 Jamie
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Posted: 29 April 2008, 11:34 AM
I wasn't referring to any specific session at all Simon, I have been around long enough to hear this type of comment or similar many many times. I have obviously heard something of this nature recently to annoy me.
You also make the mistake of referring to the NZOF strategic planning meeting (which I didn't attend) as a "groupthink session". I sincerely hope this wasn't the case as "groupthink" is not a good thing, see http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Groupthink for a nice explanation.
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addison
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Posted: 29 April 2008, 12:06 PM
Actually all I was doing was quoting the exact term that you used for the meeting. You my friend are the one that needs to read it, not I.
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Jamie
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Posted: 29 April 2008, 1:11 PM
Except I wasn't referring to the meeting :-)
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robbie
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Posted: 29 April 2008, 3:39 PM
The actual numbers are a bit screwed. 172 includes about 20 attracted by phone from our summer series so the real entries were about the 150 mark. The Auckland combined club membership is about 370 so you would have to agree a poor turn out.We atracted 165 for a promotional event three weeks before so something is wrong!
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Michael
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 2:42 AM
"Maybe its those promotional and summer series events distracting people from the true forest orienteering and eating into its market and revenue!"
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Jamie
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 3:15 AM
Maybe Aucklanders are bored of running on the same old types of maps, eg Waiuku and would be more attracted to a "destination" event further afield with nice shiny new maps, eg up northland somewhere, or coromandel.
Maybe there is more to an event than technical excellence. For an example how about last years akld champs at Woodhill, technically one of the best events ever, but almost completely soulless.
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 6:28 AM
How does travel time to Maramarua and Waiuku compare to Woodhill for the "Average Auckland Orienteer"? I'm guessing about the same for Waiuku but significantly longer to Maramarua? Could make a difference to local attendance?
NOTE: I'm not saying that the AK champs should be in Woodhill for as long as combined AK/NW membership outweighs CM. Just that there might be predictable factors, the effects of which need to be isolated before talking about low attendance this year being part of a worrying trend.
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nick
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 6:33 AM
not just aucklanders?
in mens elite there were only three or four people from out of town. most of the aucklander based guys were there, i think? From south island only Carsten and Tane made the trip?
am i right in thinking that a number of CD elites avoided the event in favour a seaside holiday, only one or two hours away?
out of interest, what were the numbers like at SI champs?
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nick
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 6:37 AM
forgot to say: I do think you have a point though, Jamie. There may well be more to an event then technical excellence.
seems for eg: that the night race at SI champs was very popular... something a little different...
This message was edited by nick on 30 April 2008, 2:40 PM
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Tane Cambridge
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 8:23 AM
Lack of South Islanders might have been because of a certain other event held on the same weekend down south....
And for two races and about 2 hours all up of racing its a long way to go.
This message was edited by Tane Cambridge on 30 April 2008, 4:28 PM
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Jamie
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 9:02 AM
nah I don't think so. If we had wanted to go we wouldn't have held the event then. And Aaron and La didn't want to go, so I don't really know who you are talking about.
Besides back in the day South Islanders never went to the Akld Champs, and the other way as well. So that perhaps is skewing the numbers as well.
Every individual makes a choice, and despite some who think different, elites aren't under any special obligation to attend an event if they don't want to. Generally they spend a much greater % of their income on getting to orienteering events than other competitors, and if they want to go and have a bit of a holiday then good on them.
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Greg
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 10:32 AM
Back in the day there were black and white maps and clip cards as well Jamie isn't it great how things evolve.
I think as elites that are now applying for and getting funding to attend a series of events to try and make ourselves closer to world class orienteers and be competitive at the world champs (where the entry fees are paid for by the average oer through levies) then we DO have an obligation to support that series. And holding an event in direct competition is the exact opposite to doing that!
What others do doesn't matter, but you as the supposed National Squad Coaching Co-ordinator and Chris as one of NZ's top elites who is going the the World Champs this year, and when both of you are/have been getting funding, I thought it was pretty piss poor.
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Michael
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 10:37 AM
There's an interesting trend here, it might even be an example of "groupthink". We "strategically plan" and adopt some measures that we are going to aspire to. One of them being retention. Sounds good.
Now we hear that orienteers who are "retained" for a certain amount of time become dissatisfied with technically excellent but soulless major events, and need "destination events further afield with nice shiny new maps" to attract them. Hmmm. Sounds expensive, both for travel costs and needing to pay off mapping in a single event.
Maybe it would be better to have more turnover. Sounds like we can get newcomers to events close to home. On maps that have been used before:-)) How long CAN you maintain interest in orienteering every weekend anyway?
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ML
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 2:38 PM
Getting super series funding to travel to an event and then DNFing it could be thought of as pretty piss poor too....
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SimonB
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Posted: 30 April 2008, 2:49 PM
shot mark
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