Thank You to our Volunteers
British Orienteering Thank You Postcard Front Web
At the start of National Volunteers Week, we would like to say thank you to everyone who helps put on orienteering events.
Putting on an orienteering event takes a lot of people. Here are just a few of the roles:
- Mapper - drawing and updating the map.
- Planner - designing the courses.
- Controller - checking the courses meet the rules and that controls are placed correctly.
- Organiser - arranging everything so the event can happen smoothly and within guidance.
- Permissions Secretary - negotiating with landowners to allow the event to happen.
- Fixtures Secretary - deconflicting with other events and registering ours with British Orienteering.
- Technical Administrator - programming SI or MapRun.
- Publicity Officer - spreading the word through the website, emails, social media and posters.
- Volunteer Co-ordinator - convincing people to volunteer to fill these roles.
- Control Placers - setting out the controls and marking any safety taped routes.
- Parking Marshals - fitting everyone in.
- First Aider - ready to respond to injuries.
- Safety Search Team - ready to find missing competitors.
- Registration - helping participants get ready, taking payments, issuing kit.
- Starters - ensuring participants know what to do and staggering starts.
- Course Marshals - making sure people are safe on the course, especially at road crossings.
- Finish - dealing with issues that came up on the course.
- Downloads - collecting raw results after the finish.
- Control Collectors - retrieving controls at the end.
- Scorer - checking and calculating results.
And behind the scenes, keeping the club going, we have (in no particular order):
- Secretary - dealing with British Orienteering paperwork, maintaining compliance lists, keeping records.
- Treasurer - handling the money.
- Membership Secretary - helping people join and maintaining our membership records.
- Juniors Officers - attracting younger participants and putting on activities for them.
- Safeguarding Officer - ensuring we operate safely and responding to issues.
- Captain - putting together teams for inter-club events.
- President - advising with a weight of experience.
- Chair - trying not to get in anyone else's way.
And then there all the other people who give up their time to coach, cook meals, book accommodation, drive, repair kit, maintain permanent courses, cheer, reassure, and everything else that means we can all enjoy orienteering.