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IOF High Level Events Seminar
In February, Ed Despard and Jay Hahn attended the IOF High Level Event Seminar (HLES), in Warsaw, Poland. Ed went to the conference with a lens of his interests in technology and event production, hoping to be able to bring some insights back to the US for the coming season of orienteering events. Read here about his experience and the lessons he is bringing back to US orienteering.
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Some great news from down under: Pavlina Brautigam (WCOC) won the W55 Sprint Final at the World Masters Orienteering Sprint Championships in Auckland, New Zealand! Congratulations Pavlina!!
Other US medals included a bronze for Sergey Velichko (CTOC) in M55A and a bronze for Sharon Crawford (RMOC) in W70A.
There were a number of US Top-10 finishes as well, including Dennis Wildfogel (BAOC) in 5th in M70 and Linda Kohn (ROC) in 7th in W65.
At the Long Distance Final Sharon again finished 3rd in W70A, while Pavlina finished 4th in her class and Sergey finished 6th.
You can see full results here.
Congrats to Team USA on some excellent results!
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Elite Orienteering Center
US team member Greg Ahlswede is currently exploring the possibility of establishing an elite orienteering center in the Delaware Water Gap, PA or Harriman, NY area. This project can benefit the US teams and the US orienteering community significantly and needs your support! The proposal is currently in the initial stages, but as it takes shape, information will be made available on how you can help make this dream a reality.
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World Orienteering Day - May 24, 2017!
All orienteering clubs are asked to participate in World Orienteering Day. This is a great opportunity to kick off OUSA's new focus on growth through outreach to youth and families. Please talk to your local school and ask if you can put on an introduction to orienteering. Make a simple schoolyard map, hang a few controls, and show some kids how to orienteer!
IOF has provided a lot of information and material, including free OCAD licenses, discounts on compasses, flyers, WOD themed clothing, and a ton of suggestions for activities.
We are currently up to 21 WOD around the nation:
Brookside Elementary School, WA
Tahoma Middle School, WA
Liberty Lake County Park, WA
Twin Cities Metro Area, MN
Ney Nature Center, MN
St Patricks County Park, IN
Governor Thomas Johnson High School, MD (Patriot NJROTC)
Laurel Hill, VA
Central Park, NY
MIT, MA
Menotomy Rocks, MA (CSU)
Cambridge Street Upper School, MA (Navigation Games)
Los Alamos, NM
Dartmouth College, NH
Bethel CT Schools (WCOC)
Pleasant Valley Farms, NY (Empire OC)
Lyons Middle School, NY (Rochester OC)
Saints Peter and Paul School, PA
Shawnee Mission Park, KS
The Family Nest, Long Beach, CA
Cascade Orienteering Club Wed Night O and BBQ, WA
OUSA will organize a marketing campaign around World Orienteering Day to make a big splash and raise awareness around the country about our sport. Please let us know about any WOD events you are putting on, or other events aimed at introducing orienteering to the public or in schools.
Here are Melanie and Krum Sergiev of GMOC wearing their official WOD orienteering tops!
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OUSA Marketing Initiative Announced
As a part of the OUSA 50th Anniversary Fund, the Board of Directors of Orienteering USA voted to approve $14,700 in funding for a new marketing initiative spearheaded by Bob Forgrave (COC).
A summary of Bob's proposal follows:
Marketing 2017: “Newcomer readiness” + OUSA-led PR/AdWords
- Planning. OUSA articulates a staged standard for being able to welcome newcomers to sport:
- Level 1 = Open (newcomer messaging, newcomer training, jargon-free)
- Level 2 = Welcoming (add welcome volunteers, newsletter, social focus at events)
- Level 3 = Inviting (active social media volunteers, photos, posts)
- Resources. OUSA & clubs jointly create a resource that describes techniques for moving to higher stages of newcomer readiness:
- Create document – Orienteering Club Handbook:
- How to evaluate the level of your club, and how to move up
- How to attract & retain newcomers to a quality event
- Permitting, set-up, food, social media, thanking & growing attendees & volunteers
- Multimedia resources: Club photos, videos
- Samples of useful tools: training plans, promotional handouts/flyers, etc.
- Contest. Social media contest for continued actions that result in moving up –posting 2x/week, photos, videos, social events, beginner training, etc. (EXPENDITURE: $1,000). Will need more specifics on what is tracked, how, and what is rewarded.
- Multimedia Press Release for World Orienteering Day (May 24). Reposition orienteering from “the compass bearing activity” (partly from Boy Scouts) to “the map & terrain sport” that makes exploring fun. (EXPENDITURE: $5,000):
- Mention orienteering in Antarctica as an unusual news hook.
- How to make a school orienteering map
- Link to an OUSA landing page focused on this topic, with further links to clubs
- Link to photos & videos from clubs (Collected in #2 above)
- Send media inquiries to a small set of media-savvy club representatives, including juniors
- Boost nationally and repost locally on Facebook.
Public perception we’re trying to change… “On Sunday, I observed a nice old lady spending five minutes setting the compass really carefully and then she was afraid to move off the start so as not to spoil this perfection” (Igor, from AttackPoint)
- Facebook ads. Six months of $30/month ad budget for all clubs self-designated & verified as Level 3. (EXPECTED EXPENDITURE: 15 x $180 = $2,700)
- AdWords Test. Six months of AdWords spending for participating Level 3 clubs. Goal is to redirect searches for navigational adventures/hiking/trail running/etc into local orienteering, establishing a baseline for what redirects work. (EXPECTED EXPENDITURE: $6,000)
TOTAL BUDGET = $1K + $5K + $2.7K + $6K = $14,700.
Fast start needed on items #1-4.
Bob Forgrave (Thanks to OUSA survey respondents, the Lennons, Attackpoint comments & OUSA board discussion)
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U.S. Trail Orienteering Team
The U.S. Trail Orienteering Team that will represent the United States at the World Trail Orienteering Championships in Lithuania in July has been named:
Sharon Crawford (RMOC)
Clare Durand (LAOC)
Richard Y. Ebright (DVOA)
1st alternate - Mike Poulsen (CROC)
Accompanying official - Richard H. Ebright (DVOA)
The 2017 National Trail Orienteering Team, selected based on applications received and rankings, is as follows:
Karl Ahlswede (DVOA)
Steve Beuerman (BAOC)
Joe Brautigam (WCOC)
Sharon Crawford (RMOC)
Clare Durand (LAOC)
Richard H. Ebright (DVOA)
Richard Y. Ebright (DVOA)
Mika Latva-Kokko (NEOC)
Mike Poulsen (CROC)
We are actively seeking Paralympic eligible competitors to join the team. Spots remain both on the National Team and for WTOC. No experience necessary, but funding is very limited. Trail Orienteering is likely to appeal to those who enjoy maps, puzzle solving, and being in the outdoors. It does not require mobility. Paralympic competitors may have assistance to get through the course. Applications remain open indefinitely unless the Paralympic team fills. To apply visit:
https://goo.gl/forms/eYpZj2M1qKiFCmwc2
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US Team Hosts Training Camps
This fall, US team member Greg Ahlswede will organize two training camps for the US team that will be open to the orienteering community. The first will be based around the Boulder Dash event in Hanover, NH, and the second will be in the Delaware Water Gap, PA. More details will be made available as we get closer to the date. If you are interested in attending, please go to this page for more information and to select a training camp to give Greg an idea of how many people will be present. We look forward to seeing you there!
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- 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.
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Event Recap: LAOC National Meet and U.S. Relay Championships
A weekend near Idyllwild appeals to many in and around Southern California. Beautiful mountains, fresh air and plenty of sunshine. On March 18-19 2017, the Orienteering Relay Championships, the Precision Orienteering Championships, and the Temp O Championships were held at Camp Scherman Girl Scout Camp in the San Jacinto Mountains.
Four events, held in two days, made for a packed weekend. The Precision Orienteering Championships, or Pre O is a trail orienteering discipline and relies on precise reading of both map and terrain. This challenging course also includes a timed control to act as a tie breaker.
The 2017 U.S. Champion in Pre-O is Richard Y. Ebright of DVOA.
Later that day, the extra, super fun, Relay Championships were held at beautiful Promise Lake. Eleven teams of three competed in categories of 3pt, 6pt, and 9pt teams. With nearly all of the camps occupants as spectators, the runners made their way in figure eight style through the course. A large meadow between two lakes was the staging, start and finish area and allowed for much cheering on!
And the winners are…….
3pt teams:
1st Place-Team Fong (Theodore Fong, Hannah Culberg, and Kevin Culberg).
6pt teams:
1st Place- Truckee Chain Monkeys (Greg Walker, Bill Voegele, and Anna Voegele).
9pt teams:
1st Place- The Campbells (Victoria Campbell, Anna Campbell, and Jonathan Campbell).
The second day of competition featured the timed Trail-O discipline of Temp-O and a middle distance race. The courses wound through Camp Scherman, utilizing the various rock, contour, and vegetation features.
Full results can be found on LAOC's website.
I would like to thank all of the participants and volunteers that made this event a success. A really big thank you goes out to the course setters, Mike Reason, Steve Durand, Clare Durand and the course consultants, Steve Tarry, Karen Dennis, and David Irving.
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Event Recap: BAOC National Meet and U.S. Ultralong Championships
After months of pouring rain, the merry band of Bay Area Orienteers lucked out with the weather on the first of two back to back A-meets that they organized within the California Orienteering Week (COW) on March 25/26. The Saturday March 25 National event took place on the Point Pinole map with courses masterfully set by Holly Gaston and vetted by Tori Borish. The courses prompted several explicit compliments for their originality.
More than 130 orienteers from US, Canada, Finland and UK enjoyed a sunny day at the bay. The race went smoothly without any major snags or protests and no injuries other than some minor poison oak rashes were reported. Lots of happy smiling faces at the finish.
After the sunny Saturday event at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline the hardy troop of orienteers gathered under threatening clouds and slight sprinkles at the Bear Creek Staging Area of Briones Regional Park. Course Setter Gavin Wyatt-Mair came up with a clever and fun course concept including mass start, long route choices and fast fine orienteering around several butterfly loops all overlaid on an ultra-long cow-dodging course featuring Pamplona-style cow runs. He feared no effort to implement this concept, including dozens of course layouts back home and dozens of heavy loaded hikes up steep hills to place gallons of water at the aid stations. Gavin was assisted by vetters Mattias Vangbo, Bruce Wolf, Dennis Wildfogel and Marin Kunz. All the hard work paid out garnering big praise from local, national and international orienteers attending the event. The courses were physically and technically challenging and worthy a U.S. Championship. And as in the previous day, the event concluded with no protests or injuries. Even the weather held up and the grey clouds only provided a dramatic backdrop to the championship action and cow racing.
You can see full results here.
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Event Recap: Raccoongaine
About 140 people participated in the mini-rogaine, held in Western Pennsylvania in the end of March, with large groups coming from Ohio, Michigan, New York. This is the 8th year for the event, so it all went well from an organizational point of view. The overall winner was Mark Lattanzi, who is an experienced adventure racer. A very strong showing came from the mixed gender team Topo the Mountain. A special note was the outstanding result in the 3 hour division, won by a member of the Central Ohio Orienteering club, whose point total rivaled most of the results in the 6 hour division.
We were very fortunate with the weather. We experienced a large number of ticks on body surfaces, and that is something that we warned about days in advance. The map was on two sheets size 11x18, scale 1 to 15000.
Alexis Rzewski carried out a fascinating graphical analysis of the control orders selected by Raccoongaine competitors. You can find the full graphic here.
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Event Recap: Truckee Ski-o Sprint Tournament
Truckee Orienteering finished its ski-o season (3 races, 7 training days) with its 3rd annual Ski-o Sprint Tournament at Auburn Ski Club. Four rounds of sprints were each split into small mass start groups and seeded by the previous round. Perfect spring snow conditions, a fast and complicated trail network, and SIAir timing that was auto-announced by Siri from an iphone made it a great season finale!
 
Results and the bracket are here:
http://truckeeorienteering.org/2017/17_03_12.html
All the maps can be found here:
http://truckeeorienteering.org/2017/skio/index1.html#results
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Sincerely,
Kris Beecroft
OUSA President
Compiled by Allison Brown and Boris Granovskiy
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