Street-O (up to 2020)

Street-O aims to attract newcomers to HH as well as providing regular local orienteering for existing orienteers. Please be aware of how these events are marketed: these flyers (NB two-sided) were handed out at 2018 Park Runs, and they directed people here on our website.

NB: During lockdown we ran a DIY version of Street-O

Format

Plan a 45 min score event with 25 - 40 questions/controls to give about 8-10km total route with good route choice - control clusters tend to be more suitable than linear routes. Also ensure that there are 5-10 controls which make a walker route, approx 3km.

Scoring and the questions at control sites should be as simple as possible: 10 points/control, -10 points for each part minute late.

Avoid using questions/features that are ambiguous or require orienteering experience to answer. Each feature should be obvious once the runner is within 10 - 20 m, and each question should be immediately answerable when at/near the feature - so neither hidden nor cryptic, and well-sized with high contrast. We are testing simple navigation on the run, not arithmetic, eyesight, or general knowledge. It is essential that you visit your proposed control sites before getting the map printed.

Parking, controls and viable route choices should all use publicly accessible land, otherwise formal access permissions will be required. Permission may also need to be obtained if placing temporary controls.

Here is an example question sheet. If possible fit it onto the page with the map to reduce the need to turn over and to save printing costs.

Please stick to this format. Consistency over the series is a plus, particularly as we are trying to attract runners who are competitive.

Parking

Parking should preferably be at an easily-located, free car park. Start and finish should be as close to the meeting point as possible.

Check the accuracy of the joining instructions for your event on the website fixtures list. Think about someone who has never been to this location before. Most participants will depend on the website instructions.

Safety

Please pay special attention to traffic and road crossings when planning, and ensure any significant risks are avoided or mitigated. [If your Street-O is confined to parks to allow unaccompanied juniors, all route choices must avoid all traffic. Car parks are acceptable for juniors only if visibility is good and traffic is forced to a crawl.]

You must complete a risk assessment. The Street-O Co-ordinator will provide a template, and guidance. Here is an example. It must be countersigned in advance of the evening by the Street-O Co-ordinator, or an appropriately qualified individual (the Volunteer Co-ordinator has details of all such people in the Club). It helps the person reviewing the risk assessment if you include a map with the outer limit of the course, any out of bounds areas and any crossing points marked.

Check the accuracy of the safety instructions for your event on the website fixtures list.

Map

A map annotated with controls can be obtained from OpenOrienteeringMap or preferably this enhanced version. Look out for the coloured tips at the top right corner to get you started. Allow for this site being out of action for a few days at a time.

Check for obvious mistakes and missing features, especially short-cut paths. The Street-O Co-ordinator can help get these onto the map (with enough warning).

If your map is a surveyed HH orienteering map, you can obtain it, and advice on planning software, from the Mapping Co-Ordinator.

Take care to place control markers accurately on the map. Additional overprinting (out-of-bounds, crossings, questions, etc) is most easily done using PurplePen (Windows only). See this example map.

MapRun

Ask the Street-O Coordinator ...

Printing

EITHER: Unless non-standard (> A4), send the map & clue PDF file(s) to the Street-O Co-ordinator with as much notice as possible (> 2 weeks) for club printing.

OR: If external printing is required ask BML Printers to print the maps on waterproof paper and invoice the Treasurer. Send a pdf of both map and question sheet to info@bmlprint.co.uk . Their preferred lead time is 10 days before your evening. They can cope with less but please try to keep HH in their good books. Specify 35 maps, unless your event is also for unaccompanied juniors, in which case 50 maps. Check the most recent turnout for possible increases to these numbers. It is best to ring the printer the day after your order, to check there are no problems. If you can, team up with organisers of adjacent events to minimise postage charges.

Equipment

Co-ordinate with the previous week's organiser or Street-O Co-ordinator to collect the equipment.

Ask the Street-O Co-ordinator if you need instructions to use the SI units for start & finish. Check the SI units are time-synced (dib both in quick succession & print out times) - re-sync if necessary. Printer battery needs occasional charging. A spare printer is available from the Street-O Co-ordinator.

Replace any non-working pens in the kit.

Print a few copies of the registration form.

Make a couple of copies of the question sheet with the answers, in case they are required.

Process

Arrive in good time (keen runners often turn up early!). Put up the feather flag at the meeting point and use other signage on approach (arrow board, kite) as deemed necessary.

Get ALL participants (inc. shadows and other group runners, and any additional event helpers) to fill in the registration form. You MUST get an emergency contact number (NOT the runner's mobile number!) for each.

Encourage non-members to give their email address, which we will use for occasional club publicity.

Take payment: £2 for HH members, £3 for others. We are accepting vouchers from the Happy Eggs Free Adventures promotion; the voucher allows a second person at the same event to run free (not the same person running at two events). Keep the voucher with the cash as we need it to reclaim the levy from BOF.

If you have time please promote joining the club. There are "Join Us" business cards in the kit.

Stay at the start/finish to help latecomers, do timing, and add results to the registration form's final columns. There is no need to mark answers – honesty is fine.

Make sure at least one competitor is present at the end until all others have returned - they will be needed as help in the event of a missing competitor.

Afterwards

Please hand money, minus your expenses (as agreed by the Street-O Co-ordinator), on with the rest of the equipment. The Street-O Co-ordinator or Treasurer will regularly extract the bulk of the cash.

The registration forms contain personal data so they must not go astray. Please either ensure they go with the kit to the next organiser, or pass them to the Street-O Co-ordinator. We do need to retain them for insurance purposes and email address harvesting.

A spreadsheet of results (template will be provided) should be finalised on the evening and sent to the Street-O Co-ordinator as soon as possible, along with the map pdf if not already sent for printing. [If the Street-O Co-ordinator is unavailable send results and pdf of the map to the Mapping Co-ordinator for inclusion on RouteGadget, and the results to the Webmaster for publishing on the HH website.]