ROSEISLE – THE DEBRIEF………..

AND AN APPEAL TO ALL MORAVIAN MEMBERS

I’m pleased to report that Saturday’s event was pretty successful, but not quite in the way I’d first planned! We had a very close race on the junior A course and a great turnout on the B course but the totally unexpected thing was an amazing 20 adults on the parents challenge! Eddie tells me that the course, with lots of route choice but simple controls (to some!), was exactly the sort of course that you’d get at an elite sprint O event so maybe that was the attraction.

This recent series of mini-events came about after feedback from local schools suggested they wanted us to have some local events that their kids could come to and practice the skills they’d learned at the recent schools champs. Before I came up with the dates I asked Rosalyn (the Forres Active Schools Coordinator) to do a quick poll of the kids in some of her schools and there was so much enthusiasm that there was no doubt in my mind that we had to put some events on – and quickly!

There was a reasonable gathering at Culbin, but most of the children who came were either existing club members or were recruited either by Roo (from Aberlour House) or me (local kids in the Dyke area). There was widespread local press coverage but I assumed that the opening of the bike trails in Sanquhar had kept the attendance down to a nonetheless respectable 40 or so.

The great thing about Culbin was that some of the parents decided to run the A course, and this gave me the idea of publicising Roseisle as a family event rather that just a junior event. As a result we had 20 adult runners (17 on the A and 3 on the B) which is way more than what I’d expected. On the other side of the coin I was really disappointed at the junior turnout on what was a nice day. Were it not for the 15 INVOC juniors who came for a club training day, we’d have had only 13 at the event. Many of these were already club members but it was particularly nice to be able to welcome the Hindley family whose children attend Logie School where I’d put on an event the previous Monday afternoon. So something has obviously not gone to plan. I’m pretty sure that the word about the events was put out by Active Schools who are trying hard to support us, but clearly the effort we’re putting in to schools orienteering is all one way at the moment. Maybe it will reap its rewards later, but at the moment we still have plenty work to do.

So what have I learned from this? The message that comes out loud and clear is that people just don’t come to orienteering events by seeing posters, reading press articles or seeing it on a website. The way to get people to events is by word of mouth. People will try something if they can go with their friends, and I’m sorry to be blunt but all club members, not just one or two of us, need to get the word out more if we are to keep our momentum going. I admit that it’s easier if you have kids the right age and if you have the right contacts, but if you have any friends or workmates who you think might enjoy it, bring them along. Bribe them, blackmail them or even offer to run a course with them, and if you do succeed in getting them as far as the woods on the day of an event make sure they are introduced to other club members and made to feel welcome. Make them want to come back for more!

We all know what a great sport orienteering can be, but the more people that come to events the better it is for everyone. The good runners have more competition and those who want to do it more leisurely will have more like-minded people to compare experiences with. The more juniors we have the more exciting it will become for our current bunch of youngsters and we’ll have more scope to put together teams for the big events like the Scottish Champs and the 11-person relay. I think that our last 2 events have shown just how enjoyable and social these mini club events can be and I hope that we can start putting them on more regularly. It is only by doing more of this sort of thing that we can generate some real club spirit. We have great communications set up within the club. Margaret does a brilliant job in keeping the website up-to-date and interesting as well as keeping us all informed with her regular e-bulletins, but we must keep up a regular diet of low-cost local events so people can learn the skills nearer to home before they start venturing off in to some of the fantastic areas a bit further afield.

Being a club is not about sending e-mails to each other and expecting people to travel on their own to other peoples’ events. We have orienteering areas in our patch that are the envy of just about every club in Britain. Let’s be proud of them and use them to sell this great sport to the public. Let’s get together as a group more often and put on more of these mini events which are so simple to organise and only take up a morning. If you were there on Saturday and feel like you could contribute just let me know and I’ll make sure you’re given every chance to help keep the club going where we want it to.

Mike R