Structure of NZSSC
 Dave Barr
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Posted: 31 May 2001, 5:53 PM
the NZSSC should be run as a representative event with 36-person teams from each of AOA, CDOA/WOA and SI.
reasons:
-orienteers first opportunity for representative honours in NZ comes at an international level.
-it would allow and encourage greater competition at all levels of secondary schools orienteering.
-secondary school students would form the friendships which encourage orienteers to attend major events.
-numbers attending under this system would remain the same.
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fraser
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Posted: 1 June 2001, 8:40 AM
Limiting the number of people in the event so they have to qualify for the event is a great idea. It will encourage students to train and improve so they can qualify for their area and therefore improve the overall level of competition.
Then areas can also set a certain level that students must meet before being eligible to go to the nzssc. If not enough people meet that certain standard then that would be fine, the area can just send a partial team.
This would also get juniors familiar with the NZOF's policy of sending partial teams to JWOC.
hmmmm.
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Jamie
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Posted: 2 June 2001, 2:07 AM
I enjoyed beating Dave Barr and his ilk....
Just because you beat the talented doesn't mean you shouldn't get the satisfaction of slaughtering the "socials"
...or those who have "orienteered since they were five" but are still useless munters
I don't see how there will be be any more social attraction with less people.
This format may work in Australia, but in New Zealand with our small secondary school orienteering scene and compact geography, the more people involved the better.
What does need to be worked on is the clubs relationships with the schools. Not only in encouraging students while at secondary school, but also continuing to assist them when they leave.
....yes I have plenty of spare time, mainly as my friends have stoppped emailling me, because of abuse suffered on maptalk?....this contribution took a whole 3 minutes.
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DaveGlover
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Posted: 5 June 2001, 6:21 AM
Sorry to get down to technicalities, but how would the selection process work? Wellington has a secondary school series from which we could select our team quite readily, but how do you select a secondary school team from the south island? Do the various geographical regions all have comparable secondary school series. How do those who live in areas where there is no series get recognised. If NZ has the Secondary School infrastructure to support this, fair enough, but I suspect that it does not yet.
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Jamie
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Posted: 5 June 2001, 12:25 PM
Secondary School orienteering is volatile.
It relies much upon individual effort from teachers, normally committed orienteers, in co-ordinating participation from their school.
When I was a secondary school orienteer, in Dunedin (all those years ago) we had a 10 event series on local maps that regularly attracted at least 60 students. In addition there were championships in each of Southland, Otago and Canterbury which always had over 100 entrants, in fact I recall events where there were several hundred.
These events are now almost non-existent. This is simply because those teachers and administrators that put so much time into making these events a success became dis-illusioned with transitory nature of the competitors.
For everyone one that continued with orienteering there were a hundred that didn't. For example, my school often had a team of thirty, and apparently before my time there were even more than that. The sole result....me. (maybe I put the others off?)
Unless we are promoting orienteering in our schools to simply give the students a moment of light relief, we have to concentrate on adapting club structure to provide support for those students who are keen. It is not easy being a student orienteer...be it secondary or tertiary.
For example even those like myself, without motorised transport, have difficulty getting to events.
There is little point focusing on the national level until we have addressed the inherent problems at club level. How many clubs have an effective junior development officer?
A junior development officer could be the liason between the clubs and the secondary schools in that area...and also (vitally) the keen individual tertiary students. The major problem is transport/petrol to out of town events.Also just a quick self-serving comment...how many clubs have student price event fee's? In many ways it is harder for a student, operating typically off a $150 week budget to afford orienteering, than it is for a child/parent.
I think that 1 student out of a hundred could quite conceivably become 5.
p.s I guess this is pretty irrelevant if all the events are on in exam time anyway...sit back and watch yourselves grow old orienteers.
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DaveGlover
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Posted: 7 June 2001, 1:09 AM
Jamie is right, a lot of people involved in organising secondary school orienteering are disilludioned quickly, a lot only do it because their kids are involved in it. The key is persistence, and planning for your 'retirement'. I will probably stay involved in SS orienteering until my youngest son leaves school (another 6 years), and have been involved in some way since my eldest started in Form 1 (5 years ago). After that time, someone else with an interest can take over. In the meantime, I am grooming other parents to become coaches/managers of teams. At Chilton, I already have two parents involved in management, and at least one of the students is interested in coaching and management later on. I am already considering letting someone more able and enthusiastic take on the Secondary School Co-ordinators role.
On disillusionment in general, isn't part of the problem that people take on too much at once. This year I have had to refuse involvemnt in several other aspects of Orienteering, because I feel that my health and sanity would not cope with other pressures on top of two school teams and the Secondary School co-ordinator role. I see people taking on so many roles in Orienteering, that they become one man bands, and seem unable to let go of the various jobs they think that no-one else can do. After a while they burn out, become bitter and resentful. Others ought to be taking over some of the roles, and not let all the work and decision making fall onto just a few shoulders, likewise people ought to stop thinking they are indispensable, and give others a chance to do some of the jobs.
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Dave Barr
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Posted: 7 June 2001, 8:21 AM
I don't agree with this theory of not worrying about National level problems until the club level problems are sorted out. The sport at national level feeds off the sport at regional level which feeds off club level, and vice versa. We need a strong representative scene to give the young orienteers something to strive for, and we need a strong club scene to supply orienteersto the representative level. You can't properly "fix" one aspect without fixing the other. I think that the real problem at club level is that secondary schools events are very 'ad hoc'. Also to teachers/ co-ordinators park races have more appeal than normal orienteering because they are low cost, low travel and low risk.
As for the selection problem with the area teams for the national champs, it could be decided from the SI, WOA, CDOA and AOA SS champs respectively. Possibly a nomination system could be put in place similar to that of age grade rugby, where secondary schools nominate students to the selectors.
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