Month: October 2020

2020 OUSA President’s Award(s)

The Orienteering USA President’s Award, in contrast to the Silva & Golden Service Awards, which are both based on nominations from membership, is awarded by the OUSA President to person(s) the president deems have gone above and beyond to help the organization operate smoothly. This year’s award goes to 2 people, Victoria (Tori) Campbell of the New England Orienteering Club and Andrea Schneider of the Minnesota Orienteering Club.

Orienteering USA President Clare Durand writes:

Victoria Campbell (NEOC) – After some cajoling, Tori joined the OUSA Board of Directors a year ago and jumped right to work. She has accomplished more as a Board member in one year, than many Board members do in a decade. Tori agreed to take on the large task of Vice-President of Youth Initiatives.

In this position, she has overseen the Youth Mapping Program and spearheaded a significant revision of our Abuse and Misconduct Policy. But most impressively, she almost single-handedly brought to reality a long wished for online training program. This program includes modules for beginning orienteers to learn skills and for coaches to get up to speed on the Orienteering Development Module and to accomplish most steps necessary to obtain coaching certification. Working with input from former Junior Team Coach Erin Schirm and Discovering Orienteering authors Bob Turbyfill and Chuck Ferguson, she has made it possible to bring the standard OUSA educational content to a much broader audience.

But that’s not all, Tori also did the bulk of the data analysis for our strategic planning early in the year. In an organization with little staff, her initiative, enthusiasm, and willingness to roll her sleeves up and get the work done have quickly made her a major Board asset.

Andrea Schneider (MNOC)

Andrea Schneider is a major volunteer for MNOC and works with youth and schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and with the US Junior Teams and National Junior Program (NJP) as well as serving as the Junior Team Administrator.

Andrea has led NJP fundraising efforts at numerous national events mostly through the ubiquitous Junior Team sandwich sales. Planning, shopping, preparing, and distributing the ordered sandwiches takes significant planning and time and is no trivial task. If she could not be at the event in person, she has arranged for others to seamlessly handle shopping, preparation, and distribution, in her stead.

For numerous national events to which juniors have traveled long distances without parents, Andrea has coordinated lodging and transportation—both to/from airports and event venues. This has enabled many juniors to participate in events that they might not have been able to otherwise. She has even hosted Juniors in her own home and with her club to enable these competitive opportunities

Andrea has coordinated uniform orders for all of OUSA’s elite teams for several years, working with the supplier, collecting orders, adjusting when minimum quantities of certain items are not reached, and then arranging delivery in such a way as to minimize costs.

Andrea is an accomplished mapper, and processes lidar data so much she is a resource for helping others get started with that difficult task. Through her maps and her educational orienteering business Andrea has exposed hundreds of children and teens in both Minnesota and Wisconsin to our sport.

Andrea also tracks Junior Team payments and costs. Tracking the team funds is a difficult task and the Junior Team fund is by far the most complex. Andrea not only helps the team by doing this, but also keeps OUSA and our accountants on our toes. Her attention to detail on these financial issues has helped us to develop procedures to work smoothly. 

Finally, despite competition from soccer and track, Andrea has managed to raise two (of three) sons who love orienteering and have been members of USA national teams.

Congratulations to this years OUSA President’s Award winners. A list of past winners can be found in the Orienteering USA archives.

Additionally, the following persons were presented Certificates of Appreciation by the OUSA Board:

  • Youth Mapping Program Committee
    • Eileen Breseman
    • Barb Bryant
    • Jon Campbell
    • Bill Cusworth
    • Heidi Cusworth
    • Andrea Schneider
  • Ed Despard – for work on EventReg, medals, and results technology
  • Outgoing Board Members
    • William Jameson (3 years)
    • Lee Todd (7 years)
  • Erin Schirm – for work with Teams and Coaching Committee
  • COVID task force:
    • Joseph Huberman
    • Jon Torrance
    • Rick Worner

2020 Golden Service Awards

Each year Orienteering USA recognizes several individuals that have provided service to the sport of orienteering beyond the club level by playing key roles at National Events, organizing training camps and festivals, serving on boards or committees at the national level and more. This year we award the Golden Service Award to the following seven individuals. Congratulations to all of you and Thank You for your efforts!

  • John Brady (COC) – John has worked tirelessly to promote youth orienteering as long-time coach of Tahoma Orienteering in the Washington Interscholastic Orienteering League as well as mentoring a new generation of coaches in the WIOL. He is a prolific mapper and this year with the reduced orienteering due to the coronavirus pandemic has developed a extensive series of DIY options for youth and their families, hosted a summer training camp and is currently running a fall covid-safe series of sprint events.
  • Shane Dawalt (OCIN) – Shane regularly manages download at local events and is a member of the results team for the Flying Pig NRE events. He has taken it upon himself to improve the software for results display screens which are used for both local and NRE events. He has implemented and administers a database which helps the club grow and track competition status for the Tri-State Orienteering League (TROL). Shane regularly serves as course setter for both local and national events.
  • Mary Jones (OK) – Mary has served as President of Orienteer Kansas for decades and was the meet director for the 2013 US Interscholastic & Intercollegiate Champs. For the past 5 years she has directed the orienteering event in the Kansas State Sunflower Games inviting participants from across the state of Kansas to the sport of orienteering. She has been actively promoting Orienteering for Women in the Kansas City area and has run events at Fort Leavenworth Army Base benefiting military families for a number of years.
  • Cristina Luis (TSN) – Cristina was a founding member of the OUSA Tech Committee launching numerous initiatives such as the website revamp. She has also served on the selection committee for the US National Team, serving many roles including WOC Team Manager for three years. She is also a primary organizer and webmaster for the Southwest Spring Orienteering Week Festival.
  • B Brooke Mann (RMOC) – Brooke has been an instrumental volunteer assisting with promotion and organization of Laramie Daze in Wyoming as well as the Southwest Spring O Fests in Arizona. She is a skilled photographer providing engaging media content for both local/regional events and providing media to Orienteering USA national media channels. She handles webmaster, secretary and registrar duties for RMOC, her primary club in Colorado as well as being involved with most of the local events.
  • Allan Pincus (LAOC) – Allan has served on the LAOC board and is the point person for EventReg handling registration duties for at least 6 National events including the US Trail-O and Relay Champs in 2017. EventReg is used for all local LAOC events and Allan coordinates all event configuration to ensure a smooth registration process.
  • Jon Torrance (QOC) – Jon has been involved with QOC in a variety of volunteer positions for over 2 decades and is also involved at the national level presently serving as the OUSA Vice President of Competition. Jon takes on key leadership positions in nationally sanctioned events including meet director of the US Night & Ultralong Champs in 2014, heading up the course setting & vetting team for the US Classic 2-Day Champs in 2017 and returned to the meet director role for the Junior Nationals held on the Marine Corp Base at Quantico in 2019. Jon is also involved in the mapping process for many of the maps used for these high caliber events. He is a strong advocate for QOC hosting at least one NRE each year including an event coming up in December on a new map at Prince Willian Forest.

Once again Orienteering USA would like to extend its gratitude and congratulations to these tireless individuals who have given so much of their time and expertise to the promotion of orienteering in the US. A list of previous Golden Service Award winners can be found on the OrienteeringUSA website.

2020 Silva Award Winner: Sandy Fillebrown

Sandy at Everest Base Camp in 2018

Sandy has been a long time volunteer for Orienteering USA. Most recently, she assumed a range of administrative duties when Orienteering USA, in financial difficulty, found it necessary to transition from paid to volunteer services in these areas. For three years Sandy served as the primary contact for Orienteering USA, handling correspondence and maintaining the membership database. She helped OUSA through a significant transition of financial procedures by coordinating with the finance committee, accountants, and team contacts to keep the Federation running until we were able to put our financial house in order and rehire paid administrative support.

Sandy also volunteers extensively in more traditional orienteering roles. As a member of one of OUSA’s largest clubs, DVOA, Sandy has served in multiple roles at National Events. This includes event director for three events, course setter for three events, and registrar for four events. Not to mention all the course vetting she has done over the years. Sandy also served as the Event Director for the 2012 North American Orienteering Championships. This event only comes to US soil once every four years and is the largest event hosting job in the country, attracting over 600 participants in the year Sandy directed. She is currently on the course setting team for the World Games, which will take place in 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Sandy also supports the US Team and directed three years worth of Sprint Series races which raised thousands of dollars for them. Sandy served on the OUSA Board of Directors for a few years in the early 2000s, including one year as Secretary. She also helped out with the transition of the rankings to Valerie Meyer. She continues to support orienteering every way that she can and has stepped up to fill roles that are not particularly exciting when she sees that there is a need. Sandy exemplifies the kind of service that the Silva Award stands for and Orienteering USA is excited to present her with this years Silva Award.

List of Past Award Recipients