Discussion: Billygoat 2005

The date for the 2005 Billygoat is Sunday April 10. The host club will be NEOC. The Head Goat is Jeff Schapiro. Location will be anounced shortly, after park permission has been secured; it will be in either western Massachusetts or northwest Rhode Island. Further information will be posted on www.billygoat.org as soon as it becomes available.

That is another unfortunate conflict for orienteers in Ontario. April 10th is the exact same day as southern Ontario's largest (and longest) spring orienteering race - The Giant's Rib Raid hosted by GHO (2005 race date was set in Oct. 2004)
www.dontgetlost.ca/raid

Too bad, because the Billygoat is a favourite race
for many people here in southern Ontario and now the Billygoat, Highlander and US Long Champs all conflict with big races in southern Ontario. One more conflict and it will be time to start to develop a conspiracy theory. ;-)

I mentioned the discussion here to Paul Bennett. He writes: "Plans are currently being reviewed to move the Highlander 1 week earlier." Happy? ;–)))

There are only 52 weekends a year, and in many parts of N. Am only a significantly smaller fraction of that number could be considered prime for orienteering. So conflicts in scheduling are an inevitability, and nobody gets--or should get, for that matter--a monopoly situation for a particular weekend. If orienteering should ever succeed in growing much in N. Am, then there will be many more meets scheduled for the same weekend. That's a happy problem and not an unhappy one, at least for those who want to see the sport become bigger.

I believe that is a unhappy situation, because unfortunately, for those who want to see the sport of orienteering get bigger in N.A. it is verry unlikely under the present form of organization as institutions.Canada had a chance until the recent changes a few years back.So since we see no signs of realy getting on the upslope track, I see that losing all the top Canadians and some U.S. orienteerrs at the Billygoat because probably nobody bothered to check for any conflicting events, verry unconsiderate and unbeneficial for the growth of the sport for that matter.

Where would one find this information? The COF website only lists three events, the Canadian Champs, the Barebones, and the World Masters.

The COF web site lists only Nationally sanctioned 'A' meets but there are a number of races held at the provincial level. Here are some web sites:
BC: www.orienteeringbc.ca
Alberta: http://www.orienteeringalberta.ca/
Yukon: http://www.icefield.yk.ca/yoa/index.htm
Manitoba: http://www.orienteering.mb.ca/
Ontario: www.orienteering.on.ca
Quebec: http://www.orienteringquebec.ca/
New Brunswick: http://www.orienteering.nb.ca/
Nova Scotia: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/Orienteering/...