Training Log Archive: barb

Running around in the Blue Hills. No idea how much time, actually.

The NEOC Board of Directors met on August 25th, 2011. We welcomed new Board members Jim Crawford, Bill Pullman and Andy McIlvaine. Samantha Saeger is moving away for a year or two, to Sweden where she will be able to do some serious orienteering training; she has therefore stepped down from the Board and we think her for her service.

The Board recently made a donation to the junior US orienteering team, and at this meeting approved a donation to the senior US orienteering team. The Board previously gave travel grants for active NEOC members Samantha Saeger and Meg Parson to compete representing the US at the Junior and Senior World Orienteering Championships this summer. At this meeting, we were very happy to acknowledge the many contributions made to NEOC by members Ross Smith and Alex Jospe, with travel grants for their attendance at WOC this summer.

Our fall orienteering schedule is shaping up (see the NEOC website and AttackPoint), but we need meet directors. Please consider volunteering! There is a chance that NEOC might host an A meet in the fall of 2012. We will have a Night-O at Nobscot on September 24th. Karl Stephens is working hard to create a map of the Big River North area in Rhode Island.

We have a vacancy for the position of VP Education and Outreach. A number of NEOC members have been doing orienteering training with schools, scouts and other organizations. There will be a Scout-O at Nobscot at the end of October. National Orienteering Day will be September 17th; Tim Parson will direct the orienteering event at Great Brook Farm. Members are asked to publicize this event and bring friends, neighbors and relatives. We have flyers that you can print out and post. The most successful youth/family organized activity at local meets in the spring was the Capture the Flag map navigation game; we are seeking volunteers to organize more activities for kids, families and adults to have fun and improve their navigation skills, at meets this fall and next spring.

We are excited about holding NEOC’s 40th anniversary celebrations next year, and are seeking ideas and volunteers. Would someone like to collect and publish some NEOC history? What should we do for a party? Note that the celebrations include UNO, WCOC and the Maine orienteering club whose roots are as much in NEOC as are NEOC’s itself.

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation will be holding a meeting on Wednesday, September 14th to present their Draft Resource Plan for the Middlesex Fells Reservation. This is important to NEOC because we love the Fells – and want to ensure that we have continued access to run our educational and competitive orienteering programs there. We have not found someone to attend this meeting, but expect the draft plan to be posted for comment after the meeting – and we will be asking the membership to provide comments to the DCR. (The meeting was originally schedule for September 13th, but someone heard it had been changed.) The DCR website is www.mass.gov/dcr/.

Thanks to Wendy J who has volunteered to take over ordering club uniforms in the wake of Samantha’s departure. Those of us who have received our uniforms LOVE them! The Bryant family wore them proudly in France at WOC.

Congratulations, and thanks, to our VPs for this year: Ian Smith will continue to serve as VP of Events; Joanne will continue as First VP and VP for Administration; Jason Tong will continue as VP of Publicity and Promotion.

Self portrait by Isabel:



And:



From Plateau d'Assy:







And another portrait by Izzy:

Hosted the NEOC Board meeting tonight. I enjoyed the new Board members Bill & Jim. I took a look at the 10-year anniversary booklet from 30 years ago - it was tres cool.

work, oral surgeon, work, home.

Some photos from the first evening in Annecy:

In the little courtyard of our house, the first evening, after shopping at the farmers' market:



The roof of our house:



Moonrise over the lake:





Our street:

So we're back home. This trip to France to orienteer alongside WOC was a lot of fun. It was nice to go to an orienteering event with Isabel, and see her with her head in the game. For the last few years, she has not been very interested in orienteering, so this is a nice turnaround. Most of her courses look like hard yellow courses on paper, with attack points on trails. However, in this terrain, they were much more difficult. Finding the right trail in the first place could be hard, and then identifying your attack point along the trail was often challenging. Especially given that she doesn't do distance estimation - and contour features gave the potential for lots of parallel errors.

She is going into high school, and soccer practice starts on Wednesday evening.

Spent a couple hours gardening this morning. I harvested 30 onions, half yellow and half red. Will post photo soon. Cleared out two of the four rooftop 3' x 3' self-watering containers, and planted beans in one, and lettuce, basil & cilantro in the other.

There is a huge Striped German tomato, maybe 7" in diameter, that will be sacrificed for our dinner tonight. I wonder how the Gagarin tomato contests are going.

Now - at work. Busy busy busy.

C • Killer Tomatoes 1

With Izzy!