I'm hoping to put out a special OREAD in the next few days. There are two bits of club news that would be in the OREAD.

1. We have a request from a scout leader at Fort Riley to help teach O'. Can we help this leader? How? Who?

2. USOF is encouraging clubs to host beginner-friendly events on the first Saturday of May from now through 2003. They're calling this "National Orienteering Day." Should we do something? What? Who?

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), February 11, 2000

Answers

I've been looking forwards to this special edition OREAD. We don't get many special editions anymore, but perhaps that's just because the regular editions are so well prepared.

Anyway, it seems to me that to teach o', if there are a couple of OKers willing, one could set up a "beginners" meet. I suppose it isn't tremendously hard to do... set up a white course and a yellow-orange course at Clinton, or someplace convenient. Then you have a few people hanging around to talk beginners through what they have to do, give 'em a map, and wait for them to return. What would have to be done is to advertise it in whatever way possible. That could be the big job. Once the beginners have completed their course, the people who helped out can conduct a relay training session among themselves...

On the other hand, I won't be there to help, I'm just musing to myself. There was, of course, consideration to OK hosting 4 local meets per year, but I think that was in 2001.

An alternate possibility is to direct persons requesting help for beginners to PTOC. I bet they have a few meets over the next couple of months.

I think the May thing is a bust. It gets pretty green and hot by that time. A beginner meet is best set up when there is a possibility of beginners going to another meet within a month or so of their first. That's just my feeling. I think this person who came up with the NOD did so with their own schedule in mind.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), February 17, 2000.

Tonight is a new episode of ER and there is a lot of exciting stuff going on with the show. Opps wrong page.

-- Dan (daniel.meenehan@umb.com), February 17, 2000.