ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
Official News Dave Lotty, Director (Administration)
ASC Obligatory Funding Criteria Among the criteria that the ASC says is obligatory for a NSO to be eligible for recognition (for funding) are that a sport must: • Have at least four active affiliated State/Territory Associations • Conduct State and National Championships
Junior World Orienteering Championships 2005 The Junior World Championships (JWOC) will be held in Tenero, Switzerland, July 10 - 17. The Orienteering Australia Board has appointed Paul Pacque (TAS) as Team Coach. A Team Manager will be appointed soon. Main selection trials will be each day of the Australian 3-Days at Jindabyne, NSW (organized by ACT) on 25-28 March 2005. The W-18 and W-20 classes and M-18 and M-20 classes will compete on the same courses at the 3-Days, so prospective candidates may enter either of the classes in order to be considered. Orienteers wishing to be considered for selection for the Australian team will need to advise Blair Trewin (Chairperson of Junior Selectors) by 15th March. You can obtain further information from Blair by contacting him on (03) 9455 3516 (h) or (03) 9669 4603 (w); or by email at b. trewin@bom.gov.au.
Annual Conference The Orienteering Australia Annual Conference was held at Burgmann College, ANU, Canberra on 4-5 December, 2004. This is the main policy meeting of OA with representatives from all states present to discuss future directions for the sport in Australia. Issues from the Conference will be reported in the next edition of The Australian Orienteer.
Running the Business Bob Mouatt, Director (Development)
•H ave been played in Australia for over 75 years and have a minimum of 5,000 registered and active members or be affiliated with an International Federation that is affiliated with the GAISF (General Association of International Sports Federations) or the IOC •B e the NSO of an Olympic or Commonwealth Games sport or have a minimum of 5,000 registered and active members The NSO must provide documentary evidence to substantiate compliance. There are other criteria to be met, but it’s those above which mention ‘a minimum of 5,000 registered and active members’ that are most critical for Orienteering Australia. While we consider we currently meet that criteria, this one gives me most concern. We need to get the number of fully financial members up to 5,000. We had 3,654 in 2003 and a further 2,802 associate members or those covered by group memberships, eg schools, to give a total of 6,456 registered orienteers. So we have to rely on the ASC accepting that figure as our minimum number of registered and active orienteers. If States were able to improve their record-keeping through maintaining participation databases (as ACT and VIC have done) that could validate the number of active orienteers (full members, associate members, and non-members) it would help OA’s standing in regard to the ‘minimum of 5,000’ criteria. I will be raising this matter at the 2004 OA Annual Conference in Canberra in December. Again, we need more people in the States interested in collecting and maintaining such data. Some may say that we don’t need all this bureaucracy as “we could live without ASC funding” but they have no idea how much Orienteering Australia and State Associations rely on government sponsorship. Moreover, whether it is government or private sponsors, both would use similar criteria to assess the relevance of a sport, as a basis for determining its worthiness of sponsorship.
Media Coverage and Sport Relevance Rating Those who receive my World Championship bulletins will know that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get media coverage for Orienteering. The extent of media coverage is a measurement used by the Australian Sports Commission and other sponsors to determine a sport’s ‘Sport Relevance Rating’ In a recent letter to national sporting organisations (NSO) about how funding of sporting bodies will be determined for the next four years, the ASC explained: “This (Sport Relevance) rating will have reference to the interest in a sport within Australia, considering elements such as the number of registered participants, the amount of financial support provided by external bodies (non-government), domestic interest and profile and international interest and profile.” Thus it’s become very important for a sport to have at least minimal media interest rather than none. However, there are now over one hundred sports seeking coverage and new ones appear frequently - we have to work harder to gain coverage. This means assembling necessary data on which to base stories, knowing who to contact and how to contact them, and ensuring that the key people have the facts when they want them. Assembling useful facts is something which Orienteering, with over 30 years history in Australia, does not match many other sports which are always able to sprout comparative data such as biggest winning margins, most consecutive titles, youngest, oldest, first to do, etc. Blair Trewin does a lot in this regard, but much more is required. We need a few keen trivia buffs who love to compile data about Orienteering. While I do compile a lot of stats, I would welcome offers of assistance in this regard.
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 Badges awarded August-October 2004 Jenny Komyshan WO.W W45 Silver Carolyn Chalmers NC.N W60 Gold Ian Hassall IK.N M65, M70 Peter Komyshan WO.W M50 Gold Ken Thompson TT.S M55 Bronze 3 Gold Bill Chalmers NC.N M60 Bronze Libby Hassall IK.N W45 Bronze Ian Thomsett WO.W M35 Gold
Entry Deadlines
Date Event 25-28 March 2005 Australian 3 Days
Nearest town Jindabyne NSW
Entries close 18 Feb
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
DECEMBER 2004 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 55
