OREAD -- May 2000

The OREAD is the unofficial e-mail newsletter of Orienteer Kansas. There is also an OREAD home page at http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/field/7306. Both the home page and the e-mail newsletter are edited by Michael Eglinski (meglin@juno.com).

COMING EVENTS

Summer is almost here and, as far as I know, the local O' season is over. St. Louis Orienteering Club usually hosts a park-O' in Forest Park in July. But, SLOC has not yet scheduled the event.

There will be some informal jogs throughout the summer. In recent years, Dan, Dick, Nancy, Mary and I have gotten together about once a week at Shawnee Mission Park to jog on the biking trails. If the weather is too hot to run, we usually do a bike ride. We have not yet set up a schedule for this summer. When something is set up, I'll put it in the OREAD (maybe next month?).

RELAY CHAMPS

OK's 4-point team (Dan, Peggy, Spike, and Mook) took the silver at the US Relay Champs in Massachusets. The 8-point team (Gene, Mary, Mark M., and Fritz) finished 12th.

NATIONAL ORIENTEERING DAY???

The US O' Federation started something called National O' Day. The idea was that clubs all over the US would organize simple beginner events on the first weekend of May. OK didn't set up such an event. There was a little discussion about doing so (back in March?) when USOF first revealed the plan. The general feeling was that it was not a good time for us to try to attract beginners because May is the end of the local O' season. It wouldn't be very good to teach a beginner, then say...we'd love to see you at the next local event -- just wait five months until the Fall season!

Perhaps we should host a NOD event next year?

As far as I know, Mook (aka Mark E.) was the only OKer to attend a NOD event. He was at the NOD in Tucson, AZ. He wrote the following report:

MOOK COMPETES IN NATIONAL ORIENTEERING DAY MEET

Mark Everett, member of the 1999 US Team was second on the orange course at Tucson Orienteering Club's National Orienteering Day Meet. The winner on the orange course was Mrs. Snow, who was orienteering for only her second time. She came out mainly to watch her grandson compete. ---------------------------

THE OK DISCUSSION FORUM IS THE PLACE FOR OK NEWS

OK has an internet discussion/q-and-a forum. It is the place for up to date news about OK and O' in general. Sometimes it gets hard to follow (inside jokes, etc), but it is still the best source of up to date info. We even used the discussion pages to host live coverage of a major event -- Tio Mila -- as it took place in Sweden. OKers monitored the results and posted a running commentary. Mook kept the discussion going until late into the night. The page can be accessed from the main OREAD home page at:

http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/field/7306

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), May 17, 2000