National Volunteer Week last week celebrated the collective contribution of the 1.2 million volunteers who enrich Aotearoa New Zealand.

National Volunteer Week 2019 ran from June 16-22. This year’s theme was “Whiria te tangata – weaving the people together”. Volunteering, Mahi Aroha and social action weave people and communities together.

Orienteering NZ wishes to thank all our orienteering volunteers who make orienteering happen and help others find their adventure.

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Applications are now open for the position of Orienteering NZ General Manager

The term of the current General Manager ends in late September, and the Council are now inviting applications from people who may have an interest in this role.

This is a contracted position and the term will be for a period of 1 year, based on 20hrs week.

Applications close 15 July 2019

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View from the Chair

Aside from the short days and inclement weather, mid winter has a few pluses as well, not least being the midst of the orienteering season for many orienteers around the country. And the start of winter kicked off in fine style thanks to the efforts of Wellington and Red Kiwis orienteering clubs who hosted the Queens Birthday carnival in and around Palmerston North and the southern Manawatu. The weather gods threatened rain, hail and thunder, but for the most part orienteers were spared their wrath and enjoyed (mostly) dry running conditions on some fantastic terrain and maps. It was a great three days and a real highlight was seeing the impressive numbers of people competing, including many juniors competing in the secondary schools competitions, and the junior and open elite runners from NZ and Australia competing in the Pinestars/Bushrangers test match. A big thank you to all the Wellington and Red Kiwis people for putting on a very successful three days racing.

One of the things that the Queens Birthday events demonstrate is the amazing strength that exists in the sport. It constantly amazes me how you can turn up in a muddy field, or remote forest area, or hidden city park, and there is a whole event set up and running. And this happens literally hundreds of times each year all around the country, year in year out. It is an amazing sustainable model of effort, passion, and expertise that makes orienteering unique and special. And what makes this happen? Well in my mind a lot of what makes this happen is the culture which has been built up over the years around orienteering. Each of you will describe it in your own way, but to me it is a culture built on empowerment – the systems clubs use enable people to take on different roles and entrusts them to make things happen. It is a culture built on expertise – having people who can deal with the technical aspects of the sport, train others, and build systems for sharing expertise and ensuring quality events. And it is a culture built on volunteerism – people give their time generously in order to create the experiences we all love, and with an understanding that if we don’t all play our part the sport wouldn’t happen. It strikes me that there is a huge amount of motivation that fuels the sport, and it is interesting to note the conditions that support motivation are having autonomy, purpose, and mastery – arguably things that many people find in orienteering (for more information on this model of motivation check out Dan Pinks excellent TED talk [at] https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en).

So with that in mind, the Council have the challenge of determining how ONZ should be managed and governed in a way that best supports the sport. Operating in a way that complements and sustains the culture which has been core to the success of the sport, engaging with people in a way that fuels motivation, and involving clubs and members in the process of solving the complex problems that are impacting the sport, are in my mind important principles that should underpin how ONZ operates. One of the complex issues the Council debated at its last meeting, is the problem of major events allocation, which was the basis of the Major Events discussion paper that was recently circulated for consultation. It was pleasing to see how the paper generated a lot of discussion and there were a number of thoughtful and considered submissions made from clubs around the country. Having considered all of the submissions, as well as feedback from the club forum (at the Nationals) and other ad hoc feedback, it was clear that there is little support for the proposal presented in the paper, and the decision was made not to continue with it. Whilst the concept of having the national body take a central organising role had appeal on some levels, the proposal would potentially have weakened the culture that has been core to orienteering’s success, and not worked to actually strengthen capability in the club network. However the problem remains around how major events should be allocated, and to that end we are keen to engage with clubs to develop a solution that the majority are happy to go with. Any solution requires buy in, and our goal is to facilitate an outcome that will achieve that. A process for this is now being developed and we will be in touch in the coming weeks to get each clubs input and views.

Associated with this, but also to address a broader and long term goal of member engagement, I have started to talk with clubs around the country. I am keen to hear how clubs are going, what the issues are, how they see ONZ currently, and how would they like to see ONZ in the future. The Council have agreed that an operational review would be helpful to refine the focus of ONZ, and also to assess its operating model – does it meet the needs of members and clubs, and is it set up for future success. These discussions will feed into that operational review and make sure the Council and operations are aligned with club expectations. You will note that an advert has gone out for the GM role. This is due to the current term finishing in September, and whilst the usual term is 3 years, because of the operational review it was decided a 1 year term would be appropriate in the circumstances.

Lastly, I am happy to hear from any member and welcome any feedback on ONZ or ideas you may have for the sport. I can be reached by email on orienteeringnzchair@gmail.com, or phone 027 302 4863. I look forward to talking with many of you in the coming weeks.

Pete Swanson

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Event Liaison Update

2020 NI Secondary Schools – CMOC – Wed 22 – Fri 24 April 2020, due to Anzac day falling on Sat 25.

 

Health and Safety at work Act – Private land access for recreation clarified.

Sometimes Landowners are reluctant to grant access to their property on Health and Safety grounds. The ONZ Safety Management plan outlined the issue under the heading Landowners and Local Authorities with a link to  Agriculture visitors and events.

WorkSafe has issued a new Policy clarification: Recreation access and the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) which explains their view on the responsibilities of PCBU (Landowner) and visitors which reinforces the above.

• PCBUs* don’t have to manage the risks of the recreational activity. That’s the responsibility of the person doing the activity.
• PCBUs aren’t responsible for naturally occurring features that aren’t part of, or affected by, their work.
• If someone accesses land for recreation and hurts themselves as a result of the recreation activity, the PCBU who provided access isn’t responsible.

*PCBU = Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking. A PCBU is the person/organisation that is responsible for safety at a workplace.

If a club has any queries regarding  land access and Heath and Safety matters please contact ONZ Event Liaison Russell Higham: events@orienteering.org.nz

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High Performance Update

ANZ Test Match

The New Zealand Pinestars took the lead after the home leg of the annual Test Match against the Australian Bushrangers run in the Manawatu over Queen’s Birthday weekend.

International Teams

The international competition season is starting shortly and we have a number of teams who will be competing soon.  All athletes are in the final stages of their preparation, beit at home or already in Europe.

• JWOC – 6-12 July, Demark
• WMOC – 6-12 July, Latvia
• WMTBO – 28 July-3 August, Denmark
• WOC – 12-17 August, Norway

Good luck to all our athletes.

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In other news ….

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Important Policy clarification from Worksafe NZ on Recreational access and the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015)

This policy clarification explains Worksafe’s view on the responsibilities of the PCBU and visitors, and how they will manage and respond to related concerns.

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Sport NZ and the Ministries of Health and Education have been allocated $47.6 million over four years under the recently announced Wellbeing Budget. This new investment will fund the delivery of a new initiative called Healthy Active Learning that will benefit all schools (primary to secondary), kura and early learning centres.

Healthy Active Learning is about improving child and youth wellbeing by better promoting healthy eating and physical activity. All schools, kura and early learning centres will be supported through new HPE curriculum resources, improved use of external providers and nutrition guidance from a new health promotion workforce.

Sport NZ’s role is to deploy a physical activity workforce to more intensively support 40% (800) of all primary schools, intermediate schools and kura, together with their local communities, to improve the quality of physical activity. A key part of their work will be connecting with local clubs and other providers. We will be focusing on lower decile schools and kura across years 1 to 8, building on the approach and lessons learned from Play.sport.

Sport NZ intends to deploy this new workforce through the RST network to work into selected schools and kura.

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Review of Walking Access Act 2008

The Ministry for Primary Industries is reviewing the Walking Access Act 2008 – we want to hear from you and people in your networks interested in access to the outdoors, so we get the best possible results from the review.

The review is about being able to get into the outdoors

The Ministry for Primary Industries is reviewing the Walking Access Act 2008 – we want to hear from organisations and individuals involved in access to the outdoors so we get the best possible results from the review.

The Act is about increasing free access to tracks, trails and other areas for all sorts of recreation associated with walking – biking, horse riding, four wheel driving, access by Māori to sites of significance, surfing, hunting and fishing. Tracks, trails or areas can be in, close to or far from towns and cities.

Getting New Zealanders’ input

We want to raise awareness of the review, encouraging a wide range of groups, organisations and individuals around the country to have their say.
We want to hear from people already involved in outdoors activities and those who are interested in increasing access to the outdoors for themselves or others.
We’d really appreciate your help with this.

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GM in Kiribati

Catriona McBean, our GM, will be away from 29 June to 10 July 2019 in Kiribati.  Internet and cell access can’t be guaranteed so she may not be able to reply to you during this time.  An out of office reply with contact directions will let you know who to contact during this time if your enquiry is urgent.

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We welcome your feedback at any time.

Our mailing address is:
gm@orienteering.org.nz

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