The New England Orienteering Club

Closing Remarks

The 2021 New England Championships were as advertised: good, fair courses on a new map of challenging terrain, conducted with appropriate COVID safety and in a barebones event style. That said, the ~170 participants were clearly enjoying the time together, doing what we all love--navigating through unfamiliar terrain. The New England weather cooperated, with a sunny and pleasant Saturday and an overcast but mostly dry Sunday.

The top three in each class and the New England champions received awesome local treats: maple syrup from Hollis Hills Farm, Apple Cider donuts or apple turn-overs from Lanni Orchards, or hard cider from Carlson Orchards.

Much thanks to the core volunteers: J-J Cote for challenging courses with a good mix of route choice and technical execution, to Anna Campbell for appropriate White, Yellow, and Orange courses, to Tori Campbell for vetting all control locations, to Sam Levitin for Registration, to Jim Paschetto for download/results and a local WiFi to see real-time results and splits, Nancy Duprey for awards, and Joanne Sankus for wrangling the legions of volunteers necessary to cover required duties and still let meet staff compete themselves. Finally, a thanks to Jeff Saeger for the steady hand at the helm as co-meet director, mentoring me as a first-time meet director in New England. For years, he has held to the vision for this map and this event.

To get an idea of the volunteer load, the following people (some NEOC members, some other club members) contributed in one or more direct roles. There are more that I'm missing that jumped in where they saw the need. Thank you. Channon Ames, Barb Bryant, Lex Bundschuh, Pete Bundschuh, Aims Coney, Michael Cooper, Jim Crawford, Will Daniels, Ian Finlayson, Kristin Hall, Keegan Harkavy, Wendy Johnecheck, Judy Karpinski, Linda King, Tegan Mortimer, Mark O'Connell, Joanne Sankus, Doug Sevon, Steve Tarry, David Yee, and Karen Yeowell.

To receive a national (OUSA) ranking, any orienteer needs a minimum of 4 NRE days of competition in a rolling 1-year period. With the density of clubs in the Northeast, it's absolutely achievable to host enough NREs that our members can get their annual four days of rankings with only regional/car travel. We have the member base, the terrain, the maps, and the volunteers to achieve this--look for upcoming opportunities in NEOC and with the surrounding clubs!

Jon Campbell