The Secretary apologises for the delay in preparing the following summary of business conducted by the OACT Board in recent months. Many of the reported actvities have now been completed or overtaken by events, but are included here for the sake of (belated) completeness.
In July 2022 position descriptions were circulated for the Executive Officer and Development Officer positions. It was agreed they would be advertised via the bulletin initially. Applications were subsequently received in August and the Board unanimously agreed to offer the positions to Phil Walker and Toni Brown respectively, commencing 1 September 2022. The secretary is to finalise contract details with the successful candidates. The Board unanimously thanked Geoff for his years of service as Executive Officer since 2007.
The outgoing executive officer, Geoff Wood, has now populated the new Quickbooks accounting system with accounts data from January 2022 and will meet with the treasurer soon for handover. ATO BAS and payroll reporting continues to be tricky, but Andrew reports that our auditor, Nikki, has fixed this ready for October. Associated with that the Board agreed our budget development must reflect the need to promote the sport and encourage beginners’ participation. Members present felt that OACT should be prepared to subsidise athletes representing Australia at international competitions that are endorsed by OA – currently WOC and JWOC and possibly World Cup events, but we also need to check what funding is provided by OA for which events. Members noted some events overseas are entered by individuals in their personal capacity; NOL athletes are supported to attend national events through performance grant; the selected ASOC team currently receives some financial support; while invitational team members are to be endorsed by their State associations additional funding should come through efforts such as cake stalls etc. In August members agreed that for programs where users pay for a time-limited period, a component of the funds received should be available to provide a financial reward for coaching personnel, including juniors.
Members noted that MapRun has to date been supported through two grants from OA. While this app has been very popular and useful for local orienteers, and is very promising for the future, the MapRun administrator had not previously alerted associations to the ‘recommended donation’ process to support it financially and has provided little detail about the base and ongoing running costs. The Board agreed to make a fix contribution to cover the last two years.
In September we received confirmation that recurrent grant funding of $15000 has been received from ACT Government for this year and a similar sum for next year as well (in future this will be a 4-year cycle), with an expectation to be applied equally to male and female teams. We are expected to purchase 10 tickets for a table at the Sports Awards dinner on 25 November at Realm Hotel. Award nominations are being prepared.
On event management the Board noted:
- Geoff had sent a draft 2023 program of dates for clubs’ consideration. It is desirable to avoid selection races in the school holidays. We still need to review whether we have too many events in the program, especially in the lead-up to the main winter season of bush events. The Board discussed the desirability of encouraging development of junior and new course setters at Saturday and Twilight events. Another option might be to use an existing event slot eg Twilight as a development opportunity rather than always setting bush line courses. Geoff reported that participation numbers at both Twilight and Saturday Metro events has been reducing over the last two years, partly because of COVID and partly because CGS numbers have dwindled. The number of new people (‘day members’) participating in only one or two events per year has also dropped off. Revenue has not necessarily reduced, partly because of season passes. For further discussion.
- Some recent events (Castle Hill and Jim Sawkins event) have been cancelled due to lack of course planners – this is worrying;
- QBIII report – Phil Walker provided a report but the finance director is no longer available so there has been a delay in receiving our proportion of funding – Susanne has sent a note of thanks to organisers.
- OACT is encouraged to set next year’s AL program to dovetail/share resources with ONSW SL events. At the September meeting members noted that despite best intentions the opportunity for co-hosting with ONSW SL events has now broken down as they are making changes to their program.
- ACT Parks restriction issues continue – we have still not received the foreshadowed policy paper – Phil to follow up.
- A six event ‘Summer Shorts’ program is proposed on three weeks before and after Christmas with courses of max 1.7 to 2.5km long, using map flips and other techniques for building complexity through the series, not necessarily with a traditional sprint line course on offer each week. Given that access to schools remains doubtful, proposed venues are John Knight Park, Kingston Foreshore, UC, CIT Reid, Haig Park, Yarramundi Reach (new map).
Easter 2023 – Stephen reported the major risk recently had been finding a replacement day organiser and course setter for the Prologue day, but Edith Gray and John Shelton Agar had now agreed to take on these roles. The next pressure is recent news that there is to be construction work at the identified event location next year. A site visit is planned soon. The organising committee will be meeting more regularly from now on. Andrew C and Andrew H to liaise on funds management. At the September meeting members noted the website was due to go live before AusChamps – this has now happened.
SC-ORE – Susanne reported that four schools in the Belconnen area have agreed to host a ‘Big M’ series. She will continue to lead this program this year.
ASOC – Advice on selected/recommended athletes was received from the selection panel. Only one ACT student was identified for the AAIDT and this was endorsed by the Board in August. By early September ASOC income was coming in. This is to be passed straight through to ASOC. Andrew to check with Nikki if there is any GST implication as we are not providing a service ourselves.
OA and other State news: ONSW is running a controllers workshop later in the year that OACT members are entitled to attend. Having attended training a person would then need to set a course and be an event organiser to maintain accreditation. The currency of three of our current controllers is about to lapse. Phil to follow up who else can have their accreditation status confirmed or upgraded. The Board agreed to subsidise travel and accommodation costs for individuals who are interested to attend and willing to take on controller roles. Phil attended an OA Eventor working group meeting recently. It is proposed to engage a project manager in Australia, but any IT development would still have to be carried out by SOF in Sweden. OA is seeking EOI to run a National Junior Training Camp in 2022. The Board felt OACT does not have sufficient human resources to take on organisation of such an event as an association this year, but agreed to advertise for members willing to contribute. Subsequently Mike Radajewski and Deirdre Sharkey have agreed to act as coordinators for ACT participants wishing to be involved.
In sundry other business:
- The OACT telephone/internet subscription were cancelled by iiNet resulting in a new phone number account being established.
- Susanne is to clarify how often/whether we still use our satellite phones and if they remain in good condition.
- Members agreed to subsidise new Blue Lightning shirts at $35 each for up to 20 shirts.
- Members agreed that at a future meeting we should consider engaging a media service provider.
- No Newcomers Welcome person yet, but Justine H is willing to support transition. Susanne to encourage other juniors at AusChamps. Owen R and Josh M will share computer operator duties.
- StreetO is set up for Oct-Dec with same entry fees as before but with a 40% discount rate, not 50%.
- Valerie is attending a MPIO course on 11 October being facilitated by Sports Integrity Australia.
- We need to start planning our EOY/Awards event. The Board considered the merits of EOY compared to a March event again, on balance preferring an outdoor event in March again this year.