NEW GM – ÁRPÁD KOCSIK

Introducing the new OA General Manager –

Árpád Kocsik

BY IAN JESSUP, ONSW

Árpád left Hungary with his family three years ago when his wife was offered a position in Nokia’s Sydney office. His experience in Orienteering is considerable, starting in 1984 in a Romanian club in the category of M12. Being born in Romania in a Hungarian family had its challenges and after the Iron Curtain fell, he left for Hungary in the hope of a better education just when he was selected into the Romanian National Youth Team. Focusing on studies in a new country left little time for training, still he achieved 33 minutes for 10km and 9 minutes for 3km. After finishing high school and starting his legal studies Árpád was supporting himself while studying, which left him no time for proper involvement in Orienteering for the coming few years. In 1996 Hungary hosted the World University Championships. That is when he returned to his club. He became more involved in race organisation and commentary in 2001. In the following years this involvement became more complex including a position in the Hungarian Orienteering Federation as Marketing and Communications Officer, event organiser, commentator for most major international and national events held in and around Hungary; eg Hungarian Five Days 20012018, EOC 2002, EYOC 2007, WOC 2009 where he was also responsible for the production and marketing of the live television coverage, Ski JWOC 2010 Romania, WMOC 2011, WMTBOC 2012 and the Masters in 2018, JWOC 2018. He was secretary of a Budapest club from 2015-18. He is now a member of Garingal and has worked for ONSW as a coach in primary and high schools. As such he has some insight into the Sporting Schools program and understands the importance and difficulties of promoting Orienteering. He has prepared school and bush maps and provided commentary to numerous major events in NSW including last year’s State Championships. Árpád has a law degree and, while he cannot practise in Australia, believes it can serve to his and OA’s advantage. He has experience as executive level legal counsel in large scale commercial and residential real estate development, contract management, sales, purchasing, negotiation and customer management skills. I recently interviewed Árpád for this magazine:

What are the main differences between orienteering in Australia and Hungary?

Hi Ian. Thank you for taking the time for this interview. Short answer: there are no differences. Longer but incomplete answer: the geographical location and climate has a defining impact on the race calendar creating a foot orienteering season that starts in late February and lasts until late November with some of the early and late races being held in snow and summer races in August sometimes being held in scorching heat of 40C. Hungary is a founding member of the IOF and has a historical attachment to the development of the sport. This shows mainly on club level where there is heavy focus on “resupply”. Regular recruitments and midweek afternoon training sessions serve as a good basis for continuous refreshment and a much younger demographic aspect of the sport. The results can be seen in recent JWOC and CEYOC performances by young Hungarians.

What are the main challenges facing Orienteering in Australia?

As I am only beginning to comprehend the complexity of Australian orienteering, it would be premature to answer this question in its depth. I can clearly see a challenge with the large distances in terms of attendance at national events and the resupply/demographics issue mentioned above. These seem to be some of the main challenges.

How do you see your role?

On a personal level it feels like the “dream job” has found me. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Greg Barbour who saw the potential in me and to the members of the OA Board. I am honoured to have been appointed. The role of General Manager or Executive Officer is a significant one in any organisation and is regarded as essential to ensure smooth operations. The differences are in the number of staff performing those tasks which is proportional to the level of funding. Needless to say, OA is a small NSO and we have to bring out the best with some extra hours from both the volunteers and paid staff. Our goal in Orienteering as individual competitors is to perform well in all circumstances: weather, terrain (new or familiar), map quality or location, because every event is new in a way. It is my goal to take this challenge accordingly and although the end of the tunnel I found myself in seems to be distant, I am confident that the light will appear soon. There is a lot to be done. The vacuum that has been created with the absence of a GM in the time leading up to my appointment seems to be filling up slowly. OA secretary Andrew Lumsden and I are working closely to execute Board decisions and to bring the organisation up to its optimal working capacity. The short-term goals are to get organised, put out a few fires, be up to date, and focus on the three main objectives of OA: to encourage, promote and coordinate Orienteering. The Board went through some changes at the last AGM. Anna Sheldon, Clare Hawthorne, Brett Weihart and Troy de Haas have joined with nearly a hundred years of combined experience in Orienteering. Bill Jones, who stepped down from his long and admirable Board Director position, took with him nearly as many years of experience as the four new Directors brought but times are changing.

What direction do you wish to take OA in? eg technology

Orienteering Australia has been on a fantastic journey since 1970 and I firmly believe that it is going in the right direction. The introduction of technology started a long time ago and perhaps not with the appearance of SI and computerised events but that definitely was a big step into modern technology. MapRun, created by Peter Effeney, is an Australian app for smartphones used for GPS-based orienteering. Peter put Australia in a leading position in technological advancement and I think this trend could be kept up with more innovation. Bush orienteering venues are in remote locations and mobile connectivity is very rare at events which makes it hard to post live results, updates, photos or a live video feed. These are things that have serious marketing value. In the time of satellite internet we have a few options we could explore and major National events with large crowds could be the first among the events that may utilise this technology. And then perhaps a futuristic digital orienteering map? Who knows?

How can we lighten or spread the load on volunteers?

First I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the volunteers for their tireless and valuable work. It is clear that without their efforts Orienteering would not be the same. I would also like to encourage all volunteers of all ages to keep up the good work. The load is heavy until we learn how to carry it. This work is essential to the very core of our organisation and to all of our events and if all parties involved have processes in place to educate volunteers and simplify tasks, then the load should be evenly distributed. Brodie Nankervis is currently working on an e-learning platform that could incorporate volunteer education as well.

Our membership is ageing. What can we do to attract more kids into Orienteering and keep them?

The Sporting Schools Program across Australia has been extended recently until 2026. It serves as a very good starting point. State federations are doing great work through the program with their accredited orienteering instructors. Educating school teachers to become accredited orienteering instructors is also a very good way to attract the younger generation to the sport. There is work in progress within OA that aims to connect students with clubs and increase the number of young participants. Sport Australia has launched recently a community coaching initiative that could prove very helpful in the long run and could supply coaches for clubs and help start regular training sessions where there are none at the moment. We have relaunched the Coach in Residence Program to attract enthusiastic young orienteers from around the world to do coaching in local communities, make maps and evangelise Orienteering in Australia. Andrew Shipton is working closely with the States and Sport Australia to implement the National Integrity Framework which ensures that Orienteering is a safe environment for children. And we all know: safety first! As a parent I know the challenges that arise when we take the kids to an Orienteering event. I would like to see more activity at universities but as I said in the beginning, I am climbing a very steep learning curve and my knowledge is limited. I am sure that by the time this article appears I will know more. I am here for the long run.

Thank you Árpád – the Orienteering community is with you.

Australian WOC, JWOC and MTBO teams are outfitted by