Board Meeting Rescheduled

The Orienteering USA board meeting previously announced for December 14 has been rescheduled to December 21 to allow more time for preparation of the annual budget proposal. Details are available on the Agenda.

Orienteering Development Model

Did you know that Orienteering USA has a long-term development model to describe the development of orienteers over their lifetimes? From that first spark of interest to becoming a senior mentor, the Orienteering Development Model (ODM) describes the evolution of orienteers as athletes and specialists in the sport.

First introduced in January 2020, the ODM is a living document that continues to evolve, and is an essential component of OUSA’s coaching curriculum. We are currently working to reflect the alignment of OUSA programs with the framework on our website. You can learn more about the ODM on the OUSA Education Portal.  Do you have something to add to the resources for one of the ODM stages?  Email vpyouth@nullorienteeringusa.org.

Graphic of the Five Stages of the OUSA Orienteering Development Model (ODM)

Puzzle Friday: Auburndale Park

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!!

YMP Map of the Month – December 2020

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:

  • Run a 4 week introduction to orienteering program at Auburndale Park for 21 children in grades 2 – 6 with Navigation Games. 
  • Run a photo scavenger hunt at Auburndale Park for 30 children in grades 6 – 9 using the pictures from the map checking process.   
  • Installed a permanent orienteering course at Auburndale Park with the help of a local Eagle Scout and his troop. 
    • The permanent course includes posts with control signs, punches and QR codes. 
    • The signs give information about the history, features and native species of the park, making the courses fun for orienteers and the general public. 
    • 9 of 11 permanent markers are wheelchair accessible and plans to make trail improvements to the remaining 2 markers will make them fully accessible as well.      

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.

Winter Training Challenge

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:

  • Weekly Mileage Goal – supporters can donate for each week you meet your personal goal
  • Streaker – challenge yourself to do some training every day over the challenge period
  • Controls Visited – how many training/event controls can you visit during these three months?
  • Enter a Fat-Ass style timed ultra – how many miles/laps can you do in a fixed time period?
  • Find more ideas here, here and here.

How to Build Your Own Custom Fundraising Page

  1. Visit the Winter Training Challenge Campaign Page
  2. Click the ‘Become a Fundraiser‘ button in the upper right
  3. Log-in with your Orienteering USA credentials
  4. Enter content for your custom Fundraising Page
    • Fundraising Page Title – use default
    • Fundraising Page URL – use default
    • Your Fundraising Goal – enter the dollar amount you would like to raise through your challenge
      • NOTE: leaving this blank will default to the overall campaign goal of $20,000
    • Current Photo – upload a personal photo for your fundraising page
    • My Page Content – Create a paragraph describing your personal challenge goals using the editing tools to get creative.
      • You can include additional photos and links to AttackPoint or Strava training logs so supporters can follow your activity.
  5. Click on the ‘Save‘ button. It is that easy!
  6. Click on the ‘View My Fundraising Page‘ button in the upper right to review your custom page.
    • Copy the URL from the browser address bar and share with family, friends and colleagues once you are satisfied with your page design.
  7. Happy Fundraising!!
Click on the image to view a typical Fundraising Page

How will funds raised be used?

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.

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.