It has been a long time since we've hosted an A-meet. The last A-meet we did was the US Short Champs in 1996. We are a small group, but we could probably pull off an A-meet. It might even be fun!

Should we think about hosting another A-meet?

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), January 25, 2000

Answers

Yes, I think it is time for another OK A meet. And if we schedule it for 2001, we should have plenty of time to get everything planned. In order to have a successful A meet, I believe we need to have three things arranged as soon as possible:

1. commitment from every club member to help; 2. a map; chose a site and arrange for mapping or updating as needed 3. a meet director

It would be best to arrange these three things about a year in advance. If we're thinking of a spring meet (?), that means we need to arrange these very soon.

I'm willing to commit to helping at the A meet.

Mary Jones

-- Mary (maprunner@juno.com), January 26, 2000.

During 2001 it will have been about 5 years since Clinton '96, that was 6? years after Rockcrusher. Maybe it was '81 before that? I don't recall somehow. I do agree that over the next few years it would be beneficial to host an A meet.

So, the question is how can we make Bromelsick '01 a raging success?

I agree with Mary's 2nd two points. You have to have a mapper and a meet director lined up and committed.

I don't exactly think you have to have a commitment from every single member of the club, although you need help from quite a few people. Getting a commitment from every single member is a worthy goal and it does stress to members that their help would be valuable. I don't think OK has had help from every single one of its members at past A meets and they've been OK. So, if one or a few members says they can definitely not help during 2001, we shouldn't nix the entire plan.

It kind of sounds like Spike is willing to do some mapping, but I would never presume to speak for Spike (No, Mook would never do anything of the sort). I do, however, nominate Spike to find someone who will do the mapping. How's that?

Mary says she's willing to help run the A meet. We need a meet director. Mary has directed an A meet in the past. Unfortunately being a meet director of an A meet takes a lot of time. Ideally one would prefer to find an unemployed person to serve as meet director, but that is not always possible. Barring that, it would at least be beneficial to have a meet director with past A-meet directing experience. Again, I won't presume to speak for Mary, but I will nominate Mary to be the person who finds a meet director for our meet. Of course Mary could decline that nomination as is her birthright.

I don't know what chumps have been awarded yet for '01. Probably none, and maybe very few if any bids have gone out. It might be worth considering a chumpionship status for the Bromelsick meet.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 26, 2000.

I vote that we host the relay chumps at Swope Park to coincide with a 1 day A-meet hosted by PTOC or perhaps to coincide with The Possum Trot. This of course hinges on the fact that OK will win this years relay champs.

-- Dan (daniel.meenehan@umb.com), January 27, 2000.

Maybe we should focus on local events instead of an A-meet. In a lot of ways it would be more fun and potentially less stress. How about having four local meets -- two in Fall 2000 and two in Spring 2001?

We have several maps that would be fine with no additional updating -- Clinton State Park, Rockcrusher, and Woodridge.

-- Spike (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), January 27, 2000.

Since I don't live in the Homeland, any role I would take in an A-meet would be a small one (if it were planned sensibly). There would be some stress involved with an A-meet and a lot of time spent working on things that have nothing to do with orienteering (in fact I bet even events like the 1000-days that do away with some of the nonsense (e.g., babysitting) still have some nonsense they have to do). I guess the decision of whether to hold an A meet or local meets rests on whether there are people willing to take on the largest roles in an A-meet effort and all that entails.

Personally I think an A-meet would be more fun, of course it is the only sort of OK meet I'd likely get to so I'm biased.

Even if we don't do an A-meet, I think it would be fun to say that we will... produce fake brochures, file fake chumpionship bids to USOF, get the media all whipped up about the Kansas 10,000-days, have people booked on flights and into Lawrence hotels etc.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 27, 2000.

I can reveal that certain deeply placed strategic sources tell me that the very idea of OK hosting another "A" meet is causing a great deal of turmoil and anxiety in quarters than can not be named. As we all know, there is an immense but highly secretive conspiracy group whose sole aim is to keep SLOC down. They are concerned that technically, because of its proximity to SLOC, an OK "A" meet could be deemed to be a SLOC "A" event. Various proposals as to how best handle this potential threat include: burning down all the KC osage orange groves, cornering the world market on green ink (thus making an IOF standard printing of a KC area map impossible), and using superglue to glue shut all the doors and drive-through windows of KC area McDonalds which would make it impossible for the "A" meet organizers to obtain the necessary life sustenance. (They apparently know all about the OK heavy users.) These are pretty extreme steps, but of course they take the SLOC threat very seriously, and they rally around the motto of: "Saving the world from Al!"

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), January 28, 2000.