Happy Friday everyone! Today’s puzzle brings us another look at the December Map of the Month from the OUSA Youth Mapping Program – a mashup of the full Auburndale Park map along with photos shared with us by Channon Ames of the Newton Parks & Rec department. Some of the images were part of their Photo-O while others are of initial users of the new map. Have fun!!
From inception to running programs in just two months – that is the whirlwind story of this month’s YMP Map of the Month – Auburndale Park in Newton, Massachusetts. Back in September Newton Parks Recreation Manager Channon Ames was investigating options for socially-distant, outdoor activities that could be offered by the city when she received a timely email from OUSA member Navigation Games. While meeting with Navigation Games president Barb Bryant she learned about the Youth Mapping Program and its associated grant program.
Channon was paired up with YMP’s Andrea-Ingrid Schneider to remotely map the park with Channon serving as ‘eyes on the ground’ to assist Andrea in the map making process.
Channon says Andrea “was amazing to work with. The information she was able to pull together using online resources from half-way across the country was incredible. Andrea was able to guide me through the process of field checking areas and correlating images to the map in order to produce our map.“
By late October the map was complete and recreational programs were quickly underway. As of mid-November the park has already:
There is still much more to come for orienteering in Newton. Channon and the Newton Parks Department are in the process of getting maps created at Cold Spring Park, Kennard Park, Nahanton Park and Edmand’s Park in the spring.
Eagle Scouts from local troops have been lined up to add additional permanent courses in those parks as well. Channon is planning to share her experiences via a zoom meeting with the Metro West Regional Massachusetts Recreation Association in early December to hopefully get orienteering into even more metro Boston area park programs.
“I can’t wait to offer more programs in our parks to youth, families, scouts, summer day camps, after school programs, middle and high school clubs, adults and others to help teach and promote the sport of orienteering.”
Channon Ames, Recreation Program Manager
Interested in getting involved with the Youth Mapping Program as a remote mapper? Fill out the form here.
We will leave you with this fun online jigsaw puzzle of the Cove section of the Auburndale map for your enjoyment. Click on the ‘Reload’ icon in the lower left to shuffle the puzzle if necessary and have some fun.
Looking for that little bit of extra motivation for your winter training this season? Orienteering USA is excited to unveil a new peer-to-peer fundraising platform that will allow you to enlist family & friends to support your training and help advance orienteering by making donations on your behalf to Orienteering USA.
We make it simple by providing a platform to easily create a personal fundraising page, track your progress and process online donations in a secure fashion.
The Winter Training Challenge will run for three months from December 1st, 2020 through February 28th, 2021. Your personal challenge can span the entire 13-week period, focus on a smaller range of dates or target just a single event – the choice is up to you and your own goal setting. A few possibilities:
All funds raised through the Winter Training Challenge will be designated as unencumbered funds and will be used to support Orienteering USA essential operations as well as national initiatives such as TeamUSA, Youth Mapping Program, EventReg registration services for clubs, online training courses and much more.
Orienteering USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization so all donations are tax deductible!! Please note that your supporters can still donate to targeted OUSA initiatives such as TeamUSA through the standard donation portal, but such donations will not count toward the Winter Training Challenge campaign totals.
Applications are now being accepted for the US National Foot-O Team for the 2021 season. Please note that valid Safesport certification is required to be named to the team. Orienteering USA covers the cost of Safesport training as a member benefit.
Download the 2021 Senior National Team Application
Download the 2021 Athlete Agreement
Completed applications, including the Athlete Agreement, are due by January 2nd, 2021 and should be sent to Peggy Dickison at pdickison at comcast dot net.
In partnership with the U.S. Center for SafeSport, we are migrating our members’ SafeSport accounts to the Center’s new learning management system Absorb starting November 18th, 2020. All new SafeSport training from that date on will be done at safesporttrained.org. Your current account and records of SafeSport training have been moved to this new system, preserving all your information and activities with this training. There is no change to OUSA education on Confluence; these systems are completely separate.
Members that currently have a training account
If you already had an account on safesport.org or athletesafety.org, you can access the new site by going to safesporttrained.org.
Click Login on the upper right, enter your email address as your Username, and click Forgot Password. This will send a password reset notification to your email address. Follow the instructions to create a new, secure password and log into the training site.
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:
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!
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.
Video from the 2020 OrienteeringUSA Annual General Meeting is now available for viewing on the OUSA YouTube Channel. The meeting has been divided into 10 segments corresponding to the meeting agenda.
Supporting links and archival information can be found on the 2020 AGM web page.
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.
Due to the continuing coronavirus pandemic and lack of national events, this year’s OrienteeringUSA Annual General Meeting will be held, like so many other things these days, in an online virtual format. The meeting date is now less than 4 weeks away on October 22nd.
Please be aware that in order to coordinate the technology required for the meeting, all delegates as well as voting and non-voting individuals will be required to register online no later than Monday, October 12th.
Full details, tentative agenda and proposed bylaws changes can be found on the 2020 Virtual AGM web page, which will continue to be updated as new information becomes available.
https://orienteeringusa.org/events/virtual-agm-2020/
Have a great weekend!!
