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As has been previously announced, OUSA's Annual General Meeting this year will be held September 16 at the Rochester National Event. The AGM is where OUSA’s members vote for new Board directors. Every year, four Board members’ terms expire, and this year those four members are Charlie Bleau, Tom Strat, Lee Todd, and myself. There’s no guarantee that all or any of these members will want to run again, but as we get closer to the AGM, we’ll let you know who is willing to stay on. However, in order to have a healthy organization, it’s important to try to have new thoughts, viewpoints, and opinions injected periodically. So consider this my first call for anyone interested in running for the Board this year. Please contact me (president@orienteeringusa.org) or Barb Bryant (secretary@orienteeringusa.org) if you’re interested or have any questions.
- OUSA President Kris Beecroft
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OUSA needs volunteers to serve on all committees. Please contact Kris Beecroft (president@orienteeringusa.org), Barb Bryant (secretary@orienteeringusa.org), or the head of the committee you are interested in. We are also looking to start new committees and projects related to marketing and sponsor relationships. Contact information for committee chairpersons is available here.
Committee Updates
Sanctioning: A bid has been received for 2018 Interscholastic / Intercollegiate Championships. The Committee is reviewing the accompanying national meet bid.
Bylaws and Grievance: no recent activity
Sport Working Group: We have developed and circulated a proposal to change the timing and structure of national events.
Rogaining:
- The Committee approved an Expression of Interest to hold the 2020 World Rogaining Championships in the Sierra Nevada, hosted by BAOC.
- The Committee has undertaken a project to change the name of the sport of rogaining.
World Orienteering Day: All clubs are encouraged to participate in World Orienteering day on May 24th, 2015. Around the country:
- New Mexico Orienteers are planning an event in Los Alamos.
- John Beck from Eastern Washington Orienteering Club reports that they will host an event in Liberty Lake, WA for 5th grade students from All Saints School in Spokane, WA.
- Western Pennsylvania Orienteering Club has prospects for two events, reports Jim Wolfe.
- Clare Durand of LAOC is likely to do an event either with the local Girl Scouts or one of the schools that attends their club’s meets.
- James Siscel of Cascade Orienteering Club will participate, with three fourth grade classes at Brookside Elementary School in Shoreline, WA.
Let us know what your club will do, or if you have any questions. See worldorienteeringday.com for more information. Andrea Schneider of Minnesota Orienteering Club is making maps for 3 schools willing to participate in her area.
Convention: The 2017 AGM will take place at the Letchworth/Rochester NY national meet in the fall
Finance Committee: Working on the 2016 financial statements, reviewing team funds, making changes to accounting and reporting procedures and systems, and embarking on a project to collect accounting and financial policies in one central document.
JTESC: The juniors in the National Program will have another great opportunity to train and compete this summer. Junior Coach Erin Schirm will lead a contingent to train in Finland, including competing at the long relay races Venla and Jukola. JWOC team members will train for the week prior to JWOC. Juniors will also be able to join a trip to Hungary to train for JWOC 2018. Team trials will take place in Minnesota in April; JTESC is arranging transportation and housing for team members.
Coaching certification: Coach Erin Schirm held two sessions on coaching at the Georgia Navigator Cup. Several more sessions are planned this spring.
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The OUSA Board will meet on March 25 at the National meet hosted by BAOC; all members are welcome to attend. The agenda is posted here. Topics will include the following:
Club survey: The results of the club survey are in; this will help us frame our priorities for supporting clubs over the next year.
50th Anniversary Funds: We will review proposals for allocation of funds in the areas of land access, technology/websites, and mapper development.
Proposal on changing the calendar and formats for national orienteering events.
2018 World Masters / World Cup Ski-O event: update from organizing committee
Growth of junior programs: We will review projects currently underway around the country, and decide how we can support and build on these activities to increase youth participation in orienteering. If you currently work with juniors, please contact barb.bryant@gmail.com to have your program included in our discussion.
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Junior Update: Wilson Awards
2017 Wilson Character Through Competition Award and Community Growth Grant s Announced
The Iain Wilson Character Through Competition Award recognizes young athletes who demonstrate character through their commitment to growth and improvement in the sport as well as their contribution to the orienteering community through service and teamwork. Congratulations to Siri Christopherson (COC), the 2017 Iain Wilson Character Through Competition Award winner.
Siri Christopherson, photo by Dave Yee
The Wilson Community Growth Grant is presented annually to develop and implement programs aimed at expanding access to orienteering for youth. The award supports creative, sustainable programming and efforts to connect with under-served youth. Awardees are selected based on several criteria, including the number of youth to be served and the expected impact on each individual.
Two projects were selected this year:
The first project will be led by Sherri Brady (COC) of Maple Valley, Washington. Grant funds will be used to develop and implement an orienteering unit as part of the physical education program at Tahoma Middle School.
 
The second project will be led by Barb Bryant (NEOC) through a grant to Navigation Games, Incorporated. Navigation Games will create true mentorship opportunities by hiring teens to learn orienteering, make maps, design lesson plans and teach skills. The impact of these grants will be felt immediately with program launches continuing through the spring.
President Kris Beecroft writes, "Orienteering USA is so pleased to be partnering with The Wilson Awards to recognize the innovative and impactful work being done with orienteering at the grassroots level. I am excited to see all of the new orienteers that these programs will bring into our sport."
For more about the community grant visit www.orienteeringusa.org/wilsongrant and for more information about the individual award visit www.orienteeringusa.org/wilsonaward. All award winners receive $1,000.
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Kathleen Lennon, who does social media outreach for QOC and OUSA, has these tips to share about using Facebook to help your club:
- Facebook places a post in the newsfeed of just a small fraction of your club’s followers. If your club isn’t paying Facebook to boost the post’s reach – and most aren’t – you can help increase the outreach with just a few simple clicks.
1) “LIKE” your club and other OUSA clubs, especially those located near yours. “FRIEND” fellow club members.
2) Turn notifications "ON" specifically for the person or organization you want showing up in your newsfeed. With notifications turned on you will be more likely to see that person or organization’s post.
3) “Like” and “comment” on the orienteering posts appearing in your newsfeed - even if it’s from a club on the other side of the U.S. or a person you don’t know.
 
It boils down to the following: The more likes, shares and comments a post receives, the wider the audience reach will be, and that means our community will get orienteering news put in more people’s newsfeeds. So with a few simple clicks, you can help attract more participants (and eventually more volunteers and more members) to your club. Your club will thank you!
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 Orienteering USA is pleased to once again announce the formation of an elite bike team to represent the US in this summer's 15th MTBO World Orienteering Championships in Vilnius, Lithuania, from August 19-27. All competition details, including rules (and most importantly, Race Bulletins), may be viewed at URL: http://www.mtbo.lt/
The MTBO Team ESC has posted full details on the OUSA website. Nominations must be received by email to Susan Grandjean by April 7; make sure to include date of birth as well as full contact information, including telephone number(s).
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One of the Yahoo! Groups that OUSA members regularly use has changed names.
USOF-bod is now OUSA-bod@yahoogroups.com. This group is used to communicate OUSA Board of Directors information. Any OUSA member can join the group and read emails posted to the group, but only current board members can post to the group.
If you are currently a member, you can search the Yahoo! Groups website for OUSA-bod and all the old emails for USOF-bod are archived there. So this is not a new group - it is simply a name change for the old one. All previous memberships are still valid and the permissions are still the same.
To join this group, send a request to: ousa-bod-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Note that the other main group, USOFclubnet, has not changed names; if you wish to join it, send a request to: usofclubnet-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
For any question about this, contact Sandy Fillebrown (OUSA Contact).
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- * March 25–26: – O in the Oaks, US Ultralong Championships (BAOC) – Near Oakland, CA (event website)
- April 7–9: US Night Championships & Flying Pig XXI (OCIN) – Indianapolis & Columbus, IN (event website)
- April 22-23: 38th Annual West Point National Meet (USMAOC) – West Point, NY (event website)
- April 28-30: US National WOC/JWOC Team Trials (MNOC) – Minnesota (event website)
- June 23–25: US Individual Championships (CTOC) – Boise and Stanley, ID (event website)
- *September 16–17: Letchworth Falls Classic National Meet (ROC) and OUSA AGM – Letchworth State Park, NY (event website)
- October 14–15: Boulder Dash (UNO) – Burnt Mountain, Lebanon/Hanover, NH
- ** November 4-5: DVOA’s 50th Anniversary National Event (DVOA) - Reading, PA
- * November 11–12: QOC Quinquagenary & US Two-Day Classic Champs (QOC) – Triangle, VA
Notes:
* = OUSA Board of Directors Meeting. All members are welcome.
** = currently in sanctioning
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North Texas Orientee ring Association was thrilled to have nearly 400 orienteers make the trip to Sulphur Springs, Texas, for the 2017 U.S. Interscholastic and Intercollegiate Championships (IS/IC), and nationally sanctioned Lone Star Armadill-O.
The format was a two-day Classic. A total of 52 school organizations competed in the IS/IC, with about 150 competitors in the Armadill-O.
Winners for furthest distance traveled were three orienteers from the Ukrainian Hunters orienteering club who came all the way from Kiev to participate. They’d been in the U.S. previously for ARDF competitions and wanted to try something different. Mission accomplished!
The event location was Cooper Lake State Park, a brand-new map for NTOA that prese nted some interesting challenges for visiting orienteers. Pioneers settled this prairie-dominated area in the 1850s and farming activity altered the natural landscape permanently. Small man-made ponds, berms (created to stop erosion), abandoned fence rows and old trails have resulted in an intricate gully and watercourse system – including many watercourses not normally seen in nature, such as gullies running down the crest of a spur where an old trail used to be.
We saw great competition at every level. Some IS/IC highlights:
- Tyra Christopherson (COC) dominated to win Intercollegiate Varsity (Female), while her sister Siri took home third in Interscholastic Varsity (Female).
- Diana Aleksieva (QOC) edged out clubmate Alexa Merka to win Interscholastic JV (Female).
- West Point brought a full contingent, enough for six teams and the team victory, but on the individual side Joe Barrett (PTOC) won Intercollegiate Varsity (Male).
- In the team competitions, Union County (IN) took home gold in School Varsity and School Intermediate.
- The Warhawks of Henry County, GA, hauled home a lot of hardware: Silver in School Varsity, gold and bronze in School Junior Varsity, and bronze in School Intermediate.
- Julia Doubson (BAOC) and Aidan Minto (ICO) are the individual Interscholastic Varsity Female and Male Champions, respectively.
2017 US Interscholastic Varsity Champions: Union County (IN) High School, photo courtesy of Guy Olsen
We saw great sportsmanship on display as well: ISIM runner Alex Rosenberg from Cambridge Upper School (NEOC) took a hard fall on Day 1, breaking his elbow. He called out for help. Allister Beck (COC) immediately abandoned his ISJVM course to come to Alex’s aid. He helped his fellow orienteer stand and walk back to a control point to be more easily found. Well done, Allister, and we wish you a speedy recovery, Alex!
NTOA would like to thank OUSA for a map loan, as well as excellent support by Course Consultant Boris Granovskiy. Tom Strat of OUSA donated a significant amount of time to work on the Cooper Lake maps, which ultimately were finished by our course setters, Stan Darnell and Jim Stevens. Thanks for technical assistance as well to special map and course consultant Jens Börsting Petersen of Silkeborg OK, Denmark.
For all results, please visit http://www.lonestararmadillo.com/
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OCIN and ICO present the 21st edition of the annual Flying Pig National Meet on April 7 – 9, 2017 with five nationally sanctioned races over 3 days in central Indiana.
Friday April 7, Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, IN. Afternoon Middle Distance and US Night-O Championship Races. Eagle Creek Park, just minutes away from downtown Indianapolis and the international airport, is one of the largest urban parks in the US and sports a mix of urban park and forested terrain with complex vegetation on the flat areas and more open woods in hillier areas.
Saturday April 8, Yellowwood State Forest near Columbus, IN. Long Distance Race. Yellowwood State Forest has the steep ridge and reentrant terrain typical of south-central Indiana and will test your fitness and endurance.
Sunday April 9, Columbus, IN. Two-stage Sprint Race. Sunday’s sprints will explore the unique architecture of Columbus with an urban sprint in downtown Columbus followed by a park sprint in Mill Race and Noblitt Riverfront Parks, both set on brand new maps.
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For the 38th Annual West Point National Meet that will take place April 22-23, the cadets are working hard to prepare a fun and unique set of courses for our runners. Our Saturday classic seeks to maximize use of technical areas around Camp Buckner, while our Sunday classic will be held at Harriman State Park's Jackie Jones Mountain, the site of the '93 World Orienteering Championships Short (now called Middle) semi-final race. This course will force critical route decisions and demand extreme attention to detail in boulder-strewn technical areas while reducing climb where possible. See you in the woods!
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The Minnesota Orienteering Club (MNOC) will host a three-day nationally sanctioned event over the weekend of April 28-30. This event, consisting of a sprint, a middle distance, and a long distance race, will serve as the selection races for the US and Canadian teams that will represent their respective nations at WOC and JWOC this summer. Here is a day-by-day preview of what to expect from the three races:
· Como Park Zoo and Conservatory (http://www.comozooconservatory.org/), a 385-acre urban park that includes a conservatory, zoo, amusement park, city lake, and 2+ miles of paved trails. As with most urban parks, the terrain is open, relatively flat and fast, and provides many route choices which are great for an urban sprint.
· Interstate State Park - (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/interstate/ index.html) - Consisting of two adjacent state parks (one in Minnesota [298 acres], one in Wisconsin [1,330 acres]) Interstate Park is best known for its unique geology comprised of glacial potholes, large rock formations, scenic bluffs, and stunning views of the St. Croix River. The terrain for this middle distance race features an interesting mix of rock detail, bluffs and river plain all within the magnificent St Croix National Scenic Riverway .
· Mille Lac s Kathio State Park (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/mille_lacs_kathio/index.html) - An awesome area for orienteering with kettle moraine type terrain, open woods and complex topography. Few trails and the complex terrain make it a navigation challenge of the highest order for all competitors during this long distance race.
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Sincerely,
Kris Beecroft
OUSA President
Compiled by Allison Brown and Boris Granovskiy
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