President's Report 2014

Tuesday, 24 February 2015

2014 has been another great year for Australopers.  We continued to be the dominant orienteering club in Tasmania, and for that matter one of the leading clubs in Australia.  We organised the vast majority of events held in the state during the year and reaped the benefits of increased income from our share of event fees and new members from those participating.   My thanks to the Executive, Committee members and all those members who volunteered to put on great events throughout the year. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Introducing into service our new equipment and event registration trailer.
• Arranging for that trailer to be decorated with stunning artwork making it also a moving billboard
• Increasing membership to 160 from 151.
• 32 of our members competing at Rylestone NSW in the Easter 3 Days competition and 36 in Western Australia for the Aus Champs carnival.
• Our senior elite competitor Grace Crane being awarded the “Athlete of The Year” trophy.
• Continuing to run the very successful Schools / Corporate Challenge series of 8 events in Autumn and 8 events in Spring as well as the winter Saturday series.
• Arranging for Danish orienteer Henrik Rindom Knudsen to be our first “Coach in Residence”.

GENERAL:  Australopers continues to be the largest Orienteering club in Tasmania and remains one of the dominant clubs in Australia.  As at 31 Dec 2014 we had 160 members on the books, compared to 55 for EVOC and 46 for WROC. 

We are very highly represented at local, statewide, national and international events.  Some of our achievements in 2014 were as follows:

• Easter 3 Days (Rylestone, NSW) – 32 members competing
• Australian Championships (WA) – 36 members competing with the following Long Distance placings:

·   Matthew Cohen 1^st

·   Mark West 1^st

·   Isobel Cusick 2^nd

·   Barbara Tassell 2^nd

Australopers’ strength lies not only in the competitive side but in its broad base. We have a good volunteer base and a strong commitment to event organisation.   Australopers also continues to place a strong emphasis on family involvement and the social side of orienteering. In general terms Australopers has a great bunch of people as members!

 Before going on to list achievements by category I want to give particular recognition to a number of club members:

• Sally Wayte who has worked tirelessly as Secretary throughout the year.
• Julian Roscoe who stepped into the vacant Treasurer portfolio and has worked tirelessly to balance the books. 
• Rosie Rutledge for her great contributions to each edition of O Know.
• Martin Bicevskis who with Elizabeth has put in untold hours organising Sportident and Autodownload timing systems at Australopers events.
• KarlBicevskis for organising results.
• Jan Hardy as our chief representative and Chair of the OT selection panel and as Membership Officer.
• Mike Calder who has organised our event volunteer roster and done a huge amount of schools development work.
• Ross Kelly for his work on behalf of the club putting our feedback into the development of the annual calendar of events.
• Wendy Andrewartha for letting us continue to use her garage as our equipment store.
• Wayne Griggs for his coaching efforts.
• Gary Carroll for his work as Mapping Officer
• Jane Calder as social secretary.
• Liz Butler for her work in managing the production and distribution of our club running shirts
• And all those members who helped with event organisation including course planning, control placing, registration, control collection and so on.

 FINANCES: The financial report tabled separately will show we are financially sound. While we have achieved considerable income during the year we have not hesitated to spend as necessary to improve our equipment base and to assist our volunteers in administering the club and organising events.  Major expenditure during 2014 included:

• Purchase of our new trailer
• Artwork on the trailer
• Fitout of the trailer
• Stationery and supplies to assist running local events
• Costs associated with our coach in residence, Henrik Rindom Knudsen. 

MEMBERSHIP:  Membership at 31 December was 160, up from 151 last year, 145 at the end of 2012 and 127 in 2011.  To date many members have renewed membership but some have not.  We will be contacting all unfinancial members in coming weeks to remind them to renew their membership.

EVENTS:  Our Autumn and Spring twilight series events continued to bring in large numbers of competitors as did the popular winter series.  We also organised a number of statewide events including assisting Pathfinders run the Sprint Championships in Devonport.  In addition some special events were held and our thanks go to Martin Bicevskis who has tried a number of new initiatives including orienteering in the Botanical gardens and holding a “maze O” in association with twilight events.

During the latter half of the year many members were involved in the buildup to the World Cup and Oceania Championships and the Hobart Shorts held in early 2015. Key members involved were Wendy Andrewartha (parking), Martin Bicevskis (public address), Mike and Jane Calder (toilets), Gayle West (catering), Jon McComb (download), Kim Carroll (childrens area), Jeff Dunn (presentations, Bert Elson (logistics and Hobart Shorts) and Julian Roscoe (Master of Ceremonies).  In addition, dozens of club members helped out on the various teams associated with the carnival. 

COACHING:  Coaching events were again held for both experienced and beginner members.  In early October Danish Orienteer Henrik Rindom Knudsen arrived as our first Coach in Residence.  Henrik assisted in schools development as well as holding a range of training exercises open to all orienteers.  In January 2015 our second Coach in Residence Richard Parkin arrived and will be with us until the end of March.  Our thanks to those club members who have billeted these visiting coaches.  Our thanks also to Jane Pulford who is currently working in Europe and loaned her car for the use of visiting coaches.  This scheme is seen as having been very successful and we will be looking at continuing with it in 2015.

MAPPING:  OT has agreed to take on responsibility for mapping.  During the year much focus was on mapping for the World Cup and Oceania with some updating of local maps.  A priority now is to put some focus back on upgrading local Hobart maps used in autumn and spring twilight events. 

EQUIPMENT: The new trailer was completed in January and artwork applied by easter.  It has been outstandingly successful, not only as a means of storing and transporting equipment but, because of its design, allowing it to be used for registration and download – saving the need for tents.  Wendy Andrewartha has continued to allow us to use her garage as the main equipment store.  From early 2015 plans are in place to reorganise equipment with the following elements:

• Long term storage of large items (for national carnivals) – the Rogaine store in new Town
• Long term storage of smaller items (for national carnivals) – Bert and Jan’s shed attic
• Storage and transport of equipment for twilight events – The new trailer
• Storage of equipment for Sunday and statewide events – Wendy’s garage
• A working bee to be held to clean up and tidy Wendy’s garage
• Much older and unused equipment to be disposed of
• Wendy’s garage to be used jointly by Australopers and WROC.
• Australopers and WROC to pay Wendy an annual rental for use of the garage and parking of trailers.

CLUB UNIFORM:  We continue to be very visible through our club running tops – particularly at national and international events.

CLUB WEBSITE:  We continue to maintain a club website though this is an area that may need some additional effort in future to ensure it is always up to date.

SOCIAL:  Our thanks to Jane Calder for organising a number of social functions during the year.  In addition the Wests did a great job of organising an event and quiz evening at the Risdon Pyramids which was well attended by representatives from all clubs.

CLUB MEETINGS:  Club meetings were held monthly at members’ homes and were well attended.  As well as general business we continue to try to have a special presentation following each meeting.  A highlight this year was Mike Calder’s photographic presentation following his and Jane’s visit to the Arctic mid year.

2014 AUSTRALOPERS OFFICE BEARERS:  My thanks again to 2014 office bearers.

PRESIDENT: Bert Elson

SECRETARY (& PUBLIC OFFICER): Sally Wayte

TREASURER: Julian Roscoe

Other Officers

Event Program: Ross Kelly

Event Planning: Mike Calder

MAPPING: Gary Carroll

EQUIPMENT: Jim Laver

COACHING CO-ORDINATOR: Wayne Griggs

NEWCOMERS CO-ORDINATOR: Jan Hardy

JUNIOR REPRESENTATIVE:  Nicola Marshall

SELECTORS: Jan Hardy / Judy Davis

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES: Martin Bicevskis

NEWSLETTER: Rosie Rutledge      

SOCIAL: Jane Calder

THE YEAR AHEAD

I am stepping down as President after 3 very rewarding years in the position.  While I enjoy being President I think it is healthy to have a periodic change in leadership and I certainly look forward to continuing to have an involvement in Club administration.  Now that the World Cup and Oceania are over we can put all our efforts back into local events and increasing participation.  The future looks good and I am confident 2015 will be another successful year for the club.

I wish everyone in Australopers a great year.

Bert Elson

President