Volunteer Profiles
As it is national Volunteers Week, we are shining a light on what our volunteers do and why. We hope to update this page every day with a little profile of someone who gives up their time to help.
We need more people to share about their volunteering. Please drop a few lines to chair@ ...
Thank You to our Volunteers
At the start of National Volunteers Week, we would like to say thank you to everyone who helps put on orienteering events.
QO Featured in SaxAlert
Having seen the British Orienteering article on the Missing Maps Project, Graham Denny, the editor of Saxons OC's magazine got in touch for an interview.
You can read the result in the spring edition.
Easter Orienteering
Why not do a bit of Easter Egg O instead of the usual hunt?
You could make a course and hide eggs at the controls. Perhaps even make it a score course, with hard controls having more or better eggs.
Some of our families did a similar thing for Hallowe'een.
Maintenance to the Longrun POC
And an upgrade...
Our President and our Membership officer have been out and about checking the wooden posts on the Longrun Meadow Permanent Orienteering Course. Replacement plaques have been made and attached, and more significant structural repairs to one post are being arranged.
New QR code plaques have been added, allowing their use with MapRun6 QR punching. We'll be releasing a new range of courses using these in the near future.
QR Code Orienteering
Hello! It looks like you scanned one of our QR codes.
These are used in some events and activities and are scanned by competitors using the MapRun6 app to prove they successfully navigated to a particular location. The organisers remove them after the event closes (unless they are part of a permanent course).
Missing Maps Project
The Missing Maps Project was set up by the British and American Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontiers, and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team to produce maps of vulnerable areas in the developing world that can be used to support humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
Quantock Orienteers would like to encourage orienteers to help with this effort as they already have the map awareness needed. The mapping is done using OpenStreetMap, which many members will be familiar with as we use it to create the base data for our Street Series maps.
New Lockdown Challenge
Can the club run Land's End to John O'Groats and back again?
This Lockdown, QO is taking on a challenge. As a club, we want to run Land’s End to John O’Groats and back again. Well, virtually, anyway. We’ll add up all your runs during daily exercise, be that a visit to a permanent orienteering course in your local area, a quick trip to the shops and back, or laps of your garden.
Update: We made it to John O'Groats on 31/1/21- less than a month to do it!
Tier 4
From 31 December, Somerset enters Tier 4. Accordingly, we will be postponing our scheduled events. We will announce more information shortly...
For full British Orienteering rules for Tier 4 areas see https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/news/5431
The Current Situation
Orienteering during Lockdown 2.0
As of writing this on the morning of 7 November, the government is allowing people to travel a short distance to do outdoor exercise. In fact, outdoor exercise is actively encouraged as long as you do it solo, with members of your household/support bubble, or as two individuals from different households.
British Orienteering has confirmed that in line with this, clubs can still put on events as long as they do not involve needing to meet up, are virtual (e.g. MapRun), and are open for at least 7 days (to reduce risk of crowding).