New Zealand Orienteering Federation (Inc)

NZOF NEWS - MARCH 2001




PRIME MINISTER’S SCHOLARSHIPS
Congratulations to Rachel Smith and Aaron Prince (both PAPO), recipients of the newly instituted Prime Minister’s scholarships.  The scholarships have been established to support young talented athletes undertake tertiary studies while also pursuing their sporting goals.  Approximately 280 scholarships were awarded to athletes from 40 sports.

APPOINTMENTS
NZOF is pleased to welcome Myles Thayer (Dunedin) as South Island representative on the Council and announce the following appointments, also both from Dunedin:
· Lindsay Smith as Primary Schools Coordinator
· Bunny Rathbone  as a Selector, joining Marquita Gelderman (convenor) and Wayne Aspin on the panel.

VACANCIES
The position of Media Officer remains vacant.  A fax machine is provided.  Interested persons should contact the NZOF President or General Manager. The previously advertised position of Development Officer is now to be funded on a project basis, see the paragraphs immediately following for further explanation. Applications are invited for the position of ANZ Team Manager for the ANZ Challenge to be held in the Manawatu, January 2002 and applications close 31 May. Job Descriptions for the positions of Media Officer and ANZ Team Manager are available from the General Manager.

DEVELOPMENT REPORT ON BEST PRACTICE
The Council at its meeting of 10 March adopted Robyn Davidson’s report, “Examination of the Best Practice of Sports Clubs and Organisations on Increasing Participation and Club Membership”.  All clubs will be sent a Summary of the report and can then request the detailed Appendix outlining “Best Practices” being ten common factors identified by clubs as contributing to increased membership and participation. Future development spending will be on a project basis.  The Council identified four priorities for development spending, viz, permanent courses, successful clubs mentoring neighbouring clubs, generic promotional material (including web resources) and orienteering in schools.  However, clubs, after considering the report on Best Practices, are also invited to initiate their own development projects and apply for funding accordingly.   Fuller details will be sent to clubs in conjunction with the Summary of the Best Practices report.

DEVELOPMENT BUDGET
As a result of the strategy arising from the adoption Best Practices report, as well as the shift from a single Development Officer position to funding development on a project basis, the Council will seek leave at the AGM to change the structure of the Development Budget for 2002. Refer Note 5 to the Financial Accounts contained in the Annual Report.

STRATEGIC PLAN
Following the receipt of comments, President Rob Crawford has finalised the plan.  “Finding Our Way: Participation, Retention and Performance” is set to guide us through the period 2001-2004.  Clubs and NZOF Officers will be sent a copy but members can also view it on the website www.nzorienteering.com or obtain a copy from the General Manager.

BULK POSTAGE FOR New Zealand ORIENTEERING
The anomaly that clubs are charged for postage where the national magazine is mailed directly to members while clubs receiving bulk delivery are not charged, is to be corrected.  This will take effect from the next issue, May 2001.  Based on the February issue the charge for a club receiving a bulk order of 30 will be approximately $9.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
This will be held at Rotorua in conjunction with the National Championships at Easter, Lynmore Primary School hall, on Saturday 14 April at 7:30 pm.  There will be elections for the positions of President and Vice-President.  Nominations are sought for both positions.  The incumbent president will offer himself for re-election while the position of vice-president will be filled for the first time.

Besides the annual awards, prizes for the course setting competition will also be presented.

Fine tuning of remits
The NZOF Council wishes to foreshadow that at the AGM it will table two amendments to the remits as already circulated.  The amendments are shown in italics.

Remit No.3, first paragraph. That the current form of local/social membership be abolished and all members of an orienteering club are affiliated to NZOF through a Club affiliation fee. This fee will be based on club membership of the previous year (with a $100 minimum) to provide revenue of $12500 in the 2002 year (which is approximately the same amount of total levy as the current total affiliation levy). This amount will be inflation linked for subsequent years. For the purposes of establishing club membership, a junior will count as 0.5 of a senior. This change to take effect from 1 January 2002.

Remit No.5. That Competition rule 6.3 "NZ Championship titles may only be held by NZ Citizens or visitors who have 3 months continuous residency before the first day of competition" be replaced by "NZ Championship titles may only be held by NZ citizens or permanent residents. [permanent residency requirements are defined by the NZ Immigration Service]"
In line with this, the last bullet point in rule 5.8 "An overseas orienteer must have 3 months continuous residency before the first day of competition to be eligible to run officially in a NZ club team" be replaced by "Orienteers must be NZ citizens or permanent residents [as defined by the NZ Immigration Service] to be eligible to run officially in a NZ club team."
And for consistency Competition Rules Appendix 6, Section 4.3, replace "the average of the first two placed members of the NZOF" by "the average of the first two NZ citizens or permanent residents".

Travel equalisation – clarification.  The actual policy is that “clubs who attend (or use their right to a proxy vote) must participate in the travel equalisation.”  This means that proxy holders must participate in the pool of clubs that bear the total cost of delegates but are not entitled to any refunds since they have not borne any cost themselves.

SEMINARS AND COACHING BONANZA
Several seminars will be held at Rotorua on the afternoon of Good Friday also at the Lynmore Primary School hall starting at 3:30 pm.  Topics will be:
· Who’s Afraid of the Media Wolf (convened by Rob Crawford)
· Tribal-O, Beach-O and other variations (convened by Michael Wood)
· Maths, Geography and Orienteering (convened by Jean Cory-Wright).

Then in the week following Easter, leading up to the NI Secondary School Champs, there will be a Coaching Bonanza at Taupo.  Look out for the publicity brochure or contact the Coaching Director Jean Cory-Wright.