Discussion: OUSA strategic plan numbers wrong

The strategic plan stated 35,000 local starts in 2009 when in fact the number of local starts was 42,550 according to a response I got from OUSA. The strategic plan mentioned both 40,000(below the actual starts of 2009) and 49,000 as the targets for local starts in 2014.

If 40% growth is the target for 2014 then the correct figure should be 59,570.

Unless the strategic plan is actually translated into action, it hardly matters what the numbers are.

There must be vast numbers of perfectly fine strategic plans all over the world, timeless in their wisdom and goals, that were never set in motion, and which were therefore worth little more than a few grains of sand in some desolate stretch of desert.

Each OUSA Board member has oversight responsibility for a component of the strategic plan. The first component of the strategic plan - increasing our starts in the United States - is being managed by Pat Meehan and Peter Dady. I wish them luck, both because it is a vitally important goal and because it is a bit like pushing on a string without other things happening, like an increase in the number of clubs, publicity, club support infrastructure.

...without other things happening, like an increase in the number of clubs, publicity, club support...

Thanks Gary. But most importantly, what about the EXISTING clubs? Are they all operating fully effectively to wring maximum starts from their assigned areas? Is anyone working with them to track and improve their performance? Why reinvent the wheel when there are plenty of spinning wheels already, in need only of some alignment and TLC?

The wide disparity of club performance was disclosed by ccsteve last month in his very informative spreadsheet posted to Google. Has the Board even received this spreadsheet or discussed its implications? Have the presidents of the clubs at the bottom of this list been informed of their standing, relative to all the other OUSA clubs?

On a club-by-club basis, the Club Comparison spreadsheet compared numbers of (1) starts, (2) members, and (3) events, both to each other, and to the population of their respective metropolitan areas. The percentage following each of the three metrics shows the quintile earned by the club...80% means the club placed in the top quintile.

After a spirited discussion here, and later here, about these club comparisons, many of us a/pers hoped that OUSA would adopt this valuable spreadsheet, and begin tracking club improvement by reissuing the spreadsheet on a periodic basis, and perhaps posting it to the OUSA website for all of us to see.

In other words, we need more transparency. Having just received another OUSA appeal for donations, it would be nice to see some sort of report on our success so far before sending in yet another check. If this is not possible right now, can we be informed when we might expect a detailed status report? Something along the lines of ccsteve's spreadsheet would be very nice.

I'm not on the Board any longer, so I can't really comment, other than to say that I think your suggestions are excellent, Clark. We do need highly visible club metrics, and perhaps we could provide some recognition at the AGM each year for top clubs. Just a thought.

Many people track their own rankings carefully, and note when they move up or down the lists. I wonder if the same would be true for some clubs if we had an accepted club ranking list?

I agree with Clark and Gary.

Very much like pushing on a string--attempting to generate starts by waving a magic wand.

Amen.

"Why reinvent the wheel when there are plenty of spinning wheels already, in need only of some alignment and TLC?"

It might be necessary to reinvent or at least incrementally improve the wheel/orienteering club at some future time but I have to dispute the idea that there are plenty of wheels/orienteering clubs already. I think it would be a major step forward if we could set up active, self-perpetuating clubs pretty much like the ones that exist now in the 11 states the OUSA web site describes as having "No clubs currently active" and in areas of the other 39 with little or no orienteering taking place at present.

As Gary mentioned, the BOD member accepted assignments for the major goals in the Strategic Plan were made at the Oct Board meeting in NY. They are listed starting on page 4 of the Oct 16 BOD meeting minutes (under "Goal #"). The best thing you can do to push the string along is to contact the person listed under your area of interest and volunteer your services. Sitting back and waiting for things to happen will be less fruitful.

Rearranging the chairs, hoping for volunteers, and writing a plan will not produce results without a pretty good wand.

Just because we are not privy to the plans and work of the ED and board does not mean they don't have a realistic plan to achieve the goals in the strategic plan, [...]. Have faith.

I would think that after nearly 2 years, and well into six figures spent, it would be constructive if such plans (if they exist), were shared. I think it is easier to rally volunteers based on specific tactical and operational points, rather than "faith". Sorry to say this, but just like "hope", "faith" isn't a business plan either.

Also, given that the strategic plan had specific metrics for 2010, it would be helpful for USOF to publish the actuals against those metrics, when they become available. I think that was the whole point of placing metrics in the plan. This allows prospective donors to see, at a glance, a) is the plan, now 20% in, working, and b) what is the cost of the improvements (as the cost of the plan, to date, is knowable).

The elephant in the room is certain clubs reporting lower than actual starts to get a break on the levies.

...certain clubs reporting lower than actual starts...

Don't think so. Any club president who submits a fraudulent report of annual "starts" for the purposes of retaining more beer money locally, deserves to be removed from office, and have his club's sanctioning and insurance coverage canceled forthwith.

And such submitted figures would be easy to check for reasonableness: the total results posted on the club's website better be less than the number of starts reported to OUSA. So I have a difficult time believing that clubs are knowingly under-reporting starts.

And they have to eat a bug.

Who's auditing?

Well...Glen or Robin could. But I'd think that Peter Dady and Pat Meehan would be particularly interested in making sure that every last start was reported, so they could show success as the OUSA Directors in charge of increasing that metric.

I would hope that Peter and Pat have better uses for their time and energy than counting starts -- like increasing them.

Well, for better or worse, we might actually know something soon. There's a Board member in charge of each of the goals, and they have been instructed to post their reports by January 8, with the report in the following form. And then one presumes there will be discussion/review at the Board meeting the following week.

Until then I'll reserve judgement (as I've been trying to do for some time now).

-----------------------


January , 2011
TO: Clare Durand, Glen Schorr
FROM: Board member’s name
RE: Board of Directors Update/ Strategic Plan

Note: for your list of goals and tactics visit the section of the strategic plan that you are responsible for. As the board approved programming with approval of the plan, you do not have to develop new programs.

Strategic Plan Goal:
List goal here

2010 Goals and Results
List individual goals and results. If a result is incomplete mark “pending” and update in April report.

2011 Goals
List individual goals

2011 Update
• In bullet point form
• Progress made to date and or plans

the total results posted on the club's website better be less than the number of starts reported to OUSA

Why should to total results on the club's website be LESS than the number reported to OUSA? Shouldn't the numbers be the same? (Or am I missing something obvious?)

Well it has been my experience that sometimes local meet directors do not assiduously tabulate all DNF, MSP, DNS, and DQ's on their result lists...just to avoid embarrassing those runners, or themselves.

I suppose the number of results could equal the number of starts. But they definitely should not be more.

Anyway, back on topic: measuring Starts. In the August/September ONA, Glen Schorr wrote a 3-page piece entitled OUSA's Strategic Plan: Increase Starts. The article fleshes out the strategic plan goal with 7 specific strategies to increase Starts. For each strategy there are year-by-year metrics established. Just in case you've lost that issue, here's a couple of bullets from that article that are noteworthy IMO:

- participation trends are down
- membership is getting older [:-)]
- past emphasis only on juniors has not paid off fast enough
- need to broaden development effort far beyond O in schools
- develop 100% on-line registration by 2013 for all local meets to better control revenues, statistics and OUSA cash flow
- ensure future meet quality by introducing "mystery shoppers" at 50 local meets this year (2011) who will fill out evaluation forms for OUSA to review with club presidents
- four of the seven Start strategies have to do with developing MTBO, Trail-O and Rogaining so we'll all have a chance to do a lot more.

Since this article was written six months ago perhaps some of these strategies have changed. However it is nice to see some specific plans. And also to provide some context if we get a chance to see the reports to which PG refers.

Clubs under-reporting? OUSA should simply post the numbers that each club reports. There seem to be plenty of people on AP with time and interest in reviewing results stats and comparing them to what's reported. I'm sure it wouldn't take very long until any under-reporting clubs found themselves being publicly humiliated or worse.

In New Mexico we are seeing a huge surge in interest in orienteering from: SAR, JROTC, and Scouts (BSA and GSA). There is even some interest from CAP (via radio orienteering aka direction finding, which CAP uses on the ground and in the air to locate crashed airplanes). I am having a hard time getting my head around what all these orienteering user communities need from us, and how to deliver it to them.