Orienteering USA

The 2021 Orienteering USA Annual General Meeting will take place online on Thursday, October 21 from 8:00 to 10:00 pm (EDT).

Your membership in Orienteering USA helps us to bring programs and services to orienteers and clubs throughout the country. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Clare Durand
President, Orienteering USA

IMPORTANT NOTE: As outlined in a September 22 email to all OUSA Clubs, delegate appointments were due to OUSA no later than October 6th. If your club has not appointed their delegates yet you must contact Shawn Callahan immediately to rectify the situation.

Accessing the Meeting

Virtual Meeting will take place using Google Meet, Federation members who are not delegates are welcome to join the meeting and may vote their own individual vote in accordance with the bylaws. Guests are welcome, space permitting.

Delegates must join via computer to have full access to the presentation and for voting. To watch on the computer but use your phone for audio, please use the video call link and then click on “Join and use a phone for audio.”

Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/hxc-ardi-mpp
Or dial: ‪(US) +1 252-486-4182‬ PIN: ‪705 412 542‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/hxc-ardi-mpp?pin=3266043240016

The Google meeting will be staffed from 7:00-7:30pm EDT for anyone to test their connection or ask questions about the technology. Check-in and credentialing will begin at 7:30pm EDT and the meeting will begin at 8:00pm EDT.

Agenda

1. Appointment of Parliamentarian
2. Roll-call of delegates and members-at-large present and certification of the report by the Credentials Committee as to the number of votes and voting rights.
   • The Credentials Committee members are:
     • Matthew Robbins (chair)
     • Shawn Callahan
     • Ian Shields
3. Approval of agenda
4. Election of two certifiers of the minutes
5. Minutes of the 2020 Annual Meeting
6. Election of Board of Director members. There are four seats available for three year terms. The following candidates have been identified thus far:
   • Faye Doria (UNO)
   • Matthew Robbins (OCIN)
   • Ellen Stefaniak (CVOC)
   • Gale Teschendorf (CAOC)
   • NOTE: Bios for Candidates are included further down this page.
7. Financial Report
8. President’s Report
9. Proposals from member clubs, none received
10. Questions from the membership (time permitting)
11. Awards Presentation
    1. Certificates of Appreciation
    2. President’s Awards
    3. Golden Service Awards
    4. Silva Award

DOC version of Agenda

Candidate Bios

Faye Doria (UNO)

I found orienteering in my mid-40’s – and fell in love with it. I spent several years trying to learn on
orange before finally graduating to green. Then it took me more years to master that, just as my body started falling apart. I mostly competed with UNO (Up North Orienteers) and NEOC (New England Orienteering Club), but occasionally found a meet elsewhere.

In the meantime, I found lots of other ways to contribute to the sport – learning a little about course
setting, being meet director for both local and A meets, being registrar for national and North American championships, and teaching lots of beginners at local meets. I was Numero Uno of UNO until I moved from New Hampshire to Nevada late in 2019. Now I’m literally in the desert, and far from any orienteering clubs. I occasionally go 4-6 hours to meets with LAOC or GPHXO, which become weekend trips. So the opening on the OUSA Board appeals to me on several levels.

Most of my working life was spent in financial issues. I retired in 2019 from 30 years as a personal
financial planner. I spent many years before that doing tax planning and preparation. There was 3-4
years doing all of the financial work (payroll, accounts payable and receivable, Medicare audit) for a
non-profit health care entity which was owned by two different hospitals. I was also a town treasurer for 2 years working with a budget of about $4 million. I took them from a manual ledger to a computerized accounting system in that time. Towns in NH run largely on borrowed money so I also had to monitor cash flow and borrow as needed to keep money in the bank. And I played a major role in developing and maintaining the budget.

I ran my own financial planning business for about 25 years, with all the accompanying headaches ofcash flow, budgeting, pricing, etc. And I’ve been treasurer of nearly every club I’ve ever belonged to – from golf leagues to hiking clubs to professional organizations. Now that I’m retired, I have plenty of time to devote to OUSA. I think I could be very helpful in taking the financial systems their final steps so they work for everyone involved.

I admit my orienteering experience is largely localized with a small rural club. But close ties to NEOC
also let me see the differences with a larger urban base. My focus has always been on trying to expand the recreational base. That means supporting smaller clubs with turn-key solutions and templates they can follow. I understand there is a subset of elite orienteers, but I feel that growing our base will allow us to attract those elite athletes.

I also think it is important to attract younger members who can shoulder the load currently borne by our aging members. Partly that requires finding younger talent. But it also means the more experienced members need to see the advantages of shifting responsibilities to others, even if it changes the way things are done. There is much collective wisdom to be captured to pass on to the next generation.

I love the challenges of orienteering. And I feel it is a good time to take on new challenges as a board
member. I would be honored to be a member of the board and help to develop the sport in any way
that suits my talents and interests.

Matthew Robbins (OCIN)

I’ve been an orienteer since I was a freshman at Rose-Hulman in 1984. I currently run SportIdent download for most of OCIN’s events, including all but one OCIN A-Meet since 2011 or so. That’s at least 12 A-meets and 36 national event download days. I was also OCIN’s President from approximately 2010 through June 2018. My first A-meet course setting was the 2005 US Team Trials Long, and I’ve set A-meet courses for Sprint, Middle, Classic, Long, Ultralong, and three US Relay Championships, two of which were forked (gaffled). My favorite discipline is Night O’. I’ve organized and taught a course setting clinic with Mike Minium and two other OCIN members. I help with OCIN’s junior TROL league as much as I can. I consider myself OCIN’s “Volunteer Number 2” because I’m running download at most OCIN events, over 30 per year, and because Mike Minium is clearly OCIN’s “Volunteer Number 1”.

My goals for the direction of Orienteering USA are:

1. to increase the number of orienteers in the US
2. to increase the number of juniors, scouts, cadets, parents, and adult leaders competing at orienteering
3. to increase the number of people organizing and volunteering at orienteering events throughout the US
4. to improve the knowledge base of the orienteering community in the technical side of orienteering: mapping, processing lidar and aerial photos, course setting, download timing (such as SportIdent), and the combination of course setting and download for gaffled events such as relays, billygoats, and mass-start ultrasprints
5. to associate orienteering as a STEM activity because of the broad range of technical skills needed to compete in and organize events
6. to grow MTBO and other alternate forms of orienteering, including building ties to the adventure race community

My main volunteer work in orienteering is creating basemaps from lidar and aerial photos. I’ve processed orienteering basemaps in at least 20 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. I’ve given several 3-hour lidar training sessions on A-meet weekends. I’m committed to helping motivated individuals build clubs around good maps. I have had some success asking government agencies to release lidar data. I submitted an Open Records Request to the State of Kentucky that released all of their lidar data on a publicly-accessible FTP website.

I am a licensed radio amateur, and use those skills primarily for radio orienteering, or ARDF, Amateur Radio Direction Finding. I’ve competed in (or been on the organizing team of) the US ARDF Championships every year since 2003, and I competed for the USA at the 2004 World ARDF Championships in Brno, Czech Republic. The ARDF community recently got BSA to amend the requirements for the Radio Merit Badge to include ARDF options, and we at OCIN are trying to include ARDF in our BSA orienteering events, and to help make merit badge counselors aware of ARDF and the new requirements.

In college, I was a member of the Rose Orienteering Club (at Rose-Hulman) for four years. It withered away soon after I graduated. We hadn’t done enough to build the club and create a critical mass of volunteers. We had some core club members who would decide if we were going to the US Championships or the Intercollegiate Championships, and they did the work to organize it for the rest of us. Later I realized I was just along for the ride. There are people in orienteering who inherently understand it takes more than just people showing up. I had to learn that the hard way. It takes people to organize and make events happen. I want to help people understand that, and to help remove barriers to entry for volunteers of all kinds.

Ellen Stefaniak (CVOC)

I am finishing up a 3-year term on the OUSA Board of Directors, including two years as the OUSA Secretary, and am interested in serving for another term.  I’ve been a member of OUSA since 2012 though I have been orienteering since first trying it at BAOC meets in 2003 & 2004.  In 2011, I was one of the five founding members of the Central Virginia Orienteering Club (CVOC).  I have served as club Secretary since then and handle most of the web presence, publicity, and records for the club.  I also assist with most of our meets through such activities as teaching beginners, timing, control pickup, occasional course design & setting, and other tasks as needed.

I feel that my experience with a smaller club within OUSA brings a different perspective from that of the larger and more established clubs. The needs of these smaller clubs are different and how we can support them varies.

In my professional life, I’ve held a variety of project management, process improvement, and business analysis positions in information technology at major corporations where I have developed skills that transfer well to service on the Board.  I enjoy planning and can see the greater vision as well as all of the details that go into making a project or initiative succeed.  I’m detail-oriented and enjoy working with teams and working toward shared goals.

I’ve learned a lot about the functioning of our organization during my time on the Board, which I feel can continue to make me an effective member. 

Gale Teschendorf (CAOC)

• Experienced board member.
• Earned a BBA with a minor in accounting.
• Interested in growing local clubs and making USA orienteering much more competitive.
• Have orienteered in most states & outside of the USA.
• Have been an OUSA member since sometime in the last century.

A note from OUSA’s VP for Youth Initiatives:

As we return to holding National Ranking Events (NRE), I encourage everyone to think about kids who may have moved up a course – or two – during our hiatus from NREs. 12-year-olds who last competed on White in the fall of 2019 are now in their last six months of eligibility to run Yellow. Ditto for 14-year-olds moving from Yellow to Orange. These are big jumps in normal years, but made even bigger as most kids have not recently orienteered in major events with heightened attention to rules.

As we return to orienteering, we should be sure we are providing an experience for our youth aligned with the principles of the Orienteering Development Model, which emphasizes fun and play over a strict focus on competition for our youngest orienteers.

Fortunately, our Rules of Competition provide opportunities for us to support young orienteers in being able to focus on their races, be successful, and build confidence.  About five years ago, OUSA adopted several key rule changes that are even more important during this time of transition.  The rules are shown below in bold text.

A.28.5 Except at Orienteering USA Junior Nationals, White and Yellow courses may have open start times to allow parents to coordinate schedules with their children’s starts.*

Board rationale: This is a change from pre-scheduled start times intended to make events more family-friendly by allowing parents who are at events with their children to both compete, and still shadow their children. Clubs are encouraged to have the White/Yellow start as close to the parents’ start as possible, to accept parental requests for start times for their children, or to allow children to start at any time during the start window,  and to simplify the start procedures as much as possible. 

A.28.6 The competitors take their competition maps at the starting time at the start location or after the starting time at the map issue point. Except at Orienteering USA Junior Nationals, competitors on the White and Yellow courses may be given the map prior to their starting time, provided that the conditions are consistent for all such competitors.*

Board rationale: Allowing some time with the map before the clock starts allows them some time to plan a course.  Event organizers may also allow parents/coaches to review the course with their children during this brief window to help them to plan for legs and review where problems may occur. This will help to ensure that children are successful on their courses, having fun, and progressing in their orienteering skills. If white and yellow competitors will be allowed to review their maps with a more experienced orienteer prior to their start time, this should be communicated to all competitors in advance to allow for proper planning by the competitor and their parents/coaches/experienced orienteer.

*The open start time and map preview does not apply to Junior Nationals, because Junior Nationals does not offer age-class awards.

Because kids are behind on their NRE experiences, we encourage organizers to be more liberal with their implementation of these rules for 2021 and into 2022

Putting my club volunteer hat on, here’s how we are planning to implement these ideas at NEOC’s New England Championship NRE to be held in Massachusetts this fall. Other clubs may choose different approaches.

1. Open starts for kids 14 and under and their parents. Start/Finish close to parking.
2. Single start, with an opportunity for kids on White / Yellow to review the map with a parent or volunteer before starting when they are ready. It’s also an opportunity to talk about punching, checking control codes, staying inside the bounded areas on the map, and what to do if you’re feeling mis-oriented.
3. Being vigilant about course difficulty. We should design White, Yellow and Orange courses on the easier side within the competitive rules.
4. Making sure White courses have handrails for every leg. We often assume that if a control is visible from the previous control, then it is “easy enough.” However, the part of the brain that processes spatial arrangement of multiple point features isn’t fully-developed until age 14. Where streamers are necessary, we plan to string them on the ground as a linear feature.

Want to learn more about the Orienteering Development Model and our approach to introducing kids to the sport? Try the Orienteering Development Model for OUSA Members on the Education Portal, with a focus on stages 1, 2 and 3. Each lesson has a short video and the text of the relevant ODM stage. The course is free for OUSA members.

Do you have more ideas? Email vpyouth@nullorienteeringusa.org.  See you in the woods!

Tori Campbell
OUSA VP for Youth Initiatives

Photo credit: Dave Yee Photography

Over the weekend, the Tahoe 2021 event hosted by the Bay Area Orienteering Club (BAOC) was sanctioned and approved by both the Sanctioning Committee and Orienteering USA Executive Committee and the event is now officially the 2021 Orienteering USA Nationals.

Venue permits for the middle and long events are still pending, which has become a routine situation in the age of COVID-19 as many agencies are not issuing permits until very close to the event dates. However, permit approval is anticipated and registration is currently open at EventReg. Please be sure to review the event page prior to registering as there are some event specific notes to be aware of.