Chairman’s Club December-2007

There is so much happening that it is almost impossible to keep up, according to one of my committee colleagues.

The programme will be full. We want to run 5 C4 events and 2 C3 Badge events. Mark is well advanced with the 2008 Summer League Programme which will include some new areas, thanks in part to our Schools Partnership Programme and we will see some sprint events in the League. The Winter League will continue to appear in the events programme with more events in the autumn.

A series of two or three sprint events are currently being discussed. We will not be able to resist the temptation to use a map drawn to the correct sprint event specifications that Peter is currently working on.

The team who run the open days in the country parks is currently looking to expand what we do on those days and it may be possible to offer some longer and more interesting courses suitable for the more experienced Orienteers. There is a chance of doing more of these events if we can find volunteers.

We will be running about 48 events over the next year.

I haven’t mentioned Permanent Orienteering Courses yet. We were able to establish with the help of the city council. The funding is in place for the course. The National Forest Company and several local authorities are currently in discussion with us about further POC in the area. By the end of next year we should have at least 10 points in the area covered by the club. This has increased the workload in this area and I am pleased to welcome John Marriott to the club committee as permanent orienteering course co-ordinator.

I mentioned earlier in the evening that the Development Team would be building on the schools partnership agreements. The agreements give the sport a chance to introduce a new generation to the sport, but for a club like ourselves they don’t produce an instant hit of new members, an important part to play in the long term growth of the sport. We are considering a similar event in another part of the area in the second half of 2008 after the success of the Ratby Woodlands event.

We have a theme running through our current plans. One of the two. In order to bring the sport to the attention of a wider audience, there are partnerships with schools and a presence at country park open days. Closer links are being built with Local Authorities and the National Forest Company within the theme of development. In the current climate where health and encouraging people towards physical activity are high on the political agenda Orienteering ticks a lot of boxes Some of these have been obtained over the last 18 months. We need more. Sport England will be changing its funding methods over the next two years. Money that was previously handed out at the centre will be made available at the county level to clubs like us. We do not know what conditions are attached. We will be keeping an eye on the situation.

There is a small band of mappers in the club. We are very dependent on two or three people and maps are at the core of our sport. We need more. It’s time to volunteer.

The committee is looking at how to proceed with the kit. Although the club does own a small amount, we currently share the pooled EMOA kit and they are looking at the economics of purchasing more. The scheme has been very successful but it does have limitations, not least a volunteer having to trek to the outposts of the empire to collect it and the increased use of SI is making this journey more and more frequent. We might be able to have some permanently based in the area if we get more SI. We will have to consider what provision we make for ourselves.

Looking to the future. British Orienteering is holding an EGM on Saturday. The competition structure of orienteering is discussed at the club conference. I think the draft proposals on the British Orienteering website are interesting and will benefit the club. If the conference follows the usual track record of major discussion for changes in the sport, the end product will be nothing like the one we started the day with.

We have been invited to host the British Middle Distance Championships in 2009. The event will be held in Thringstone Woods. Some of the ground work for the event has already taken place and as Roger has already mentioned provision is being made in this year’s budget for cost that we will incur over the next year, including mapping.

The club may hold a National C2 event in 2010 at Belvoir. We are currently in discussion with the estate about access, given that we would need a larger area than the one they normally generously allow us to use.

There are two items before I finish. The club Annual Dinner and Presentation Evening will be held on the 10th of November in this building. The Christmas novelty event organised by Santa and his helpers will take place on the 15th of December and Mr Denny is eager to take your order. Again starting from here. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a busy year ahead and I hope that we all have good runs on well planned courses in beautiful forests, if it’s not too much to ask for some dry weather.