Mary and I got to talking about how orienteers keep their maps. I've seen those who just have boxes with the maps thrown in them. I have only a partially fulfilled organization system where I keep the maps I compete on separate (with data from the event) and other maps in a big box. Some competition maps I haven't even taken out of the map cases. How do you keep your maps? (And how do you use them once you keep them?)

-- Fritz Menninger (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), November 08, 1999

Answers

Currently my maps are pretty disorganized. My most recent maps (from A-meets in Harriman and Texas) are in the pocket of my jacket. I like to have maps handy so I can look at them whenever I get a chance. Most of my older maps are in a couple of boxes.

The way I prefer to store maps is to put them in a ring-binder. When I was doing a lot of orienteering, I kept all my competition maps -- sorted by date -- in a couple of ring binders. A long time ago (mid- 80s) I kept my maps in a notebook that included detailed notes about each leg. Sometimes I would have two pages of handwritten notes.

It might be nice to have an index of all of my maps. That way you could organize them by date of competition, but also find them based on location or club. There are times when it is handy to be able to find, for example, maps from an area you are travelling to.

-- Spike (meglin@juno.com), November 09, 1999.