The goals of World Orienteering Day are about increasing the visibility and accessibility of orienteering to young people, increasing the number of participants both in school orienteering activities, as well as club orienteering activities in all countries of all National Federations. It is also about helping teachers to implement orienteering in a fun and educational way and to get more new countries to take part in orienteering.

Each World Orienteering Day event gives those new to orienteering the possibility to try our amazing sport!

The dates for World Orienteering Day 2022 are between the 11th and the 17th of May, and any activity held can be registered as a World Orienteering Day event.

Find out more here. 

We can’t believe it!  We are halfway through the Development Conference already.

This week British Orienteering was delighted to put on three more diverse sessions.

On Monday, Neil Cameron from The Orienteering Foundation presented the Retaining Beginner Orienteers session using key points from their Newcomers Retention Project.  This project looked at the welcome newcomers get through club websites – how they look and how user-friendly they are for a newcomer to navigate through.  The importance of knowing the demographic your club wishes to attract and putting things in place to practically extend a warm welcome was emphasised.

Supporting Club Development through the employment of a Club Development Officer was the focus on Tuesday evening.  Andrew Evans opened the session by presenting how The Orienteering Foundation supports clubs through funding development initiatives.  Caroline Mackenzie, from a club committee perspective, then talked about how Cleveland Orienteering Klub shaped a plan and recruited a Club Development Officer. Mary Fleming then finished the session by sharing some of the development work, including ‘Couch2Green’, she has been working on at Cleveland Orienteering Klub since her appointment.  The Orienteering Foundation, with the support of British Orienteering, would love to see clubs apply for funding for future development projects.

The topic on Wednesday was Access and Permissions – An Ecologist and Landowner’s Perspective.  We were delighted to invite Richard Burke and Leanne Sargeant from Forestry England.  Richard is involved in Recreation Management and Leanne is an Ecologist, responsible for managing the issues in forests in Southern England, including the unique habitat of the New Forest.  The session gave us an appreciation of the balance between encouraging recreation and ensuring Conservation and Biodiversity.

British Orienteering is proud to announce a review of the British Orienteering Recognised Centre Scheme.

This review aims to cover the process, structure, benefits, and purpose of the accreditation. The objectives are to seek insight from all stakeholders, act on the insight received and ensure compatibility with the Strategic plan 2022-2027.

British Orienteering wants to seek the views and thoughts from all outdoor centre and activity providers to help support the Recognised Centre Accreditation (the kitemark for delivering Orienteering) going forwards.

Please find the link to the online questionnaire here.

British Orienteering's Development Conference - January 2022
 

On Monday British Orienteering was delighted to kick off the 2022 Development Conference with a session on Engaging and Retaining Young People, presented by Fran Loots a Regional Development Officer from the Scottish Orienteering Association.  This was an interactive session where delegates were able to share as well as take some ideas back to our clubs.   This first session was fully booked so a waiting list has been made for an additional session which Fran has very kindly offered to present on Wednesday 2 February – and this session is already filling up.

It was Pauline Tryner’s turn on Thursday evening to help focus our attention on Creating a Whole Club Experience.  With her unique perspective as the Club Development Officer, Pauline talked through the development journey of her club, South Yorkshire Orienteers. One main message from this was, South Yorkshire Orienteers is not the same club now as it was 10 years ago and it does require persistent effort – if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try and try again – not using the same methods each time but evolve your efforts and ideas.  Also, focus your efforts on one thing at a time within your capabilities.

Both these sessions were recorded and will be available to watch shortly on the British Orienteering Webinar page under Training & Support.