What Happened- An Organiser's Report

Stephen (Hon Secretary of LVO) writes,
I'm sure that everyone who has orienteered on any of the 5 Belfast Parks evenings have realized that orienteering just doesn't happen! It does require work to organise such enjoyable events. For the Belfast Parks WEE Series that burden has so ably been carried by Susan Bell assisted every step of the way by Davy Lambe. Susan and Davy have been there each evening to have the registration set up to welcome everyone, register, download and point our newcomers in the right direction.

Part of the ethos of this year's series has been to allow those who have not planned before to enter the wonderful world of orienteering event planning. Susan has also undertaken the role of controlling these new planners to make sure that both they and you get the most of the experience. Add to the list of duties liason with the various Park Managers, coordinating the publicity effort in conjunction with our Regional Development Officer Helen Baxter and posting the results so promptly after the event and you will conclude that Susan and Davy have been very very busy.

Finally to the many non-club members who have come along to the Belfast Parks WEE Series may I thank you for participating. You have been a key part of the series! Do check out what the other events are on offer for the remainder of the year on the LVO main website, starting with the Autumn Trophy event on 8 September at Woodburn. Directions are on the main site. May I make it clear that you do NOT need to be a member to participate in any of our events. If you still haven't decided if orienteering is for you come along and try out some more. However if you do think that it is a sport you would like to be involved in, we would of course be delighted to welcome you as a member. If you gave your email or address details at any of the events I will be contacting you shortly with our 2008 membership offer. If you don't think you gave your details please email me and I'll gladly send you some information.
Unfortunately not all our events are free, but orienteering is a value-for-money sport and it is a sport that will take you to many interesting places, where you can particpate at your own pace and it's one of the few sports which has no retirement age.

Susan's report:
What can I say folks, but thanks for making the Belfast WEE series such a success. It would have made my job tremendously easy if we had perhaps half the number of competitors we did, but it wouldn't have been nearly as rewarding. It is heartening to see people turning up, week after week, waiting patiently while I struggle with the technology so they can download after a race round the parks.

With your results, you should have received a flyer for our next event, which is at Woodburn Forest above Carrickfergus on Saturday 8th September. We would love to see you there, and I will also enjoy the novelty of being able to run a course (that's "run" in the loosest possible sense of the word).

Congratulations to all our winners, including league winners Harry Millar and Philip Stuart. It was a close-run thing and I hope you enjoyed tracking your progress. Of course, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, you're all winners and I hope you will be wearing your medals with pride over the next few days. Weeks, even.

I think the last thing I need to do is thank everybody who was involved. Of course the competitors, but also everyone who worked behind the scenes. I'll not list names, but you know who you are and it has all been appreciated - from the meeters and greeters, to those who stayed back to collect controls, to our resident cartographer and to everyone involved in our grant application which meant we could offer our events free of charge.
Of course thanks to Davy for dedicating his Tuesday evenings to filling a car full of 'fragrant' O gear, and dedicating his Wednesday evenings to the event itself. And our 5 novice planners (they had planned a total of 2 events between them before they started) - I think they did an excellent job, and I hope you appreciated the courses they produced. The WEE series is an excellent start to planning, and will help your orienteering skills no end. So when we're looking for volunteers next year, I hope you'll consider putting your name forward.....................

In the meantime, hopefully see you out in the forest on Saturday 8th. It's been fun.............
Susan