OPINION

Communication in a Changing World

JANET FLETCHER (ORIENTEERING WA)

The recent email from OA with a survey re The Australian Orienteer was sent out, one assumes, to provide information that can be used to make decisions about the future of our national magazine. It comes following appeals for well over a year to find a replacement for Michael Hubbert as Editor. I suspect that filling roles relating to communication is an issue at many levels of orienteering in Australia. Certainly, in WA, the role of Communication Convenor has been the most difficult position to fill on the OWA Council. At least in WA, this appears to be due to the increasing breadth of the role and the feeling by many that they don’t have the skills to “cover it all” even if they are willing to take on part of the job. So, what are we trying to tackle?

Content & Purpose

In any discussion about communication, the issue of what we are trying to communicate and why is one of the first to address. The factors associated with communicating information about upcoming activities, reporting past activities, promotion, producing a record for reference purposes, entertaining, coaching, updating on technical matters, maintaining connection across States etc., are many and varied.

Audience

We also need to consider the group with whom we are trying to communicate. Are we writing to communicate with members? If so, are they new or old members and what is their age? If we are writing for the purpose of promotion, careful thought has to be given to the nature of the group we are trying to attract. Possible participants in the sport and possible sponsors need very different information and approaches.

Media

A major issue in trying to attract a member into a communication role is the vast array of media now available and the speed with which they are changing. Gone are the days of typing out a newsletter for our members that covered everything and was read by all. Printed material is now much more professionally produced and digital media go far beyond web pages and emails. Few people are experienced and comfortable with the full range of media.

Fit

Which medium is most suitable in terms of purpose and audience probably poses the most problems. Some information that we may want to reach all our members may never be read by our younger members if it is in hard copy, or even in E-News. Many older members like to have a hard copy newsletter or magazine on the table to read over breakfast, or in the car to jog the memory about directions. Younger members often prefer Facebook or other social on-line media. Time and effort, both to produce and consume content, are also factors in our fast-paced, time-poor times.

The WA Experience

Over the years OWA has moved from a monthly printed newsletter, to a quarterly one, to a Yearbook. This has occurred as members found that the time, effort and cost required to produce a monthly newsletter was unsustainable, yet a quarterly newsletter could not provide information about upcoming events in a timely fashion, and, although it could provide excellent photos from past events, the accompanying text was “old-hat”. Our weekly E-News, which had existed for some time, consequently expanded in size. It still didn’t allow for lengthier reports or provide a permanent record of such matters as our champions, volunteers of the year, etc. In 2021 we produced our first Yearbook – a high quality production which met some of the functions not met by our E-News. This production still required a lot of time and work from an editorial team. As we struggle to find the best way of meeting our communication needs, we have had a communication team in which different people with different skills have been responsible for E-News, website, Facebook and Yearbook. All we need now is a Communications convenor to determine which content is best communicated via which medium and in what order if multiple media are used, and ensuring that important messages don’t fall between the cracks – a do-able job?

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VICTORINOX AWARD

This issue’s Victorinox Award goes to Mikayla Enderby for her article in this magazine on the Australian Team at the European Youth Orienteering Championships. Mikayla will receive a Victorinox Handyman which includes 24 tools and features – retail value $139.