Discussion: Recruitment for the UNC Team

I tried to recruit the members of Sedi Meta Igne (aka the geology club) today. or at least get them to go Orienteering as a field trip. they were not interested... I mean, seriously. They did stuff O-like in field camp wandering around in mtns in Italy (Holly, you may want to talk to the girl who did this, apparently you may have to watch out for wild pigs). and they can read topo maps. and they hike and stuff and I bet some of them run.

We have that same problem at West Point sometimes. Recruitment is difficult for a college team.

I'm not sure which switch needs to be flipped for you to like orienteering, but I've never heard of anybody being talked into it (perhaps talked into doing their first meet, but not talked into liking it). If it's something you're going to take to, you know it pretty quick. I try to get the word out to as many people as possible, but I never twist arms. The folks who will stick around are usually pretty eager before they even arrive at registration.

I managed to convince a fair number of fellow geology grad students to go orienteering when I was in school. I can't think of a single one who didn't like it, and a few of them continued to go to meets on their own. A few of them wanted to go after just a short description, but some needed a little more cajoling. I think the issue is one of not really understanding what actually goes on. Some of the geologists who have remained unconvinced insist that it sounds like what they do when they work (which is nuts), and why would they want to work in their free time?

I don't know what helps convince people to just give it one try. People who like maps already tend to be intrigued by the detail in an orienteering map, so I try to show them maps. Other than that... just don't bully. ;-)

Oh, don't worry, I wasn't bullying. I really just suggested it when we were shouting out ideas for field trips. and I do think that part of the problem is that they think it sounds like the first day in dif field camp things they did, where they got left in the woods or whatever w/ a map and had to find the camp by dark. So, maybe they just have an aversion to similar things.