Discussion: Flying Pig and Ecological Conscience

At the Flying Pig "A" Meet on March 16-18, we expect that most orienteers will be staying at the Harrison motels (I-74, exit #1), about 3 to 4 miles from the Friday and Sunday event sites. But, on Saturday, we have 2 sprint races in city parks, which require a round-trip drive of about 50-55 miles. Here are some options. Which of these would you be willing to participate in?

A. OCIN charters a bus for the day. Bus makes one trip from HQ Motel (other motels are within 500 meters) to both sprint races, with a stop at a shopping mall food court for an hour or so between the sprints. It would probably cost $10-15 or so per person since bus and driver would be "tied up" for the whole day. We can cluster start times of riders.

B. Some orienteers flying into CVG rent vans (volunteers needed). Other orienteers sign up as riders & pay the driver a share (probably $10 or so) toward gas and rental. Advance sign-up so you know in advance if you have a ride lined up. Again, we could cluster start times.

C. Less formal carpooling. Sign-up sheets at Friday event site and/or headquarters motel. If you have a car & space, would you be willing to drive? Would you be willing to ride?

I also note that parking is somewhat limited at both of the sprint sites, so efficient car or van pooling will also mean that everyone has a better chance of being able to park close to the start/finish areas.

To do A or B, we need to know if there is enough confirmed interest in the next couple of days.

You can also post on this thread if you would like to carpool to the whole Pig weekend from other cities or any of the airports.

Unfortunately, I won't be attending the Flying Pig this year, but if I were, I would prefer alternative C for it's relative ease of implementation.

The most effective way to do something along the lines of option A is probably to make it mandatory and roll the cost into the entry fee (and maybe not even reveal the location of the venue). But that's not a very American approach.

I also think C is probably the simplest (and I expect to be there with David Frei in his van, so we could probably take some folks). However, if A or B are implemented, I'd probably participate.

From my midwest view, The Flying Pig has become one of the premier annual O festivals in the US. We come to the Pig to learn ideas that we can take back and try at our own clubs. So your willingness to put some substance in our ecological hand-wringing is interesting...and welcome. And may have an influence across the country for a long time to come.

Ten years ago you and I spent a month traveling to O meets in the nordic countries. I would say that most multi-day meets were organized along the Option A model, in which I enthusiastically participated, buying a bus pass whenever I could. Why not organize the Pig along similar lines?

Remember that generous O club that took us on their bus all the way from central Estonia up to the Fin5 in Kouvela? All that bus travel remains a significant and pleasant memory of that trip: it was the only time during the day that I had a real chance to chat-up some attractive orienteering women!

Who could forget? That was a great trip!

Sorry, I'd go for any of the options except that none of them are compatible with going to the Cincinnati Ballet show in the evening (another indulgence I'm willing to emit some carbon dioxide in pursuit of).

By virtue of running you are all sinful of producing more carbon dioxide than an average person. Shame on you! Especially ones who train almost each day.

Sergey, that's because we're all O-CINners (at least the hosts of the Pig).

It looks like option C is going to be most effective for an event of this size.

Jon, be glad you're not going to the Cincinnati Ballet tonight - tonight's performance is cancelled, as sleet and freezing rain continue to pummel Porkopolis. And think of all the CO2 emissions that will be saved because they aren't onstage exerting themselves. Of course, I more than made up for that with all the snow shovelling earlier today.