News and Notes Archive
The following items were previously posted on the News and Notes page.
2011 Items
2011 BAOC Service Award Recipient
Congratulations to Kelly Wells for winning the 2011 BAOC Service Award. Information about Kelly's accomplishments (and information about previous recipients) is available here.
Bob Cooley Received Golden Troll Award
Congratulations to Bob Cooley, one of four 2011 recipients of the Orienteering USA Golden Troll Award, the purpose of which is to recognize those individuals who have provided exceptional service to the sport of orienteering that extends beyond the local club level.
Bob has been the Mapping director for BAOC for over 30 years. As such, he has been behind every map used at an A-meet, including our newest maps: Boggs Mountain, Pacheco State Park, and Little Truckee Summit. His influence beyond the club level has been felt by everyone who has attended an A-meet, and the precision and care with which he makes the maps can be attested to by anyone who has run on them.
Bob instituted the mapping program of the Bay Area and Sierra parks, which has produced over 40 excellent maps. He has done much of the mapping himself, and directed professional mappers for the other projects. Bob spends many hours personally updating maps before an A-meet (and also for C-meets and B-meets), and prints all of the maps that the club uses. Bob is also one of the world experts on the fine art of high-resolution inkjet printing of maps. Having a good map is a real pleasure in orienteering and course setting, and Bob has devoted innumerable hours to improving BAOC’s map inventory.
In addition, Bob has worked as course setter and vetter for multiple A-meets, and is a highly ranked international radio orienteer, who introduced radio orienteering to BAOC.
Bob has had a strong positive impact on the sport of orienteering beyond the club level.
Thank you Bob, for everything you have given to the club and to the sport of orienteering!
(More information about the Golden Troll Award is available here (http://orienteeringusa.org/news/2011/announcements/nominations-golden-troll-award-now-being-accepted).)
BAOC President
(August 4, 2011)
2011 BAOC Service Award Nominations
It's that time again, so put your thinking caps on, if you have a favorite candidate. We need your nominations for the 2011 BAOC Service Award. The BAOC Service Award is given annually to a club member who has provided extraordinary service to the club and/or the sport of orienteering.
Let us know your nomination, along with your brief rational for your selection, by Monday Nov 21. There are many very helpful volunteers that are worthy, and this is the primary recognition of BAOC for this year.
The rules, are that:
- Candidates should be a deserving club member.
- Previously awardees, and the sitting president, are not in the mix.
- The previous award winners will vote on your list of nominees and determine the winner.
- The award will be presented at the Holiday Social event Dec. 17.
The prior recipients are Nancy Lindeman (1994), Gary Kraght (1995), Bob Cooley (1996), Ev & Jean Beuerman (1997), Joe Scarborough (1998), Evan Custer (1999), George Minarik (2000), Gavin Wyatt-Mair (2001), Penny & Harold DeMoss (2002), Robert Lewis (2003), Steve Beuerman (2004), Scott Aster (2005), Jeff Lanam (2006), Tony Pinkham (2007), Mark Blair (2008), Jay Hann (2009), and Chuck Spalding (2010). You can read about them here.
Please do not post your nominations on the Bay-O-Net. "Secrecy" adds to the suspense, and doesn't hurt the feelings of the nominees who are not selected, who might win in future years.
Cheers,
(November 7, 2011)
Insurance Coordinator Position Vacancy
If you have been looking for a volunteer position that is very important to BAOC, but doesn't require much time and that can be done from the warmth of your own home, please consider volunteering for Insurance Coordinator.
Brad Wetmore has decided to retire after five years in this position, and we would like to find a replacement by November.
According to Brad, the job is really easy, and easy to learn. The majority of the work is done at the beginning of the year when the new insurance policy is issued. Much is automated, so it's just a matter of filling in any changes from the previous years, submitting a PDF to our insurance company, and then sending the certificate of insurance to the Event Director. He estimates 1 hour or so a month, except in January when you need 4 hours to get all the upcoming events done.
If you are interested in the position or would like to know more, please contact (650.248.9595) or (408.524.2723).
Update: has volunteered to fill this position. Thank you Marina!
(September 8, 2011)
BAOC Hosted an Event for Outdoor Nation
On Saturday, July 30, several BAOC members hosted a "demo" orienteering event for the Outdoor Nation summer youth summit at the Presidio of San Francisco (http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/7/prweb8676674.htm). The event provided beginner clinics and a standard White course for 27 participants. (That "small" turn-out was almost double what we had been told to expect.)
In addition to introducing orienteering to those youth, we had an opportunity to enhance our relationship with The Presidio Trust (http://www.presidio.gov), which promotes activities in the Presidio. And it doesn't hurt that the permit fee is being waived for our September Presidio event.
Vic Revenko was the main organizer for the event, which included a lot of interaction with the Outdoor Nation organizers and recruiting club volunteers. The following people helped at the event: Bill Papendick, Chuck Spalding, Greg Ehrensing, Jim Fish, Kent Hetherwick, Marina Keating, Nancy Lindeman, Scott Aster, and Steve Haas. Also, Alex Finch helped with pre-event planning, Bob Cooley printed the maps, Brad Wetmore arranged insurance, Ben Legg prepared a flyer with a schedule of upcoming BAOC events, and BAOC equipment was provided by Alan Glendinning and Mark Blair. (I apologize to anyone I've overlooked.)
(July 31, 2011)
BAOC Facebook Page Is Active
I'm writing to make sure everyone knows about BAOC's active Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bay-Area-Orienteering-Club/208432029957?v=wall&ref=sgm). We keep making progress — this week had more "active users" than any other week, and 10 people have joined this month. We try to keep it updated regularly, and if you browse through the wall, I think you'll notice some interesting stores and photos.
There is one thing I really want you all to know: please feel free to share stuff! You are not undercutting the page administrators. I assure you — we don't want to be the only ones making posts. The way Facebook is set up right now, the administrator can't post as a person, and every time I make a post that people ignore, our page gets demoted. But every time some member shares a link, comments, or "likes" something, the page gets promoted and more people see it. And since we really want more people to know about orienteering, we really want you to contribute. If you have a cool orienteering video, picture, event invitation, or story you'd like to share, please step up and share it!
(June 1, 2011)
Upcoming Vacancies on OUSA Board
We have one definite person willing to run for the OUSA Board, but we are still seeking candidates since we now have at least two open spots. The term would begin in August, and would run for 3 years.
Every Board member is responsible for specific areas of the Strategic Plan based on the skills and interests of the member. You would be expected to work on the area, keep in touch with the rest of the board, and write a status report prior to each Board meeting. The entire Board is working together to implement the Plan, and you would not be going it alone.
The Board meets four times a year, usually at an A-meet, but conference calling is now available if you can't make all the meetings in person.
Give me a yell if you have any questions.
Thanks much,
Secretary, OUSA Board
(April 22, 2011)
Americans at World Ski-O Championships
After five days of competition at the World Ski Orienteering Championships in Tänndalen, Sweden, we have seen by far the best results for the United States in an international competition. Alison Crocker, who skied on the Blue courses at the last events of the 2011 Sierra Ski-O Champs (see a video here), and tied for the best time on the Sierra Ski-O Relay, has placed 18th on the sprint course, 18th on the middle-distance course, 12th with Greg Walker on the mixed relay, 8th on the long course, and 8th in the women's relay (with Alex Jospe and Cristina Luis)(and she finished 6th for the leg that she skied). All those placings are the best ever for an American. On one of Alison's mixed relay legs, she had a time that was within 6 percent of the winning time. Also of note is Alex Jospe, who placed 24th on the sprint course, 29th on the middle-distance course, and 25th on the long-distance course, and 8th on the womens relay (with Alison Crocker and Cristina Luis).
For the men, competition has been quite severe with the fastest American, Greg Walker, finishing 51st on the sprint course, 50th on the middle-distance course, 12th in the mixed relay (with a couple of legs that were within 25% and 30% of the winning times) with Alison Crocker, and 56th on the long course. Scott Pleban improved his performance on the long course and finished with his best placing at 50th, and Nikolay Nachev finished just ahead of Greg in 55th place on the long course. Overall, the men finished about 35 percent behind the winner when in previous years they tended to finish about 55 percent behind the winner.
All the members of the U.S. team have attended the Sierra Ski-O Championships over at least the last three years, some repeatedly. They've done wonders for us (especially with Greg Walker setting some of our best courses at Tahoe Cross Country) and now they are doing wonders for the U.S. team. Next year, the U.S. team will form an essential backbone for our management of the World Cup events. Alex Jospe has already started her publicity work with Alison Crocker by passing out pamphlets for our 2012 events at the Ski WOC. They are a great bunch of people to work with, and I hope many of our club members get a chance to work (and compete) with them next year.
Photos and movies of the U.S. team in action are available here (http://usa-orienteering.blogspot.com).
Up-to-date info on the events, including GPS tracking of the top 25 competitors each day, can be seen here (http://www.skiwoc2011.com/index.php?en&subj=18).
Here's a photo of Alison Crocker finishing a relay leg.
Tony Pinkham
BAOC Ski-O Director
(March 26, 2011)
Important BAOC Vacancies
We have important vacancies in the club. If you or someone you know might be interested in helping, or if you would like additional information, please let me know.
Regional Registration Volunteers
The Regional Registration Volunteers would be trained on registration procedures and work with the Registration Director to ensure that a volunteer and appropriate equipment is available at all BAOC events. Ideally, we will have two people in each region (South Bay, North Bay, and East Bay) to share the workload for events in that region.
BAOC President
(September 1, 2010; latest update March 18, 2011)
[Editorial Note: Information about the positions that have been filled is available here.]
BAOC to Host 2012 Ski-O World Cup Events?
The BAOC Board is currently considering a proposal to host one of the four 2012 Ski-O World Cup events, but the BAOC Board, which is largely composed of non-skiers, would like to hear from the BAOC ski-O community about their thoughts of this proposal and the volunteer possibilities. If interested in learning more about these possibilities and speaking to the people who are working on this, we urge everyone to join us at Tahoe XC after the Day-6 ski-O event this Saturday (Feb. 5) in the lounge of the ski resort. We also welcome online discussion [on the BayONet (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baoc/)], especially by those who cannot come in person to the discussion at Tahoe XC. We need to hear from you.
More information about this proposal is available here.
[It's definite — BAOC is hosting a multi-day 2012 Ski-O World Cup event in January and February. All the details are available here.]
Tony Pinkham
BAOC Ski-O Director
(February 3, 2011)
Nominations for Election of BAOC Officers
The Bay Area Orienteering Club elects four officers annually. These officers are the President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Event Coordinator. Any BAOC member in good standing may serve in one of these offices. The election date has not yet been set, but is required by the club bylaws to be in April or as soon as possible afterward.
The Nominating Committee will recommend a slate of one or more candidates for each of these offices. In addition, any member may be nominated at the Annual General Meeting or in advance by notice to the Secretary.
If you would like to be considered for nomination, or have a suggestion for a candidate, please contact , the Chairman of the committee, or any of the committee members, , , or , by February 22.
For reference, the BAOC Bylaws can be found here.
(January 27, 2011)