There Will Be a Meeting of the Fixtures Committee at the Meredith Centre, Victoria Community

Event Scheduling Group Meeting Minutes of meeting at Carrs Lane Church Centre 12:30 pm Saturday 17 October 2015

1. Chairman’s opening comments, welcome and introductions. Welcome to all. Jean Payne is now the Association Fixtures Secretary for NWOA. Thanks to Dick for his work during his time in the post. 2. Record of persons present, and apologies. Expenses for the meeting. Mike Cope (MC) – Chairman of the Event Scheduling Group (ESG) and YHOA David Pal (DP) - WOA Anthony Biggs (TB) – EAOA Richard Sansbury (RJS) – SWOA Richard Sharp (RES) – SCOA Duncan Archer (DA) – NEOA Philip Gristwood (PAG) – SEOA Allan Williams (AW) – WMOA Ursula Williamson (UW) - EMOA Jean Payne (JP) – NWOA Chris Phillips (CP) – Events and Competitions Committee Representative Apologies Terry O’Brien (TO) - SOA Joe McClure (JM) – NIOA Sally Pygott (SP) – Major Events Manager Expenses should be claimed using the form from the BO website. A reminder that for the auditors, claims must be signed, original receipts must be attached, and postcodes should be shown if travelling by car. 3. Declaration of interests and any other business. MC YHOA rep and ESG chair, PAG chair of EOC and SEOA rep and related to two elite orienteers one of whom has sent input for the meeting. 4. Minutes of Fixtures Group meeting held on 14 March 2015. a. Accuracy. Agreed that minutes are a true record of the last meeting. b. Actions from meeting. 6. MC/CP/PAG to follow up Wendover plans for British Middles. Progressing. Planning offer from Mark Thompson and Peter Riches of TVOC, Mark will also update map. Safety Officer offer from CP. Go ahead from Head Forester but no official application yet. Hedley Calderbank will be doing a TAR very soon. This will probably be favourable but with some reservations about the area being more suited to a classic distance than a middle distance. But it is the only offer available. Name of a possible organiser given. MC to ask when TAR done. TB looking for planner/organiser for sprints. 6. DP/AW to continue with plans for WM JK 2018 in Wales. Progress being made. Coordinator agreed – Andy Yeates. Possible areas and spares identified. Meeting with Sally. Permissions now to be sought. 6. MC to get a date and host club for Northern Champs 2018. Done - 22 April. 7. MC to chase up Major Events timeline and try to get more updated details in about areas, officials and terrain assessments. Item for later in meeting. 8. MC to check all 2016 UKOL details in Aug/Sept. Done as far as possible. 8. AW to confirm with organisers that SinS is included in UKOL 2017. Done 8. MC/JP/PAG to look at further UKOL 2018 possibilities including newsletter mention for MC. No newsletter done. 10. MC to ask for 2017 CSC information after Easter. Requested. 10. MC to ask for 2018 onwards hosts for CSCF in newsletter. No newsletter done. 11. UW to get confirmation that EMOA will do PPJTR in 2016. Tried. Limited progress. 11. All AFS to try and add better detail than Nth, Sth, Mid for junior events. MC to mention junior events in newsletter. No newsletter done. Event Scheduling Group Meeting Minutes of meeting at Carrs Lane Church Centre 12:30 pm Saturday 17 October 2015

12. MC/JM to check on HI plans for 2016 and 2017 with NIOA. Have tried. OK as far as is known. 14. MC to take embargo problems to E&CC. Done. Guidelines given. 14. All AFS to pass on concerns about rules – U16s at urbans and night event requirements. Done. 14. All AFS could consider events for WRE status. Discussed below. 5. Major Events timeline and our scheduling timetable. Checked our scheduling timetable. Agreed it was about right. CSCF should be included in list in appropriate place. Would be useful to have relevant tasks from this copied into the agenda for each meeting. Timetable needs to be moved on a little for tasks at future meetings. MC to do. Timeline considered. Agreed that key dates were about correct. Minor adjustments to be made. MC to do this and send it to others for comments and checking. 6. Overview of all rotations. Dealt with in sections below. 7. JK, British Long/Middle/Sprint/Night Champs, Area Champs. Confirmations of hosts up to 2019. Generally positive news about responsibilities for Major Events. All confirmed up to 2019. 2019 dates to be suggested by next meeting for BOC/BRC (MC) and Brit Spr/Mid (UW). 2020 also looks OK. Minor adjustments beyond that are still for discussion. Details on the BO Planner sheet. BNC and CSCF for 2019 regions suggested for checking – RJS and PAG. Brit Sprint/Middles 2017 as above in Actions from last meeting. 8. Discussion about Major Event combinations/timing – particularly Sprint/Middle weekend. This discussion was initiated for two reasons. The Spr/Mid combination has often caused problems and there are other ideas for combining something with the Sprints. Combining the Spr/Mid has always been managed but in many years there have been difficulties because some good areas for middle distance races are not at their best at suitable times of the year for sprints. Overcrowding in the calendar in the spring, the need for sufficient daylight for the sprint qualifier and final, and university-based sprint areas being easier to access out of term time all contribute to the difficulties. For some time there have been mentions of Sprint Relays which could be combined with the Brit Sprints on the same weekend. This might well be popular with those who like sprints and would provide a race for elites in a WOC discipline. Satisfying the latter might further restrict the time of year for a sprint weekend. Currently about 800 to 1000 orienteers compete on this weekend. The danger if the two were split is that numbers might drop, although only guessing until it was tried. Attendance would depend on what else the Spr/Mid is combined with and where it is. Looking at the weekend for the next few years, there is generally confidence that suitable areas for both can be found at the same time of year. However, this has been the case before and problems only arise when getting down to detail and getting a satisfactory TAR. 2017 is the exception for this surprising confidence but it is probably too late to change this for 2017. No changes will be suggested at the moment, but MC will mention at E&CC and the idea could be considered for the future. 9. UK orienteering League and Year Outline Plans. a. 2016 - plans as sent in for Focus. All OK. Programme well balanced in types of event. b. 2017 – what else is needed for UKOL. Probably all OK and no more needed. Again programme balance in terms of types of event. c. 2018 – major event dates to finalise. Dates for all Brit Champs and Area Champs are now settled. Outline of UKOL is in place. N and S Champs to need to consider what could be offered as a Saturday event to make a weekend of UKOL events – MC and PAG, and then try to balance all at next ESG meeting. Possibility of additional weekend in June or July – MC to ask for offers. See also item 15 for autumn possibilities. 10. UK Elite Orienteering League and Junior Elite League – plans for 2016. World Ranking Events. Prior to the meeting, DA and Graham Gristwood had suggested plans. ESG is not responsible for them but with advice from others it seems sensible for us to take account of them and help to ensure that scheduling is as good as possible. The year outline plans have been reorganised to show the essentials. 2016 is nearly settled and for 2017 there are ideas to work on. The season for UKEOL is much shorter than that for UKOL, and for Juniors even Event Scheduling Group Meeting Minutes of meeting at Carrs Lane Church Centre 12:30 pm Saturday 17 October 2015

shorter still. UKEOL will only want to use WOC disciplines so urbans are not suitable unless they can be a sprint for M/W 18/20/21E There is a need to tighten up procedures for WRE events – early identification of possibilities, IOF adviser appointed 2 years in advance, and applications in on time. This should work better now ESG and others are aware and are considering possibilities earlier. We should try to get the UK’s full entitlement of 3 long/mediums and 3 sprints. May be possible for 2016 if late applications can be dealt with, and should be possible for 2017 if plans are made now. 11. Compass Sport Cup and Trophy. Missing 2016 heat. Heat plans for 2017 and 2018. Hosts for CSCF 2018 and beyond. Still short of 2016 heat in WM but WCH hoping that the date of one of their events can be changed to go on CSC heat weekend. Heats for 2017 needed in WM and EM and SOA. DVO may arrange an EM one and POTOC to be asked as they will not be doing the one originally planned for 2016. SW and SC events quite close but agreed that this was OK and if the DVO and POTOC heats happen, distribution round the country will be OK. Offers for finals 2016 to 2018 are in place and PAG will check for an SE one in 2019. 12. Home Internationals. Discussion about this again was prompted by the problem WOA has with putting on an HI event 3 in every 4 years, in conjunction with the Welsh multi-day every 4 years. There are a few years now where it is even worse than this because of changes to the rota that had to be made in 2014 and then the consequences of balancing out again between the 4 countries. Those responsible for the HIs expect the balanced rota, expect associations to find accommodation, and take no account of particularly WOA and NIOA, having far fewer resources to put on events. This expectation is unlikely to change unless an event does not happen one year, but the reality is that no matter how difficult it has been, some club or group of individuals has always come forward in the end to put the events on. A possibility suggested to ease the load is to have the SHI and VHI once every two years instead of every year. There is an argument for the JHI to continue every year as potential participants are in the age range for a much shorter time. This would mean that each of the 4 nations would have to put on an HI on average every other year instead of 3 times in every 4 years. It does not of course solve the accommodation problem though it reduces it. A suggestion has come from Graham Gristwood in that for payment or profit, he might offer do the bulk of the work to help WOA and/or its clubs put on events in Wales. Of particular concern is the SHI in 2016 where ERYRI is a small club with very limited resources, and the VHI in 2018 where it is to be put on in Wales again after only 3 years rather than the usual 4. Actions required are for MC to mention this again at E&CC though E&CC/BO do not have direct control of these events, and DP to talk to those concerned about GG’s offer. It is assumed that GG will clear the profit/payment idea with Mike Hamilton. There is still no definite confirmation of the NI events though they are expected to be OK – MC to chase up. JHI in WOA in 2017 might be OK but those likely to be responsible will not start/commit until after Croeso 2016 – DP to follow up then. 13. Junior competitions timetable and rotations for the next few years. Little time to do much about this. Things are mostly agreed for 2016 and 2017 but a few things still need final confirmation – 2016 PPJTR (EM) has usual accommodation problems – UW, BSOC 2016 – AW, BSOC 2017 – RJS. Rotations need to be discussed more fully – MC to move up agenda for next time. 14. Other ESG scheduled events on the main planner for A and listed B events 2016 – 2018. MC needs to check on SOA JIRCs 2016. Harvester – waiting for offers for 2017 onwards. Post meeting 2016 Harvester date fixed as 26 June so no worries about potential Jukola clash. JIRCs 2018 EM – potential accommodation problems. 15. Other level B events requested by clubs/associations. All B events up to July 2017 should be finalised. Any later requests can be made known and added to the database but not confirmed. Mostly no problems with these and club B events up to the middle of 2017 were confirmed. Only problem is in March 2017. A solution is that BOK Trot might move to 1 May, SAX event might move to 9 Apr, and then Chiltern Challenge could go on 19 March. PAG, RES, RJS to sort out. Event Scheduling Group Meeting Minutes of meeting at Carrs Lane Church Centre 12:30 pm Saturday 17 October 2015

Some B events later than mid 2017 are provisionally in. One event discussed in some detail was a possible Race the Castles in Yorkshire following on from Race the Castles in Scotland in 2014. There would be two events on each weekend and some of the regular club events, either during the day or in the evenings during the week. Ideally it would go over the Oct half term week but this is going to vary and is not known yet for most local authorities. The best week is probably between the Oct 21 and Oct 28 weekends. It would not matter so much for YH folk if it was in term time as they will not be travelling and seeking accommodation elsewhere. At this stage it may be possible to move the CSCF to 7 Oct or 10 Nov (Sat). AW to check with WCH. MC to pass on thoughts to Nev Myers, coordinate dates overall, and suggest what might go into UKOL. Sun 11 Nov to be avoided for any big event as it is Remembrance Sunday coinciding with 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1. PAG to check on a 2017 CoL date asap – probably 16/17 Sept is best. 16. Items to mention from other groups/meetings etc. – Major Events Conference, E&CC, EP&PG.  The organiser training project is delayed but the project to develop materials and train some trainers is still happening.  Embargo variations – ESG can authorise embargo variations of a few months. Anything more than this needs to be referred on to E&CC. We should not encourage variations though – there have been too many just recently.  From 1 Jan 2017, the Event Safety Course will be mandatory for all officials at all events. D event officials might have qualified mentors but they will need to be active and named. CP confirmed that British Orienteering will be responsible for passing this information on to clubs.  Following a recent case in another sport where there was an insurance claim and the organisers were found not to have followed the rules, the Board is considering how it might be necessary to check that officials are following rules. Officials must follow rules especially risk assessments, safety issues.  JK Day 2 is a middle distance event for all from 2017 onwards.  CP mentioned that he will be looking at simplification / decluttering of competitions via other committees.  After 2016, there will be changes to the Partnership Agreement and the way the JK and 4 British Champs events are run (BNC not a Partnership event). The 4 Brit Champs are likely to be super levy events – no amount yet for this. The JK arrangements are likely to be negotiable between organisers and Sally. Sally’s time may go into organising some other events. 17. Any BO fixtures database issues. The only issue raised concerned competition categories. Nopesport Urban League is now UK Urban League. FCC and UK Cup no longer used and replaced by UK Elite and UK Junior Elite Leagues. TB to investigate what can be done. 18. Newsletter for Club Fixtures Secretaries. MC to try and do one this time. 19. Any other business. None. 20. Dates of next meetings. 12 March 2016 and 15 October 2016 agreed.

ACTIONS 5. MC to update scheduling timetable 5. MC to modify Major Event timeline for all to check later. 7. RJS and PAG to check on possibilities for BNC and CSCF in 2019. 7. MC to ask possible organiser for Wendover. TB seeking organiser/planner for sprints. Event Scheduling Group Meeting Minutes of meeting at Carrs Lane Church Centre 12:30 pm Saturday 17 October 2015

8. MC to mention Brit Spr/Mid discussions at E&CC. 9. UKOL extras to go with N and S Champs – MC and PAG. 9. MC to ask for offers for another UKOL weekend in June/July. 10. WRE ideas and applications to be dealt with earlier. CP to progress for 2016 catch up and 2017 on time. 10. CP/MC to update E&CC on WRE/Elite Leagues/Talent Squad contact (latter not directly from meeting). 11. AW to try and confirm WCH CSC heat for 2016. 11 AW/UW/TO to check on CSC heats for 2017. 12. DP to pass on GG’s offer to help Wales with HIs. 12. MC to mention HIs and suggestions at E&CC and follow up as necessary with the idea of having the SHI and VHI every 2 years, especially if the offer of help does not work out. 12. MC to check on NI HI events. 13. Junior rotation to be sorted out more fully at next meeting – earlier on agenda MC. 13. UW, AW, RJS all have junior events to check on. 14. MC to check on SOA JIRCs 2016. 15. PAG, RES, RJS to sort out March/April 2017 dates for 3 events. TVOC now moved to 9 April. 15. Possible Race the Castles 2018. MC to pass on thoughts to Nev. AW to check on possible CSCF date change. MC to coordinate dates overall for autumn and UKOL. 15. PAG to check on a 2017 CoL date asap. 16. All AFS to pass on items as appropriate to CFS. 17. TB to investigate changes to competition categories in database. 18. MC to try and do newsletter.