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THE PUNCH March 2001 |
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Editorial Mon Feb 26th I’ve just heard today about the cancellations this weekend. It depends on how long the outbreak lasts as to whether the event can be re-scheduled. In this edition of Punch - when events do run, read about the organisation of both the finance and mapping that’s involved . No new articles at the Points East website to add this time. Ian Price |
| Chairman’s Chat
First a big pat on the back to all who turned out to plan, organise, help and run at Ickworth in January – the first time the club has put on an event with the new Sport ident electronic punching system. We received a number of complementary comments on Andrews courses, the results were posted in record time and the weather was fine too. What more can we offer our punters ? Sure there were cracks in the organisation and a few key helpers on the day had to shoulder the additional responsibility of piecing it all together. A big thank you to those who gave up their run to cover our shortfall. Using Sport Ident for the first time is a bit like learning to drive a car. – you believe you can do it, then you panic. You worry as you face up to the challenge; you ache at the end of it all. In spite of this however you realise – we’ve cracked it – it works – it’s great. Special thanks therefore are reserved for John and his team who over a number of weeks mastered the SI system and to Andrew who planned some excellent courses ( his first event as planner). Our sights are now set on the Rendlesham Badge event on 4th March. This is the biggest undertaking the club has staged in recent years. Pre – entries, overprinted maps, Age based courses conforming to national guidelines, national ranking, sport ident , international symbol control descriptions etc.. The Ickworth event was our trial run; now the full monty ! Seriously though we do need all club members to turn out on the day to help in some capacity as well as enjoying a run. We were thin on the ground at Ickworth and as such our club was exposed. Please don’t wait to be contacted – John has quite enough to do at present, he should not need to spend hours on the phone trying to find volunteers. I hope to see you helping at Rendlesham and competing out there in the Forest throughout the spring . There are some great events in East Anglia between now and our final event of the season – Shrublands 22nd April. Clive Coles
Special Treasurer's Chat Thought our members might be interested in seeing what charges are incurred when putting on an event. To use sport Ident 'dibbers' we have to pay to the Region £0.50 A levy for the British O. Federation per adult is £1.10 A levy for the Region is (after the first 50 comp.) £0.15 Junior s the levy for B.O.F £0.25 Juniors to the Region is £0.15 The map to print is approx £0.80 Mapping costs should be added. Petrol Fee for National Fee for National Trust/Forestry Comm. or whatever Junior £0.25 Expenses for the Planner to visit the forest many times Expenses for the Controller to visit and telephone calls Expenses for the Organiser for telephone calls to members Fetching the equipment from our store Expenses for persons assisting the above. Is usually about £1.00 per head We have to pay to hire the Equipment store and to purchase new equipment, like control cards, kites, tape etc. so a little extra is added to the entrance fee to cover this. So you can see that the minimum charge should be about £4.00 £5.50 if we use Sport Ident or £4.00 if we don't. June Webb P.S. Club Membership fees: - please note that if you’ve renewed your BOF membership, this also includes the membership fee to Suffoc. They forward on the money to us, you don’t have to pay twice. |
| Map Printing – Help wanted
When I started orienteering, the maps were usually drawn in just one or two colours, usually black and brown. Gradually the present five colour (yellow, green, blue, brown and black) map with complex tones and shading became the norm. However, although the maps changed out of all recognition the methods of drawing them and printing them remained constant for many years. Most people would draw the various parts of the map in black ink on separate sheets of tracing film, one for each colour, and later additional sheets for the various coloured tones. One would thus have many sheets of tracing film one on top of the other and one would have the one that was being worked on at the top of the heap, with them all being kept in position with little yellow plastic studs. These sheets would then be used by the printer to make up five plates using a photographic process, one for each colour, for an offset litho printing press. The various colours would then be printed in turn, one after the other. During that period the semi professional mappers followed a similar process using an opaque film on which they cut away the surface so that light could shine through. This was a more complex process, but produced crisper lines. However, both processes were very tedious and required a great deal of care to produce neat results – blots and smudges led to much bad language (certainly in the Webb household). Also once a map was finished, it was difficult to make major alterations without starting all over again. About ten years or so ago, all began to change as the result of Hans Steinegger in Switzerland developing an effective computer program to draw orienteering maps, and virtually all maps are now drawn this way. Although the work was still time consuming, the finished result was normally very neat, and blots and smudges a thing of the past. Also it was relatively easy to up-date a map as the land changed, or omissions were found. The resulting map was stored on a floppy disc from which the printer made his five offset litho plates so the rest of the printing could be done in the conventional way. If overprinted maps were required for a badge or similar event they were either produced by making up separate offset litho plates for a magenta overprint, one for each course, or by using an “overprint machine”. The former produced neat maps but was very expensive. The overprint machine is simply a glorified John Bull printing outfit which uses little rubber bits to form the print. Setting up is tiresome and the language associated with its use is not suitable for children. Now things are changing again. The development of coloured laser printers has enabled maps to be printed directly from the computer discs. This makes it much easier to produce many different overprinted courses economically in relatively small numbers. With offset litho printing an average print run of about 100 for each course is the minimum that is sensible from the cost point of view. With laser printing very much smaller numbers are worthwhile. A further advantage is that the courses can be drawn very accurately and without the random variations that seem to afflict hand over printing. The difficulty is that the colour balance has to be set up for the individual laser printer being used, and initially at least this has to be done by trial and error. With a commercial printing company, one is charged not only for the printing of the initial trial proofs, but also for the time spent in loading the computer files. This makes the initial set up very expensive, and unless one is allowed to take part in the process, very time consuming. This is where I reach the point of this article. Does anyone have access to, or know of a good laser printer, preferably capable of producing A3 prints, where we would have to pay only the costs of the prints and not a file handling charge? If we could oversee the operation, so that we could decide on immediate changes, so much the better. If any of you know of a possible machine, please would you let me or Simon Peck know. We have also just acquired PICOVER, which not only prints description sheets, but does a lot of other things as well, which can make life a lot easier for planners and organisers. If any members are interested in learning more about it, will they please get in touch with me and I'll arrange a hands-on training session. John Webb |
| Pictorial Control Descriptions
We will be using the international pictorial control descriptions for all but our most junior courses at our Badge Event at Rendlesham. Although they are a bit daunting at first, they soon become second nature, and are a boon to those of us who don't know our east from our west. If you are in Germany and don't know the German for fence corner you'd soon be lost without them. There will be English translations on display on the day, but if anyone is unfamiliar with them and would like a copy, I will send them a full copy if they send me a stamped addressed envelope and an extra 27p stamp to pay for the photocopying. Unfortunately, they cover rather a lot of sheets, but it would take up too much time to delete all the cliff faces and suchlike that are not often met in Rendlesham Forest." John Webb,
New Members Melissa Beverly
Bill, Doris, Julie & Paul Carney
Jonathan Houseago
Ali Robertson
New or Changed Addresses Rob Coulter
Anne Elvidge
Stella Haward & Louise Walker |
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| Fixtures
Please check with clubs before attending any of the events below -they may be cancelled due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak Mar 24th & 25th, WASH/NOR Double Dumpling Both days: Badge Event plus Ltd Colour Coded (White to Orange). String Course. SportIdent e-punching. Dogs in car park only. Help for beginners. Day 1: WASH Swaffham Heath inc. EAGAL. Grid Ref TL773096 Day 2: NOR Sheringham Park & Weybourne Woods inc. East Anglian Championships. Grid Ref TG130415. Pre-entry: Single day fees £6 senior, £2.50 junior. Both days £11, £4.50. EOD +£1, +50p. Send to Simon Towler, 113 Scott Road, Thorpe Park, Norwich NR1 1YL, tel. 01603 618482, email simon@acorn-p-p.co.uk. Closing date 10/3/01. Cheques payable to 'Norfolk O Event'. Apr 1st, WAOC Mildenhall Woods Grid Ref. TL728742. Colour Coded. String Course. Dogs Permitted. Help for beginners. Enquiries to Ian Renfrew, email enquiries@waoc.org.uk. Apr 8th, NOR Holt Country Park & Edgefield Grid Ref. TG083371. Colour Coded. Dogs on lead. Help for beginners. Enquiries to Alan Coddington, tel. 01603 456855. Apr 22nd, SUFFOC Shrublands Colour Coded, SI Abbreviations used:
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