BOK DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2011-2013
“More People, More Places, More Podiums”
ABSTRACT
This document provides a rationale for the development plan which BOK will use to guide its executive actions over the next 3 years. It attempts to marry the general objectives of the club with the growth policies which the national organisation (BOF) has developed for orienteering for the period 2009-13. In arriving at the set of proposed actions the document offers a description of current activity and an analysis of the opportunities open to the club. It does not view the promotion of increased participation and the support of elite and elite aspirant performance as mutually exclusive, but seeks to strike a balance in order to support both. In doing so the document aims to reflect the wishes of its current membership and also to acknowledge BOK’s wider role as one of the UK’s largest clubs within the wider orienteering community.
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 BOK Objectives
Underlying future development are the aims of the club which have been defined as follows:
- To promote orienteering as an enjoyable activity for all, with significant educational, health and life skills benefits.
- To support all members, at whatever age or skill level, in developing and orienteering at a standard appropriate to their aspirations, physical ability and level of commitment.
- To contribute to the growth of orienteering by linking into and supporting regional and national development programmes.
1.2 Context
The impetus and starting point for this Development Plan is the British Orienteering (BOF) Whole Sport Plan (WSP) 2009-2013. Key points from the WSP in formulating this Development Plan are:
· Provision of a pathway for orienteer development at all ages and standards.
· Delivery of WSP objectives through clubs and their volunteers.
· Provision of frequent local orienteering activities, in a social context, as well as traditional high quality classic events.
· Engagement with schools, higher education centres and local communities.
· Development of volunteers to BOF quality standards: event officials, mappers, helpers, club officials, coaches.
· Identification and development of talented athletes, by reference to a common and balanced skills development framework.
· Talent development including exposure to different terrains and coaches, and participation in high level competition.
The intent of this Development Plan is that it should align BOK closely with BOF WSP objectives, and thus position BOK as a valued BOF partner in the delivery of the WSP.
1.3 Current activities
In the last few years there has been an increase in event provision which was already varied and of local, regional and national importance. Currently, BOK offers a very comprehensive range of activities, all of which are well-supported and form an excellent basis for further club development:
· Organisation of local colour coded, classic events, often hosting Avon Schools competitors
· Organisation of one Galoppen and one other Regional event (the BOK Trot) per year.
· Organisation of 4 Saturday League events per year.
· Organisation of 8 summer informal events per year.
· Occasional organisation of sprint, street-O, and novelty events.
· Support to the Western Night League.
· Participation in, and support of, national competitions such as the Compass Sport Cup, Peter Palmer Relays, Harvester Relays, etc.
· Strong junior recruitment in conjunction with ASO.
· Active involvement with SWOA.
· Active assistance through providing Controllers, Planners, Organisers and manpower to regional and national events.
What follows is a discussion of the factors and processes which may underlie how we continue to develop our activities to meet members’ needs and also how we support members to achieve whatever their aspirations may be within the club.
2. WHERE WE ARE NOW - An analysis of the starting point for development
2.1 Strengths and Weaknesses
2.1.1 Club size
With over 300 members BOK is one of the largest clubs in the country, and therefore has good potential for providing a wide range of orienteering activities. There are, however, a significant number of relatively inactive members within this total. The age distribution is very bipolar, as in BOF in general, with peaks in juniors and over-50s. The club’s representation from the broad range of social and ethnic groups is less than ideal. The club covers a substantial geographical area, travel across which is made difficult by Bristol and Bath city areas.
2.1.2 Volunteers
BOK has a number of dedicated, well-trained volunteers. BOK was one of the first clubs to embrace electronic race technology, and continues to enjoy an expert IT cadre. BOK maintains a qualified First Aid squad and a small group of qualified coaches. Volunteers are organised into speciality squads, which both promotes good organisation through familiarity and eases the task of event organisers. However, the pool of active volunteers is quite narrow (maybe 40 strong) and tends to come from the older members, and this is a current constraint on expanding in areas such as broader coaching and satellite activities. “Volunteer fatigue” is a serious issue.
2.1.3 Club management
BOK has Clubmark accreditation, and practises good governance. It has a good record in developing young people who are interested in, and capable of, taking responsibility. It has also received Compass Sport awards for the quality of its newsletter BOK News. BOK has excellent relations with all other clubs in SWOA and neighbouring clubs in WOA and WMOA.
2.1.4 Event organisation
BOK events are typically well-organised, fair, and caring of the environment. However, they tend to be in the classic format, and have only just begun to move into sprint, middle distance, and urban formats. There seems to be a demand for more frequent, lower-profile, lower-cost events.
BOK has a small group of club mappers, and is prepared to contract out mapping tasks as required. However, BOK has relatively few areas sufficiently large and providing sufficient technical difficulty for regional and national classic events, and there are wildlife and vegetation constraints on when they can be used. On the positive side, there are many parkland-type areas in Bristol and Bath which are adequate for lower profile events.
BOK provides Controllers and other assistance to other clubs on a frequent basis. BOK also contributes significant volunteer forces to JK, Croeso and other large events.
2.1.5 Performance
By a combination of organic development of juniors and inward migration of seniors, BOK has a strong, national-level performance capability. This is reflected in the large numbers of members attending major events in the UK and abroad, and in the significant number of podium places obtained throughout the age categories. Recent useful initiatives to enhance the coaching and development framework have taken place. Now that these are established, there is scope to review their direction and targeting. Helping and improving performance in the middle ability ranges and older orienteers has received little attention. More could also be done to enhance club performance and broaden the participation experience of juniors by encouraging those who attend local events to travel to larger events elsewhere.
2.1.6 Publicity
BOK has deriving benefit from revitalising the role of Publicity Officer and appointing a new incumbent to the committee. BOK maintains a comprehensive website. However, it needs some attention to more attractive design.
2.2 Opportunities
BOK has identified opportunities in the following areas:
· Running events in formats other than classic distance: sprint, middle distance, urban, sprint-relay, etc.
· Capitalising on the existing keen and ambitious M/W21 group to develop performance.
· Building closer ties and better publicity with Bristol University and UWE.
· Capitalising on the Young Leaders trained through the Wavering Down Youth Orienteering Project.
· Working more closely with the BOF SW Regional Development Officer, who is a BOK member.
· Maintaining a strong relationship with Avon Schools Orienteers, and in particular attracting more juniors to membership of BOK.
2.3 Threats
BOK has identified the following concerns:
· Over-dependence on a small number of people, e.g. in coaching, mapping, IT, committee officers, combined with a lack of attention to succession planning.
· Impact of increased travel costs.
· Impact of increased event costs.
· Failure to benefit fully from investment, e.g. in Young Leaders.
· Lack of retention of juniors into the Senior age classes.
· Impact of more active and powerful ecological and commercial interests on the availability of areas for orienteering.
· Reduction of effort in schools resulting from funding and role changes consequent upon government and BOF policies.
3. WHAT WE WANT TO DO -- Deductions from the foregoing
analysis
Major Initiative Areas
The following are the major areas of concentration for BOK in this Development Plan. These are to be seen against the normal background of event organisation, mapping, club management, etc.
3.1 Developing a broader range of activities
· Continuing to put on more cheap-to-run local events, extending the range of formats, including after-school, evening, and on days other than Sunday.
· Combining these events where possible with training and coaching activities for more ambitious orienteers.
· Advertising and publicising these activities more widely, e.g. in running clubs.
3.2 Recruitment, retention, and development (“Start, Stay, Succeed”)
· Continuing to support Increasing Participation in some form, developing a wider catchment.
· Working with ASO and RDO to strengthen the relationship between schools and the club in order to recruit and retain juniors in the club, and to attract their parents to involvement in orienteering.
· Developing and publicising a process for supporting recruits beyond the first basic stages of orienteering.
· Encouraging the participation of high achieving juniors in club teams and at larger events.
· Expanding the social aspect of the club.
3.3 Coaching
· Developing and strengthening the role of Head Coach
· Building and adopting a coaching and development framework at several levels, that can be applied to offer improvement opportunities at all ages and levels of ability in the club, from beginner to aspirant international.
· Developing a delivery mechanism for this framework, e.g. through basic exercises in schools, intermediate exercises combined with local events, and specialised training sessions.
· Building a strong performance squad, by working with club elites, aspirant elites, and coaches to understand and provide the development needs.
3.4 Volunteer Management
· Instituting and strengthening a role of Volunteer Coordinator, as envisaged by BOF, including available BOF training.
· Expanding significantly the number of regular volunteers, encouraging a more consistent approach to volunteering across the club functions.
· Establishing training and succession planning for scarce skills.
3.5 Major events
· Bidding to run major events when opportunity offers, especially sprint, middle distance and relay events since classic major events will seldom come round to the region.
· Taking the opportunity of such events to map new areas or re-map existing ones.
3.6 Funding
· Working with the RDO to identify and obtain funding to help support these major thrust areas.
3.7 Communication
· Promoting more active involvement of club members in shaping and improving what the club delivers.
· Exploiting the opportunities offered by better electronic communication with members.
· Improving internal and external perceptions of club identity
4. BOK DEVELOPMENT PLAN
4.1 BOK’s development strategy is to consolidate a coordinated set of activities, supported by volunteer training, mapping, etc, meeting the orienteering, fitness and social aspirations of its members.
4.2 In articulating a strategy, this document has in mind all levels of orienteering performance, e.g:
· beginners: attracting beginners and giving basic coaching to enable them to participate with enjoyment.
· improvers: supporting the transition from TD1/2 to TD3/4 courses.
· advanced improvers: developing the full capabilities and techniques to be able to tackle TD5 courses.
· performance squad: developing the full set of capabilities for competitive performance at national elite level.
4.3 Proposed key strategic actions
The plan for the realisation of BOK’s development strategy in the period 2011-2013 will be through actions in the following areas:
· As the Core Activity, the establishment of a weekly Club Night (i.e. a Community Orienteering opportunity in BOF parlance).
· Organisation of feeder activities such as:
o Low-key inter-schools competitions, in association with the RDO
o Targeted initiatives in schools
o Short, concentrated initiatives with a social flavour (“Café-O”)
· Extending our list of mapped areas and improving the quality of current maps.
· Intercepting the trend towards urban and sprint orienteering by establishing a series of local events supported by proper maps.
· Adoption of a skills and capabilities framework from which a coaching plan can be derived.
· Establishing a pathway into the club talent squad.
· Utilising these activities to train and mentor volunteer organisers, planners, mappers, and coaches.
· Promoting involvement and commitment to the club by communication, personal contact, and sharing information.
Each of these bullets is elaborated in more detail in the next section.
4.3.1 ACTION 1: Establishing the Club Night as the ‘Core’ Activity
The core activity is to establish a weekly Club Night, comprising orienteering-based activities, with a social flavour. The favoured base at present is Coombe Dingle Sports Centre, Bristol, which has a substantial enclosed area suitable for low-TD events and orienteering exercises, and for which an orienteering map is available. Close by, there is access to the Blaise Castle woodland which offers scope for exercises at a more advanced level.
We have started with fortnightly sessions in the early evening, with the intent to meet weekly as demand builds up. The aim is certainly to attract beginners to advanced improvers, with the hope that club performance squad may also be attracted to build some of their training around Club Night, including mentoring other volunteers.
Examples of activities that can easily be run at Coombe Dingle SC include:
· training exercises such as map memory, compass and pacing, etc
· team relay games
· stretching and strength training advice and practice
· local fun sprint competitions
· local fun sprint-score competitions
· street-O
· for the more experienced: training runs and night-O practice in the adjacent woodland