Western PA Orienteering Club
Report for 2024

Statistically, 2024 was definitely a good year:  Memberships up 30%, Event Starts up 14% and Participation up 20%.  You can look at the statistics page to see the details about each of our events, including location, event director, types of courses offered, total starts, member starts and the total number of participants.  We are getting back to pre-Covid numbers with starts and participation and our membership has never been bigger.  Events during the year  went well and the weather cooperated for the most part with only a couple of rainy days for events.  We were even able to hold a ski-o event for the first time in five years.

Thanks to all of our event directors (Alexis Rzewski, Joe Logan, Sherry Shank, Dave Battista, Naomi Jarvis, Ryan Knecht, Jen Livingston and Jim Wolfe), our vetters (Dave Battista, Alexis Rzewski Joe Logan, Ryan Knecht and Jim Wolfe), and all the event day volunteers (too many to list) for making all of the events run smoothly. Also, thanks to Ryan Knecht for coordinating the volunteers and maintaining the control boxes, Sherry Shank for maintaining membership records, Giuseppina Mecchia for setting up Allegheny County events, Naomi Jarvis for posting events to Facebook and Instagram and Alexis Rzewski for posting on Attackpoint..

This year, the board made several major decisions.  One was to make it possible for club members to purchase club jerseys and to subsidize part of the cost of the jerseys.  We wound up ordering 35 jerseys with everyone who ordered happy with the result.  Another decision was to continue offering swag items to participants of Raccoongaine and the Babcock BBC.  The board authorized the swag for Raccoongaine to be T-shirts to commemorate the 15th year of that event.  The board also authorized the purchase of 40 compasses to replace ones that had developed bubbles and to help Jen Livingston deal with larger workshop groups.  This purchase will allow all of our maps to be updated to current standards.  

In addition to events, Jen Livingston conducted many orienteering workshops, some with the help of Jim Wolfe, Laurie Opila and Hunter Bash. . All of Jen's workshops were for scouts or scout leaders.  Joe Logan and Jim Wolfe also taught the beginner and intermediate workshops for our training day.  Two of Jen's workshops and the training day were the only ones open to the public. You can view the details of these activities at workshops  Collectively, the workshops introduced some aspect of orienteering to 379 people.

The club continues in a variety of ways to try to publicize orienteering. This is done through the club's web pages, Facebook page, Instagram page,  the Attackpoint website, various meet-up groups and other social media.     For Raccoongaine, there is a separate Facebook page, as well as a Yahoo group;  this is handled by Alexis Rzewski on behalf of the club.  

Jim Wolfe remapped most of Hartwood Acres and designed two permanent courses for Hartwood that were subsequently installed by Allegheny Parks personnel.  He also mapped about 600 additional acres of the Babcock Division of Gallitzin State Forest for use in the 2025 3BC..There were also many minor updates to maps used in 2024 events by Jim Wolfe and Alexis Rzewski.      The permanent orienteering course designed for Warrior's Path State Park in 2023 has still not been installed.