Get a summary of news items delivered to your Inbox (nearly) every week—
subscribe to NEOC Update.
Longtime NEOC member Mike Cooper posted a "think aloud" video of his run on the Brown course at Noon Hill. Follow his route on NEOC's Routegadget.
View the video on YouTube to access a leg-by-leg table of contents, and links to other orienteering videos. (Click "SHOW MORE" below Mike's description.)
Thanks for the instructive video, Mike.
NEOC is excited to be able to offer a variety of activities for our community this fall! Here are the updates:
Public Bring-Your-Own Map Events: Public Bring-Your-Own-Map Events will be available at various locations this fall. Events will either be a single day or multi-day activity. Results will be posted on the website and you will be able to either self-report your times or use the QRorienteering phone app. Here are the first scheduled events.
Members can orienteer for free and non-members can participate at $5/event. Map downloads are available using the event information links above.
New England Orienteering Club
Special Meeting
1:00 PM Eastern, June 14, 2020
This NEOC Special Meeting will be held via videoconference, with limited "real world" seating in Woburn, MA. The main business is the election for four seats on the Board of Directors. NEOC members, age 18 and over, may vote; Family memberships are limited to two votes. (Check that your membership is current with this form.)
Please have your member number handy when you attend this meeting. (It's on your member card.)
A link to the videoconference will be e-mailed to current NEOC members on Saturday evening, June 13, 2020. The e-mail will contain both a Web link for an audio/video connection, and a phone number for audio-only.
The location of the in-person meeting can be requested by e-mailing the NEOC Clerk,
Attendees must wear a mask, and bring their own chair & pen. Social distancing will be enforced. There will be limited WiFi, if you want to bring a laptop.
If you cannot attend this meeting, you can assign another NEOC member to cast your vote. Use this form to specify your voting preferences and assign a proxy voter.
Note: The proxy form will be available until 11:00 AM on June 14, 2020.
Contact the Clerk,
This election will fill four positions on the Board of Directors. At this time there are four candidates for those positions. Other candidates may be nominated before the election. This article will be updated as additional candidates are nominated.
In which we periodically examine how art imitates life and life imitates orienteering.
by Peter Amram
The Map Thief, by Michael Blanding (2014), relates the perplexing story of E. Forbes Smiley, III, who made a smooth transition from respected antique map dealer to prolific thief of those same objects.
Smiley, who had access to venerable map collections in America, was caught when an attentive Yale librarian found an Exacto knife on the floor next to where Smiley had been researching, and slicing. He was arrested, convicted, and jailed for several years. Smiley’s apparent motive was the vortex of debts he had acquired in both business and a quixotic attempt to revert a Maine village into an earlier, nostalgic form.
All but the most dedicated cartographiles might weary of Blanding’s close descriptions of European and early American map-making and distribution; however, the author effectively captures the alluring utility and beauty of the maps which were Smiley’s passion, vocation, downfall.
More to the present point, Blanding meditates on the very nature of maps:
Congratulations to Bridget Hall and Keegan Harkavy for their selection to the 2020 Junior National Team, and to Anna Campbell and Mori Finlayson for their selection to the 2020 Junior Development Team.
Check out the OUSA website for more information on the Junior Team Program. If NEOC youth have questions about the Junior Team program contact