.ca) or post it on our social media. We'll select some coupon winners from people who submit a video.
- Club report - orienteering clubs, send us an email telling us how many newcomers came out to your NOW event(s) and we'd love it if you sent us some pictures too. We'll select some clubs to receive a coupon and you can create a fun way to give it away to a club member.
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Update From Orienteering Canada
THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND COMMITTEES
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AGM. We have set the date for the 2015 AGM for Sat Aug 22 at 4 pm at the Debert Hospitality Centre in Debert, NB during the Canadian Orienteering Championships.
BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE. The Orienteering Canada Board of Directors is now meeting by conference call on the last Tuesday of each month.
CALLING ALL CANADIAN ATHLETES WHO WILL BE COMPETING IN WORLD RANKING EVENTS (Including the Western Canadian Orienteering Championships and the Canadian Orienteering Championships). The International Orienteering Federation is now using EVENTOR, an orienteering event management system. All athletes who participate in World Ranking Events in any of the orienteering disciplines need to create a user account for themselves in IOF Eventor before taking part in the event. If you are competing on the same course as the W/M21E then you will also be competing in the WRE.
For instance for the 2015 COCs - This applies to all male athletes competing on the men’s elite course and all female athletes competing on the women’s elite course.
- For the middle and long distance races, this is the M and W 17-20 and 21-34 classes.
- For the sprint, it includes the following classes: M17-20, M21-34, M35-44, M45-54, W15-16, W17-20, W21-34E, W35-44
Here is how you set up your account: Go to eventor.orienteering.org, and click on Create user account. Please choose the first option: “I am an athlete participating in eventsâ€. After filling in your information, if you have earlier participated in WREs, IOF Eventor will ask you: “Are you this and this personâ€? You will then have to choose yourself on the list, and your account will be merged with your results. User guides for IOF Eventor can be found here: http://eventor.orienteering.org/Home/HelpAndSupport
COACHES AND TEAM LEADERS TO WOC AND JWOC 2015. News from the High Performance Committee: Raphael Ferrand will be coaching Team Canada at both JWOC and WOC this year. Raphael coached our Canadian JWOC team last year. We are thrilled to have Raphael working with us again. We are also pleased to have veteran team leaders working with the WOC and JWOC teams again this year. Stefan Bergstrom (Ottawa) is the team leader for the JWOC team and Meghan Rance (Vancouver / Hamilton) is the team leader for the 2015 WOC team.
UPCOMING MAJOR EVENTS. We are looking forward to seeing many of you at the Western Canadian Orienteering Championships in July in the Yukon and the Canadian Orienteering Championships in August in the Maritimes. Click on the logos below for the event websites.
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In Memoriam
REMEMBERING SCOTT ROBERTSON, PIERRE BRASSARD AND GINETTE CORMIER
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Scott Robertson, one of the founders of Calgary’s first orienteering club, the Calgary Kangaroos died on April 30, 2015 in Comox, BC.
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Scott and his wife Raelene played a huge role in starting orienteering in Alberta and particularly in Calgary. Scott represented Canada at the World Orienteering Championships in 1976 in Scotland. He met with wife Raelane at the 1977 Canadian Orienteering Championships in Wentworth, Nova Scotia. Scott took photogrammetry training from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and became one of Canada’s first orienteering mappers. Scott was an orienteer, road runner and trail runner.
You can read Scott’s obituary here.
Our deepest sympathies go to Scott’s wife Raelene and their family. We are incredibly grateful for the contribution that Scott made to developing orienteering in Canada.
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Pierre Brassard (President of Orienteering Ottawa) and his wife Ginette Cormier died in a tragic accident on May 14, 2015.
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Pierre and Ginette were long-time members of Orienteering Ottawa and Pierre was in his second year as president of the club. Prior to coming to Ottawa, Pierre and Ginette were in Hamilton where Pierre was an integral part of the Golden Horseshoe Orienteering Club.
Pierre was a soft spoken gentleman who had a deep passion for the outdoors. He thrived when challenged with the most difficult parts of any orienteering competition. Although often found navigating the long course, Pierre’s favourite orienteering disciplines were ultra-long races and Rogaines.
Ginette would often participate in the club’s recreational events and was a fixture at the finish line cheering on runners whilst waiting for Pierre to return. Ginette was also a committed volunteer for the club, contributing her great energy and joyful smile to the tasks at hand.
Several orienteers have shared memories of Pierre and Ginette on the Attackpoint website.
We send our deepest sympathies to the families of Ginette and Pierre. We are so grateful for their devotion to orienteering.
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What I've Learned This Month
FROM THE DESK OF ORIENTEERING CANADA PRESIDENT ANNE TEUTSCH
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Recently I’ve been learning a lot about the orienteering mapping needs across our great and expansive country. Orienteering doesn’t survive without good maps, and we can’t just rest on our laurels and use maps that we have had around for a long time – for two reasons – maps do become outdated, as time changes a forest and humanity changes both urban and rural landscapes; and also championship events are required to be on “new†maps. We need new maps and we need updated maps and we seem to need them all the time. Across the country, clubs put a great deal of effort into finding mappers to create these masterpieces. But it’s a pretty special skill set that is needed to be an orienteering mapper.
Often clubs will hire a European mapper, but it’s a complicated process to make this happen. This year, Orienteering Canada is trying to help out a bit by coordinating an effort to hire Canadian mapper(s) or bring in foreign mapper(s) to fill the needs of multiple clubs across the country. There are a number of i’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed to meet Canadian regulations for bringing temporary foreign workers into Canada. Thanks to Barbara Scheck in the Yukon for coordinating this effort for all of us.
As we hear from clubs about their lists of mapping projects yet to be completed for want of a qualified mapper, and not, interestingly enough, for want of financial resources, it brings to the forefront the wish to have more trained mappers within Canada. It is something that we need to follow up on, so if you are a mapper, or if you have ambitions to become one, or if you have ideas for how to interest and train mappers in Canada, please share your thoughts with us (president AT orienteering DOT ca).
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Coach Communiqué
THE LATEST FROM ORIENTEERING CANADA'S COACHING PROGRAM
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Competition Introduction Course Update
Good progress has been made towards the development of the material for the pilot Competition-Introduction workshop in August. Right now it looks like we can complete all the classroom work in about three hours. A practical, outdoor session of approximately 2 hours is also part of the workshop schedule. Kitty Jones will help us try to integrate that session into the Sass Peepre Camp schedule.
A draft of the slide presentation has been completed (70 slides) as well as rough drafts of the Coach’s workbook, the Facilitators Guide, and the Reference Manual.
We have set up a proposed workshop schedule during the COC week for the classroom components. We will also endeavour to set up the workshop coaches with a team of young athletes so they can emulate the “Support the Competitive Experience†responsibilities with those athletes at late-week COC events.
Karin Gerritsen, Kitty Jones and Brent Langbakk (and hopefully others) will help me with the workshop delivery and set-up of the practical exercises.
For up to date information on the course, visit here.
Bill Anderson, Coaching Committee
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From The Archives
LOOKING BACK INTO THE ORIENTEERING CANADA ARCHIVES
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Here's a not-so-oldie, but a goodie. Yes Mag was a Canadian children’s science magazine. In 2006 they did a theme issue on cartography and included a two page, comic-style story about orienteering. The story won an award from the Association of Educational Publishers in the US. Feel free to use this resource - hmmmmm, maybe even at your upcoming National Orienteering Week event!
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Orienteering Gear Profile
IN CONJUNCTION WITH O-STORE.CA
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SPORTident has created a new “must have†for the most geeky of the orienteers among us. With the support of Moscompass, SPORTident has created a compass / timing chip (ie. finger stick or SI card) combo. It comes in two versions - the ComCard Up and the ComCard Pro (Com = compass; Card = SI timing card).
What does it look like? It looks like a regular Moscompass thumb compass and you can choose the compass module you want (fast, stable, rainbow, etc.) to go with it.
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What about the SI timing portion? If you lay the compass (still attached to your thumb) on top of an SI timing control unit (the regular unit you see at every control in the forest) it registers your time on your ComCard. The ComCard Up acts like an SI-8, the ComCard Pro acts like an SI-10 (faster, stores more controls).
The cost? The same as purchasing the finger stick and the compass separately.
The advantage? You don’t need to insert anything into the timing unit – you can slide it across the top? You only have one thing to remember to bring to the race start instead of two? It’s really geeky? It’s a new toy? Your friend has one?
And for the techno-whizzes, how does it work? The compass has an induction coil embedded in the base, which, when it is brought near enough to the coil in the timing unit, generates electro-magnetic flux which induces a current which powers the chip which stores the required information (time and SI unit number) on itself. NO, the embedded coil DOES NOT affect the workings of your compass. And YES, it works – the techno-whizzes in my house have tested it every which way. They have even attached it to a remote control drone and tried to record a time as it flies just above the timing unit. Score so far? Drone 47, Teutsches 0.
The new ComCard Up and ComCard Pro are available for purchase from the O-Store at o-store.ca. Come visit!
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Around The Refreshment Table
NEWS FROM AROUND THE ORIENTEERING COMMUNUTY
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Orienteering PEI
We are so excited to have one of the Canadian Orienteering Championship races in Charlottetown, PEI, an area where there is not currently an orienteering club. As a lead-up to the COCs, the organizing committee is working with a few local orienteers to develop orienteering on PEI. There's an Orienteering PEI facebook page, mailing list and whyjustrun website. And there is an Intro to Orienteering clinic coming up on June 14th at the Brookvale nordic ski area. If you have friends or family in PEI, please do let them know what's up and encourage them to connect with Orienteering PEI.
Orienteering New Brunswick job opportunity
ONB is looking to hire a part time promotions officer. More detail are available here.
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AOA Executive Director Pascale Levesque gets married
Congratulations to Pascale Levesque and her partner Frank Henvey. They got married in May in Mexico. The wedding was held in a pavillion overlooking the ocean just down the coast from Cancun, Mexico. Pascale arrived in a horse drawn carriage with her two nephews. A piper from Vancouver BC piped her and the boys down the aisle. Frank and Pascale were married by 2 close friends who performed the ceremony in English and French.
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Please consider making a donation to help grow orienteering in Canada. Tax receipts issued for donations over $10.
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