President's Report 2012

Sunday, 17 February 2013

Bert delivering the President's Report poolside at Julian and Mary Roscoe's lovely home.

If I thought 2011 went by in a rush 2012 seemed to go even faster.  I guess that’s one of the consequences of getting older.

Nonetheless I have to say that 2012 was an outstanding year for Australopers thanks to the Executive, Committee members and all those members who volunteered to put on great events throughout the year.

GENERAL:  Australopers continues to be the largest Orienteering club in Tasmania and remains one of the dominant clubs in Australia.  At the end of 2012 we had 145 members on the books, compared to 100 for EVOC and 42 for WROC.  

We are very highly represented at local, statewide, national and international events.  Some of our achievements in 2012 were as follows:
•    Easter 3 Days (Queensland) – 32 members competing
•    Australopers second to Ugly Gully (51-49) on club points
•    Australian Championships (Tasmania) – Most members competing and helping out
•    Grace Crane as the highest ranked Australian elite and won all three events at the Aus Champs as well as Easter as well as the AO Athlete of the year Award.
•    Bert Elson awarded Silva award for Services to Orienteering in Australia
•    Amy Buckerfield competed in the Junior World Championships in Poland.
•    Nicola Marshall was selected in the 2013 National Junior Squad
•    Jarrah Day and Oisin Stronach were selected in the 2013 National Junior Development Squad

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.
•    Renny Duckett for his ongoing contribution as Treasurer despite his inability to compete due to injury.
•    Rosie Rutledge for her great contributions to each edition of O Know.
•    Martin Bicevskis who as President of OT has been our OT liaison officer as well as putting in untold hours organising Sportident and Autodownload timing systems at Australopers events and who with Elizabeth and Karl has provided timing and results for the Space Racing, Schools and Corporate Challenge series as well as other events during the year.
•    Jan Hardy as our chief representative and Chair of the OT selection panel and more recently as Membership Officer and Judy Davis who looked after selection in Jan’s absence and is now also a selector in her own right.
•    Mike Calder who has taken over from Tony Mount in organising our event volunteer roster.
•    Sue and Tony Mount who are always at events to help out newcomers.
•    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.
•    Sally Salier and Jim Laver for maintaining that equipment.
•    Wayne Griggs for his coaching efforts.
•    The Buckerfield Family who while running a very busy veterinary practice always seem ready to stay behind at events and help pack up and collect controls
•    Janet and Renny for their help at events and for providing their house for various Australopers functions.
•    Kim and Gary Carroll for their work in maintaining a social program
•    Nick Bowden as mapping co-ordinator
•    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.  Our club reserves increased during the year as a consequence of  our running of the southern Corporate Challenge and Schools Series and we have a number of projects in the planning stage to put those resources to use in.

MEMBERSHIP:  Membership at the end of 2012 was 145 up from the 127 at the end of the previous year.  These figures may be a bit imperfect but the new membership system will in future ensure more accurate statistics.

EVENTS:  In 2012 Australopers organised a large number of events, both local and statewide.  We have had considerable input to the 2013 calendar.  In particular we achieved a significant increase in attendance at the Schools /Corporate Challenge series following a broad based publicity campaign and the incorporation into the series of a Primary School competition, overseen by Mike Calder.  The peak number of participants at any one Australopers event was 229 at the week 2 Corporate Challenge /Schools event in October.

COACHING:  Coaching events were again held for both experienced and beginner members.

MAPPING:  It was a quiet year mapping wise, this also recognising a general shift in responsibility for mapping from clubs to OT.  We benefited from utilising several new maps during the year including St Johns Park, Sandown Park, The Regatta Grounds and Cornelian Bay.  We are trying to arrange through orienteering Tasmania the mapping of a new area at Avoca for this years Tasmanian Long Distance Championships.

EQUIPMENT: We have designed and hope to order soon bright START and FINISH banners showing the club logo.

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:  In 2012 we held a number of social functions.

CLUB MEETINGS:  Club meetings were held monthly at members’ homes and were well attended.  We continue to try to streamline the business component of meetings so that there is ample time for social interaction.
 
2012 AUSTRALOPERS OFFICE BEARERS:  My thanks again to 2012 office bearers.

PRESIDENT: Bert Elson
SECRETARY (& PUBLIC OFFICER): Sally Wayte
TREASURER: Renny Duckett
Other Officers
Event Program: Ross Kelly
Event Planning: Mike Calder
MAPPING: Nick Bowden
EQUIPMENT: Jim Laver
COACHING CO-ORDINATOR: Wayne Griggs
NEWCOMERS CO-ORDINATOR: Jan Hardy
JUNIOR REPRESENTATIVE: 
SELECTORS: Jan Hardy / Judy Davis
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES: Martin Bicevskis
NEWSLETTER: Rosie Rutledge   
SOCIAL: Kim and Gary Carroll

THE YEAR AHEAD
2013 will be a big year with Australopers members organising a large proportion of the year’s events.  We are looking forward to two more successful Schools and Corporate Challenge series and will probably play an important role in the new Mid Year Saturday afternoon series to commence in May.  We will be holding the Tasmanian Long Distance Championships (hopefully on a new map at Avoca) and are organising the Middle and Relay Championships as well.

I wish everyone in Australopers a great year.

Bert Elson
President