Chairman's Chat

It really is amazing how quickly Christmas has come round again. Is it because we are all working harder or is it because we enjoy our leisure time more? One thing is that increasing number of Orienteering events is providing more choice to orienteer than ever before.

The start of the new Millennium is exciting and orienteering will see many changes. In the last Points East I mentioned electronic punching, and I am pleased that the EAOA committee has agreed to go ahead with an application for a lottery grant to fund the purchase of the equipment. If we are successful we could all be using e-punching in EA by next summer.

At the last committee meeting, Don Locke (BOF Secretary general) attended and provoked some interesting discussion particularly regarding BOF Levy changes and the re-structuring of BOF. The change in BOF levy from a % to a per capita system has provided a strong reaction. Whilst most people accept that per capita system (where each competitor pays a fixed fee) is better they believe that the proposed levies are unfair to the local colour coded events. BOF council have still to approve the levy scale and it is apparent that the proposal of £1 for seniors, 50p for juniors and with a cashback of £25 is not acceptable to most clubs. Several alternative proposals are being considered such as changes to £1.50 per seniors, no levy for juniors and with a £40 cashback. This would suit colour coded events better. These proposals will be discussed at the next Council meeting on the 22 January so please let me have your comments.

Regarding the restructuring of BOF, I attended a meeting of representatives of all the English OAs in October. I was pleased that after a full day of discussions there was a general agreement to the principle of a new BOF made up of four home National associations, and to the formation of an English body ('Oengland'). BOF would be a Federation of the Home National Bodies (HNB) with personal members as present. All members of the National associations will be de facto members of the new BOF. The funding of New BOF would be by a charge on the four HNB's and would be based on the relative contributions from the four countries in recent years.

The organisational structure of the new BOF would be kept as simple as possible; with probably only four small committees and no Council. It was agreed that Oengland would be a federation of Clubs, meeting annually for a Development conference, and AGM to elect officers, agree a budget, set fees, discuss policy etc. It would be financed by a membership levy on English Clubs, which would be related to membership numbers. Clubs would be able to raise this sum by what ever means they choose and Clubs could set different fees for local or social members. All members of English clubs would be members of Oengland without payment of further membership fees. This is similar to the arrangements, which were put in place by EAOA at the last AGM. It is worth noting that EAOA is one of the leading associations and that the work done last year will make it simpler for clubs to change to a single fee membership system.

The organisational structure of Oengland should be kept as simple as possible. This could be a single Executive Committee consisting of a Chairman, vice-chairman, Treasurer and three ordinary members all elected by the AGM. The three ordinary members would be selected from northern(NWOA,NEOA,YHOA), midlands(WMOA, EMOA, EAOA) and southern(SWOA, SCOA, SEOA).

The EAOA should continue but will no longer be part of BOF's constitutional or decision making structure. All English clubs should belong to a regional association but it will be for each association to determine it's own rate, responsibilities and funding in accordance with their regional needs. Funding for EAOA would continue as present with clubs paying a set amount.

The benefits of this restructuring would be as follows:-

  1. A reduction in the burearucy which exists in BOF ie. Committees with 12 associations reps reporting to Council with 12 A R who take matters back to Associations where the same topics are discussed with the committee reps are raised again and so the circle goes on.
  2. A full and accurate membership list which will give BOF more influence in obtaining future funding.
  3. Better allocation and accountability of Sports council/lottery funding. At present UK Sport and Sport England funding is being administered by one organisation BOF.
All these ideas are still proposals which were discussed and general agreement reached by all Association representatives. The current timetable is that BOF management committee will put forward a paper for discussion at the next meeting of the council in January.

If there is a general acceptance of the proposals, a preliminary proposal would be put to the 2000 BOF AGM. The earliest implementation for the restructuring would be at the 2001 AGM due to formulating the changes to BOF Memorandum and Articles. Whatever the changes in the administration of Orienteering I am sure that you as competitors will still be well represented and that your Sunday runs will see little change.

Finally I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm off to New Zealand for the World Masters Orienteering Champs and to participate in the first Orienteering event of the next Millennium (as I missed the last one!!). I expect Ursula will be chasing me for a report on that in January!!

Tim Eden (NOR)