ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA NEWS

Official News

Dave Lotty, Director (Administration)

Australia – New Zealand Challenge 2005

This will be held in conjunction with the Oceania Championships in January 2005 near Auckland New Zealand. As the travelling nation Australia determines the classes to be contested and these are expected to be all the Oceania Championships classes (M and W -16, -18, -20, 21, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 and M70). The Australian Team will be selected following the Australian Championships in October with the selection trials being the Australian 3 Days 2004 and Australian Championships 2004. You MUST nominate by advising Blair Trewin in writing by 15 September (2/53 Darebin Street HEIDELBERG 3084 b.trewin@bom.gov.au). The Team Manager is still to be appointed and OA is seeking applications for the position. Contact Dave Lotty (Orienteering Australia PO Box 740 GLEBE 2037 orienteering@sydney.net) by 15 September if you are interested. The Board hopes to make an appointment by 1 October.

The 2004 National Development Conference (NDC), staged in Canberra on 25-26 May, enabled a delegate from each State involved in promoting and developing Orienteering to exchange ideas and to form conclusions on matters of mutual concern. It also gave the new President, Orienteering Australia, Bob McCreddin the opportunity to get a feel for the issues challenging the grass roots level of Orienteering. The 10 to 12 topics discussed covered a wide range of matters, some in a lot of detail, much more than I can cover in this column so I will mention just a few. The Australian Sports Commission is requiring national sporting organisations to develop national strategies on: • Risk management • Member protection • Junior Sports Framework The Development and Participation Committee will have carriage of developing the Junior Sports Framework, using the ASC template. States will be consulted over the next 12 months as the Framework starts to take shape. Failure to have the strategies in place by the end of 2005 could impact adversely on ASC Sport Development grants. Mention Schools-based Orienteering and you will get mixed responses. The NDC delegates agreed that Orienteering receives little direct return for its investment in Schools-based programs, but all agreed that it had a very important role in developing the sport because:

Running the Business Bob Mouatt, Director (Development)

• it gives young people experience in the correct version of

Orienteering • many new orienteers say that their first Orienteering experience was at school • many others have a positive attitude towards Orienteering through their schools-based experience • it helps raise the profile of the sport All agreed that they would like a better return from the Schools-based programs but acknowledged the difficulties arising from: • parents are not involved and they are crucial to getting young people into Orienteering • this difficulty is exacerbated when children from non-English speaking families or parents with a cultural aversion to sport are involved • teachers using the program are not necessarily promoting the sport Target groups is another contentious issue. The ASC and State government sporting authorities often encourage sporting organisations to target specific groups, eg women, juniors, nonEnglish speaking, youth at risk, low income, indigenous, aged people, etc. The NDC delegates concluded that there was little return from targeting specific groups, but rather target the general population with an emphasis on recruiting families. Thus local Orienteering programs should be geared to ensuring that events cater for all members of a family. The NDC looked at the statistical summary of Orienteering activities in Australia over recent years. Total memberships continue to rise, reaching 1,723 after dropping to a low of 1,454 in 1999. The number of members remains over 5,000. The number of events remained in the 850s, but the number of participations continues to soar, breaking the 80,000 barrier (80,760) for the first time in 2003. This is a significant increase on 63,559, just four years ago and 49,394 in 1993. The number of accredited coaches is also healthy again with a total of 201 at the end of 2003, compared with just 133 in 2000. So all of the quantitative signs are good, but NDC delegates considered that the statistics did not tell the whole story. While participation numbers are soaring, the huge increase is in ‘convenient recreational’ Orienteering, and in some areas traditional bush Orienteering was stagnating or declining. This creates tension between the ‘recreationalists’ and the ‘traditionalists’, an issue that will be taken to the 2004 OA Annual Conference. More on the matter next year. Speaking of next year, States have been encouraged to participate in the 2005 National Orienteering Day, the first Sunday in May, by ensuring that there are events suitable for new orienteers on that day. Help Orienteering grow by encouraging a friend to ‘Give Orienteering a Go’.

OA Badge Scheme

For further information contact John Oliver, 68 Amaroo St, Wagga Wagga 2650. Ph 069 226 208 (AH) email oliver.family@bigpond.com.au

ACT

Pat Miethke PO.A W55 Gold Geoffrey Stacey PO.A M16 Gold

Western Australia

Jim Mann BO.W M60 Gold Joan Wright BO.W W50 Gold Georgina Mann BO.W W12 Gold Bill Mann BO.W M10 Gold

NSW

Lynn Dabbs WH.N W45 Gold Kevin Williams WH.N M55 Bronze Basil Baldwin GS.N M60 Gold Jean Baldwin GS.N W60 Gold Thomas Carter GS.N M12 Bronze Mark Freeman GS.N M35 Gold Bev Parton GS.N W45 Bronze Kevin Parton GS.N M50 Silver Liam Parton GS.N M16 Gold Matthew Parton GS.N M18 Gold Heidi Read GS.N W55 Gold Max Read GS.N M65 Gold

Entry Deadlines

Date Event Nearest town Entries close 7 Nov NSW MTBO Championships Oberon NSW 8-Oct 27-31 Dec Xmas 5 Days Armidale NSW 1-Dec

Orienteering Australia photo archive

PETER CUSWORTH (Vic), graphic designer of this magazine, maintains an archive of the digital photo files which have been used in The Australian Orienteer. These orienteering photo files can be made available for press releases or special promotional projects. Any material costs will be passed on to users. Contact Peter on 03 5968 5254 or cusworth@netspace.net.au