It's the Trend that Counts!

2011 wasn't the highest for any of our stats. But look behind the participation figures, perhaps graph them on a piece of paper, and they show a nice trend. Those who know that 2006 and 2010 were a bit unusual will look past those highs to the underlying trend. This shows quite a rapid rise during the early 90's, coming off the low which nearly saw the club close up. We must have found a formula which worked!

But the nice thing is that people are still coming to OHV events in increasing numbers, when you take out the special figures that running two NZ Rogaine Champs has produced. One sparrow doth not a summer make, but we can be quite happy with the best "normal-year" participation since we started counting this way, and a healthy per-event figure as well. People must like the events we are able to put on.

We must pay tribute to our near neighbour Wellington OC, which runs a similar number of events. 60-odd events a year means you can get your mapsport fix pretty much every week. And that doesn't count the other events in our region the lower North Island, and championships in other parts of New Zealand. OHV members have also travelled to Australia and the other side of the world to satisfy their craving for maps!

Stand by for some more statistics! The City Safari was again our biggest event but atrocious weather dampened the turnout to 464, 101 below last year's record. Biggest other event was the Frank Smith Trophy event with 124, and the work in providing 7 different courses to defined lengths and difficulties cannot be over-estimated. Frank Smith who founded the club will be pleased, he was a traditional orienteer. The smallest event, usually the result of the weather, was a MTBO event with 22. Roughly speaking, half our participation units came from rogaines, 30% from foot orienteering and 20% from MTBO. We've counted P-Max with orienteering because of its short length, but we like the way the boundaries are blurring:-))

In 1997 we narrowly decided not to close up. The resurgence of the club owes a lot to two things: we only schedule events that people are prepared to organise; and by trying different forms of orienteering we've discovered how to reduce the work. Most of our events are close to home.

Here are the stats alongside those from previous years. And below is a list of the key volunteers who made this possible. There are nearly 50, plus probably another 30 who helped with on-the-day jobs. Thanks heaps!

Year Traditional Events Park/Street/Trail Events Rogaines MTB-Orienteering Total Events Av Particip
2011 293 (12%) 467 (18%) 1249 (49%) 518 (21%) 2527 (100%) 31 82
2010 265 (8%) 270 (8%) 2515 (73%) 379 (11%) 3429 (100%) 27 127
2009 384 (17%) 126 (5%) 1433 (61%) 384 (17%) 2327 (100%) 32 73
2008 276 (13%) 196 (9%) 1257 (60%) 373 (18%) 2102 (100%) 27 78
2007 263 (12%) 414 (20%) 1005 (48%) 349 (20%) 2105 (100%) 29 73
2006 780 (19%) 320 (8%) 2618 (64%) 376 (9%) 4094 (100%) 34 120
2005 208 (9%) 527 (23%) 1327 (58%) 224 (10%) 2286 (100%) 36 63
2004 569 (32%) 414 (23%) 502 (28%) 314 (17%) 1799 (100%) 27 67
2003 374 (26%) 390 (27%) 433 (31%) 222 (16%) 1419 (100%) 25 57
2002 220 (17%) 422 (34%) 425 (34%) 186 (15%) 1253 (100%) 24 52
2001 611 (45%) 404 (29%) 44 (3%) 312 (23%) 1371 (100%) 23 60
2000 97 (10%) 383 (40%) 317 (33%) 153 (16%) 950 (100%) 19 50
1999 478 (51%) 382 (41%) 76 (8%) 0 (0%) 936 (100%) 16 58

(The fine print. A "participation" in most events is a person who starts. Rogaines can be much longer than orienteering, so one rogaine "participation" is counted for each person for each 3-hour unit rounded to an integer, eg 2-4hrs is 1, 5-7hrs is 2 etc. If we counted each rogainer at par, 2011 participation would still be well over 2000 - 2327. The Ak Attack is counted as MTBO, and bike-optional rogaines are counted as Rogaine. 2006 and 2010 were inflated by national rogaine championships and being 24hrs many participants counted as 8 units. In 2006 we also ran the NISS Champs (2 major traditional events) besides an OY. These figures may not be the same as reported by NZOF because of (a) timing differences and (b) we count the Ak Attack here even tho its strictly a HVMBC event.

Volunters 2011

List of key volunteers who made these events happen (AGM to AGM not calendar year). These are the planners, controllers, committee members, and others who contributed at a similar level - almost 50 of you! We also acknowledge probably 30 others who have helped with on-the-day jobs. Thank you to all volunteers both listed and unlisted:-))
The page was written by and installed on 31 Dec 11.