The following motions have been received and will be presented at the Annual General Meeting.
That prior to May 1, 2007, ONB amend its constitution as required in support of a "single-organisation" structure for orienteering in New Brunswick.[Note, the affected sections are 5, 6, 9 and 13. Changes required appear to be minor]
For many years, the management of orienteering activities in New Brunswick has been split between the provincial umbrella association (ONB) and a variety of local clubs. While ONB has endured, the existence and strength of local clubs has been, and continues to be, very variable. At any one time, one or more clubs may have very few members, and less than a handful of active members. Currently, the Fredericton and Fundy clubs fall into this category. Other clubs or nodes of orienteering activity, for example in Grand Falls and elsewhere, have ceased to exist. When clubs are small, their active membership is (largely or entirely) made up of the same individuals who form the executives of such clubs. As a result, the effort of administering them drains precious time and energy from these people, that could more profitably be spent in organising orienteering activities and otherwise promoting the sport. It is not logical to attempt to maintain a formal club system for clubs that are this small, involving executive positions, a club constitution (currently required by ONB), banks accounts, paperwork, meetings etc. These days, the public expects all clubs to have an active web presence as well, but only one club in the province currently has the resources to actually do this.
When people currently join the orienteering system they typically sign up at a club venue, usually an event site, but they pay membership dues to ONB. This can be confusing. It is often apparent that a new member does not understand this split.
Interclub competition could be advanced as a benefit of having clubs. Again, the problem with this is that we have so few club members. No meaningful interclub competition is possible.
In our current society where everyone seems to be doing too much and has many demands on their time, finding "new executive blood" for a number of provincial club positions is all but impossible. The result is burnout and stagnation. The stoicism of long-time orienteering executive members is remarkable, but the enthusiam for such work tends to decrease over time. New blood is essential to maintain optimism, energy and the other qualities that will draw people to the sport.
Given that there is a limited pool of individuals willing to promote orienteering, it makes sense to focus, not dilute, their efforts. Adopting an association structure, with no formal requirement to officially promote, establish or maintain clubs, would be a positive move. It would strengthen ONB, enabling it to be more effective, while removing the troublesome club administration work. A single point of focus would also lead to more uniform standards for essential items such as maps, presently managed in a very variable way by different clubs. There should also be parallel benefits in terms of publicity, equipment, ordering, and general sharing of resources between regions. Also, having all funding under one umbrella would more accurately represent the financial strength of the sport.
"But we like our club!!!!" All well and good. Any regional group of orienteers could continue to consider themselves a club, if they wanted to. They just wouldn't have to have all the other administrative machinery that presently goes along with it.
That ONB host the 2008 COC's in conjunction with support from the Ottawa Orienteering Club.
The COF is fairly desperate for a host for the COC's in 2008 as the Ottawa Club had to back out due to what turned out to be an unsuitable area proposed are for the event. The Ottawa club has not hosted the COC's since 1994 or so and as one of the stronger clubs in the country would like to assist us in hosting the 2008 event. They can supply expertise in the area of sportident operation, controlling etc. We would use the revised (2006) Fundy Park map for the middle and classic distances. A new sprint map of the University of Moncton has been completed as well. If we were to host further events could be on newly mapped areas like Hillsborough, perhaps Amherst Bird Sanctuary, on new sprint maps, or even in Wentworth. This would require us to back out of our offer to host the ECOC's in 2007.