Discussion: USOF Website updates

Not a new look, yet, but getting there...

Among other recent updates to the USOF pages, a major shift has brought Robin Shannonhouse's "Virtual Binder" of USOF documents (formerly located on a separate server) to the USOF website and server, as of today.

Many of the links you/your club may have to pages on Robin's site will soon re-direct you to the new location. The Binder has its own folder and sub-pages and can be found at:

http://www.us.orienteering.org/binder/

There's a new 'Binder" menu link on the USOF Home page as well (left-hand column, below Club Resources), and also links from the updated Club Resources page. Anyone looking for information on Sanctioning or planning for a US A-meet can go to the http://www.us.orienteering.org/binder/ameet.html page. If you're looking for Board minutes or AGM minutes, USOF Policies, Position Descriptions, etc., they're there too.

Committee heads and Vice Presidents should make sure documents for areas they oversee are kept up-to-date.

It may well be that most of you don't know or care about USOF documentation, but for the ones that do, I wanted to make sure you're aware of the change. :-)

Constructive comments and corrections are always welcome -- usofweb@gmail.com

Janet Tryson
USOF Webmaster

Thanks Janet for all of your work on the USOF website. I know how much time I spend on the computer just for the juniors things I need to do and it is more than I wish I had to do and I'm sure that you spend a lot more time than I do with the USOF site. I really appreciate it.

Ditto. It's really nice to have the binder, as well as the sanctioning info, easily available. Thanks Janet!

Ditto Janet. We've come a long way from the hard-copy Binder, when we'd get frequent updates by mail that would have to be manually inserted. Keeping a Binder current in those days required constant vigilance, and lots of work.

I see that the Sanctioning Package was just updated. Who do we have to thank for this timely update? And who is going to be updating the Binder in the future? Will our new ED have that responsibility?

A comment that the sanctioning package is due for further update so if any recent users of it have issues with what is required / not required, I'd like to hear about it. Email is in my profile.

(The already-uploaded update, to the extent anything has been changed, is not my doing, btw: I'll let those who were actually responsible claim credit if they want.)

Clark, I'm not sure what updates you're referring to in the Sanctioning Package. The sample checklist WAS updated, but those are only suggested guidelines. Parties interested in seeing updates to other articles in the Binder can contact their Board rep and/or the proper committee chair with their suggestions.

Robin's site was a repository of information. Now the USOF server will be the repository. The ED and current/future board will have suggestions for improvement, I'm sure. They just need to keep me in the loop (so I don't have to attend all the board meetings). :-)

And, as feet said, the Sanctioning package will be reviewed this year, so make your comments and suggestions to him now... it'll be up to feet to let me know what changes to make on the site.

I'm not sure why the Google search bar in the Binder doesn't see the new information yet -- perhaps it takes time to 'crawl' and 'cache' that information?

Well at the bottom of the very long Sanctioning Package page it says:

...page last updated 27 Feb 2009...

The sanctioning page continues to be laughably out of date. It's like the technologies of the past 20 years never happened. ie OCAD, e-punch etc.

While that's a comment, it isn't a particularly constructive one, but it is a measure of why the sanctioning page is well past due for a revision. IThe other reason is that there are things listed as requirements that are never implemented these days (eg rule III.D.2: 'A competition map for every course is to be sent to the Sanctioning Chair' hasn't been observed once in my memory), and other things that should be required that aren't listed. It would also be, in my opinion, an improvement to clarify what is actually required, no ifs or buts, and what is a suggestion that has been found to be useful.

Hence my request for comments. (I'll be asking for comments in other fora also, but this thread makes it topical here, so I thought I would jump the gun.)

There are two other dates on the Sanctioning Package page. The one at the top is the most relevant. The one at the bottom is just the last time I touched it and doesn't imply that all content was updated to current standards.

The Rule Will references is in the process of being changed, I think, or already has been changed in the official USOF Rules document. If you would like to help him get the Sanctioning Package up to date and can spend the time cross-referencing the package to the Rules and to current practices, I'm sure he would enjoy the results of your efforts.

Or volunteer to join the USOF Rules committee. I'm pretty sure they could use more help.

If a page doesn't work, or a link's broken, I can fix that. Otherwise, I'm only the messenger. :-)