No, the title does not refer to my position on the COF board of directors. There is so much happening at COF now I thought it deserved its own spot.
As you probably know by now, the Canadian Orienteering Federation, along with many other sports, no longer gets any funding from the federal government. (No they are not sending money directly to ONB either, unfortunately.) Colin Kirk, executive director since 1977 was laid off. Fortunately he has volunteered to continue in that role as a volunteer. The rent has almost doubled at the sport centre so the COF will soon be run from Colin's house. The COF will establish a generic business address for mail.
All provincial associations have agreed to hold an event to support the national team. In New Brunswick this will be day 2 of the Eastern Canadians, June 23.
The gears are also turning towards setting up a coincident fundraiser consisting of a raffle in which the grand prize would be a trip to anywhere in North America that the sponsoring airline flies. A raffle ticket purchaser would also receive a T shirt with professionally designed graphics and a tax receipt. I'll keep you posted.
There is a coordinated effort to standardize the courses and classes between Canada and the US and to reduce the number of categories. Bill Cusworth of USOF and Ross Burnett of COF came up with a draft that was posted on the Internet for comments. Having received a ton of feedback, a second version has been produced. A copy of the latest proposal is included in these ONB Notes. Note that both the Canadian numeric and the US rainbow naming conventions are supported. Senior categories are in 10 year groupings. All courses have open categories. Take a look at this proposal as it will probably be on the agenda to be accepted at the COF annual general meeting in November. Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss this. There will be an open meeting at the COC's to discuss this topic. It should be a warm day.
There will be a COF fund raising event on the Thursday before the COC's, August 8. It will be run by the COF board. This is intended to become an annual event. We are trying to line up a sponsor so there can be some really impressive prizes. Otherwise there will be less impressive, but still nifty, prizes from the COF cache. The event will probably have the sponsor's name, somewhat like the Ford Cup for curling. The board pondered several fallback names in case no major sponsor is forthcoming. COF Cup was selected although I favoured COF Up; it is a fund raiser after all.
Keep in mind this event will be a golden opportunity to abuse the COF board. Make them sweat. (I'm going to try to be sick in bed that day.) Tell them they should have their pay cut in half. Or you could be impressed and lobby to double their pay. I guarantee that all of these wishes can be accommodated.
I expect the COF Web Site will be available by the COC's. For the uninitiated, this has nothing to do with Spiderman. It will have information on orienteering and the COF on the internet. There will be lists of events, contacts and links to other orienteering organisations. I hope that there will eventually be orienteering software reviews and an OCAD tips area. If you wish to contribute, let me know.
Another of my duties is to act as ombudsman. If you want to complain about the COF but don't know how, contact me.