Eventful Start
After an eventful start for the new SAOF management committee the team has begun to settle down and find their feet. Having held our second meeting on 4 February it is an opportune time to share with the SA orienteering community our progress as well as our plans for the future.
Links to the full minutes of our meetings as well as the various portfolio progress reports can be found at the following link.
SA Coaching Framework
The most important initiative for the SAOF over the next few years is the SASCOC-lead South African Coach Framework. This project is fully supported by SRSA and follows hot on the heels of the Long Term Participant Development (LTPD), which the SAOF rolled out at the end of last year. An assessment of what is required to grow our sport and to retain more of the people exposed to orienteering leads to the conclusion that access to high-quality coaching is critical. As such the SAOF management committee was more than happy to pass a resolution that we will work towards generating a Coach Education System that is aligned with the principles of the SA Coach Framework. Read more on this project here.
High Performance
Nicholas Mulder has been reappointed as the High Performance manager and the Selection Committee has busied themselves with updating the SAOF’s Selection Policy documents and selecting the various national squads. The selection process is moving toward a situation where a minimum fitness requirement is likely to be introduced for 2013.
SA Champs 2012
The South African Orienteering Championships in 2012 will be hosted by the Adventure Racing Club in the beautiful Haenertsburg area. The Middle distance event has been granted WRE status. Nicholas Mulder has been engaged by AR club to make maps of the area using funds from the SAOF’s strategic mapping fund.
Capacity Building
The SAOF encourages its member clubs to put on our quota of 3 World Ranking Events per year. Each such event is required to have an associated International Orienteering Federation (IOF) Event Adviser to ensure IOF standards. Currently South Africa has two accredited IOF event advisers in Ian Bratt and Garry Morrison. We believe it will be beneficial to have more active accredited IOF event advisers.
As per the SAOF’s mapping strategy, we need more people who are comfortable and available to make school-level maps that will facilitate our Expansion projects. In addition we need to develop more local mappers capable and willing to map strategic maps
Expansion Plan
Great progress is being made by Lisa de Speville and Peter Hemer, both of whom are involved in implementing our Expansion Plan. Prompted by a number of learnings at the first Teachers Training Course in Polokwane, the Training Course has been re-developed. In addition a B&W mapping format has been developed (based on UK’s now defunct Simple Maps for Orienteering). It has been interesting to note that even relatively well-off schools, like Randpark High cannot afford to use colour maps for training activities.
(One particularly inspiring output from the Polokwane “Come And Try It” event was this map by Ephrahim who participated in orienteering for the first time. Using the Capricorn High School map as his template he created a wonderful colour map of his school. This map was used for orienteering activities at his school).
Other activities include:
Orienteering exposure at the Extreme Sports Expo, including 35 high school children from Diepsloot and Cosmo City.
Meetings with various teachers of Lebone High School in Rustenburg and the Royal Bafokeng Sports Trust.
A successful workshop was held in Cape Town for PenOC. This served to share what has been developed in Gauteng for use in the western Cape.
We received good publicity at the SASCOC Coach Conference in November 2011, attended by Lisa de Speville and Sarah Pope. Lisa’s presentation on our LTPD model and Expansion efforts was a highlight.
Lisa has developed a number of Resources that are now available under the Schools Resources section under the Development tab.
The SAOF is now the proud owner of an Expansion Plan trailer, which is fully equipped to present workshops and Come And Try It orienteering events in new areas.
Publicity
The SAOF has produced a large number of Orienteering publicity flyers (210x100mm), available to all the clubs to distribute (please contact Val to get yours.)
There are also a number of posters that can be used to publicise your events. Whilst these are aimed primarily at schools, they are available to all clubs. They are available for download on the Schools Resources page.
There is a new generic Orienteering Schools logo that can be used for any new schools league that is started.
The Gauteng Schools League is now Facebook savvy. We are exploring this means to engage with and appeal to the youth (and younger at heart orienteers).
Finances
We have been experiencing challenges with respect to receiving our final payment from our 2011 SRSA grant. We are expecting the balance of the grant to be paid by the end of February.
Towards the end of 2011 we were notified that our 2010 NLDTF was partially successful. The year-end has also proved to be a challenging time in our efforts to submit the required documentation and receive the grant payment. Once this process has been finalised, we will notify the orienteering community of the final allocation amounts.
Governance
Googledocs has become an invaluable resource for the management committee. We are exploring this tool as a repository of all important SAOF documentation. It is being put to good effect in our financial processes – each edit is tracked, allowing auditing of our payment approval processes.
We are in the process of exploring registration with SARS as a Public Benefit Organisation. This is necessary so that we can employ people and receive the necessary tax exemptions due to organisations such as ours.
We are also exploring NPO registration, although this is less urgent that the SARS registration.
Glossary
CATHSSETA – Culture, Art, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority
NLDTF – National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund
SRSA – Sport and Recreation South Africa
SASCOC – South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee
A great read and a good representation of saof activities.