New Zealand Orienteering Federation (Inc)
GENERAL MANAGER: Stuart Payne, 171A Fifield Tce,
Christchurch 8002, NEW ZEALAND
ph/fax: 64 - 3 - 337 2275 email: nzof@nzorienteering.com
Orienteering On-line at www.nzorienteering.com
NZOF NEWS - OCTOBER 2003
Congratulations to the NZ Schools Orienteering Team upon its win in the Australian inter-state Schools Championship. After holding a slender one-point lead following the individual competition on 30 September, the team cemented their lead, the next day, in the relays. Well done to all concerned.
The NZ Schools Team was supported by a grant of $500 for uniforms. The NZOF thanks CHH Kinleith for this support as well as team member Simon Addison for his initiative in obtaining it.
The NZOF is pleased to announce that:
· Wayne and Tricia Aspin (CM) have been reappointed as coaching Coordinators of the National Orienteering Squad for a further two years.
· At its meeting in August, the NZOF Council approved in principle for the establishment of a new part-time paid position of High Performance Director. In the meantime, Rob Crawford (WACO) was appointed acting manager of the National Orienteering Squad. The NZOF thanks Rolf Wagner (NW) for his management of the squad over the last two years.
· Trevor Knowles (HV) has been appointed convenor of the NZOF MTBO Committee. He replaces Andy Clayton (PAPO) who has stood down after several years as convenor. The NZOF thanks Andy for his pioneering efforts in MTBO in NZ.
At its meeting in August the NZOF Council discussed the conviction of Le Race event organiser Astrid Andersen for criminal nuisance following the death of a competitor in the 2001cycle race. The conviction has resulted in concern that future safety requirements may become onerous for (adventure) event organisers including orienteering clubs.
Nevertheless it needs to be kept in mind that the conviction for criminal nuisance arose out of a specific lack of care and not a generality. In this case it was deemed that the pre-event information was contradictory and ambiguous. The jury then reached the conclusion that the ambiguity was a significant reason for the death of the competitor.
However, the trial also illustrated that while competitors can be asked to sign a waiver absolving the club and the organisers of any responsibility for actions by the competitor, a third party (eg The Police) may still take action. Such a situation could arise if the organisers are deemed to have been negligent or reckless.
After discussion the NZOF Council
agreed that:
a). the NZOF Health & Safety Policy should be reviewed
b). clubs should be encouraged to develop Risk Management Plans for events
c). NZOF should develop its own comprehensive Risk Management Plan
d). clubs to be reminded of existing relevant NZOF policies and legal duties.
In the interim it is suggested that at events:
Identify the hazards
Communicate them to the competitors.
SPARC has also advised that it is important that organisations do not over-react to the decision. Furthermore SPARC has established a project to clarify further the potential exposure of event organisers in New Zealand. The first two phases, which they hope to complete by Christmas, entail developing an issues and options paper and consulting with the adventure sports sector. They then propose to develop an action plan.
As part of phase one, SPARC is asking for information regarding any events that have been cancelled and why. If you have any examples, from your own programmes, please advise the NZOF General Manager as soon as possible.
The 2001 AGM established that club affiliation levies were to be “inflation linked for subsequent years”. The increase in the CPI for the June 2003 year was 1.5%. Applying this to the 2003 affiliation total of $12,850 gives $13,042. Accordingly the NZOF Council has set the 2004 total at $13,000.
Christchurch College of Education is offering a tertiary sports scholarships for its Bachelor of Business Management degree course in 2004. The closing date for applications is the 1st of November. Further details available from the NZOF General Manager.
D-Squad Coaching Coordinator
The Coaching Coordinator is primarily responsible for raising the performance levels of squad members, so as to improve the results achieved by New Zealand age-group representative teams, as well as identifying suitable candidates for advancement to the National Squad.
JWOC 2004 Manager/Coach
The primary role of the Manager/Coach is to ensure all financial and logistic matters pertaining to the team’s participation at JWOC are attended to, and to assist the team to perform to the best of their ability and to improve upon previous results achieved by New Zealand representative teams at JWOC. The venue for JWOC 2004 is currently uncertain, as Russia have had to withdraw.
Webmaster
The Webmaster is responsible for maintaining the design of and access to the official NZOF website, as well as promoting orienteering and communicate with clubs & members through the website.
Job descriptions for the above positions are available from the General Manager.