Discussion: WRE in North America

Reading some discussion on WRE in the map differences thread got me thinking of this question...

What has been the net benefit of the last 7-10 years of Nor-AM WREs in the development of elite orienteering in North America?

I will be the first one to say that there hasn't been much benefit to the development of elite orienteering. There has been unquestionable (in my biased view) benefit to the attendees of these events overall—they got an extra super qualified pair of eyes and legs, such as Mike Minium's or Adrian Zissos's, to go over the map and the elite CPs, which usually encompass a large portion of of all CPs.

One of the major original stated reasons for the WRE scheme was to qualify people for the WOC Finals. We acted accordingly. This system never materialized, and doesn't look likely to. With this, I think there's really not much reason any longer to play along...

Maybe the same benefit could be obtained with a good system of national controllers.

I'm sure a benefit from a system of controllers would be much greater than the efforts of 3 or 4 people have been able to accompish. A system of controllers, however, would experience far stiffer resistance from organizers and Orienteering USA. We have been happy to do what we have done and keep relative peace in the family.

Well, then I suppose it wouldn't hurt to go forward and try to get a few more people certified as IOF event consultants and keep on doing WRE events. Think of it as a "work around."