CRNA Offering Free Virtual Trail-O Course

The Capital Region Nordic Alliance will be hosting a series of four online Trail-O training sessions over the next five weeks. This course is intended as an introduction to Trail-O and is free of charge. Each class will cover fundamentals and progressively utilize more training and virtual Trail-O’s throughout the four sessions. Classes will be conducted via Zoom and pre-registration is required.

Sessions are scheduled for:
Tuesday, July 21, 11AM Eastern
Tuesday, July 28, 11AM Eastern
Tuesday, August 11, 11AM Eastern
Tuesday, August 18, 11AM Eastern

Register at: {expired link removed}

Coaching Course Survey Announcement

Are you interested in becoming a certified orienteering coach, or are you looking for some formal technical orienteering training? Members of OUSA’s Youth Coaching Working Group have been transitioning the workshop content from the Level 1 Coaching Certification Course and Zero to Orange into an online, blended education model.

As we prepare our proposal to launch the blended version of the Level 1 Coaching Certification (and the unit that contains the Zero to Orange content), we would like to get a feel for the interest level in both courses so we can make sure we have the teaching staff and resources to meet demand. Even if you are already a certified coach, please respond to this survey and provide your input.

Take the Survey

If you are a club leader, a Scouter, JROTC or ROTC instructor, or an educator, please pass this survey on to others who might be interested.

We greatly appreciate your input. We will close the survey on July 19th.  Thanks!

Tori Campbell
OUSA VP Youth Initiatives

New EventReg Administrator: Videlin Aleksiev

Orienteering USA welcomes Videlin Aleksiev from the Quantico Orienteering Club as its new EventReg Administrator. In his new role with OUSA, Videlin will serve as the primary club contact for the Event Register system and will work closely with registrars to facilitate using the system for their events.  He began orienteering as a youth in Bulgaria over 35 years ago and competes at both the local and national level in the US with his family including daughter Diana who is a member of the 2020 US JWOC Team.

OUSA Board of Directors – Call for Nominations

This fall, Orienteering USA will hold it’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). At that meeting, there will be voting for at least three openings on the OUSA Board of Directors.

The term of office for a Board member is three years. To be considered, you must have been a member of the Federation for at least one year, and must have been active in orienteering either by active involvement in a local club or by prominent Federation work such as committee membership, publications, etc. It is also expected that you will generally attend Board meetings, either in person or by teleconference.

The duties of the Board of Directors are:

  1. Select OUSA officers and plan for management succession.
  2. Set policy and provide guidance and strategic direction to management
  3. Review and approve the Federation strategic plan and annual operating plans, budgets, and other business plans
  4. Oversee the financial reporting process, including selection of auditors, audit and control policies, and follow up on audit recommendations.
  5. Approve financial strategies, borrowing commitments, and long-range financial planning
  6. Monitor the Federation’s compliance with all applicable laws and regulations and the performance of its responsibilities as the National Governing Body of orienteering in the United States
  7. Ensure that the Board and management are prepared to act in case of an unforeseen crisis (disaster planning).

OUSA has a Nominating Committee that will present some candidates at the AGM. If you meet the above qualifications, and have an interest, please present your name and orienteering background to the head of the Sanctioning Committee (William Jameson, william.jameson@nullteamrubiconusa.org, (803)804-7364) by 15 AUG. A phone interview will follow.

SARS-COV2 Recommendations – DRAFT for review

Orienteering USA’s SARS-COV2 Task Force is currently developing recommendations for holding events at both the local and national level in light of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic.  The Task Force recently released a DRAFT document for comments.   Comments from the orienteering community can be made directly on the document for others to see. 

The Board will review these recommendations in late July before setting a policy.  Please consider it from the perspective of both an event organizer and a participant. Think about how safe you would feel.  Let us know if sections are more restrictive, or not restrictive enough. Are important points missing?, or do points need to be moved between Recommendations and Suggestions.  You can make your edits directly on the document as “suggestions”.

2020 JWOC Team Announced

The JWOC selection committee is excited to announce the athletes who have been chosen to compete in the 2020 Junior World Championships. We realize that the world situation with COVID 19 means that the champs may or may not happen and that the timing may be sub-optimal for athletes especially who live in the US because the postponed date falls right in the middle of the fall school semester. Even so we have decided to choose a team in case there is an opportunity for our athletes to represent the US at the world champs. We understand that selected athletes may not be able to attend and that the team size could potentially be reduced due to the current situation. In this case the team coach will have the final say in giving alternates in the designated order a chance to step up based on his evaluation of where they are at leading up to the championships.

This year was quite a hard decision for the selection committee because we had almost no recent high level racing data and most of the head to head racing data came from last summer or spring. The committee used the petition process rubric as a guideline to support their decision making. The committee prioritized current physical fitness levels by way of recent 3k time trials, training volume and consistency from training logs, previous race experience, and overall competitive experience. As always the last spots and alternate positions are very tough to decide, particularly given the circumstances of this year. We deeply regret that all the athletes didn’t get the chance they usually would to prove their ability at trials races. The selection committee is nevertheless pleased to announce the follow teams and alternates.

Men:
– Keegan Harkavy
– Thomas Laraia
– Aidan Minto
– Anthony Riley
– David Runde
– Adrian Vartia
Alternate: Kai Mihata 

Women:
– Diana Aleksieva
– Julia Doubson
– Bridget Hall
– Kirsten Mayland
– Alexis Merka
– Emilia Schmidt
Alternates: Annika Mihata, Christiane Fletcher, Jessica Colleran

Thank you to all the athletes who tried out and for all the hard work. We encourage everyone to keep working hard; you never know when the breakthroughs will come.

Best of luck. Sincerely

The JWOC Selection Committee of Jon Torrance, Greg Ahlswede, Erin Schirm

OUSA SARS-COV2 Task Force

Orienteering USA is setting up a task force to formulate national recommendations for how to minimize the risk of SARS-COV2 transmission during local and National Ranking Events.  The task force will be chaired by OUSA VPs Joseph Huberman and Jon Torrance.  Any OUSA member with significant experience organizing orienteering events can serve on the committee but it would be particularly helpful if someone with expertise in infection control is willing to step forward.

If you are interested in serving on the task force, email Joseph & Jon (vpclubs@nullorienteeringusa.org & vpcompetition@nullorienteeringusa.org) no later than Wednesday, June 10.

OUSA Youth Mapping Program

Hello OUSA clubs & affiliates,

The Youth Mapping Program (YMP) Committee would like to call your attention to this relatively new national outreach grant program to help match mappers with schools and other youth nonprofit organizations who want to create small sized maps for orienteering teaching purposes. This is an excellent twofold way to grow orienteering in your community through
schools and other non-profit youth based programs, while supporting your mappers, extending the reach of projects available for hire. Applications for mappers and schools are at the bottom of this message.

Announced last year on the OUSA website, already 20 + organizations have requested a map and a short list of mappers have applied. The first round of matching and grant funding was awarded in January 2020, as a small test sample of the program. We are now ready to expand this program, continuing to review applicants for matching and funding on a quarterly basis. Our next round will be awarded this summer.

Mappers do not need to physically go to the site to create a map, but by using online resources and cartography software, will work with a designated representative from the youth organization as “eyes on the ground” to get the terrain physically checked over. The mapper will work with an OUSA YMP consultant to ensure the map meets the published guidelines. Schools and youth organizations will be requested to define the areas and size they want mapped, from school grounds to local parks. They will be assisted with any questions by this committee regarding suitability and scope of the project. We hope to get as many small teaching maps into the hands of youth and educators as possible through this program.

Please pass this message along to any and all that you feel would benefit from this program. Orienteering clubs, please reach out to invite all members, particularly those with children or ties to schools to get involved locally with outreach to promote this national, grant assisted Youth Mapping Program. Applications are ongoing, with a June 30th deadline to be considered for Round 2.

To learn about this opportunity, please go to this link. Grant Rubric information for map project suitability is listed in the side menu. Note: Link updated 8 January 2021

Mappers who would like to join the program should apply here.
Schools and youth organizations who would like a map to help teach orienteering should apply here.

Eileen Breseman, YMP Committee Member
YMPCommittee@nullorienteeringusa.org

Updated OUSA Abuse and Misconduct Policy

The federal SafeSport Act of 2017 requires organizations that participate in interstate or international amateur athletic competitions and whose membership includes any adult who is in regular contact with an amateur athlete who is a minor, to have a policy on abuse and misconduct. In a virtual meeting on June 1st, the Orienteering USA board of directors approved updates to the organizational policy that addresses potential abuse and misconduct in our sport.

The full policy can be viewed here.

DIY Orienteering in the Coronavirus Era

While we may not be getting back to our regular orienteering schedules as soon as we might prefer, many clubs have developed an array of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) orienteering options in compliance with gradual relaxing of restrictions on travel and small group activities, especially outdoors. Here at OrienteeringUSA, we have also noticed an uptick in inquiries from the general public about how to try orienteering so this is a great time to review our social-distance-friendly options.

We have begun adding DIY courses to the OUSA website on the Permanent Course page with convenient Google Locator Map. These will include both short-term DIY courses with flags and/or streamers in the woods as well as flag-less electronic courses using UsynligO or O-Range electronic punching.

In order that we may provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive listing of current events and drive potential new orienteers to your club website and events, we would like to ask the event/mapping coordinators in our member clubs to assist us with the following items:

  1. Please review the OUSA Permanent Course maps for your area
    • Confirm the currently listed permanent courses and details (club web page URL, location etc) are correct
    • Advise us if any courses are no longer in use so we can remove them from the map
    • Let us know when you add new maps / courses to your clubs offerings to keep the map current
  2. Update: As of Aug 15, 2020 we are reverting the permanent course listing to just normal permanent courses. Short-term DIY courses should be promoted on your local club web page as appropriate.

Email information to clinton.morse@nullorienteeringusa.org.

Permanent Course at Hurd SP, East Hampton, CT