Discussion: NAOC 2016 Branded Items

The awards for the NAOC2016 were well done and appreciated. As is usual in ordering such things, more were ordered than were used. (You have to make sure that there are enough if every category has a gold, silver and bronze awarded and with a larger meet, the chances are better than all medals will be used.)
The problem is, however, that there are quite a few medals and lanyards left over. They obviously are for the "NAOC2016". If anyone has a suggestion about what to do with them, it would be appreciated.
As an aside, when the IOF flag had to be moved for the Spring Relay, lanyards were used to tie it to the fencing at the finish. Someone may have a better idea for what to do with them.

At Barebones one year we had the idea to invite people to bring their old medals to the event, we'd put a Barebones label on them, and then reuse them.
Kind of funny, but not really very satisfactory in the end ;-(

I think that the Barebones wooden bones were a great idea. The cost was right and you got to take something home. The "new label" not so much.

Here's a company that recycles medals: http://sportsmedalrecycling.blogspot.com/

Disclaimer: I just found this on the web. I haven't ever done business with this company, but it sounds like a great idea.

How about using old medals for World Orienteering Day events?

If you use the same style, have manufacturer restamp the "6" to an "8"?
Adds some history to the award.

Offer them for people who donate a hundred dollars to the team, juniors, or other OUSA endeavour. Put OUSA supporter on a label on the back.

To bl: the manufacturer is in China. Probably won't work.

I like the idea of rewarding donors but sending them out is not a trivial expense. They are heavy enough so that they cost more and they will break through a paper envelope in shipping. Sounds like a good idea, though. $100 in, couple of bucks out.

Give away the lanyards to whomever you please.

Medals, recycle them (as in have them melted them down for production into something new).

Personally, I think there is value in having earned an NAOC medal. I don't really think it's appropriate to be giving them away as if they are meaningless little trinkets (whether to little kids completing a string course on world orienteering day or donors who give money to the federation).

Then maybe partly melt them down, which would make them an interesting novelty to kids on string courses on WOD or donors who fund teams, development, growth.

Bmay's comment is appropriate. Partially melting is difficult, reusing the metal would mean sending them back to China. It seems that there are few options. The lanyards are very nice and if a team wants them as a fund raiser, then perhaps that is an option. I can make a wind chime with the medals.....
Well, maybe make a modification to the medals and then sell wind chimes.

I agree - both with bmay and with pgoodwin (especially when he said the wooden Barebones awards were good idea, the re-use medals, not!)

Peter,

You could try to find a local award/medal-making company & see what they say about
what seems a small change. Have them do one. Nothing to lose.

I agree they are not meaningless trinkets.

I didn't mean that you should personally melt them down. Just take them to your local metal recycling centre; they will happily deal with sending it wherever it is supposed to go :-).

Yes. This is a case for recycle, not reuse. They're generic scrap metal.

I have put some acrylic paint onto the side with NAOC and the bottom with 2016. Now it looks like an acorn. If I do that to all of them, they would be appropriate for wind chimes. Maybe these could be sold as benefits.....

Yes, if they're not NAOC awards, then there fine to sell or give to string course participants.

When you win a medal at an event, it has significance, because the only way to get that medal was to win it by being faster than the next guy. Repurposing these medals removes that meaningfulness of having them in the first place.

Please consider recycling, or worst case, just throwing them away.

There is also an organization called medals for mettle, that gives race medals to kids with cancer. I feel like that is different than repurposing them to another race, as it's a totally different category with no real overlap.

Probably recycling in the "mixed metals" at our transfer station is the best way to deal with them. Either there are issues of "significance" of winning one or time invested with little return on investment. If the awards were "cups" or something with a plaque on them the plaque could be removed and a new one put on. That is not possible with these. Thank you all for your input.

At a less formal event a decade ago, I reused some Troll Cups for awards, creating different stickers for them. Having won a Troll cup myself, I didn't think that a rebadged cup devalued mine, nor did I hear anyone expressing that. Awards have importance, and I wouldn't use an unmodified one for another purpose, but I think that reusing a modified one is just fine (such as covering the event and year with a new moniker).

Medals for Mettle only accepts earned medals, though (and only from certain types of races, orienteering not included). So you can't just send them organizers' leftovers. Only someone who completed the race and earned their medal can gift it to the kids.

I wonder what they do with the extra Olympic medals they must have made in case of ties - eg: two silvers, zero bronze... instead of the usual g/s/b

This article says the IOF takes the extras and stores them at the Olympic Museum

So the extras should go to the Orienteering Hall of Fame or such?