Category: Announcements

Announcements for OUSA

Draft Orienteering Development Model

Review Period through January 31, 2020

The Youth Development Working Group has completed its initial draft of the Orienteering Development Model (ODM), a long-term athlete development model based on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s American Development Model.

The framework document is available for community review and comment here (Google Doc). Please provide feedback either through comments in the document, or by emailing vpyouth@nullorienteeringusa.org by January 31, 2020.


We recognize we are not effective graphic designers.  If you can do better with either (or both) of our graphics, please do so.  The first is embedded in the framework document; the second is available for download here. (Don’t try to open it in Google; it is a PowerPoint file and can only be edited in PowerPoint, although you are also welcome to recreate it in a different file format.) If you have suggestions to share or problems with download, email vpyouth@nullorienteeringusa.org.

Thanks in advance for your input and suggestions!

Tori Campbell
VP, Youth Initiatives
Orienteering USA

Vote for 2019 Competitive Athlete Awards

Trophies

Make your voice heard! Vote for Athlete of the Year, Junior of the Year, Comet, and Team of the Year. The deadline for voting is January 3rd. For more information regarding the program, including previous winners, click here.

Vote Now!

2020 National Team Applications

Application to the National Team is open to all athletes who meet the requirements of the Athlete Agreement and return a signed copy along with the application.  Please note the January 1 deadline for both documents. Documents are linked from the National Team page.

2020 Club Charter Renewal

OUSA Member Clubs,

It’s that time of year again when all affiliated Orienteering USA clubs must renew their club charters. This year we are trying something new by offering an online form where you can enter your club’s renewal information. Doing so means you do not need to mail, or scan and email, the traditional paper form. Those options are still available, but the information will still need to be entered in the online form, so we appreciate clubs who choose the online option. The online form asks for an email address. This email will be used to send you a copy of the information submitted on the form. It will also provide a link to use if you need to change any information.

A reminder that clubs should submit their renewal information and payment by February 1, 2020.

Thanks, and have a great 2020!

Questions? Please email contact@nullorienteeringusa.org.

2020 WUOC Applications Due Jan 5

Applications to be considered for a place on the World University Orienteering Championships Team are being accepted through January 5th.

Automatic spots will be award to the winner of the M-21+ and F-21+ categories of the two-day Classic competition at the Georgia Navigator Cup in mid-January. Other team members will be selected by the committee from petitions.

Find out more about this biennial competition, and learn how selection will take place on the WUOC Team page.

Navigation Games Seeking Volunteers

Non-profit Navigation Games (NG), based in Massachusetts, is seeking volunteers to live in the northeast USA and help with our school programs, mid-March to mid-June 2020. Housing will be provided.

We have previously hosted volunteers from Spain, Norway, the Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden and Brazil. With their help, we have built a great program in Cambridge, MA, and are looking to expand it to other school districts.

Check out Violeta’s video about her time living with us!

If you know someone who might be interested, please direct them to this application.

Senior Team Coaching Position

 The U.S. Team is looking for a coach to review individual training plans, training logs, be a general source of information on elite orienteering, and help provide a basic communication structure for the team. The position would be as a private contractor with Orienteering USA.

If you are interested in pursuing this possibility, select the PDF document below to see more.

2019-2020_US_senior_coach_position_description-application

New Website Launched

Welcome to the new Orienteering USA website. We hope you like the adjustments.

Please update any links to Orienteering USA website as our site organization has dramatically changed. If you don’t update the link, you will be redirected to the homepage.

Thank you to Bob Forgrave and the many people who made up his focus groups for providing great feedback. Thanks to Dave Yee for selecting and to Dave Yee, Ken Walker Jr., Julie Keim, and others for providing us with great photos. Special thanks to Jennifer Laughlin for server-side backside support which made this all possible.

If you visit the member portal or make a donation, it will still look like the old website for now but still function appropriately. We are working on updating this section of the website. If you do attempt to visit any link on the old navigation, it will redirect you to the new homepage.

Also, keep in mind that this is a dynamic project. It is a living site that can be edited and updated as needed. Please submit any comments, suggestions, corrections, or compliments using the Contact form.

Call for 2019 Competitive Award Nominations

Nominations Open for 2019 Orienteer of the Year Competitive Awards

The Competitive Award Program’s goals are to recognize and reward outstanding competitive accomplishments by U.S. orienteers at the end of every year.

The Program Committee is currently soliciting nominations from Orienteering USA membership for athletes and teams who demonstrated outstanding performance during the 2019 national and international orienteering season. As usual, the Committee is looking for nominees in several different award categories, listed below. The winners will be selected by the Committee and will receive prizes and recognition. In certain cases, honorable mention will be made for deserving athletes. A list of past winners is included at the end of this announcement.
This year, once again, there will be voting by you, members of Orienteering USA, for the athletes who have been nominated. After the nominations are received, the Committee will select several finalists in each award category.  Each member of Orienteering USA will then be able to vote online for one nominee in each category. The committee will then use the results of the voting to help determine the winners of the awards. It is expected that the voting will be a dominant factor in the committee’s decision.

In addition to public recognition, the winner of each of the individual awards will receive a $500 stipend to be used on orienteering expenses during 2020.  The honorable mention winners will receive a $100 stipend.  The 2019 stipends have been made possible thanks to a very generous donor.

Nominations are open now and will close on Friday, November 15th. See below for the description of the awards, eligibility rules, and where to send nominations.  Nominate an outstanding athlete or team and, in a few sentences, state why your nominee deserves the award.

The awards:

1.    Orienteer of the Year is awarded to the best USA orienteer in 2019, based on results at national and international events.
2.    Junior Orienteer of the Year is awarded to the best USA orienteer no older than 20 in 2019, based on results at national and international events.
3.    Comet of the Year is awarded to the most improved USA orienteer in 2019, based on results at national and international events.
4.    Orienteering Team of the Year is awarded to the best USA national or club orienteering team in 2019, based on results at national and international events.

Eligibility rules:

To be awarded any of the individual awards a nominee has to be a USA citizen and must be a member of Orienteering USA in good standing during the current calendar year. Additionally, for the Junior Orienteer of the Year award, the nominee must be no older than 20 at the end of 2019. To be selected to the Orienteering Team of the Year award, all team members have to be Orienteering USA members and represent the U.S. or an Orienteering USA member club in competition. Competitors in any forms of orienteering are eligible, including Foot-O, Ski-O, Mt.Bike-O, Trail-O, and ROGAINE.

The committee making final selections from among those who are nominated includes Ken Walker Sr, Jeff Saeger, Sue Grandjean, Boris Granovskiy and Linda Kohn (chair).

Please send nominations (due November 15th) for any or all of the awards, along with a brief discussion of why the nominee deserves to win, to Linda Kohn.

2018 Awardees
Previous award winners