IOC 2023
I would like to send out a huge congratulations to all of you who travelled to Wicklow last weekend, and on behalf of Orienteering Ireland, I hope that you had a thoroughly enjoyable time. I would like to extend a special thank you to CNOC who provided fantastic courses and event facilities during the four days. It was also great to see so many orienteers travelling to Wicklow from abroad, we hope that you had a great stay in the east of Ireland. This week the Emerald Isle Festival continues with our colleagues in NIOA, with events including the British Sprint & Middle Championships taking place across Northern Ireland. Congratulations to all our winners across the fours days, and we hope to see you all for IOC 2024 in the Midlands next year!
Paul O’Sullivan-Hourihan,
Chairperson, Orienteering Ireland
Mac Tire Award 2022
Hi to you all,
As we prepare for our AGM, we are gathering nominations for our annual Mac Tire Award. This award is awarded in recognition of the development of our sport. Some examples are: a new map; a new technology; bringing orienteering to a new part of the country; introducing a new group to the sport; revitalising a neglected area of the sport; enhancing the social aspects of the sport, staging a major event.
Nominees are now sought for this award, which will be presented at the Orienteering Ireland AGM on 30th April 2023 in Lynhams of Laragh, during the Irish Orienteering Championships.
Please send all nominations to: info@orienteering.ie by Friday 27th of March 2023.
Eligibility:
- Once five years have passed a person is again eligible to win an award that they have won before.
- Serving Orienteering Ireland committee members cannot receive the Mac Tire Award.
Nominations:
- Must be from an Orienteering Ireland affiliated club, or from a member of an Orienteering Ireland affiliated club. They do not need to be seconded.
- Must contain a short description of why the nominee should receive the award – typically this will be two or three sentences.
- Should indicate if the person was nominated unsuccessfully in a previous year.
- Must be submitted by the closing date.
- Should be for an individual – group nominations are discouraged.
- Will be published on orienteering.ie in advance of the award ceremony.
- Cannot be from a current judge or from a current member of the Orienteering Ireland Executive committee.
We will post this to the forum and on Social Media, but would appreciate you letting your club members know also,
All the best,
Eric
Winner of the MacTire Award 2021 – Eileen Young, being presented with the trophy by chairperson Mary O’Connell at the 2022 AGM
Job Vacancy at Orienteering Ireland
Orienteering Ireland are looking to recruit a General Administrator. We are looking for an energetic and diligent General Administrator to support the organisation’s continuing growth. The successful candidate will be able to put their stamp on an ambitious sporting body, supporting important projects and ensuring the sound governance of Orienteering Ireland.
The Job Specification is below. Deadline for Applications is 12:00 noon on Monday 14th November 2022. Please send a cover letter and CV outlining your suitability for the role to vacancies@orienteering.ie . Interviews will be held in the week commencing Monday 21st November 2022.
IOF Transgender Survey
In November 2021, the IOC published the IOC Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations.
This requires IOF to review the IOF Transgender Policy. The IOF Council decided this summer to start this process and has appointed a working group with expertise in this area.
The IOF is now consulting on a new Transgender Policy though a short survey. This survey is Phase 1, and will be used to inform the drafting of a new policy. We would be grateful if you would complete the following survey: https://forms.office.com/r/ALfHA8cL1A.
The survey is an open survey, and it is both possible to respond as an individual and on behalf of a group (i.e. a Federation).
Deadline: October 31, 2022.
Orienteer like it is 1971 !
Bishopstown Orienteering Club will be holding a commemorative event in Thomastown wood, Kilfinane, Co Limerick on Monday 31st October 2022. It was hoped to have held it last year to mark the 50th anniversary of the first ever Orienteering event in this area. Unfortunately due to the pandemic restrictions last year it was not possible to hold the event as intended
The original event was Organised and planned by Willie Cunningham for the Kilfinane Development Association. Earlier this year Willie Cunningham passed away. Before he did he shared some old documents from those early years.
In memory of Willie and to mark that original occasion BOC will hold a once off event.
Details on entry, courses etc are at the link below. The event is free of charge, but you should pre-enter.
In the meantime have a look at some of those shared documents – you may even recognise some names. Irish Orienteering History
Orienteering Co-ordinators
We are pleased to announce that both Deirdre and Mark will continue in their current roles as Orienteering co-ordinators for Orienteering Ireland for another 12 months.
They have established themselves as a valuable asset to the organisation over the past 12 months.
We look forward to them working with us.
They will continue to report to the General Administrator.
Clubs who think they could benefit from their assistance should direct enquiries and requests to the Aine at osec at o.ie
We thank them for all their work for the last 12 months and look forward to another productive and exciting year for Orienteering Ireland.
Important Announcement
Orienteering Ireland friends,
Aine Joyce has been a constant in the ever changing and evolving development and administration of orienteering in Ireland for the past 15 years. The following is an announcement that she wishes to share with you all.
Some time ago I made the decision to leave my position with Orienteering Ireland within the following two years, earlier this year I decided to bring this forward to the end of 2022. In fact I will leave before Christmas, the exact date is December 16th.
I started this job just less than 15 years ago so it is definitely time for me to move along to something else. I think it is also good timing for the organisation as there are new people in place and the structure of Orienteering Ireland will change in the coming months.
While I am looking forward to the change, I understand that it will mean some disruption in the short term for the organisation. The job has changed significantly over the years, from 3 half days a week to almost full time at the moment, the responsibilities have also changed over the 15 years. I have enjoyed my time doing this job but of course I am not going that far and expect to attend orienteering events regularly in the future. I have certainly enjoyed working with the various members of the Committee over the years.
This is significant for Orienteering Ireland and the entire orienteering community. On behalf of everyone involved with orienteering in Ireland I wish to convey our immense gratitude to Aine on her dedication, professionalism and stewardship over the past years. Her knowledge and experience is without match – a very tough act to follow. But we must. The work has begun to attempt to find someone to fill this vacancy and attempt to make the transition as seamless as possible.
Paul O’Sullivan-Hourihan
Chairperson
Orienteering Ireland.
Orienteering Ireland Strategic Plan 2022-2024
Every Three years our Strategic Plan is revised. 2022 is the start of that 3 year cycle. The full plan is available at https://www.orienteering.ie/about-us/documents/
This Strategic Plan presents the vision, objectives, and strategies of Orienteering Ireland from 2022 to 2024. The organisation’s primary aim during this period is to continue to grow the sport of orienteering in Ireland. OI looks forward to the challenge of building on the successes of the previous Strategic Plan and plans to strengthen those areas where shortcomings have been identified.
This will be a period of change for the organisation, moving from an Association with a heavy reliance on volunteers to a CLG with a number of paid contractors. The priority of Orienteering Ireland is to promote the sport of orienteering as an activity that can be enjoyed by all and to provide the club network with a support infrastructure to enable safe holding of events on a regular schedule.
IOC2022 – The deferral of a seeded start list for Elite categories.
Due to the lack of orienteering activity and relevant competition over the past two years it has not been possible to develop a credible seeded list for the elite categories. This impacts M/W21,20,18. Following discussion with both the High Performance manager and the Junior Affairs officer it has been decided to not have seeded start lists for this year. Instead the Elite start blocks will be determined by lottery. This lottery will be organised and overseen by the Organisers. All other aspects of start list requirements per Orienteering Ireland rules will apply. The organising committee for IOC22 are in agreement with this proposal. It is intended to have a return to an Elite seeded start list for IOC2023.
Paul O’Sullivan-Hourihan
Controller of Technical Standards
Covid 19 and Orienteering update
Following the significant change in Covid19 restrictions last month, Orienteering Ireland have the following updates for Clubs and Orienteers.
Code of Conduct, Covid Declaration or Event Guidelines
The Participant Code of Conduct, Covid Declaration and Event Guidelines are no longer required. We all know it is still important to be mindful of our behaviour, and the advice is still to observe HSE guidelines with regard to Covid19. Be respectful of others who may wish to be more careful.
The pre-entry system will be updated to take these changes into account but be patient about when it will happen.
Return of refreshments, prizegiving, displayed results
We can all look forward to the return of refreshments, prizegiving and post-event socialisation.
Event pre-entry.
The pre-entry system was introduced for Covid reasons many months ago. It was a big change in our normal habit of turning up on the day of an event.
There are a lot of advantages to continuing the pre-entry system. It is certainly appreciated by the club treasurer, results person and the start team. But, it is up to each club to decide if they want their event to use the Orienteering Ireland pre-entry system.
For the moment the transaction fees are covered by Orienteering Ireland. This may not continue indefinitely; it will be reviewed at the end of August.
Many clubs who do use the pre-entry system also have a small number of Entry on the Day maps. Clubs can decide themselves how they want to charge for such entries or even if they want such an entry.