Planner

Overview

The planner is responsible for the "forest" part of the event - from when competitors leave the start until they arrive at the finish.

Apart from obtaining permissions, the Events Coordinator or Organiser will have decided on the location of parking and Registration/Download, and identified someone recognised as competent by the Club to act as controller. The controller will also act as mentor to inexperienced planners, so please ask questions!

Two months ahead

Make sure (by asking the Events Co-ordinator and/or Organiser) that you know precisely what area is to be used and any landowner constraints.

To Plan a Level D/Local event, you must have completed the British Orienteering Event Safety eLearning course.  This is available at https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/elearning.  You can get the small enrolment fee reimbursed by the Treasurer by providing to them proof of enrolment. British Orienteering now also offer an Introduction to Planning course, again reimbursable. Whether you've done that or not, if you're an inexperienced planner, your Controller will help as much as you need.

Visit the site

• decide on Start and Finish locations. Keep them as close to Registration/Download as possible, especially the Finish. This creates a buzz and makes it easier to show everything to newcomers. It is more important than providing good first/last legs for the technical courses.
  Agree Start and Finish locations with the Organiser!

• Note that events now use SIAC. Finish should be placed where there is little chance of people accidentally passing it whilst on the course.

• look at map accuracy. Consider landowner issues (fences they don't want crossed, forestry work, environmentally sensitive areas)

• look for safety constraints, particularly for juniors (roads, water, very steep slopes)

• anticipate vegetation and underfoot conditions

Get map and software

The Mapping Co-ordinator will provide software advice and the OCAD file of your map.

There are two main apps for planning courses (plus OCAD - don't touch that, it's mostly designed for mapping). PurplePen is free and best for almost all Saturday events. We have a club licence for Condes - ask the mapping coordinator - which takes a bit longer to learn. Condes is only needed if you're going to do anything out of the ordinary, such as different map scales, coverage for different courses - which is rare for Saturday events.

If using Condes, avoid the "Classes" feature.

Plan courses

It is critical that you plan the courses to the colour-code specification, so that juniors in particular get a course of the appropriate difficulty. You cannot absorb this specification adequately just by observing other events. Just read and follow these guidance documents for white, yellow, orange, and light-green+ courses and your controller will not have any issues.

Courses required are detailed here.

If you have any concerns about areas of the map ask the Mapping Coordinator to get an experienced mapper to check out the areas you have identified. You can carry on planning while awaiting the revised map, both Condes and PurplePen allow you to update map files.

Send the controller your courses (and the OCAD file) for comment before you spend time tagging sites. You should be at this point at least 6 weeks ahead of the event.

Please make sure that the course names in your (Purple Pen or Condes) file exactly match those on the website and in the pre-entry system.

Tag control sites

The easiest colour of tape to find in the forest is blue. The club has a stock - ask the Chair. Make sure your tags are long enough and at a convenient height to spot from a few metres away, say waist to head height. Don't forget to tag Start and Finish, where you want the flag to be.

Don't use codes on the tags until you know the range you will receive. You can find that out even before you've submitted a formal SI request by talking to the SI Equipment Officer (currently Simon Errington).

Invite the controller to check your sites.

One month ahead

Order SportIdent equipment:

• The SI Equipment Officer will help you with this and tell you the range of control codes you will receive

• Include "as many hire dibbers as you have" to avoid unnecessary re-circulation at the event

• specify the new fibre stakes - they are much easier for hangers and collectors to handle than the aluminium ones. If you need to use gripples (at Verulamium or where there is nowhere to drive in a stake) consult the SI Equipment Officer on lengths available and number of tools needed.

• Here is an example order. Remember to copy the order to the SI team leader so they know which dibbers are available.

Contacts with other officials

You should reach agreement with the controller on courses and sites at least two weeks before the event. It's good if you can have agreement in principle before that, it's 'tweaking time' that turns OK courses into good ones.

Tell the organiser about any need for marshals in the forest or at road crossings.

Two weeks ahead

Finalise the overprint

• Out of bounds area, forbidden routes (roads). Add these to the key, as in this example.

• Break circles where they obscure features and lines where the course overlaps itself (note PurplePen does overlaps automatically). Nudge lines which obscure line features which juniors will want to follow.

• Adjust control number placement. The default placement can leave things very confused. 

• Add a course label in large purple text if there is room.

• Adjust the placement of control descriptions. Use the space! It is not necessary to achieve a map size below A4.

• Change to text descriptions for White, Yellow and Orange.

• Add course-closing and go-to-download messages as in the example. Also add emergency contact number, usually the organiser's mobile phone number.

• Adjust control code placement on the all-controls map. The default placement can leave them in positions which confuse control hangers.

Get the controller to review the overprint, and when happy ...

Order Maps

Ask the Events Co-ordinator for details of which printer(s) to contact. We only use printers who understand orienteering and how to handle the files that you send.

The timetable is:

• 8-10 working days before the event date: initial request to printers including course files (OCAD and Purple Pen / Condes) agreed with the controller.

• 1-2 days later: Printer sends PDF proofs

• 5 working days before event ie Sunday evening for a Saturday event unless there's a public holiday: send final files and numbers of maps. If you can send final files before the weekend, great, it allows the printer to check that your changes haven't affected the print setup.

In your initial request email specify:

• the date of the event

• waterproof paper

• no separate control descriptions

• courses, and map numbers as specified here, including ‘All-controls’ maps for hangers,  collectors and possible searchers. It's worth checking numbers of maps with the 

• which courses if any are double-sided

• delivery address

• request for PDF proofs to be sent to planner and controller

• invoice the Treasurer

Attach the OCAD file as well as the Purple Pen or Condes file.

Plan hanging

First, agree in principle with the controller how hanging and control position checking will be managed. Normally several volunteers (optionally including the planner) will hang controls in parallel and the controller will check them all. But it's valid for the planner to check some, or indeed for hanger A to check hanger B's hanging and vice versa - but remember that the hangers won't know the control sites and courses as well as planner and controller. Some planners also prefer to do all the hanging themselves, perhaps with a family member.

Divide up the controls and ask the organiser to allocate that many volunteers. Consider which order each hanger should hang in and mark it on an all controls map (or print a special map for each hanger). Agree the split and the direction each hanger will work ( clockwise or anticlockwise) with the controller.

Work out when hanging must start if the checking is to complete by 0930-0945. 0800 is usually fine for Saturday series.

Hanging takes 1-3 minutes per control - upper end of that if using gripples - plus walking time to get to and between controls. Most people can carry 6 aluminium stakes or 8-10 fibre ones.

Plan collection

Work out how many collectors you will need, remembering that it will be quicker than hanging – but that there is a limit to how many controls a collector can comfortably carry.

Tell the organiser so that there are sufficient people available at the end of the day and inform collectors where and when to meet at the end of the event.

One week ahead

Arrange equipment collection

SI Equipment, now including kites, comes from NLSIC. Ask the SI Equipment Officer.

Check the area

for felling, new fences, film sets, new meteorite craters, etc.

Send Courses to SI Team Leader

• Condes: "IOF XML v2.0" export

• PurplePen: "Create Data Interchange File"

This is so that the download software knows which controls are on which courses.

Contact hangers

Tell them they need:

• a small bag or rucksack for kites and SI boxes

• a mallet and screwdriver/chisel to start holes for the stakes - they have a footplate but sometimes this isn't enough and cannot be banged in directly

Along with a location, give hangers a meeting time which is 10 mins earlier than you want them to be in the forest.

Prepare the Start Notice

The best way to give important messages (if there are any) is via a notice in the start box, which the start official then points out to each starter. 

It's easy to say more than a competitor will remember, so try to plan courses which don't need notices. However, it is always worth mentioning a double-sided map or any road crossings. In any event, keep the wording as short and simple as possible, 3 to 5 word imperative phrases are ideal - with pictures if it helps. Runners have less than one minute to read and absorb them, then focus on starting.

Review with your controller and organiser.

Prepare at least 2 copies of an A4 sheet in large font, and bag or laminate them.

The day before

Tag check

Check the tags are still in place for the hangers, but don't fuss too much - people and animals can remove tags, if they are in obvious places eg on paths, hangers will make good decisions.

Sportident Preparation

In the evening clear/time-sync the controls following the instructions in their box. Make sure you - and your hangers - can distinguish the 5 beeps for "battery low" from the usual single beep.

It is important that the start and check controls don't then receive test dibs since this can result in the software identifying spurious missing runners.

Save time in the morning by preparing for each hanger a bundle of stakes and control boxes, with an appropriately marked up map.

On the day

Before

Arrive a few minutes before your hangers and set out bundles of stakes, kites (give them each a spare) and control boxes plus their maps. Control boxes can be looped on a string in order.

Brief and send out your hangers. Remind them to dib to wake up the control.

You can set out the start and finish controls, and a few controls nearby, but don't go further, so you can be found in case of queries.

Make sure the Organiser (at least) knows where the start grid will be set up and which direction people are setting off in. There should of course be a tape where the start kite (and units) will be.

Note that the Start and Finish units should be set up in punching mode (not SIAC) to give a record of competitors. If, for larger or sprint events, you have a fly-by finish, make sure there is either a radio control or a safety check unit (an ordinary control) they must punch - and someone at finish to enforce that.

Distribute the equipment you obtained for other teams:

• till printers etc to the SI team. You will probably want to leave spare controls, inverter etc with them as well. Your hangers should clear before starting and the controller will need to Clear and Check in order to confirm controls are in SIAC mode.

• an all-controls map to the SI team to help resolve mis-punch queries. Another one for first aiders is helpful.

• stock of hire dibbers to Registration

• maps to Registration or direct to start

• start notices to the start.

During

Enjoy the feedback at the finish or download.

Work out when collection can start:

• Controls are most vulnerable at the end of the event when there are few competitors around and teenagers on bikes have got out of bed. 

• Aim to start collecting even before courses close, depending on what the SI Team can tell you about runners still out. It is always OK to start collecting at courses close time, although you might leave Finish and and controls late in courses until last if there are still people out.

After

Ensure that the control collectors know where and when to meet.

Remind the collectors to bring in your tags.

Check which SI boxes each collector returns to you, so you know who to ask if one goes missing.

Dismantle the controls and return equipment.

Thank your hangers and collectors - the Organiser will send email thanks but the personal touch is good.

After the day

Check all tags have been removed.