From: OA Executive Officer [orienteering@netspeed.com.au] Sent: Friday, 10 June 2011 7:42 PM To: Jennifer Binns; Arthur, Bruce; President South Australia; Paul Prudhoe; Peter M Mayer; Mike Dowling; Susanne Casanova; Rohan Hyslop; James Mitchell; QLD Secretary; NT Secretary; WA Secretary; TAS Secretary; SA Secretary; ACT Secretary; Anthony Darr Cc: Michael Hubbert; Nicole Davis; Grant Bluett; Robert Spry; Robin Uppill; Blair Trewin; Bill Jones; Mike Dowling; Tim McIntyre; Geoff Wood; John Toomey; John Havranek; Rob Preston; Ben Rattray Subject: OA Update Attachments: OANSW Admin and Website Systems July 2010.doc Dear State Presidents and Secretaries 1. Website and Digital Communications Consultancy This was advertised on 18 March http://www.orienteering.asn.au/news/?ItemID=6751 This consultancy has been contracted to Nicole Davis who many of you will know firstly from her Website Development paper provided to the 2010 OA Conference and secondly as the principal organiser of the Easter 2011 Carnival in Western Australia. Nicole has a strong background in IT, business and internet marketing. To undertake the consultancy Nicole needs your help in identifying at least 2 key people in each state who she can conduct a detailed interview with on your current systems, identified needs and plans. She will also be interviewing a number of others including Jon McComb, Ben Rattray, Tim McIntyre and Rob Preston on the current system and what is needed to most effectively deliver website and digital communications going forward from the perspectives not just of ease of use and efficiency of website, social media and database but what we need to do to communicate effectively with members, beginners and people thinking of trying orienteering. Nicole's plan is to: * start working immediately on a survey questionnaire for interviewing the key people * go overseas on holiday and on her return immediately start interviewing * have a draft report by mid-September * workshop the draft report with key people during the Oceania Carnival in a workshop from 7pm to 10pm on Thursday 6 October in ACT Sports House, Canberra * finalise the report by the end of October so that it can be distributed to states for consideration before the Annual OA Conference on 3-4 December So that Nicole can follow this plan, it would be appreciated if you could email me the contact details of 2 to 4 people in your state who would be the best people for Nicole to interview. The contact details should include name, position in the state association, email address, phone numbers and when best to ring, and Skype address if available. Where it will not be practical or convenient to talk, the questionnaire may be completed electronically and emailed. Attached is a OANSW flow chart which the OA Board has found very useful in conceptualising the systems linkages. 2. National Online Membership System At the 2010 OA Conference there was a resolution that OA look at developing a national online membership system. In principle, the theoretical online front end would collect the demographic info (name, address, phone number, email address) then there would be a State or Territory menu where if you clicked on WA, for example, you would then have a WA spiel describing the membership system, fees and what you get for membership followed by menus for club, membership type, payment etc. In practice there are quite varied paper and online systems among the states. The website consultancy project item 4 is 'Document state-specific requirements that may not be applicable to a national website, e.g. state-specific online membership systems.' Hence the OA Board has decided that Nicole Davis will undertake this as part of the consultancy and this will provide a firm basis for OA and states deciding a way forward. 3. Oceania carnival workshops On Thursday 6 October there will be a Level 3 Controllers Workshop from 9am to 5pm in meeting room 1 at ACT Sports House, 100 Maitland St, Hackett ACT and in meeting rooom 2 at the same venue there will be a Mapping Workshop from 9.30am to 2.30pm. Further details will be posted on the Oceania Carnival website. 4. ASC Participation Funding for 2011 The ASC has deposited $100,000 in the OA bank account and advised OA of a fairly simple process for providing the funding to states undertaking funded projects during 2011. This involves a 1 page agreement with request for invoicing, with a statement of the agreed project plan and performance deliverables. Robert Spry has agreed to be the OA Board member overseeing the Participation projects, and Robert, Blair Trewin and myself will be endeavouring to progress this as soon as possible. What the ASC has agreed to fund in 2011 and 2012 are: Projects being funded include: * New Park and Street orienteering programs in Western and Southern Sydney, NSW Northern Rivers and Coffs Harbour, Cairns and Rockhampton, Darwin and Gippsland * A new Duo (bike/run) MTBO program in NSW * An extension of Perth’s highly successful NavDash program to the winter months in 2012 * A comprehensive Park and Street Orienteering Organisers Manual by Ian Dodd * Online videos by a Uni of Canberra team led by Ben Rattray on how to do Park and Street, Bush, Sprint and MTB orienteering * Comprehensive information and how to do it guides on Bush and Sprint Orienteering by Nick Dent, and Park and Street and Mountain Bike Orienteering by Barbara Hill * A Rural Scholarship training scheme in 2012 in event management, coaching and controlling The Darwin and WA projects still have to be given the tick by the state Sport & Rec departments and a Saturday proposal by OASA also has to go through this process, which is part of the ASC decision making and management of the participation funding program. 5. ASC requirements for funding of any new participation projects The requirements of the ASC were specified in the documentation provided to all states and Board members in late June and July 2010 and then supplemented by the ASC in Andrew Collins’ talk at the OA Conference in December. These requirements apply to submissions for funding of any new projects either nationally or in a state and for any projects within a particular state (new orienteering programs or training programs) the ASC has a partnership agreement with all state Sport and Recreation Departments whereby the views on the projects will be sought from the respective Sport and Recreation Departments on both the merits of the project and whether or not there is any doubling up of funding occurring. Pre-requisites The ASC will normally only fund new projects but will consider funding an extension of a successful existing program. It will not fund existing projects. It will not fund projects where there is already state Sport and Rec, Health Promotion Fund etc monies being provided or planned to be provided. The ASC will fund new projects such as new Park and Street O programs in the initial development years for mapping and equipment, promotion, paid coordinator support and some training. After that the programs must be sustainable and pay for their ongoing support through entry fees and sponsorships. The ASC expects OA to ensure that people attending ASC-funded training to increase participation will then use that training in practice and be active organisers, coaches, mappers etc. Project specifications for new Park and Street, bush, sprint or MTBO orienteering programs in a state The ASC requires information on: * what participation programs you are already running in the state and what State Sport & Rec funding and other funding is being received for these * costs of setting up the new programs in the state to be sustainable in the longer term: mapping, equipment, promotion, an organiser for the first couple of years (after that numbers should be sufficient for ongoing payment of an organiser) * expected/estimated numbers of new participants year by year * which geographic areas you currently service and which areas will the new programs service * whether there are plans to in due course set up a new club if the area in which the new program is being rolled out is not being serviced by an existing orienteering club. Setting up a new club in this situation is likely to maximise the longer term sustainability of the program, especially if it is accompanied by a program to train up new people in that area in event management and course setting. Project specifications for new orienteering training programs in a state for rural club development The ASC requires information on: * specifics of the proposed training and background to support the proposal (eg. training of additional Event Managers for Saltbush Orienteers, a club with X number of members looking after orienteering in these towns/region with currently Y number of Event Managers in the club running Z number of events per year. Training of additional Event Managers will enable V number of extra events to be considered) * what training programs are already running in the state and what State Sport & Rec funding and other funding is being received for these (if any) * what the training plan is for the state for the next 12 months and how the proposed rural club development training fits in * costs of the proposed training * expected/estimated numbers of participants This level of detail will provide the State Sport & Rec Department with a good understanding of what is proposed and how effective it is likely to be, and therefore to what extent it merits support in responding to the ASC. 6. ASC funding beyond 2012 Orienteering will only receive ongoing ASC participation funding beyond 2012 if OA can provide data to the ASC in November 2012 showing real and substantial membership growth during 2011 and 2012. There are four implications of this: * we must ensure that during 2011 we implement the 2010 Conference decision to include all newcomers at regular orienteering events (all park and street, sprint, bush and MTBO events) as, at a minimum, casual members, although preferably as full members * to retain those newcomers as members it will be vital to collect their email contact details (if they have an email address) and ensure they are expeditiously added to each state's weekly EBulletin list to encourage them to come to further events * we need to have a strong marketing effort during 2011 and 2012 to maximise the number of new members * at the OA Conference this year we are going to have to discuss how we can collect 2012 statistics on membership and participation that we can provide to the ASC at the November 2012 reporting meeting John Harding Executive Officer, Orienteering Australia www.orienteering.asn.au PO Box 284, Mitchell BC ACT 2911 (02) 6162 1200, 0427 107 033 orienteering@netspeed.com.au