Present: Mike Atherton, Norma Atherton, Allan Goodall, Jan Goodall, Peter Lamb, Bill McCarthy, Caroline McCarthy, Marion MacCormick, Beth Rutledge, Cath Rutledge, Emma Rutledge, Callum Scott, Hilary Scott, Alistair Shepherd, Becky Shepherd, Mike Shepherd
Apologies: Nancy Brooks, Simon Herniman, Adrian Hope, Libby Lamb, Donald McCarthy, Ewan McCarthy, Jenny Williams, Nigel Williams
The amended Constitution, which had been distributed to all club members, was accepted (Proposed Bill McCarthy, seconded Norma Atherton)
In the 2007 season the Scottish 6 Days event, Spey 2007, was a major success for our club. Mike Atherton was the Coordinator so that BASOC along with ESOC had a very high profile and many other BASOC club members played leading roles. The event brought over 4000 people to the area and it is believed that £2 million was put into the local economy. At least we know that several local attractions had their best ever day. (e.g. Landmark) The chairman commented that for himself Day 3 had proved the most interesting and successful but he also commented on the fact that the run-in on Day 6 was not used for all courses and made a plea that this should never happen again. The club will get some financial reward from the overall profit of the event and this will be added to our account in due course. Now we need to get ourselves ready for Tay 2009. We will help on Day 1 and should be working again with ESOC.
We can now look forward to 2008 and to a variety of events. In the first instance we can all train for
the British Championships on 19 – 20 April to be held at Culbin. Callum pointed out that club members must be full BOF members for this but it will be a one-off event in the area in a fabulous forest so he recommended that we should all ensure we can enter by up-grading membership now (even if only for one year) and get our entries in soon.
SOL 2008 will have some early events in the south of Scotland but from September the events are to be held in our area and members should try to attend at least in the second half of the series.
In 2009 the north area clubs will host the Scottish Championships 24-25 May 2009 and we will have to be involved here too. Norma will meet with the other North area clubs shortly and major jobs will be allocated. Club members’ help will be needed.
2007 was a successful year for the club with the following successes at SOL.
Top 3 places went to Mike Atherton 1st M 65L Adrian Hope 1st M 75L
Cath Rutledge 1st W45 S Norma Atherton 2nd W60 S Marion 3rd W60L
Our best junior performance in the SOL Emma 5th JW 4
Marion came out as Scottish Champion W60L
Callum offered congratulatons to all these members.
SOA news was reported. Donald Petrie has left us. Callum praised Donald for all his efforts on behalf of orienteering and thanked him and as a club a contribution was made to his leaving gift. Hilary Quick now works 3 days a week as Administrator at the National Orienteering Centre at Glenmore Lodge and spends the other 2 days with her Assistant Professional Officer work.
As the map of the month is always nearby Callum proposed that club members should
go together to the areas each month on a set date to work on training particularly at this time of
year when there are fewer events.
Junior training has been going on all year and will continue but this is reported separately in this minute.
At the end of his report the chairman announced that a trophy will now be presented annually for the Middle Distance race. The trophy will be dedicated to Eric Langmuir the club’s first Chairman and one of its founding members.
This year it has already been won by Ewan McCarthy.
Callum presented this trophy to Alistair Shepherd in particular for his performance at the Scottish 6 Days event Spey 2007.
After the run which preceded the AGM Andy Hyslop was declared Senior Club Champion
Emma Rutledge and Alistair Shepherd shared the junior championship title.
The accounts, which accompany these minutes, were submitted and were formally accepted Proposed: Hilary Scott
Seconded: Alan Goodall
Points arising from the accounts:
Election of Office Bearers.
The following were elected:
Chairman Callum Scott Proposed Mike, seconded Peter
Secretary Marion MacCormick Proposed Hilary, seconded Jan
Treasurer Peter Lamb Proposed Marion, seconded Caroline
Vice Chairman Mike Atherton Proposed Norma, seconded Caroline
Committee Members re-elected: Norma Atherton, Nancy Brooks Alan Goodall, Bill McCarthy, Caroline McCarthy, Cath Rutledge Hilary Scott and Nigel Williams
Proposed Mike, seconded Jan
Junior Representative Emma Rutledge Proposed Marion, seconded Norma
Norma reported that the plan to have our regular junior competitors train more intensively in early spring to encourage more attendance at events locally had been difficult to implement because of the full orienteering calendar. The Easter holiday training session proved particularly popular and this will be repeated in 2008.Thereafter there was a training session each month but due to the pressure of Spey 2007 the club did not participate in the summer activities programme provided by Highland Council. Once again we did well at the Jamie Stevenson Trophy event moving up to 7th position. Although our numbers may not be rising quickly those juniors who are involved continue to make significant progress.
In 2008 we hope to run the Badenoch and Strathspey Schools Orienteering Championships.
Norma circulated the list of fixtures and requested that members complete it.
In 2008 due to the pressure of major events in the north area in autumn 2008 the programme will be reduced: C4 events reduced by 1.
the summer series will reduce to 4
in April we will dedicate two weeks to working with the local schools
It was agreed that as we are to be involved in Day 1 at Tay 2009 and in the Scottish Championships we will not put on a SOL in 2009.
Mike reported that the club now has the maps of Kingussie, Nethybridge and Grantown-on-Spey
Also a major file of the areas around Kincraig – Moor of Alvie, Dunachton Wood and Speybank is prepared and we have negotiated copyright for this map and now share it 50/50 with SOA.
Steve Smirthwaite has upgraded the Ellan Wood map belonging to SOA. We will now try to negotiate ownership with SOA.
The proposed permanent course is now being prepared. The controls will be movable and BASOC will take charge of the task of changing the sites of the controls 2-3 times a year. The target groups for using the area are: schools, evening events and junior coaching groups.
The Nethybridge map although ready needs major upgrading and Ewan McCarthy and Andy Hyslop have volunteered to do this work for the club. OCAD 9 will be loaded onto the club computer and they will have access to the laptop for their work. Till now Norma has held it for use for junior training and for events. It will be available from her by negotiation.
AOCB
Mike proposed that we record the thanks of the club to Donald McCarthy for all the work he did in putting on the Street O race in Kingussie which attracted over 300 competitors and was declared a major success by many elite runners. The secretary will email him to record our gratitude. It was also noted that all members of the McCarthy family had played an important role.
The club will sponsor individual e cards to the value of £10.00. Members should contact Marion or Peter if interested. This was already announced in the Howler.