Minutes
Western Pennsylvania
Orienteering Club
12 November 2017
Memberships represented: Barak, Homan (2), Huang, Huffman, Jarvis, Johnstone, Karnavas, Knecht, Livingston, Logan, Opila, Puda, Rzewski (2), Sheaffer, Sleppy (2), Steinbring, Wolfe.
2. Election of Non-Officers
The following officers were nominated and seconded and elected by acclamation, as there were no other nominations- each to a two year term.
• Alexis Rzewski
• Yaki Barak (who was appointed by the board last year to replace Joe Logan who moved to Vice President)
• Nine regular orienteering events were held, plus a Ski-O at Laurel Ridge, Raccoongaine, and a training event at Keystone.
• Twelve workshops were held by club members. Nine of these were provided for specific groups including one for a school group on World Orienteering Day and a paid one for a small group of FedEx employees. Only three were open to the public.
• Three other orienteering promotional activities were held this year.
•
New
maps made this year include Northmoreland
Park, Heritage Reservation, Munnell Run Farm (for a beginner level
permanent
course organized by a Girl Scout), and Hollidaysburg Senior High School.
4. Thank You
WPOC thanked the 10 Meet Directors, 4 Vetters, 5 Workshop Presenters, and all the Volunteers for their many hours of service to the club. Special Thanks also go to Volunteer Coordinator Ryan Knecht, Membership Coordinator Sherry Shank, and Event Coordinator Giuseppina Mecchia for their many hours of service. All are willing to continue in their positions for 2018, however Ryan's work may take him out of the area. The club is now calling for Meet Directors for 2018 (Boyce Park is to be avoided due to thick vegetation throughout the park).
• WPOC Board purchased e-punch equipment including 16 control boxes, 10 SI-9 cards, and a carrying case. Also purchased was equipment to replace batteries in control boxes including 5 O-rings, 10 batteries for the boxes, solder, and sealant. Ryan Knecht replaced 3 batteries to date.
• The WPOC Board also decided to donate $400 to the Paralympic Trail-O team to support their trip to the Trail-O World Championships.
• A financial report was made for WPOC through November, 2017. A complete report for 2017 will be sent to the membership in January after the fiscal year is completed. The club membership was reminded that some events are expected to make little to no profit and that our club pays fees per start on each course for insurance. The report shows the club to be financially stable.
• Ideas to consider in the following year include allotting money to things like the donation that was made to the Trail-O team, paying for a van to drive college students to meets, and possibly a sponsorship for young or first time members to attend national events. The WPOC board will discuss the feasibility of these ideas in the coming year.
• The club discussed the goals for next year to include 10 or more local events with at least one being training oriented. Several events and dates are already determined including Ski-O scheduled for Jan 7 (alternate Jan 21) and Raccoongaine on March 25.
• We will continue to provide workshops and promotional events for orienteering in 2018.
• We want to continue to increase club membership. Data shows that WPOC is up by a few memberships over the previous years, however, retention of brand new members into the next year continues to be an issue. Often times, a new member will not show up in the entire following year.
• Ideas to increase volunteerism include allowing reimbursement for travel expenses to regular meet volunteers and/or having a special prize drawing at the annual membership meeting for all who volunteered in the previous year. A chart showing meets attended vs times volunteering was given to the membership. It may help us target those individuals who should be volunteering.
• An explanation was given regarding a donation to WPOC made by an employer of a member who volunteers his time with WPOC. Also, possible future donations made by WPOC to orienteering related causes like the teams that represent the USA was discussed.
• Discussion regarding ideas to restructure Raccoongaine for 2019 include separating the 3 hour event and 6 hour event into two separate days in such a manner so that participants might be able to participate in both days and the number of participants overall that we could accommodate would increase. Some members also brought up the idea of holding a regular meet at Raccoon Creek during the year.
• Members discussed what it takes to hold an A meet. The overall cost and time to make the map was explained to be around 2 years or about $12 thousand if we hired a professional. And the quantity of volunteers with experience doing all the jobs required to host the meet properly were discussed. WPOC does not have this and would need to rely heavily on members of other clubs to do these things for us.
• It was explained that a software purchase of OCAD-12 might be needed in the future due to a change in symbols by the International Orienteering Federation.
• Creating shirts with an all over topographic print for Raccoongaine were discussed. The club would like a member to volunteer to research this idea.