Hot Topics and Consultations
Rules 2014
The Rules of Orienteering and associated documents have undergone a ‘makeover’ for 2014.
This consultation will be open from 23rd March 2013 - 31st May 2013 for everyone to comment on via a survey - see details below.
Which rules and documents have changed?
The Rules of Orienteering have been split into 3 sections:
- Definitions of terms
- Rules of Orienteering – Competitors
- Rules of Orienteering – Event Officials
The Appendices have been streamlined and all the mandatory clauses are now in the Rules of Orienteering and the rest has become guidance, moved to be a Competition Rule or deleted.
The Event Guidelines have gone altogether. Their content has moved into the rules, the Appendices or been deleted.
The Competition Rules have been re- ordered to all follow the same standard format but in essence remain unchanged.
Has the content of the Rules changed?
Yes it has. The language has been modernised and now all of the rules are requirements, the terms should and shall are no longer used.
Have any new rules appeared?
One or two are new. These are in the Competitors rules and cover such things as use of mobile phones during a competition.
It might seem like there are lots of new rules for Event Officials but these have always existed, they were buried in the Appendices.
Because so much has been reworded and moved around, it is quite possible that inadvertently something has been left out or there has been an unforseen change of meaning, therefore we want competitors and Event Officials to check them over before they are published. In addition, we need comments on whether they are as user friendly as such a set of rules can be.
The rules for 2014 are available here:
British Championships
JK
Other competitions
Junior Competitions
Rules of Orienteering
The method of making comments is by Survey Monkey, available here
Finally if there are any corrections or changes, please use the form available here to make these changes.
Thank you
Helen Errington
Event Manager
2013 Membership and Levy Scheme
A new British Orienteering membership scheme was adopted at the 2012 AGM. The resolution passed stated that from 1 January 2013 British Orienteering will have a single tier of membership with two categories:
Senior – any member aged 21 or older on 31 December of the membership year
Junior – any member aged 20 or younger on 31 December of the membership year
The British Orienteering membership fees for 2013 will be:
Senior member – £5.00
Junior member – £2.00
To be a member of British Orienteering you will still need to be a member of an affiliated club and association and pay the appropriate club and association membership fee where they apply.
You will be able to renew your membership from 1 November 2012 for the 2013 membership year. This is later than in previous years when renewal commenced from the 1 September.
From 1st January 2013, a single rate of levy will be applied to all participants at all events except those covered by a British Orienteering Partnership Agreement. The principle that three juniors (M/W20 and younger) will count as one senior for levy purposes remains, but full-time students will no longer be treated as juniors for levy purposes unless they are juniors.
The British Orienteering Levy rate for 2013 will be:
Levy per senior equivalent participant - £1.00
2013 Membership Scheme Frequently Asked Questions
Will British Orienteering still have a Local and National Level of Membership?
No, British Orienteering will only have one level of membership.
Will British Orienteering still have junior, senior, student, family and associate grades of membership?
No, British Orienteering will only offer senior or junior membership.
Will clubs still be able to have a family or student membership category and will the British Orienteering membership database be able to support this?
As previously stated Clubs and Associations can continue to offer a Family Membership Fee when the new British Orienteering membership scheme commences. Unfortunately the British Orienteering membership scheme will only be able to validate family memberships based on the British Orienteering Senior and Junior grades:
- Senior – any member aged 21 or older on 31 December of the membership year
- Junior – any member aged 20 or younger on 31 December of the membership year
Therefore Family memberships can contain:
- A minimum of one senior member
- A maximum of two senior members
- Any number of junior members
All family members must be resident at the same address.
Families can continue to join/renew British Orienteering as a ‘Family’ but the membership fee will be made up of the sum parts. E.g. A Family containing two senior and one junior members will be charged a British Orienteering Membership Fee of £12 (2 Senior members at £5 + 1 Junior member at £2). If the Club or Association offers a Family fee, the family will be charged the Club/Ass family fee on joining/renewing. Otherwise the Club and Association membership fee will be calculated in the same way as the British Orienteering Fee e.g. the sum parts.
If each member of my family is now an individual member of British Orienteering, will each member of my household now receive separate communications from British Orienteering?
When communicating electronically by email, British Orienteering will send the correspondence to each member that has a registered email address in the database. When no member of the household has a registered email address or it is an item that needs to be sent via post e.g. Focus magazine then we will continue to send one copy of the correspondence to each household.
Will the renewal period still be January to December?
Yes, the membership year remains as January to December with people being able to join or renew for the following year from the 1 November.
When can I renew my membership?
You can renew your membership from the 1 November 2012. This is a change from the 1 September to allow clubs more time to set their fees for the following year.
Will I receive a Renewal reminder?
Yes, British Orienteering will send you a renewal reminder in early November 2012 stating your membership fees for 2013. If our membership database contains an email address for your household, the renewal notice will be sent electronically, otherwise a reminder will be sent by post.
How can I renew my membership?
You can renew online via our website, over the phone by telephoning 01629 734042 or by post.
When will I receive a membership card?
The cost and necessity of membership cards has been discussed and we have decided to no longer issue cards, and will instead provide a letter confirming your membership and the relevant details. As with renewals, if our membership database contains an email address for your household, the membership confirmation will be sent electronically, otherwise a letter will be sent by post.
Will members be charged a different event entry fee?
As per Proposal 4 that was passed at the 2012 AGM, “Clubs are also free to choose whether or not to offer discounts on entry fees to members"Will British Orienteering still offer Direct Debit as a payment method?
Yes, the ability to pay membership by direct debit will be continued. However now the membership fees are so low there will no longer be a £1 discount for paying by direct debit. Notice of Direct Debit payments will be sent by email where feasible.
How can I check my contact details are up to date and/or provide you with an email address?
You can update your contact details and provide British Orienteering with an email address by logging into the members area of the website. Alternatively please contact the National Office on 01629 734042 or info@britishorienteering.org.uk
What does a club need to provide British Orienteering?
As per the 2010 AGM, Clubs need to submit an Annual Return to the National Office by the 31st October. To comply with the AGM proposal, Clubs needs to:
- Pay the British Orienteering Affiliation Fee of £46.00 (£9.20 Student Clubs) and ensure that the Clubs 2013 membership fees have already been sent to the National Office.
- Be administered by a Committee that consists of a minimum of 3 people.
- Notify British Orienteering of the names of at least 3 Officers, typically Chair, Secretary, Treasurer who may form the minimum number required as the club committee.
- Have a constitution and return a copy to the National Office.
- Take responsibility for the maintenance of correct financial records. These shall be audited or examined annually, by a person that is independent of the committee and not related to a committee member. These accounts must be presented annually at a Club AGM and approved by club members. The minutes of the AGM should be returned to the National Office.
Further Information
If you have any questions regarding the membership scheme please contact the National Office:
Tel: 01629 734042
Email: info@britishorienteering.org.uk
Whole Sport Plan (2013-2017)
British Orienteering Funding 2013-17
Throughout the period 1 April 2009 - 31 March 2013 British Orienteering has been delivering in England an increasing participation programme funded by Sport England. A submission to Sport England has now been made to gain funding for the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2017. Any funding that is released to British Orienteering can be used only in England, although all of the benefits from delivery of funded programmes either as good practice or from the infrastructure that the funding supports will be UK wide.
British Orienteering is funded through membership fees, levy fees and income generated from the major events which is anticipated to be around £220,000 in 2013. The Board is currently considering the 2013 budget priorities and faces some significant challenges. There will be no funding from UK Sport for the Performance Programme (World Orienteering Championships preparation and programme) in 2013 consequently there is already a £67,500 shortfall based on the 2012 budget. Without government and lottery funding British Orienteering could not afford a National Office and would consist of around 2.5 full time equivalent members of staff.
The Sport England submission considers how to increase participation in orienteering, how to retain participation and how to deliver a nationally managed Talent Identification and Development Programme. The first two are certainly objectives that most orienteers see as the focus for our work; this came across strongly from our consultations first in 2007/9 and also in our more recent work.
What are the implications of the submission for orienteers, clubs and associations?
If the submission is fully endorsed and fully funded by Sport England there will be several impacts:
- To orienteers, there will continue to be the events and competitions as there are currently and the impact of the submission on these will be to disseminate good practice.
- To orienteers, there should be more opportunities to orienteer locally and frequently.
- To clubs, there will be less pressure from us to help increase the number of new participants and more support from us to deliver activities and events that meet the needs of club members.
- We will continue to support clubs in delivering activity sessions and club nights; these remain a part of our ‘local, frequent’ message.
- British Orienteering will take more of a lead in trying to generate new participants and feed them into activities, events and competitions.
- Building on the success of staging local, frequent activities and club nights under the Community O banner, we will be working with partners to deliver more orienteering opportunities locally and frequently. Partners will include clubs that wish to be involved, local authorities and other organisations.
- The talent pathway will be nationally managed and tightly defined; the regional squads will be able to focus on a wider group of orienteers and work to maintain participants’ enjoyment of orienteering.
It is clear from discussions with Sport England that the Government and Sport England see a great future for orienteering and are sold on the benefits of orienteering and the diversity of people that might be encouraged to participate in orienteering. All great news! However Government/Sport England have to be convinced that British Orienteering is able to deliver programmes that meet their needs in attracting a wide participation base. The Programmes put forward in the submission have been developed with specific target groups in mind.
There are implications of the submission for staff which you should be aware:
- Most staff members do not know if they will have a role after 31 March 2013.
- It is clear that we must demonstrate success in delivering any agreed programmes during the first year, both to protect the funding and to begin to attract increased funding. (Sport England will be holding back some funds which they can use to ‘reward’ those programmes that are succeeding.) This in turn means that we may have to prioritise the roll out of programmes to those areas where we have the strongest opportunity to achieve. In turn this will mean that we are unlikely to continue to operate funded programmes in some parts of England both because we will not have the funding to do so and because we are being encouraged to focus our resource to achieve success rather than spreading our resource thinly.
So in short we do not know how Sport England will respond to our submission; what we deliver and how we deliver will largely be determined by the level of funding gained. In a worst case scenario British Orienteering could be in a position of depending entirely on our self-generated income; in a best case scenario it is likely that there will be focus in our delivery of the programmes and a restructuring of our staff to meet the level of funding and delivery of agreed programmes.
A more detailed article about the submission can be found in the Summer 2012 edition of Focus magazine.
Consultation
Firstly, can we thank again the 54 clubs that provided significant input into the development of the Whole Sport Plan 2009/13. It was thanks to their input that we were able to feel confident that the plan did meet the needs of our clubs and members.
The Board is now working to develop the Whole Sport Plan 2013/17 and sees this work as of critical importance to the on-going development of the sport in the UK.
The initial consultation with members has taken place (via an online survey) and seems to support the continued use of our vision ‘more people, more places, more podiums’. The consultation does raise a significant number of issues for discussion and we would like to hear the views of members, clubs and associations on these issues. It is worth noting a few points prior to the discussion however:
From the themes identified in the Whole Sport Plan (WSP) online survey, we have developed a number of discussion questions to be considered by individuals, clubs and associations alike. We have asked that these questions be considered and discussed within clubs and associations, and views fed into the Association and Club conference (15thOctober 2011) by delegates attending.
We also welcome feedback from individuals on the discussion questions.
The discussion questions, themes identified from the WSP 13-17 online survey and the raw data have been compiled and can be found in the document WSP 2013-2017 consultation papers.
We welcome feedback from all interested parties. Please feedback, using the discussion questions as a basis, to the following email address feedback@britishorienteering.org.uk.
Look forward to hearing your input on the issues.
Previous WSP 2009-13 Documents can be found here.
Mike Hamilton, Chief Executive