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 1st
·
Mark
West 1st
·
Isobel
Cusick 2nd
·
Barbara
Tassell 2nd
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
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