Tag: ousa

42nd Annual West Point NRE Recap

April 23-24, 2022

Saturday AM: Middle at Black Rock Forest

Saturday PM: Sprint at Trophy Point

Sunday: Long Distance at Black Rock Forest

OUSA Seeks Volunteers for Key Program Roles

Youth Mapping Program Outreach Coordinator

The Youth Mapping Program (YMP) Committee is seeking volunteer(s) who would be willing to help us with outreach to identify new schools and non-profit youth organizations who would be interested in a map. This role involves:

  • Identifying organizations with missions and terrain that align with YMP opportunities. In particular, organizations with terrain that supports mapping from a distance (i.e. open areas rather than dense forests), or that is near a YMP mapper’s location. Don’t worry – no mapping expertise is necessary.
  • Publicizing opportunities and contacting organizations to get them excited about trying orienteering
  • Connecting them with other Orienteering USA (OUSA) assets (list of local clubs, education website, etc)
  • Following up with organizations who have received YMP created maps, in order to generate stories of their map use, to be used by the National Communications Manager to further publicize and grow the program

For more information about the Youth Mapping Program, see the Youth Mapping Program page on the OUSA website.  Interested people should contact the YMP Committee at YMPCommittee@nullorienteeringusa.org.

OUSA Rankings Coordinator

After many, many years of volunteer service maintaining the US foot orienteering rolling rankings, OUSA’s longtime rankings coordinator Valerie Meyer has decided to step aside. OUSA therefore stands in need of one or more people to do the work of keeping the rankings updated as National Ranking Event (NRE) results come in.

The required qualifications are modest – passable computer literacy, including basic skills in using spreadsheet software, and access to Microsoft Excel are really all that is required, given a willingness to put in one to two hours work in the aftermath of every event including one or more NREs (perhaps more for particularly well-attended events or events with a lot of participants new to the rankings, e.g Junior Nationals).

If that sounds like you and keeping the OUSA rankings system going is something you think would give you a warm glow, please contact VP of Competition Jon Torrance at jon.torrance@nullorienteeringusa.org.

2022 OUSA Junior Nationals Recap

April 1-3, 2022

  • Host: Orienteering Cincinnati
  • Event Website
  • Location: East Fork State Park, Batavia, OH
  • Event Director: Mike Minium
    • Registrar: Guy Olsen
    • OUSA Course Consultant: Peter Goodwin
    • Course Setters:
      • Friday: Shin Shimizu
      • Saturday: Matthew Robbins
      • Sunday: Mike Minium

Friday: Middle at Slabcamp Run

Saturday: Classic Day 1 at Afton-Elklick

Sunday: Classic Day 2 at Indian Mounds

Miscellaneous

2021 Silva Award Winner: Ed Hicks

The 2021 Silva Award is posthumously awarded to Ed Hicks, who sadly passed away on New Year’s Eve, 2020. Ed was an active and invaluable member of the US orienteering community for over 40 years with Orienteering USA and Hudson Valley Orienteering as well as HVO’s predecessor the Westchester Orienteering Club.

Ed was a tireless and prolific promoter of the sport of orienteering through his teaching and map making activities. He taught a full day program for Avalon Preserves Stewardship Program for 13 years as well as conducting beginner instruction at local events over the entire course of his 40+ year involvement with the sport. Ed also promoted orienteering by authoring dozens of orienteering related publications for schools, Boy Scout groups, camps and nature center personnel; teaching programs and developing maps for World Orienteering Day events and presenting at GIS conventions and conferences throughout the United States.

Ed was perhaps most well known for his passion in making orienteering maps. His map projects ran the gamut from small park and scout camp maps to numerous NRE level maps. Some of his recent projects included developing maps for HVO’s National Meet at Mountain Lakes (North Salem NY), a pair of maps for recent West Point events, Trail-O and Ski-O maps at Windham Mountain, NY and a number of maps/basemaps for BSA Eagle Scout projects. Ed had served as OCAD’s US Sales and Service Representative since the early ’90s providing valuable feedback to the software developers over the years. He also founded Orienteering Unlimited in 1979, which was the first vendor of orienteering equipment and supplies in the US.

Ed Hick’s extensive contributions to the sport of orienteering in the US are far reaching and span decades of devoted service. Orienteering USA is honored to remember him with this years 2021 Silva Award.

YMP Map of the Month – January 2021

As we head into the new year, Orienteering USA’s Youth Mapping Program (YMP) is moving ahead full steam. At last count there were seventeen (17) new maps in production by 17 different mappers, plus an equal number of remote field checkers serving as ‘eyes on the ground’. And the committee has more map requests queuing up!

This month’s featured Map of the Month is a 1:4000 scale map of the campus of the Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD. It was created by YMP mapper Julia Doubson with field checking by BHSU Professor Christine McCart who heads up the Outdoor Education Program on campus. Professor McCart will utilize the new map in her PE 100 Orienteering Course as well as RECR 242 Outdoor Skills class. She also intends to share the map and resources with PE teachers in the local school systems.

If the map looks familiar, its probably because we ran this as our Puzzle Friday feature a few weeks back on New Years Day. You can check out the puzzle of this and other maps in our Puzzle Friday archives

Puzzle Friday: Black Hills State University

Happy New Year everyone!! Just a quick post to bring you a puzzle version of the January YMP Map of the Month: Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD. We’ll be highlighting the Map of the Month in a future post, so stay tuned for more details on this brand new map.