Category: Announcements

Announcements for OUSA

2021 US Senior Team applications available

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.

SafeSport transitioning to new training platform

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.  

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

Virtual AGM Details available

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!!

EventReg Team seeks feature request feedback

Earlier this year, due to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Orienteering USA waived the EventReg fees for local club use through the end of next year (2021). This gives clubs the opportunity to utilize the online system to streamline registration & administration at their local events to help maintain social distancing protocols while still holding regular events.

We realize that every club has slightly different procedures and protocols for holding their normal events and that adapting to the new online system is not always as seamless as it could be. The EventReg team is actively developing new functionality to ensure all clubs are able to utilize the system in a simple and effective manner.

We would like to get feedback from club officers, registrars and event directors on the features that would make it most expedient for you to adopt the system at the local level. Please take a moment to fill out our Feature Request Form with your feedback so that we may prioritize our ongoing behind the scenes work to make the system work for you. This form can also be used to report bugs with the system if you come across them.

You can also check out the current list of enhancements currently in the development queue. If you think something on this list should be a higher priority, let us know!! Feedback from you is the best resource we have to make sure the system works for everyone.

OUSA Announces Basic Orienteering Online

Orienteering USA is pleased to announce its new Basic Orienteering Online curriculum. This orienteering resource has been developed as a companion platform to OUSA’s Discovering Orienteering (hardcopy & e-book). 

Each lesson includes resources to understand, practice, and reflect upon the skills, techniques and processes involved in getting serious about improving navigation. Take the full course, or focus on the elements of most interest to you. Access to the online content is provided as a free member benefit to Orienteering USA members and is also offered at a premium to non-members ($15 juniors, $50 adults).

More information & registration for the Basic Orienteering Online program can be found on the Orienteering USA Education site. Links can also be found on the recently updated training page on the main OUSA website.

In memoriam: Per Stensby

Per Stensby died August 17 at age 89. A Norwegian, he loved orienteering – it was in his blood. He was one of the first in the early evolution of the sport in the United States intimately involved in the beginnings of USOF (now OUSA) and was a founder of Backwoods Orienteering Klub in North Carolina in 1978.  Per Stensby was the driving force behind the 1993 World Orienteering Championships held at Harriman State Park in NY serving as the Event Director. Per was also instrumental in the hosting of the Veterans’ World Cup in Minnesota in 1997.

The following memoriam was provided by Sara Mae & Larry Berman (CSU), publishers of Orienteering North America from 1985-1999 and long time supporters of US Orienteering.

Orienteering in the USA should be very grateful to Per, because of his work for the sport here, and his ability to use his contacts in Europe, where he grew up, to promote the sport here. Per was born in Norway and came to the US in 1959; he started the Backwoods O-Club in North Carolina. Per served as OUSA President in the 1980s, and represented North America at the International Orienteering Federation Congress during that time. He was passionately devoted to our sport.

In 1987, he got the IOF to grant the USA the Orienteering World Championships for 1993 at Harriman State Park in NY. To help prepare us for these international events, he got the IOF to grant us a World Cup set of events in 1992 at Pawtuckaway State Park in NH. He had to work hard to convince OUSA officers and members that this would be good for US orienteering. He had to work very hard to get the big sponsors, who support these events in Europe, to support the events in North America for the first time. He struggled for funds to have the maps made, get the volunteers organized, make the technical arrangements, and the set up venues and accommodations. His enormous efforts resulted a quality set of events, a landmark in OUSA history, earning the respect of the rest of the O-world. Eventually, volunteers from O-clubs all around the country, attracted by the wonder of a world championships on home terrain, stepped forward to insure the success of the events.

Per’s relationship with the OUSA Board was difficult at times, because they were worried that these events were too ambitious, and would result in OUSA going bankrupt. But between the sponsors and the USA Booster Club (donations from US members), the events resulted in a profit of $50,000. This helped fund the Veterans’ World Cup in 1997, also arranged by Per with the IOC.

Per made his mark on US orienteering, and those of us who worked closely with him remember his drive and vision fondly. One of a kind, no one recently has come forward with Per’s skills and energy.

We remember Per fondly, Sara Mae & Larry Berman