Ideas for Springton in July
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Topic created by FredR on Sat Mar 24, 2012 at 8:56 amI've been mentioning to a few people along the way some ideas for a special event format at Springton Manner on July 22, and its time to get some conversation going. Let me know through replies here or catching me at some event soon.The general idea is to have a mid-summer "learning and volunteer day" with the primary objectives of:
- getting new people introduced to the club and sport in a way that inclines them to come back
- provide an opportunity for club members to get better and "move up" their course level
- encourage more volunteerism and comraderie within the club
The motivation to do something like this at this particular event considers the following factors:- the park is embedded in a relatively high density population area, with lots of potential newcomers close by;
- the size of the park and map scale (1:5000) are less challenging;
- good facilities (including a large indoor room in the carriage house)
- potential for advertising, including through the county park and at other park events (e.g., wool days)
Here are some specific ideas which can be combined and discussed separately:- Instead of the usual course offerings, there would be two versions of courses at three levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). One course would be a shorter "training course" and the other something closer to usual length. For one fee, a person could do one training course plus one regular course. To save on printing costs, the training maps would be returned and re-used, and possibly all three training courses could be printed on the same map.
- For the training courses, we could create some self-guided training materials such as notes, annotated map sections, etc. offering advice on route choice, attack point selection, error prevention, etc.
- Club members would be highly encouraged (required?) to volunteer some time to providing training to others and/or other usual event requirements. The training could include the usual pre-start instruction as well as shadowing someone on a training course, and post-run analysis/advice. This would also be an opportunity for club members to learn event roles such as registration and epunch.
- For those looking for "premium training service", we could have "Rent-a-Champ" table where one of our many elites (and perhaps from other clubs if they could be enticed) could be rented out for an additional fee as a fund-raiser (maybe for the US Team?)
- Technology: with NAOC impending, perhaps the tech team would like to get some field experience deploying web cams or radio controls or large-screen displays, or whatever to impress our newcomers. If nothing else, we could use the club GPS devices to create tracks for instruction.
Comments?Fred -
Reply by edscott on Sat Mar 24, 2012 at 11:28 amI think the key word here is "advertising". No matter what we plan at Springton Manor the key will to be getting new people out to participate. The "guided tour" approach has worked in the past. Most of us could easily walk a white course with a family group after doing our regular course. I think offering a set of regular courses for the club members and also have club members to do an introduction and then accompany anyone on white would be the way to go. The key is to get the word out. I think we usually do a good job of working with first time orienteers once we get them to the event.Since they do have the large meeting room we could do our normal "Nolde style" introduction. I'd schedule it from 11 to Noon so the volunteers for accompaning them on their course would be back and ready to go again.I think showing them our normal event format and keeping it realtively low key is the best approach. Making it look too competitive or highly technical may do more harm than good for the average newcomer.
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Reply by FredR on Mon Mar 26, 2012 at 7:04 pmRight--we definitely want to get more than the usual number of beginners out.But this isn't entirely about newcomers. There are two aspects that apply to club members as much as anyone:
- There would be intermediate and advanced training courses that will give non-newcomers (many of whom would be club members) an opportunity to extend themselves with some help before, during and after; and
- Club members themselves would have to offer to volunteer that help to others. No one has commented on being "highly encouraged/required" to volunteer significant time as a condition of competing on their regular courses.
Are club members interested in getting a training/learning opportunity that's different than the usual local meet?Are there comments for or against "requiring" volunteer time? -
Reply by kathyu on Tue Mar 27, 2012 at 3:12 pmYES! Don't require help from the same people who volunteer all the time.
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Reply by edscott on Wed Mar 28, 2012 at 1:04 pmYes, "requiring volunteers" is sort of an oxymoron. But we also do need to increase our volunteer pool. One effect of changing to essentially a 100% epunch schedule is that many of the volunteers trained over the years are now out of a job. Start and finish don't need much if any attention. There are no results to calculate or punches to check. So hand in hand with increasing membership we need to train more people to do the new jobs that epunching and computer generated course printing have created.
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Reply by FredR on Wed Mar 28, 2012 at 1:32 pmEd, you raised an idea that I hadn't thought of--in addition to day-of-event activities, we could also set up some learning opportunities for things such as mapping, course-setting, event director preparations, etc. As I said, we have that nice carriage house room to hold some meetings. Even newcomers might be interested in what goes on behind the scenes. I know I got interested in orienteering first when I saw a friend doing course design.Obviously, you're right about the oxymoron... I think the right idea is somewhere between "invite" and "strongly encourage".
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Reply by edscott on Wed Mar 28, 2012 at 8:18 pmYes, I suspect the day of event computer work is an area that someone that is new to Orienteering, but good with computers could learn relatively quickly. The skills of mapping & course design are probably of more interest to the more experienced members of the club. If I'm correct, we do have a lot of people that with a bit of training could help to spread the work around a bit more than it is now.
