2011 was an extraordinary year for WPOC as we hosted our first national A-event, Keystone Capers.  By all accounts that I've heard or read, it was a huge success.  With the help of about 20 WPOC members, about 15 members of the DVOA club and several members of the NEOOC club, we held a competition that drew over 180 participants from 20 states and several Canadian provinces.  Feedback from the participants was very positive:  they liked the maps; they liked the courses; they liked the friendly atmosphere of registration; they liked the arrangements of event headquarters; and they liked the Pittsburgh area.  Although I've said it before, it bears repeating:  THANK YOU to everyone who helped.

WPOC also sponsored nine local events during 2011;  the number of starts was up by 6.5% and the total number of participants at the local events was up by 16% over last year.  This was very good, especially considering that we had really bad weather for two of the events.  With eleven local events planned for 2012, I'm hopeful that we will continue to show increases in these areas.  In 2011, participation at the Raccoongaine increased by 37%; it remains our largest income producer among local events.  Alexis Rzewski offered his Pittsburgh bike scavenger hunt for the second time, drawing more than five times as many participants as in 2010.   The associated page  shows information about each of these meets, including location, meet director,  type of courses offered, total starts, member starts, total number of participants and meet fees collected.  The course abbreviations used are:  W (white), Y (yellow), O (orange), Br (brown), G (green), and R (red).  The map fees collected vary a lot.  There are many reasons:  for Raccoon Creek, we charged "adventure race prices"; the bike scavenger hunt was free; the Boyce Park meet was National Orienteering Day and we let anyone who was new to orienteering in free; and the numbers for Blue Spruce Park and Mingo Creek Park reflect the weather.

The one element on the  associated page that I want to take note of is the number of member starts.  The club membership numbers are almost exactly the same as last year:  25 individual and 25 family memberships.  The national organization, Orienteering USA, counts that as 75 people (families count as two each).  But, of the potential 75 members coming to our meets, very few are showing up; and many of those are the same ones each time.  After examining the membership list, I am fairly sure that at least 22 members did not come to any of our events in 2010.  We thank them for paying their dues; but we would really like all the members to come out and join in the fun.

In addition to the meets, WPOC members also conducted a number of presentations, workshops or classes to educate a variety of people about orienteering.  Most of these included an orienteering exercise of some type.

Jennifer Livingston's sessions:
May 25   Taught orienteering ideas to First graders at Sts Peter and Paul school
June 3-5   Taught orienteering to girl scouts at Camp Elliot
July 29  Taught orienteering skills and conducted 60 minute score course for students at Westmoreland County Conservation School at Keystone State Park

Dave Battista's sessions:
April 7   Made a PowerPoint presentation to scout leaders at Carlow College
May 20  Taught some map and compass work to high school students at Deer Lakes Park.

Mike Adametz's session:
May 24  Taught an orienteering class for all ages at Mingo Creek Park.

Jim Wolfe's sessions:
May 13  Made a presentation on orienteering to three middle school classes and Indiana Middle School  - about 70 participants.
July 9   Taught map and compass use to boy scouts at Stackhouse Park - 12 participants
July 12   Taught map and compass use to cub scouts at White Oak Park - about 50 participants.
July 17   Taught map and compass use the public at Stackhouse Park - 2 participants
July 23   Taught map and compass use to public at Keystone State Park - 9 participants
July 25  Taught orienteering to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders (and their parents) at Stackhouse Park - 20 participants.
August 6   Taught map and compass use to public at Yellow Creek State Park  - 12 participants
August 28  Made a PowerPoint presentation on orienteering to scouting and venture leaders at Heritage Reservation - about 50 participants

WPOC has also been distributing information about the club and orienteering in general through various media.  An article about Keystone Capers appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette shortly after the event.  Alexis Rzewski distributes event announcements to REI stores and other locations around Pittsburgh.   For our meets in Indiana, Cambria & Westmoreland counties, Danielle Pisarcik got notices out through Renda Broadcasting in Indiana and Jim Wolfe put notices in the Johnstown Tribune Democrat.  Through contacts with Allegheny County Parks, our events at Boyce, Deer Lakes and Hartwood appear on the county's web site and in its activities brochure.  Alexis maintains the WPOC Facebook page, a Yahoo group for Raccoongaine  and posts notices of our events in a variety of online forums.

In the mapping department, a lot of work was done.  The final maps for Keystone State Park and Deer Lakes Park were created for  Keystone Capers.  All of Mingo Creek Park has now been mapped; only about 60% had been done at the time of the local meet last October.  A new map of Bushy Run Battlefield was created and will be used for the first time in May.  The enhanced base map of Raccoon Creek SP has been expanded to include nearly the whole park - some of the drafting for this was done by Alexis Rzewski (I finally got someone else to start using OCAD seriously).  A base map was created for Frick Park; Alexis is working on drafting the orienteering map from it.  A base map for part of Oil Creek State Park was created for the park staff.  Work started  on a base map of part of Prince Gallitzin State Park.