July has been a month of mixed emotions and events.

On the upside, it was so great to see our athletes performing at JWOC and WOC, with some really impressive performances across the teams in different disciplines. Whilst we were watching this from our desks on the other side of the world to Europe, we could sense the excitement and buzz – just fantastic. What was very pleasing was evidence of great performances across many people in the team, so very much a sense that NZ is building some very good bench strength of multiple athletes who can foot it on the world stage. Big congrats to all the NZ athletes for some great performances and entertainment!

Sadly, we have also had very sad news this month with the passing of Josie Boland last weekend. I have known and worked with Josie a lot over the last decade, with her strong commitment and involvement in MTBO. She had taken on major organising roles, been an active national MTBO committee member, and most recently was convenor of the MTBO selection panel which she continued to fulfil right up until very recently. Josie was typical of many people that give their time and volunteer at a national level, often behind the scenes, but doing important work and making a difference. We will miss Josie very much, and our hearts and thoughts go out to Greg, Erika, and Conal at this sad time.

Looking forwards, there are some important things to be aware of coming up – look out for the member survey which is being sent out. We hope that as many members as possible participate in this, so we can get some insights to what’s going well, or not so well, across the sport. This information will be shared at the upcoming Presidents and Club forums, and will help ONZ understand where the important parts of the sport are that need attention and focus.

As well as the member survey the Board and I welcome any feedback or contacts from members – I always enjoy talking with people across the sport, so please do get in touch if you have things to share.

All the best

Peter Swanson  |   ONZ Chair of Board

onz-chair@orienteering.org.nz

027 3024 863