May 3 – OUSA Board of Directors Meeting
The next meeting of the Orienteering USA Board of Directors will take place on May 3 at 8:00pm EST via Google Meet. Link to join the meeting can be found on the agenda.
Category: Announcements
Announcements for OUSA
Wisconsin and Idaho based Clubs garner 2020 Wilson Community Growth Grants
Congratulations to Badger Orienteering Club (BGR) and City of Trees Orienteering Club (CTOC), the 2020 Wilson Community Growth Grant winners. Grantees receive $1,000 to be used for equipment and development projects. Nominated by Derek MacKenzie and John Murray respectively, winners were chosen through a selective process after a delay due to Covid-19. Established in 2016, the Wilson Community Growth Grant seeks to develop and implement programs aimed at expanding access to orienteering for youth. Read more about the 2020 awardees in the official press release.
Photo credits: Charlie Shabazian, Jen Fafinski
And don’t miss out, a little less than a week remains to apply for the 2021 Iain Wilson Character Through Competition Award and the Wilson Community Growth Grants. Each program includes a $1,000 payment to support individual or community-based youth Orienteering programs. Apply by April 30 via the links below,
- Individual Award – complete online or download and send
- Community Growth Grant – complete online or download and send
Email iainwilsonaward@nullcomcast.net or click here to learn more about the Awards and their impact.
California O-Fest moved to 2023
California Orienteering Festival 2021 has been moved to 2023.
In its place a new Tahoe 2021 event that encompasses the same range of dates is planned. This new event will include the 2021 US Orienteering Champs and NA Rogaining Championships {pending sanctioning}.Difficult decision to be sure, but this allows the CalOFest to still be held, albeit a few years down the line, and yet still allows a quality series of summer events this year for those able to travel to California.
WTOC 2021 Postponed to 2022
The World Trail Orienteering Championships, originally scheduled for July in Poland, have been postponed to July 19-23, 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Read more at International Orienteering Federation.
2021 Georgia O-Fest Video Updates
A couple of videos from the Georgia Orienteering Festival (GAOC) held last weekend have been uploaded to the OUSA Facebook and YouTube channels. The first video is a minimally edited assemblage of clips featuring OUSA Junior Team members in action.
The second video highlights the Southeastern Interscholastic Orienteering Championships held in conjunction with the O-Fest.
In addition, Orienteering USA has uploaded much of the raw, unedited video footage to a Google Drive for downloading by schools, clubs and individuals to utilize in creating derivative media for publicity. The majority of clips are sorted/titled by date, school, bib# and name to facilitate identifying useful content. Any media used should credit/tag Orienteering USA. The content in these folders will be deleted at the end of April, so grab any clips you want now.
YMP Map of the Month – March 2021
The Youth Mapping Program Map of the Month for March 2021 features a map of Roughout Ranch in Redding, California produced by YMP mapper Bob Bolz.
The Roughout Ranch Foundation provides meaningful opportunities for vulnerable children and special needs clients through life skills and equine assisted activities. The organization is looking forward to adding self-confidence skills through navigation on their new map of the property.
National Event Updates
New dates have been confirmed for a couple of 2020 events that were postponed due to the pandemic.
The New England Championships, a classic two-day event to be held at Willard Brook SF in Massachusetts will be held October 2-3, 2021.
Run the Rotary, a one-day NRE to be held near Albany, NY will be held on May 14, 2022.
Click the event bar in the full schedule for more details.
Reminder: Regular registration for next months Georgia O-Fest ends tomorrow evening.
2021 Georgia O-Fest is ON
Earlier this morning the Orienteering USA Sanctioning committee unanimously voted to sanction 3 days of NRE competition – the first multi-day national event since the start of the pandemic over a year ago.
The event will take place April 9-11 – that’s only 3 weeks away folks! The usual advance notice, permits, sanctioning etc were held up due to COVID-19 restrictions but the event organizers have been given the green light.
COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed and registration information should be forthcoming shortly.
Friday: Middle Distance at McIntosh Reserve
Sat/Sun: Two-Day Classic at Don Carter State Park.
Photos courtesy Laurie Searle
Puzzle Friday: US Kartapullautin Championships
As we approach the one year anniversary of pandemic induced event cancellations and travel restrictions, many puzzling questions exist. Will WOC 2021 in the Czech Republic happen as scheduled this July? Will foreign competitors be allowed to travel to the US in August for the California O-Fest? Will there even be a US Championships in 2021?
In light of all the uncertainties in the competition calendar, Team USA Elite member Greg Ahlswede is spearheading a series of ultra low-key, bare-bones, quasi-competitive events in northeastern Pennsylvania, tentatively later this summer, to give folks something a little more solid to look forward to. Courses will be designed on Kartapullautin generated maps, UsynligO & O-Range will be utilized for control verification and self-reporting results. Things are completely fluid, and if real, honest-to-goodness competitions do indeed happen this summer, then the KP Champs will take a back seat or reschedule to alternate dates.
Greg is currently soliciting ideas and expressions of interest from the orienteering community over on his AttackPoint log where you can share your thoughts. In the meantime, we’ve assembled a Puzzle Friday feature for you today from some of last summers KP kapers in lovely northeastern PA. Enjoy….
Next OUSA Board Meeting: March 15
The Orienteering USA Board of Directors will hold its next meeting on Monday, March 15th 2021, from 8pm-10pm EST. The meeting will be held virtually via Google Meet and the link can be found on the Agenda. All Orienteering USA members are invited to attend.