The collective orienteering community appeared eager to get back to competition as upwards of 150 largely experienced orienteers made the pilgrimage to Rocky Woods to kick off the NEOC spring season. The event was moved to the early spring this year to allow for better visibility, and the decision was rewarded with generally better times and a greatly diminished number of DNFs. However, the move was not without the potential for disaster as a late significant snowstorm caused some anxious moments for the meet organizer before the snow finally cleared 2 days before the meet.

Attendance was enhanced by an adventure class from Bridgewater State College and by an orienteering class being run concurrently by Kathy McArdle and Donn Springer. The scouting and adventure racing communities were also well represented. Everyone appeared to have an excellent time, especially once the morning showers lifted and yielded a pleasantly warm, sunny day. The meet ran smoothly with the exception of the discovery that a late control change on the Green course was not reflected in the clue sheet. Special thanks are provided to Terry Keegan for identifying the oversight (without severely compromising his winning effort I may add) and thus allowing corrections to be made before too many additional competitors were aversely affected.

My apologies are extended to any Green competitors who were not alerted to the problem.

I also wish to thank Donn and Kathy for putting out the White and Yellow controls, allowing me much appreciated but still somewhat inadequate time to set up the registration and start areas. Tim Reif, Steve van Ness and Scott Turner were also invaluable in making available their varied skills and general knowledge during the predictably harried early moments of the event. And finally, I owe a profound debt of gratitude to mother, father and sister for calmly and effectively addressing the usual assortment of small crises that invariably arise at the registration and start areas.

Hope to see you all again next year.