Development Plan 2006
In the autumn if 2005 the club's committee undertook a thorough review of our Development Plan based on the objectives of the club:-
"shall be to further the development of and the participation in orienteering within Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire, to increase the active membership of the Club, to represent the interests of Orienteers based within these areas on representative bodies and to support their activities within the sport."and the following premise:- "that the plan should reflect the objectives of the club and be a tool to enable us to achieve those objectives. It should also be achievable with the resources that the Club currently has and within a measurable time scale e.g. 5 years."
Our immediate objectives, to be achieved within the next two years will be:
Membership.
Membership of most Orienteering Clubs is steadily declining and whilst LEI is currently "bucking the trend" by holding steady the committee recognize that encouraging and mentoring new members is an important function if we are to continue to maintain our present membership levels and that whilst it happens on an adhoc basis, it is an area we need to significantly improve.The club will endeavor to recruit a member with overall responsibility for looking after new members, together with a team of "meeters/greeters who will be available at events to welcome new comers and provide an element of basic instruction.
Events
The committee has identified a number of problems relating to the staging of major events in relation to officials and volunteers with sufficient technical knowledge. The accepted solution was the creation of event teams.. This will take time to achieve and will be part of our ongoing development.Mapping
The committee recognize that our current map stock is starting to become stale and will require updating in the very near future. Whilst some of the mapping can be done by club members "in house" there will be a need to use mappers from other clubs and professionals. The future mapping program has major cost implications for the club.As part of the development program the mapping strategy document to be reviewed by a member of the mapping sub committee and recommendations presented to the February Committee for consideration.
Management
Recognizing that much of the Club's business could continue forward without being brought to a committee meeting and that committee members should be empowered to move forward with their responsibilities it is proposed to trial a new pattern of meeting.The full committee will meet quarterly
The events sub committee will meet every four months
The mapping sub committee annually
This will the leave four monthly meetings free for in depth discussions on major topics e.g. coaching.
The new system will be reviewed at the end of 2006.
Training
In order to meet the growing demands on event officials and to follow the guidelines laid down by BOF the club will, during 2006, continue to run courses for event officials. These will follow the syllabus laid down by BOF.In order to meet the urgent need for more mappers the club will continue the courses for mappers started in the autumn of 2005.
Coaching and Junior Training
There is an urgent need to find a club member to undertake this role. One of their first tasks will be draft a plan/strategy to meet this need. This plan will then be incorporated into the Development Plan.
Chris Phillips
Vice Chairman
1/01/06
