Our ex-member, LEUNG Kwong-yuen who is now staying in Australia had sent me an article below for sharing:
Brisbane Mid-Week Orienteering 30 years old, 45 events every year
Which organisation runs more orienteering events every year than any other in the state, and it isn't even an orienteering club?
Brisbane Mid-week events happen every Thursday of the year from early February to mid December. During summer we start at 09:00 - 10:30 with course closure an hour later; for the rest of the year it's 12:00 - 13:30. We charge $4 for club members and $6 for non-members. Maps are always high quality; sometimes the courses are pre-printed, usually they arent.
Each week we set a Long Course (3 - 5km) and a Short Course (1.5 - 2.5km), both at the highest possible level of technical difficulty. The Short course tends to be not so physically demanding, while the Long can sometimes be brutal. Winning times are around 30 minutes for Long and 20 minutes for Short, median times somewhat longer. Sometimes organisers will choose a variation on the conventional theme, with scatter or score events.
We use a huge variety of maps from all sources, most within or close to Brisbane, and sometimes as far away as Gatton or the Gold Coast. We often use old or brand new maps that are rarely used for weekend events.
Informal car pooling occurs for more distant events - just ask. Our bush events aren't really suitable for novices and we sometimes see DNFs, but all you have to do is ask if you want some guidance.
Organisation is fairly informal; the only administration we have to do is banking (Nev Cobbold) keeping track of the money and preparing the advance programme (Chris Spriggs).
We pay Orienteering Queensland (OQ) and the local clubs for their maps, pay OQ dues for insurance, and donate to OQ each year a sizeable sum. We don't formally own maps (although we have several mappers on our ranks) and we don't have a committee, but our events are covered by OQ's public liability insurance and we do follow OQ rules.
Each event is run by an individual or couple, sometimes a novice is mentored by an experienced organiser (try asking Mark Roberts or Clive Pope). Typically, Mid-Week orienteers each organise two events per year, but there is no pressure to do so, and we really dont mind if you choose not to.
Event organisation is much less stressful than weekend events, because we only set two courses, where the short is a variation of the long. We set only one level of course, and we usually dont have to think about safety for youngsters. We don't worry about doglegs or the possibility of cheating, so the courses can be crammed into the best corner of the map (see any event by Clive). We don't use Sportident and we don't check clips. We usually don't put out water except when we feel its necessary.
Most event organisers don't even visit the venue before the day of the event, although it can be a long and tiring day, unless Jacquie collects the controls for you! Nevertheless courses tend to be technically very good (no excuses!), and course-setting errors are very rare and usually minor and nobody minds.
All the equipment needed for an event is kept in a single box, with two identical boxes alternating from week to week.
We don't require runners to clip, so your result is up to your honesty. We don't regard the competitive aspect as particularly important, and we do publish detailed results, just the top three in each distance / gender grade in the Courier-Mail and in the results section of the OQ website.
Most of us are remarkably young-looking and attractive retired folk, some are underemployed younger folk, some wag off from work or uni each week, and during the school holidays we see more families. A core of 20 vintage orienteers turn up almost every week with numbers varying from 20 to 45.
The programme is set three months in advance and published online, in the OQ events booklet, and via an email list to Mid-Week orienteers maintained by Mark Roberts. The email list is a good source of last-minute information.
The Mid-Week programme began nearly 30 years ago with events organised by the Army. They became civilian-run about 20 years ago but we still have gear with military markings and some of our stalwarts are ex-army (Jim Bowling). Our last founding member, Don Bajenoff, still turns up from time to time.
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發表於 2009-5-11 16:59:40
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