Success Stories
Weekly Club Case Studies
Club Success Case Studies
Weekly Club Success Stories
Case Study One: Buxton
Dan Riley is the coach at Buxton. He’s employed by Derwent Valley Orienteers to coach five hours per week and is funded by a Sport England grant for a period of one year. Following that the club should be self-funding and run itself.
“We held our first come and try it session on the last weekend in September 2008. Over 100 people came, and over 150 runs were completed. We promoted the launch through Sports Development Officers and held it at the Pavilion Gardens as a social occasion.
“The first club night was the following Tuesday (1st October) and we now operate weekly within the school grounds, using indoor and outdoor spaces. We run the club throughout the school terms – 39 weeks a year. We meet once a week and inform members about competitions they can enter.
“We have also put on a mini- club competition such as the street orienteering session we held during the final session before Christmas. This meant doing a risk assessment as we were sending people off campus, but it went really well. “Runners had a 30 minute time limit and were able to start when they were ready. It was a very wet night but everyone turned up."
“The Buxton club is at present a satellite of Derwent Valley Orienteer’s, but at some point we’ll have to debate whether to become a club in our own right or stay as we are. We currently don’t have our own committee.
Additional points:
- Dan is a lecturer at the local University and persuaded five outdoor activity students to come to the club and train as level one instructors, providing additional coaching.
- A further five members will also be trained as coaches.
- The basic equipment that was purchased initially was head torches, reflective vests and maps.
- The club uses the school gym as its base and runs circuit classes when the weather is bad.
- The club has a range of ages, and a range of abilities so all activities have to scalable and adaptable.
- By launching in October it meant there was immediately not enough daylight to run outdoor evening sessions, so there was more emphasis on developing good indoor sessions and outdoor sessions in a limited space.
- The club charges adults £2 and children £1
Case Study Two: Mansfield
Catherine Hughes is the coach of the new Mansfield club, which is a satellite of Nottingham Orienteering Club. The new club started up in March 2009, following on from launch events in Mansfield and Ashfield, north Nottinghamshire. The set up is very similar to Buxton and with funding having been secured, there are likely to be three new bases in Nottinghamshire and three in Derbyshire, including Buxton.
“We got 60 people to the Ashfield launch and 40 to theMansfield, primarily through schools visits. In general though awareness was low.
I stopped a jogger in the street and asked him if he would be interested. He was a local teacher and was really interested, but he didn’t know anything about the new club.
“The people we attracted came through the schools and passers by. We set ourselves up by a café and persuaded people to have a go. Some of our new members have always wanted to learn to read maps and they view orienteering as a balanced activity that’s good for their kids. Children enjoy it as they’re allowed to get muddy and they’re allowed off the leash a bit to roam out of sight.
“Our aim is to target families. Appealing to cross curricular education and physical and intellectual development is a strong draw for parents. We want to emphasise the fun elements that are conducted in a safe environment. It’s also about getting to the ‘plodders with brains’ because this is their chance to beat the fast runners!”
Additional points:
- The new Mansfield club has members aged 8 to 51
- Sessions started with level one exercises and games, followed by some circuit training in the gym.
- Launching in March meant the club benefitted from the clocks changing to allow more flexibility as the groups progress and grow.
- Local people will be recruited as coaches
- The club linked in with schools and local county sports partnerships
- The club invited local journalists to take part
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Club Success Stories
Orienteers are very good at learning from others and one way that British Orienteering supports clubs and members to develop orienteering is to provide the means for members and clubs to share ideas that have worked well for them.
This section of the website depends on you letting British Orienteering know when you have tried something that has been successful – don’t keep all your ideas to yourself – let other members in on your success!
Examples of ideas that have worked and are now considered to be examples of good practice for increasing Club participation include:
CLOKs Successful Grant Application
CLOK made a successful bid to their local Council to support the development of urban events. Further Information.
Creating a Sustainable Future for your Club (DFOK)
Dartford Orienteering Club (DFOK) ran an Autumn series aimed at attracting newcomers to the sport. They worked closely with the local School Sports Partnerships and and also focused on publicising the events to the local community. Further Information.
A Permanent Partnership in Buxton
The latest development in Buxton is the new Permanent Orienteering Course (POC) at the Pavilion Gardens. The Pavilion Gardens has been used for a variety of activities by the club due to its location only 800m away from the club base at Buxton Community School. Both the High Peak Borough Council and High Peak School Sports Partnership were willing to support DVO with the development of a POC at the site. Further Information.
Street Orienteering in Derbyshire (DVO)
A description of Derwent Valley Orienteer’s New Years Day street event in the town of Bakewell. The Street Orienteering event used questions uniquely related to the control site to prove that each competitor had visited that particular control. Further Information
Lancaster Ozone (SROC)
South Ribble Orienteering Club decided to try a new approach to their autumn 2007 events. Instead of running typical Sunday orienteering events once a month in the terrain they had done for years they thought they would try a series of four Saturday morning ‘come and try it’ events in a local/easy to access area. Further Information
Organising Street O by John Britton (MDOC)
A simple but definitive guide to organising Street Orienteering by John Britton. The guide includes an example map and answer sheet.
The Bennachie POC Concept (GRAMP)
This Grampian Orienteers concept was specifically developed to take Orienteering to the Public at a location which attracts many people in their leisure time. The project developed a permanent but flexible orienteering facility that changed every 4 – 6 weeks and provided a variety of courses for a variety of abilities. Further Information
The MADO (Malvern and District Orienteers) Project
The MADO (Malvern and District Orienteers) project was set up as a division of the areas main club HOC by a family member who lived in Malvern. The aim was to provide more localised opportunities and increase the clubs membership.
Further Information and Example promotional posters 1 and 2.
MAROC Project
Mar Orienteering Club took Orienteering to the people through 2 introductory events at Ballater and Braemar. An accessible and friendly course was developed for families. Pre event coaching at primary schools helped to publicise and introduce children to Orienteering and subsequently the events. Further Information
MDOC Introductory Event for Running Clubs
Manchester and District Orienteering club developed the event to create both a race atmosphere and to maximize the speed at which the runners were able to compete. This was done to give the impression of the sport as one of a navigational race rather than a walking technical search.
MDOC also thought it was also important to avoid anyone becoming hopelessly lost and therefore put off. Further Information
SLOW’s Events for Running Clubs
South London Orienteers and Wayfarers developed a series of mass start events with recognisable distances for runners to compete at. Long legs of 1km were used and publicity through running magazines etc .Further Information
Mid Wales Orienteer’s (POW) Development Initiatives
Detail is provided to how POW quadrupled their membership by providing more local and accessible orienteering opportunities and activities to the general public. Further Information
OD Junior Development Plan
Octavian Droobers (OD), The Warwickshire and Coventry Orienteering club, wished to further develop their junior membership and participation in their club by way of a Club/School/University linked development plan. Further Information
School Festival Model and Permanent Orienteering Course Template (Acorn Woods, NOC)
Information on how to organise, plan and set up a schools orienteering festival and information on a permanent orienteering course for beginners – for school or group use. The NOC example of Acorn Woods is described below:
Head to Head Guidelines
The Head to Head Schools Sprint Series is intended as an easy to run competition for Primary Schools. The aim is to give exciting head to head races with the minimum of preparation and minimum arrangements on the day. It is envisaged that Yr 5 & 6 children will be involved
British Orienteering thanks the people and clubs who have made these examples of good practice available to others.
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