Copy
Orienteering USA eNewsletter - allow images to see photos & graphics.
View this email in your browser
Annual General Meeting
Announcements
Recent and Upcoming Events
About the Newsletter
The OUSA Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place following the first day of competition at the ROC event in Letchworth State Park near Portageville, NY on September 16.
Board of Director Elections
There were five open spots on the OUSA Board of Directors at the AGM. Kris Beecroft and Lee Todd were reelected; Clare Durand returned to the Board after having served previously; and Nathan Ohrwaschel and William Jameson are newcomers to the BOD. You can see full profiles of the newest Board members here. Welcome and thank you for your time and commitment to US orienteerirng!

From left to right: Clare Durand, William Jameson, Nathan Ohrwaschel

Here are your members of Orienteering USA's Board of Directors for the 2017-2018 year:

Kris Beecroft (QOC)* - President
Barb Bryant (NEOC) - Vice President/Youth Initiatives
Clare Durand (LAOC)*
Bob Forgrave (COC) - Vice President/Club Services
Peter Goodwin (UNO)
William Jameson (COK)* - Recording Secretary 
Alex Jospe (CSU) - Vice President/Competition
Greg Lennon (QOC)
Pat Meehan (OCIN) - Vice President/Finance
Nathan Ohrwaschel (DVOA)*
Ian Smith (NEOC/CSU)
Lee Todd (QOC)*

*Elected in 2017

Return to Top
OUSA Financial Report

Pat Meehan, Vice President of Finance, prepared a financial report that was presented at the AGM and can be found here.
Main takeaways from Pat's presentation:
  • At the end of 2016 OUSA had a discretionary cash balance of -$26,368.28.
  • We established a 2017 budget providing zero dollars to any team or any other designated purpose.
  • We defunded the Executive Director salary and expenses, trading services for ~$50,000+ in anticipated savings this year.
  • We are building back our cash reserves.
  • We will budget for 2018 to the teams, and other programs, what we have at year end 2017.
  • We anticipate a discretionary cash balance at year end 12/31/17 of ~ $75,000.
  • Operational expenses will come from 2018 revenues, above and beyond the year end balance.
  • Projected year end discretionary cash balance for 12/31/18 is ~ $135,000.

Return to Top
Annual Awards

A number of annual awards were handed out by OUSA President Kris Beecroft.

Silva Award
The Orienteering USA Silva Service Award is given annually to an OUSA member who has demonstrated outstanding service to orienteering in the United States over the past five years. The recipient need not be a terrific orienteer, and orienteering skill is not considered in determining the award winner. The essential quality of every winner has been service to promoting and sustaining orienteering, to making the sport work in this country, and in helping to build the organizations needed to make orienteering successful. You can find the list of previous winners here.


Bill Gookin (SDO)
Photo from the San Diego Reader, 11/2000

President’s Awards
The OUSA President's awards are handed out at the President's discretion to recognize those who have made significant contributions to the sport of orienteering in the United States during the past year.

Greg Lennon  (QOC)
Peter Goodwin (UNO)
Sandy Fillebrown (DVOA)


Golden Service Awards
The purpose of the Orienteering USA Golden Service Awards is to recognize those individuals who have provided exceptional service to the sport of orienteering that extends beyond the local club level.

Ron Birks (GPHXO)
David Cady (BFLO)
Karen Dennis (SDO)
Marvin Johnston (LAOC)
Guy Olsen (HVO)
Alar Ruutopold  (UNO)   

Congratulations to all the winners!
Read more about this year's Award winners here.


Return to Top

Board of Directors Meeting

The new board of directors met immediately after the AGM. Positions on the executive board were elected, including a new VP/youth initiatives. The minutes of the September 16th OUSA Board of Directors meeting can be found here

Return to Top
OUSA Convention - A Plan for the Future
 

OUSA invites all members of the US orienteering community to the 2017 Orienteering USA Convention. The convention will  immediately precede the Classic Champs and be a full day of presentations and discussions with topics pertaining to Event Organization, Marketing and Publicity, Athlete Development and Junior Programs, Web and Technology, and club offerings from OUSA. Clubs can expect to come away with actionable plans for how to advance the sport.  

OUSA will record all talks and make them accessible on YouTube for people unable to attend.

When: Friday, November 10, 2017, 10 AM - 6 PM

Where: Alexandria, Virginia: Northern Virginia Community College Schlesinger Center

Cost: Free to OUSA members, $10 for non-members.  A bag lunch will be offered for $10 per lunch.

Website: https://orienteeringusa.org/2017-convention

 

Return to Top
OUSA Mapping Workshop at the Falls Classic: Recap

OUSA board member Peter Goodwin and mapping experts Bill Cusworth and Matthew Robbins organized a fruitful mapping workshop at the Rochester Orienteering Club National Meet September 15-17. Accounts from organizers and participants alike were positive and encouraging. Read Peter's account of the workshop here.

A second workshop of this kind will be held the weekend of November 10-12. See the announcement below.

Return to Top
Upcoming OUSA Mapping Workshops at QOC National Meet
 
OUSA is organizing mapping workshops for mappers of all levels in conjunction with the OUSA Convention* and the QOC National Event in November. The details are still being worked out but three separate workshops will be available. One will be ”woods mapping”, the second will be a “look at LIDAR” and the last will be related to “mapping parks and schoolyards”. These sessions are open to anyone who has an interest in learning more about mapping. There is no charge for these workshops although you need to sign up so there are enough materials for each participant.

Schedule:
Friday, November 10th (the day of the convention):  Woods mapping workshop at 9:00 AM. This workshop will involve hands-on work on how to map in the woods. Discussions about how to map particular features will be the focus of the workshop as well as how to put the field notes into a computer.

*Note: The first day of the workshop and the convention are simultaneous sessions

Time to be determined: A presentation about what you can get from LIDAR, how to obtain LIDAR data and how to process it. This may be part of the convention or it may be at another time.

Sunday, November 12th: This workshop will be after the Sunday event at the carpooling site. Participants will be able to learn more about how to make a park/schoolyard type map.
For more information, contact Peter Goodwin.

Return to Top
National Team Open Training Camp Schedule
 

This is a selection of training camps that are scheduled for the upcoming months around North America. These camps target a variety of audiences from intermediate juniors to national team runners. Contact the camp organizers for more information and to learn if a specific camp is appropriate for you.
 

Calgary Sprint Camp 7-8 October 2017 - Calgary, AB
 

FLO’s Annual JROTC Training Camp October 13-15 2017 - Titusville, FL

 

US National Team Camp based around Boulder Dash October 12-17 - Hanover, NH; contact Greg Ahlswede

 

US National Team Camp in Delaware Water Gap October 20-23 - Stroudsburg, PA; contact Greg Ahlswede

 

WOC Training Camp based around QOC Classic Champs Nov 11-12 - Triangle, VA; contact Greg Ahlswede

 

LAOC Training Camp Champ Scherman November 17-19 - Mountain Center, CA

 

OCIN Trol Camp November 25-26 - Miami, OH; contact Mike Minium
Informal training camp at Harriman State Park November 24-26 - Suffern, NY; contact Ian Smith


Return to Top
World Rogaining Championships Awarded to OUSA

The International Rogaining Federation (IRF) has awarded the rights to host the 17th World Rogaining Championships (WRC) to OUSA. The event will be hosted by the Bay Area Orienteering Club in conjunction with a number of organizations and orienteering clubs who are members of OUSA.

The Championships will be held on 1st – 2nd August, 2020 and will attract hundreds of elite and veteran endurance cross-country navigators from around the world. The event will be based in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California east of the San Francisco Bay Area. The combination of high altitude, intricate pine forests and physically demanding terrain will be sure to offer a true challenge to the world’s best rogainers.

See the official press release here. Congratulations to BAOC for winning this bid!

Return to Top
Orienteering Coaching Clinic

Trainer: Erin Schirm , OUSA National Junior Coach

Come improve your orienteering skills by learning to teach others!!


Sat Nov. 18, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm at Holliday Park
Sun. Nov. 19, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm at Camp Belzer
Cost:  $100  (covers clinic and materials and a simple lunch on Sat. and Sun.)

We are excited to offer a Level 1 OUSA coaching certification course in Indianapolis, Indiana, November 18th and 19th. This course will cover a broad range of coaching topics for orienteering and introduce many practical exercises and principles that you can use to help guide and teach beginners to advanced orienteering at various ages. Each day, we will start out in the woods for 3-4 hours covering basic physical movement training and activities for orienteering training,  basic orienteering skills through the advanced level including various exercises and games. We will head to the classroom in the afternoon for 3-4 hours to cover the theories of what we practiced in the woods, explore the concepts of creating your own exercises and activities from the principles, and explore, the basic pillars of being a coach/teacher and individual athlete and coaching development. 

Registration is found on the ICO website:  http://www.indyo.org/schedule/2017-events/-orienteering-coaching-clinic

Return to Top
Announcements from VP/Competition

National Event Changes
The Orienteering USA Board of Directors just approved a new structure for our National Events. The full proposal that was passed can be viewed here.

The rules are currently being drafted to support the intent of this proposal, and will be available soon. The most visible changes include new names for championship events: 
Junior Nationals (Formerly: Interscholastic and Intercollegiate Championships)
Orienteering USA Nationals (Formerly: sprint/middle/long distance Individual Championships)
Masters Nationals (Formerly: two-day combined-time Classic Championships)

We look forward to clubs taking advantage of the new "free" ranking event days, and building a fuller schedule of National Ranking Events in the future. If you or your club have any questions about this, please contact Alex Jospe, VP of Competition.

Orienteering USA Junior Team giving back to the Community
We hear a lot about the Junior Team, but that's mostly in the context of their competitions and results. What isn't always immediately obvious is the amount of work that these talented young men and women are giving back to their community as they strive to improve. The Junior Team Executive Steering Committee (JTESC) has compiled some of these efforts, and wanted to share this information with the rest of the community. Take a look here.

Return to Top

National Event Calendar 

Notes:
*   = OUSA Board of Directors Meeting. All members are welcome.
Return to Top
Recap: ROC Falls Classic: September 16-17
 
Rochester Orienteering Club hosted a two-fay national meet on September 16-17 near Portageville, NY at Letchworth State Park, the spectacular "Grand Canyon of the East."
 
The competitors faced two days of challenging courses scrambling up and down the steep slopes above the Genesee river. Day 2 courses on the West side of the park, set by Kathy Bannister, drew particular praise from competitors for their excellent use of terrain, including sections with short legs and intricate contours, as well as faster running with challenging route choice problems in the flatter part of the map. As part of the weekend's festivities, ROC offered a picnic lunch, the proceeds from which will be donated to the US National Teams.

E-punch master, Valerie Meyer, and                                   
her second favorite beagle, Barnacle.                                          Results can be found here.
RouteGadget is available for Day 1 and Day 2.

In addition to sightseeing around the park, many orienteers attended OUSA's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday afternoon. Info about the AGM can be found above.

 
Recap: World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships

Four MTBO-ers had the opportunity to represent OUSA this past summer at the Masters World Championships and World Cup races in Orleans, France, and the World Championships in Vilnius, Lithuania. Each country had vastly different terrain from the other, which is why orienteering in other parts of the world is such a great opportunity to see a variety of maps and conditions.

Women's Long Distance at the WMTBOC.
Click map for larger version.


Team USA was
represented by Sue Grandjean (CROC), Abra McNair (CROC), and Rachel Furman (Little Rock, AR) at the World Championships, and by Joe Brautigam (WCOC) at the Masters World Championships. One of the highlights for Team USA was Joe Brautigam's 6th place in his age class in the sprint race at the Masters World Championships.

Team USA: Sue, Abra, Rachel

Read here for the race descriptions and results from this summer’s international MTBO events and stay tuned for a more in-depth report in the upcoming issue of Orienteering North America.

Return to Top

UNO Boulder Dash

In the early fall of 2016, as the North American Championships were getting underway, there was already talk among UNO’s members about heading back to Hanover and the Burnt Mountain map for the next Boulder Dash – and the time for that is October 14-15, 2017.  To bring back the memory of that special day for those who were there, and to help those who weren’t in attendance understand what they can expect – we bring you this September 24, 2016 entry from the Attackpoint log of Thierry Gueorgiou, 14-time world champion, and dominant winner of last year’s NAOC long-distance race:
“North American Orienteering Championships, long distance at Burnt Mountain. 
The most ecstatic run of my season, and for sure one of the best terrain I have ever visited. When I turned my map over at the start, I just couldn´t stop smiling. Enjoyed every step in this forest, even if I won´t again argue that the 1/15.000 rule for a WRE is so unnecessary for this type of terrain and kills half of the fun. Anyway, it was a great orienteering day here in US.”

 
You’ll be challenged by two days of classic length courses at Burnt Mountain, along with a Friday afternoon downhill sprint-length course fundraiser for the U.S. National Teams. Saturday and Sunday will both be centered at the south side of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center parking lot. Camping is available at Storrs Pond, along with self-serve training courses on the Oak Hill Map.  Saturday dinner is again being offered at the Dartmouth Dining Hall.
Meet information is here.


Return to Top
DVOA Twisted 50

Delaware Valley Orienteering Association will host a national event on November 4th and 5th, 2017.

Saturday Nov 4th will feature two sprint races: one in the morning at Hawk Mountain Scout Reservation, and an afternoon Sprint on the university campus at Penn State Berks.  On Sunday, Nov 5th, there will be a Long event at Mt. Penn.  All three sites are within about a half hour of Reading, PA.

Hawk Mountain Scout Reservation is a forested camp, and is expected to be a technical sprint venue with very challenging en-route navigation, involving many route choices and decision points. The map is a new 1:5,000 scale, 5m contours, improved ISOM map, with fieldwork and drafting by Vladimir Zherdev (June 2016), and with revisions by Sam Kolins (2017). A sample area of the map:
                                  
The Berks Campus of Penn State University is a mixed-landscape suburban college campus, and is expected to provide fast, enjoyable running and pleasant aesthetics. The map is a new 1:5,000 scale, 2.5m contours, ISSOM map, with fieldwork and drafting by Vladimir Zherdev (December 2016).

Mount Penn is a forested hill mass overlooking the City of Reading. The terrain doesn’t have extreme technical difficulty, but the trail network is likely to provide many route choice opportunities. There will be plenty of net downhill running with limited climb, especially for the shorter courses. The map is a new 1:10000 scale, 5m contours, ISOM, with initial mapping by Greg Balter, and additional fieldwork and drafting by Vladimir Zherdev.

For more information, see the event website.

Return to Top

US Classic Championships


Registration for the 2017 U.S. Classic Champs, Quantico Orienteering Club's Quinquagenary at Quantico (Q3), is open. This national event is scheduled November 11-12 and will feature some of the finest orienteering terrain in the Mid-Atlantic region. 

Q3 will offer two days of racing in typical Mid-Atlantic spur and reentrant terrain, reminiscent of the nearby terrain at Combat Village (1997 Classic Champs) and Prince William Forest Park (2002 and 2007 Classic Champs). The terrain is dominated by mixed pine and hardwood forest with scattered large grassy fields (Landing Zones in Marine Corps parlance);  generally very open and runnable, but with some variability due to scattered patches of thicker vegetation and deadfall, saplings of variable density, and areas of greenbrier and brambles

Join on Friday for mapping workshops and the OUSA convention, too. For more event information and to register visit uschamps.org


Return to Top
OINK!

Orienteer in Northern Kentucky this fall!

Three days of middle distance races on brand new maps just south of Cincinnati.  We will use three never-before-used areas for OCIN’s Winter Pig National Event on December 1-3.  All events will be within 20 miles south of Cincinnati, within 20 minutes of I-75 and the Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport.  Information will be posted at ocin.org and the EventReg system will soon open for online pre-registration.

Return to Top
How to sign up for this newsletter: 
Subscribe to the e-newsletter here!

Return to Top
Newsletter Contributions

We want to hear about what your club is doing! If you would like to add content to the next edition of the newsletter, please send it here by the 10th of the month. 


Return to Top
Click Here to view old issues of the newsletter
Newsletter Compiled and Edited by Allison Brown and Boris Granovskiy

Return to Top
Copyright © 2017 Orienteering USA, All rights reserved.
 
 unsubscribe from all OUSA lists | update OUSA subscription preferences 

Unsubscribing from all OUSA lists also unsubscribes you from future issues of O/NA Digital. Click 'update OUSA subscription preferences' to set your preferences individually.