Editorial

So the new O season is well under way, with a spate of EA and nation-wide events. A few weeks ago I spent a golden weekend in the Lake District at a double badge event, which set the seal on my enthusiasm for electronic punching - see my article later on. Despite my personal enthusiasm for e-punching and its desirability for EAGAL and badge events in East Anglia, I have to declare here that I do not believe that it is capable of creating a silk purse of a BOC2003 out of a sow's ear of a string of small colour coded areas. If EAOA, ideally with the help of BOF, can find a single large and sufficiently complex area and persuade a reluctant landowner/agent combination to let us run the British Champs, both Individual and Relays, there then I shall be the first to cheer. At the moment I remain of the opinion, as the EA committee has reiterated over the years since the last EA British Champs, that we do not in East Anglia have the terrain for National, JK or British Championship events.

Since I need to discuss the implications of the new Constitution at this point, I think the time has come to state my position. The possibility of a new Constitution was first raised in committee in January 1999: at the March meeting we were told that proposed changes were going to be submitted for consideration at the AGM: at the May meeting, where they were tabled, they had already been formally submitted to the Secretary and discussion was futile. I have consistently supported the idea of constitutional change in principle but have always maintained, and still do, that it is complex, needs most careful consideration and should not be rushed. Had we set a timetable to discuss a new constitution and its implications for a June 2000 AGM, we might have made a better job of it.

One immediate result of the speed of change has been the completely unconstitutional decision by the EAOA Committee to set a Ł3 per capita membership fee for 2000 when the total sum needed should have been proposed by the Treasurer and approved by the AGM (who probably thought they had endorsed a Ł2.50 fee anyway). My particular concern over the alterations, however, is the implications for Points East, and I receive conflicting messages about the way forward. We now need to consider what we want Points East to do and who we expect to do it. The minutes of the last EAOA meeting, which I did not attend, state 'Clubs need to inform Ursula of the current club only members to be added to the circulation list. Need to consider how Points East will be distributed during 2000 following the establishment of enlarged EAOA membership.'. Does this mean that EAOA expects the PE editor to become EAOA membership secretary/database manager, even if not the distribution manager? Heady days indeed.

More important, what do you think? Do you feel that PE will be compelling reading for new recruits to our sport and those who just want to turn out occasionally for a gentle run round a local wood? Is it worth the work and expense to have the 400 additional copies join the many pieces of junk mail in 400 waste bins? Maybe many of the present 400 already go that way? Would electronic distribution suffice? Let the committee or your editor know how you feel.

Yet another late Points East, for which many apologies: your editor has been suffering from shingles for the last 7 months and it continues to get in the way of deadlines.

Ursula Oxburgh (WAOC)
u.oxburgh@ic.ac.uk

Next copy date: 1 December 1999