"Draft" Minutes of NWOA Club Delegate Meeting
Saturday 22nd October 2011
Caton Institute
Present: Bob Roach (DEE), Steve Round (SELOC), Sue Birkinshaw (MDOC and GMOA), Andrew Tarr (DEE), Steve Buckley (LOC), Angela Whitworth (BL), Dick Whitworth (BL), Hamish Willis (PFO), Sue Butterfield (NWJS), Mike Atherton (LOC), Dick Towler (LOC), Roger Jackson (WCOC), Gillian Rowan-Wilde (PFO), Lynne Thomas (WCOC), Malcolm McIvor (DEE), David McCann (MDOC), George Crawford Smith (PFO), Richard Tiley (LOC), John Woodall (BOF/NOC).
The meeting was chaired by Bob Roach. Minutes were taken by Sue Birkinshaw
- Apologies for absence
Matthew Cochrane (MEROC), Sue Roome ( SROC), Stuart Arnold (BARRO), Paul Turner (SELOC), Julian Lailey (SROC), Carol McNeill (LOC)
No Reps were present from WAROC, SROC, BARRO, MEROC - Minutes of CDM held on March 12th 2011
Agreed to be a correct record. - British Orienteering Championships May 4th – 6th 2012
Lynne Thomas, event co-ordinator, reported that plans for the weekend are all coming together.
BL are putting on the warm-up event on Friday.
For the Long Distance Race on Saturday at Dalegarth, permissions, Assembly Field, transport and team leaders are agreed.
SROC have arrangements for the Relay well in hand.
Lynne's main need now is for commitment from all NW clubs to provide manpower at the weekend. She estimates that between 80 and 120 helpers are needed each day. The CDM gave full support to Lynne writing to clubs detailing the number of helpers required.
Budget, entry fees and IT will all be decided soon. - Other Major events
- Junior Inter Regional Championships July 2011 Sue Butterfield reported that the event was very successful with 198 juniors (from all 12 Regions) taking part. LOC hosted the Individual at Haverigg and SROC hosted the Relay at Simpson Ground. NW were the overall winners. Thanks to accommodation at UVHS and a team of very hard-working helpers the event made a good profit towards the Squad 2012 Norway Trip.
- Progress reports
British Schools 2012. DEE have all arrangements well in hand.
Northern Championships 2012. MDOC had lost access to YMCA land at High Dam, but are hoping that the new owners willnow allow access.
Lakes5 2014. Eight possible areas have been identified, and the clubs have considered parking and the needs of the youngest and oldest competitors. The Exec will now ask the clubs to firm-up the proposals, including permissions and possible map extensions. A decision, bearing in mind type of terrain, geographic spread, and the possibility of Community-O should be possible by the CDM in March 2012. We need to bear in mind that we might be hosting the JK in 2015.
Trail-O Championships 2012. John Kewley now expects to organize this event outside the region.
- NW Fixtures List
158 editions have been produced since 1986. A paper was presented on options for the future of the list, and this will be circulated to the clubs for a decision to be taken at the next CDM. Whilst at first sight, there appear to be attractive savings of around £1200 available from scrapping the List, there are a number of other factors to consider before making a decision. It was agreed that we need to decide what the list is used for – committed members, "fringe" members and as an advertising tool to the general sporting public. - NW O League. Report from the Working Party and updated Rules for 2012
Thanks were expressed to Dick Towler for leading preparation of the report. The purpose of the League is to create a NW "brand" of high quality events that competitors will want to travel to from other regions, thus improving the competition.
It was agreed (For 6, Against 0, Abstain 1) that the League should be continued for 2012 and that best 6 events should count.
It was regretted that younger junior results could not be included, and that there was too often a delay in the appearance of League results.
There is a real need for a "champion" - someone to take the lead on all aspects of the League including promotion. - BOF
Mike Atherton gave a brief synopsis of the Club and Association Conference held on October 15th, and referred us to the BOFwebsite (Hot Topics) for more detail. He felt that the Board were very receptive of all the opinions expressed, but that the Agenda was too large.
John Woodall is our link to the Board. He spoke briefly on the improvement in decision-making since the Board replaced Council. The first imperative is to get the Committee structure right, followed by the membership/levy structure. There are many other things on the list but they are perhaps less problematic. He admitted that every decision made has to take into account a possible reduction in outside funding. - Topics for the CDM on November 19th
"Growing your Orienteering Club" Svend Elkjaer of Sports Marketing Network
Work done on Sport England data on Satisfaction and Market Segmentation, Steve Round and Jane Mockford.
Development and promotion of regular informal series of events throughout the region (carried forward from this meeting's agenda)
Other development initiatives and projects. - Other Business
- Jon Carberry has suggested a Senior Squad in the region, for elite M/W 20/21. He would like a small contribution towards administration. The Exec was authorized to pay this if Jon puts forward an acceptable project plan.
- Clubs had all responded to the request to give a brief statement on how they have spent their £500 grant for 2010/11.In summary, 4 clubs had spent it on mapping, 4 on their junior programme, 2 on hardware and 1 on publicity material.
- Hamish Willis is the Community O Coach for the north of England. A funding shortfall means he has time available to extend his work if NWOA will fund it. HW will make available a list of the sort of work he could take on. Clubs are asked to consider whether they could use his expertise during 2012. This will be considered again at the CDM on 19th November.
- It was suggested that NWOA should hold a Coaching Day, along the lines of the BOF Coaching Days held in the last few years.
- BrightBikeLights have offered to sponsor the NW Night League by giving two top quality headlights. It was agreed that they could advertise on our website.
- Attendance at the Media Relations course was disappointing, particularly in view of the recognition within NWOA that we need to improve how we use the media.
Dates of Next CDMs – 19th November 2011 and 10th March 2012
Associated Documentation
