Orienteering, as it is
currently organised, largely meets the internal PR needs of the Irish Orienteering
Association (IOA) and its members. Regular and occasional orienteers have
adequate access to fixtures and results information through the club system,
The Irish Orienteer, the Web site, the e-Group, the Inf-O-Line and the
Evening Herald orienteering column. However non-orienteers and other organisations
are largely unaware of the extent of orienteering activities being conducted
both nationally and internationally. A greater commitment to PR is needed
if orienteering is to achieve a broader national profile and a higher status
in Irish sport. These are important steps if the sport is to achieve better
performances at international level.
One of the striking changes
in Irish sport in recent years has been the increased emphasis on publicity.
Sports pages and programmes are increasingly dominated by a small number
of large sports that appear to compete very actively with each other for
top billings (GAA, soccer, horse racing, golf and rugby are the main ones).
Minority sports, including orienteering, have difficulty obtaining copy
even for very summary results of events despite the fact that these athletes
often train far harder than the household names of Irish sport. Sports
Editors often censor orienteering items to allow even more copy for the
major sports. It is against this background that orienteering will need
a concerted developmental and PR strategy if it is to succeed in continuing
to attract and retain people, especially juniors, into the sport. An active
PR operation will contribute to orienteering being perceived as a successful
and professionally-administered sport by organisations such as the Irish
Sports Council, Bord Fáilte and other sports associations. A snowball
effect will make it easier to get media copy for Championships, international
teams and other major events. A higher media profile will result in more
requests to have orienteering included in sports yearbooks, sports fairs
and other promotional points. It will take years to turn orienteering into
a well-known minority sport. The groundwork needs to begin now to gain
media recognition on a par with other sports so that if the IOF goal of
Olympic inclusion is achieved, Irish orienteering will have retained and
increased its number of elite athletes so that the best of them are good
enough to qualify for the Games.
Members and Clubs Clubs need to become more proactive in publicising orienteering and in introducing newcomers. This promotion can be done both as individuals and at a club level. At introductory events, newcomers should be offered more advice and encouraged to continue orienteering on an occasional or regular basis. Local media should be informed of introductory events and encouraged to send a reporter. Each club should have a PR Officer whose primary responsibility is to ensure that summary results of events are submitted to the national and local media. Details of events should be sent to local tourism interests (Tourist Office, hotels), walking groups, running clubs, outdoor adventure centres and fitness centres. Ideally club members who are in the Irish squads will take-on these PR roles as they would arguably be the main beneficiaries.
IOA The IOA handles a substantial amount of irregular PR work received by phone, post and e-mail. Opportunities for articles in the non-orienteering media such as The Irish Runner, Walking World Ireland, Mountain Log and other focal points for people interested in sports will also be sought. There are currently 23 clubs in eight counties affiliated to the IOA. The counties represented are Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Sligo, Waterford and Westmeath. Many of these clubs have mapped areas in adjacent counties and hold events there. Orienteering would be in a stronger position if aclub existed in every county as in athletics and many other sports. The most obvious method of bringing this situation about is to promote the sport to members of athletic, cycling and walking clubs and also to schools and colleges. The emergence of Sprint-O has increased the opportunities for runners to become competitive in orienteering with consequential opportunities to represent Ireland. The IOA will notify athletics clubs (both juvenile and senior) of orienteering events. Other formats such as Mountain-Bike, Trail and Ski orienteering will also be developed to broaden the activity base. Flyers summarising the nature of the sport and the various activities and contact points will be circulated along with fixture listings. The promotion of inter-firm orienteering events, especially during the summer months, will be encouraged. The Business Houses Athletics Association will be contacted to see if they would be interested in encouraging their members to participate in these events.
Internet The Association has
an official web site. A number of clubs and the Irish squad also have separate
sites. Clubs will be encouraged and assisted to develop sites and to establish
links with other sites of interest in their locality. The IOA is in the
process of moving to a new more user-friendly address (www.orienteering.ie).
The Sports Council and other Bodies (e.g. Olympic Council of Ireland, Athletics
Association of Ireland, Coillte, Irish Cycling Federation, Bord Fáilte)
will be encouraged to include links to the IOA on their sites and the IOA
in return will include links in the other direction on their web site.
Orienteering was recently
included as an option in the schools curriculum. For this development to
result in orienteering being practised by more schools, the IOA will need
to assist in the provision/preparation of basic teaching material and to
encourage clubs to work with local schools. Pupil and teacher incentives,
such as offering Basic Proficiency Certificates in orienteering to transition
year pupils, will be needed to provide an end result for the course. A
dedicated IOA Schools and Colleges person may also be required.
The Community Games originated
around the early 1970s. They are a multi-sport Games with qualifying competitions
held at local and county level culminating in annual national finals. They
cater for people up to the age of seventeen. The support of seven counties
is required to have orienteering included in the National Finals. The Games
are held in the summer and would complement the schools year. The IOA will
encourage members to introduce orienteering into the Games.
The IOA will work with
clubs to prepare an advance fixtures list. Clubs can help by planning well
ahead so that annual calendars can be produced before the end of the preceding
year and by making decisions early on the venue rather than just booking
dates, as occasionally happens! The IOA will notify these events to the
national papers and other media. National and Regional fixture listings
will be updated on a regular basis. Major fixtures will be included in
end-of-year national newspapers sports calendars. Fixtures information
will be submitted to Bord Fáilte and the regional tourism bodies
for inclusion in pamphlets and other tourism-related material.
Clubs and event organisers
are responsible for compiling and disseminating event results. Clubs should
submit results to the main national newspapers as well as to relevant local
papers and the main national radio and TV media. Apart from informing non-orienteers
that the Association is active, results also give welcome publicity and
motivation to the more successful orienteers, especially juniors. All clubs
should submit results of important events to The Irish Orienteer. The internet
is giving rise to new sports web sites publishing information on Irish
sport. These sites should also be sent results. Summary results of all
events should be sent in separate e-mails to each of the three main national
daily newspapers (see Media Contact Points below). There is no guarantee
that the papers will include the results but you can improve the possibility
by submitting the results on the day of the event and by supplying good
copy layout if using e-mail or fax. It is more important that you send
the results in than that the paper actually prints them. By informing the
media of the range of events going on across the country, the Sports Editors
will gradually realise that orienteering is a very active sport with over
150 events held annually. It would also help if NIOA clubs could submit
results as publicity may help when it comes to the Sports Council allocating
funds to the sport and to the international squad. The IOA will submit
results of championship and international competitions to the national
media.
Send results in the same day as the event ideally between 5-7 p.m.;
Lay the results out in a style that minimises the amount of further work necessary for the newspapers (see example below).
Send in results for all the courses (in the example only two courses have been given).
Orienteering
The Curragh, Leinster
League (Night event). Black (6.8k): 1 J May (3ROC) 41.40; 2 M Prendergast
(CNOC) 53.34; 3 B O'Brien (Ajax) 55.05. Blue (5.2k): Men: 1 S Lynch (3ROC)
39.03; 2 V Jones (Fin) 54.03; 3 P Gargan (Ajax) 54.07. Women: 1 U May (3ROC)
45.39; 2 D O'Neill (Fin) 72.50.
(For the Skibbereen Eagle, the Tirconaill Tribune and Raidio na Gaeltachta you'll have to do your own research! - Ed)