Discussion: The FLO

The event is over. Thanks to all who came and especially to all who helped.

On the competition side, Hammer's Middle performance was nothing short of extraordinary, reminding all of the sub-1000-point American mortals of the 1126-pt greatness achievable only in Canada at this time. Wadd's bid for more awesomeness was spoiled, however, by EBone, who awoke from 4 hours of sleep to kick off a 5:15/km race over 15.7 Long kilometers in the Florida sands. Eric was undoubtedly racing to return to his map case sealer position, but all the maps had already been snatched by the competitors, leaving nothing to seal but the victory. The Sprint was won by pi, despite the course having been shortened by Joe from its original 3.1415926 km to accommodate the Course Consultant's rational concerns.

The event was run—rescued—salvaged by the many Team members and friends who showed up en masse and helped. Thanks to:

Eric Bone—3-man crew: logistics;e-punch equipment; event-day registration;
Joe Brautigam—course setter, placer, picker, and all that;
Barb Bryant—event-day registration; logistics;
Bob Cooley—printing support;
Rick DeWitt—our shortest-notice mapper;
Donna Fluegel—Registrar;
Steve Fluegel—vetter extraordinaire;
Peter Gagarin—event-day registration;
Magnus Johansson and Greg Balter—the fastest control pickers;
Jan R. Lien—Senior IOF Advisor;
Bruce McAlister—event-day registration;
Valerie Meyer and Sandy Fillebrown—the most wonderful e-punch and results crew;
Robin Shannonhouse—the starts!;
Eric Weyman—the best-ever Course Consultant.

Great regards to Scarborough Orienteering, the event and award sponsor. Also thanks to FLO members who helped.

For the future...

There has been significant interest in the shared club/Team A meet concept, so, along with having a host arranged for 2007, we are in preliminary talks with three other clubs for 2008 and 2009. And, a non-club has suggested a co-hosted rogaine. So, hope you all keep coming! (and helping, and sponsoring).

Vlad: someone has to say it in this thread, so it may as well be me. Thanks for everything you did, from the original concept to the eleven page meet notes (including the restaurant recommendations!) to just plain getting everything done. You, and a couple of others, put a ton of time into it. Organizing an A meet locally is a lot of work. Doing much of the organization for not one but two A meets (also Alabama last year) 2500 miles from home takes a bit of doing. Thanks a lot.

Well ugm. I didn't exactly sign up for doing much of the organization 2446 miles from home...

Yes, Vladimir's work on this event was extraordinary. He was involved in coordinating and supporting the work in so many areas of the event that he had to keep reminding me that he did not actually know every little detail about the organization of the event. Thank you, Vladimir!

Mega kudos to Vlad, and the rest of his crack staff (I threw that one in for Cristina).
Some addtions from my area:
Charlene Thies helped both days at epunching/results. She would say that she was just hanging out waiting for her husband and son, but she was way more than that for Sandy and me. She played mother on Saturday and got some food in me, hung results all weekend after reminding me to print results. And when I was going brain dead, she took great pleasure in keeping me on task.
FLO member Jonathan L & his crew were a lifesaver to the results area - they did the big and small - getting us under tents all three days, bringing tables & chairs, and driving back and forth from the registration to the finish to the start area. And Jonathan even got my shirt exchanged for me.
And having Titusville HS JROTC there was a great asset. They took care of providing water at the finish both days, prepped the finish area for day 2, and their coach did all the results calculation related to the JROTC championship they were holding at the event.
It was an excellent weekend for me.
And if these two women, and sometimes 3, on the plane hadn't talk loudly & non-stop all the way home... Oh, well, that is another story.

Really enjoyed the courses and terrain (and the tourist opportunities) in sunny? and warm? Florida. An annual February/March event in the southern US could be a major attraction to European orienteers especially if it is close to family tourist things (like central Florida). The temps were great for racing, OK for swimming, but a tad too chilly Sunday night for Magic Kingdom fireworks. But we had a great weekend. Thanks to all of the organizers.

OK, I never had a chance to ask the locals ... why boiled peanuts?

Yeah, we kept hoping for those Euro orienteers, but the ball got dropped. I'm sending out an article to Skricka, though... here's what you missed, guys...

February/March in Florida sounds like a good idea. Flights from Europe are (have been at least) reasonably cheap, so it´could be an option for winter training. Many Swedish clubs go to southern Europe this time of the year (Spain, Portugal, Italy) but with a reasonably priced package orienteering in Florida could definitely be an interesting alternative. Keep hoping - and go for some advertising...!

Thank you Vlad and all the helpers for a very enjoyable weekend!

Well, whoever is going to keep hoping for a large Scandinavian turnout at a Florida event is not me. The Team Fundraiser schedule is full through 2009, maybe 2010. And, given how the interaction with the local club went, I would be quite reluctant to enter an agreement for a similar venture with that particular club in the future. Maybe FLO is interested in holding an event by itself. There is a lot of interesting/similar terrain in the Ocala NF. Based on what I saw of the club's resources and on the past A meet history, I'd say 5 to 7 years before another A meet in Central Florida.

PWT Travel sent a group to Hayward/Telemark for the Bierkebeiner instead of the FLO event, of which they were fully aware.

Doesn't have to be an "A" meet to attract people!

PWT at Disney!

I'd stay clear of trying to organize a PWT event in North America for the foreseeable future. I don't think PWT the organization has a sustainable business model, and will be very susprised to see them carry on for another year past 2006. Even if they were to continue in the present mode, I wouldn't do it. This is a topic for another discussion, though.

I agree that PWT is not worth it but a high profile series of sprints in Florida packaged with a barebones style event or training camp at Woodpecker or Weikiwa? would be attractive.

I wrote an article for ONA on the Anza-Borrego race, and at the end one thing I suggest is perhaps there could be an annual "Sun Series" of races (i.e. 3 races in CA, GA, and FL; maybe AL?) in Jan-Feb - to try to attract Europeans (perhaps unrealistic?) and more North Americans; maybe would need to be coupled with some training? When I went to CA I was just on my own ang got maps ahead of time - went for training runs at Vasquez Rocks near LA, Laguna Meadows, and another small desert area nearby.

If something like this happens, I'd strongly encourage the clubs involved to consider hosting the Night-O Champs. The best arrangement is to hold the Night-O in a southern area in the winter. You have early sunset, but the temperature is manageable. This has been done only once, when SDO hosted at Dead Indian Canyon in December. Night-O in the summer is really tough on the meet crew, because everything ends so late.

Dead Indian Canyon? I want that map. And it raises a whole nother thread of discussion - best map name. (unless it's been done and I missed it). I think the Aussies have a history of coming up with some great names, as do the RMOC folks. I know there is a Lost Lake orienteering map in Whistler.

Hammer has published a list of best/worst map names. There should be more going around...

I think Arizona would be an excellent winter venue. There are clubs in Tucson & Phoenix. They'd probably want help organizing because the clubs are either new (Phoenix) or experienced but small (Tucson). There is a great set of six new contiguous maps southeast of Tucson, about an hour's drive. For example.

The weather is great in February (cool/cold at night [5C], high 60s [20C] during the day; mostly clear). Great hiking in the area. There are family attractions (children's museum, Old Tucson Studios, etc).

And don't forget "Dirtbag's Pub," where you can get a dirtburger (with cheese).

Hammer's list needs to be updated again, I think. It predates The Plains of Despair and Gates of AMT Hell, among others.

The proceeds to USOF and the Team from the event have exceeded all preliminary expectations, and are just a touch short of the 2005 results. I'm looking forward to moving to a twice-a-year fundraiser frequency starting in 2008, with the possible addition of a rogaine.

I think Vlad deserves big kudos for motivating this. The financial rewards for the team are great, but so are the intangibles (or they should be).

Thanks

Thank you Vlad for this big time! I will make sure that the PNWOF next year will traditionally have some team fundraiser activities as well.

Oh yes, and there is preliminary agreement with OCIN on one Pig XI day being a fundraiser. The PNWOF and Pig days are in addition to the 3-day A meet project. In 2005 I think we had a total of 6 A meet fundraising days, in 2006 just 3, but in 2007 we should get back to around 6–8.

If you signed up to volunteer for the 2007 Raleigh event, you will be contacted shortly.