PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

A President’s Perspective – My Final Words

Bob Mouatt

AFTER 11 years of submitting articles to The Australian Orienteer this will be my final contribution to the magazine. Some may say after reading it - thankfully. I leave with considerable regrets about not achieving my goals. The primary impediments were: • The sudden growth in professionalism in many sports in the mid 1990s. This impacted adversely on minor sports (like

Orienteering) gaining media coverage and sponsorships. • The Australian Sports Commission’s unexpected abolition of

Orienteering Australia’s Sport Development funding. This halted the momentum we had been developing. • My inability to bring about sufficient change in the attitude of the Orienteering community towards a wide range of matters that are important to the advancement of the sport. My background (see Bob’s brief bio) meant that I have a totally different approach on many matters to that of the average orienteer. This meant I had to temper my forthright approach. Some of the key issues are outlined below. Leadership, Vision and Management. There are too many people in positions of authority from the same background. Look at the membership of Boards, Councils, Committees, etc. Most are university academics, schoolteachers, scientists, engineers, etc. Few if any are entrepreneurs or have experience as genuine managers, ie managing budgets and making critical choices to achieve objectives. There needs to be a major change in the profile to create more diversity for the sport to progress in a highly competitive environment. Data Collection, Trend Analysis and Planning. As a person who spent a greater part of his working life committed to long-term plans, and using accurate data to forecast requirements and to analyse trends, I have been frustrated that, notwithstanding the high proportion of orienteers with tertiary qualifications, there is little appreciation of and support for these activities. Planning and the complementary task of evaluating outcomes are important and need to be given more prominence. Media and Marketing. Another frustration has been the lack of understanding for the need to continually attract new people to the sport to replace those it loses. I don’t know the figures for other States, but OACT has a membership churn rate of 25 per cent, that is around a quarter of members do not renew and have to be replaced by new or former members rejoining to retain the same membership level. Thus media and marketing becomes an important factor. The Australian Orienteer (new version initiated by Ian Baker) and the new national website including the results database (initiated by Andy Hogg) are two success stories of the past decade, but coverage in the mainstream media has been limited mainly because of the image of the sport. See more below. Projecting an Image and Creating a Presence. People have been using clothing (and make up) for thousands of years to project an image and create a presence, eg waring tribes, the military, etc. My first senior football coach used to say, “Even if you can’t play well, at least dress like a footballer.” While the standard of competition uniforms of most orienteers is improving, especially in the National League, quite often orienteers look like a rag-tag bunch of nondescripts at the presentation of awards and other functions. Many photographs of orienteers do not present an attractive, sporting image that encourages the media to publish photos or sponsors (or new people) to become involved. National League/National Series. After 11 years I have just about got most people using the term National League (in place of ‘O’ League) or NOL, but have I failed miserably to get orienteers to differentiate between the teams’ competition (the National League), and the individual competition (the National Series). It has been hard enough explaining the National League to the media and others outside of the sport, as no other sport in Australia conducts a League on the same basis as orienteering, and no other sport describes individual competitions as Leagues, it is invariably Series. The National League and the National Series are two separate competitions, but the results of the League are based on the Series. The persistent use of Orienteering idiosyncratic language is one of the sport’s main impediments to be being accepted as a mainstream sport. Presentation of Results. Another crusade that has fallen on deaf ears (outside of the ACT, where I have had full control) has been my attempts to have the names of all participants displayed in results and for the results to be separated into men, women and groups. My reasons are we are a gender equity organisation and the results of men and women should be separated, and that for a number of reasons all participants on a course should be

Why did Norway’s Ingunn H. Weltzien need to take a water bottle onto the podium at JWOC 2006? Was she concerned about dehydration while she stood up there for all those long minutes? Or was she, quite rightly, acknowledging the support of a sponsor?

known. Timeliness is another key factor. We should be aiming to have results on a website and in the media as soon as possible, at least on the day following the event, if not before. Volunteerism. Often the response to many of my suggestions is that I have to remember that everyone is a volunteer, as if Orienteering was unique. All sports have volunteers, but the difference with Orienteering is that most if not all of its volunteers are participants, whereas in many other sports the volunteers, especially officials, are not participants. My commitment of time and energy, when I was a Rugby coach and administrator, would have been no less than my current commitment to Orienteering. Over recent years I have suggested that Orienteering needs to consider attracting nonparticipatory volunteer/paid officials but such suggestions have been ignored. Community Activities. One way of creating a positive image is to follow the lead of many other sports and participate in community activities. Apart from activities that I have arranged or supported in the ACT, eg Clean Up Australia Day, Group Blood Donation, Treeathlons, Canada Fun Run for Cancer, etc I haven’t seen a lot of evidence (apart from OWA’s participation in Clean Up Australia Day) of orienteers as a group under the name of Orienteering participating in community activities. More needs to be done in this regard. Those are just some topics that come quickly to mind that have frustrated me over the past decade or more. New Blood. I am pleased that each new member of the Orienteering Australia Board and the recently appointed paid officers have brought with them a high degree of energy and enthusiasm. At this stage I am not certain who will replace me as President, but I will do as much as I can to assist them to settle into the job. Notwithstanding my misgivings outlined above, I expect the sport to continue Photo: Troy Merchant to progress towards the objectives that I was trying to achieve. Highlights. During the past decade I was fortunate to witness many highlights including, Troy de Haas’s Bronze medal (1999 JWOC Bulgaria), Grant Bluett’s Gold medal (2001 World Games Japan), Adrian Jackson’s Gold medal (2004 WMTBOC Ballarat), Hanny Allston’s Gold medal (2006 WOC Denmark) and many more. Thanks. I want to thank three people, who supported and inspired me - Nev Bleakley, Gayle Quantock and Kay Grzadka - for a greater part of the past decade, and two others Blair Trewin for maintaining the National League/National Series tables and Bruce Arthur for developing and maintaining the Elite rankings. I will stand down as President in March and continue media liaison activities until 30 June 2008 when I will cease all official duties for both Orienteering Australia and Orienteering ACT; however, I will continue to perform voluntary duties as an event official, eg Level 3 Controller, IOF Event Adviser, etc for as long as I am able, and I might assist OACT with the staging of major events. I also hope to regain my competitiveness as an orienteer, if I can get my right leg functioning properly.

Bob’s Brief Bio

I was born in January 1939. My father joined the RAAF in March 1941 and was killed in action in April 1945. In late 1952 my mother entered into a disastrous relationship, which within 30 months would leave her with three young children, broke, homeless and without an income, save my small wage. During that period my stepfather subjected my mother, brother, young halfbrother and me to considerable physical and mental abuse. From age 10 my ambition had been to study law and enter politics. My stepfather stopped that by not letting me proceed beyond Year 8 and I started work on my 15th birthday. To assist my mother financially, I joined the RAAF soon after my 17th birthday as a base grade airman. I was very disillusioned and it took me many years to regain my enthusiasm, which I did after meeting and marrying Lorna. I spent 1965 (while based at Fairbairn ACT) attending evening classes five nights a week and matriculated with an A in English and four B passes. After 10 years service in the ranks, I was commissioned in 1966. I served in many demanding jobs throughout Australia and overseas. I gained my tertiary qualifications through attending lectures/tutorials during two lunchtimes and three nights a week over a period of five years at RMIT, Melbourne. I progressed through the ranks to leave after 30 years as a Group Captain. While I was considering my future I was encouraged to apply for a few positions at ASIO. Within a short period I was recruited as a director and then promoted to senior executive manager. I stayed with the Organisation for 10 years before leaving to pursue my goals in Orienteering. Sport has been an abiding interest and one of my few memories of my father is of us playing oneon-one rugby tackling when I was about five. I had the ball and went to ground before he could tackle me. He was cross and told me to never take the easy way out. I should always face what was coming at me. I never forgot his words and that led to me fronting most issues head on. That is why I am often seen to be confrontational. Major injuries arising from this front-on approach, with the worst being a smashed right leg (both bones) at age 20 playing Rugby League, led to an early end to my elite sporting career. I enjoyed considerable success as a senior Rugby Union coach 1967-74. The numerous setbacks I overcame imbued me with resilient, tenacious qualities and an unsympathetic view of noncontributors and under-achievers.

Bob photographed at JWOC 2007 in Dubbo, by Erik Borg.