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Junior World Orienteering Championships


Notes:


USOF Board Turned Down JWOC 2013 Bid

Fellow club members,

As reported last night, the USOF Board of Directors, at their meeting in Wisconsin on Saturday, denied BAOC's request that the U.S. submit a bid for the 2013 Junior World Orienteering Championships. Gavin Wyatt-Mair and I represented the club before the Board. We were asked a great many questions, and I feel we had sound answers. There was much positive comment about the groundwork the club had done, but the Board, citing issues with finances and priorities, would not take the decisive step.

I want to thank all the club members who contributed to this project. It could have been a great experience. A big thank you to BAOC's Rosemary Johnson, member of the USOF Board, for her support at the meeting.

I fear it will be several years now before the U.S. steps up to host an international championship. I will write more about this in my President's Corner in the November Bulletin.

Nick Corsano
BAOC President
(October 25, 2009)


Decision to Submit JWOC Bid

Club members,

At its special meeting last night [Sept. 21, 2009], the BAOC Board of Directors approved a resolution requesting the U.S. Orienteering Federation to submit a bid for the 2013 Junior World Orienteering Championships. The vote was the culmination of a lengthy process which began with a special Board meeting in January of this year. At that time, the Board formed a task force to evaluate a possible bid. The six-member task force met many times in person and by phone over the subsequent months. They talked to many orienteers inside and outside of the club, studied the reports of past JWOCs, explored potential orienteering venues in the Tahoe area, made connections with the National Forest Service and held a test meet, checked out housing options, drew up budgets, considered marketing and publicity strategies, and agreed to recommend that the Board move forward. They adopted this mission statement:

"To raise public awareness of Orienteering in the US, and to inspire a new generation of orienteers by hosting international events."

The task force made a presentation to the Board last week. Following IOF guidelines, the plan calls for five events in July 2013. JWOC would begin with a sprint and opening ceremony in Golden Gate Park. It would move up to Tahoe for a long course, two days of middle-distance courses, and a relay, followed by the closing ceremony. These events would be coupled with an internationally publicized orienteering festival and an ambitious and fun-filled juniors program.

The presentation to the Board was followed by an extensive question and answer session. The debate began at that meeting, and was carried over to last night. The members of your Board considered the proposal thoughtfully, and discussed it with sincerity and intelligence before voting.

The next step is for BAOC to present the request to the USOF Board next month. If approved by USOF, the bid will be submitted to the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) in January. The final decision will be made by the IOF in August 2010. There are many steps still to come, and a huge amount of volunteer time and effort, but we may have started on our way to the most exciting moment in BAOC history!

Nick Corsano
BAOC President


Investigative Task Force Formed

The Bay Area Orienteering Club has formed a Task Force to investigate making a bid to host the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) in the future. The current thinking is that 2013 could be the year, so the Task Force intends to report our findings back to the BAOC Board of Directors in August 2009. The Task Force would like to gather input from, and communicate with, all orienteers who may be interested in this endeavor, especially BAOC and U.S. orienteers. To this end, we have created a Yahoo! group as a convenient forum for e-communication.

All interested U.S. orienteers are invited to join the JWOCTF Yahoo! group. If you join the group, you will receive e-mails posted to the group, and you may also access the Task Force archive of e-mails at any time. Here are the steps involved with joining the group:

  1. You send an e-mail to . As a minimum, please include in the e-mail your name and your club initials (e.g., BAOC). It will be helpful if you also briefly include your reasons for wanting to join the group.
  2. I will then add you to the group, assuming I am able to validate your request.
  3. You will then receive an e-mail confirming that you have been added to the group.

If I cannot validate your membership request, I will send you an e-mail asking for more information. Basically, I just want to establish that you are someone with a legitimate interest in BAOC's JWOC endeavor—that is, that you're not a spammer, solicitor, or advertiser.

Please note that in order to post e-mail to the JWOCTF group, you need to be a member of the group, and your posts must be sent from the e-mail address you specify in item #1 above.

We look forward to your participation!

Thank you,


BAOC JWOC Task Force


Seeking Marketing Expertise

This would be the first high-profile international orienteering event in the U.S. in many years. It could help significantly raise the visibility of the sport in this country, but that will happen only with a well-conceived marketing and media plan. The Task Force members don't have any real expertise in these areas, so we are reaching out to others in the orienteering community. If you are well versed in marketing or media relations, or have a good connection to someone who is, we would love to pick your brain, so we set our sights realistically. You can contact me at .

Thanks,

Nick Corsano
President, BAOC