Delaware Valley Orienteering Association

I can't take credit, but it was certainly a perfect November day to be in the woods. I'm glad people had a good time. Besides simplifying the setup, score-o and mass starts just seem to me to be the most fun one can have orienteering.

My biggest thanks go to my son Sam who put in many hours site checking, streamering, hanging controls and providing other support. As both ED and CS, I couldn't have done it without him.

Although I showed up at the park Sunday AM not knowing who my volunteer help would be, my faith in DVOA was rewarded with plenty of on-the-spot volunteers that helped pull it all off. Diane Reider and Dave Morgan were the first to come to my rescue, and others soon pitched in. Lena Kushleyeva, Mitch Zimmer, Petr Hartman, the Trysons, and Eric Weyman got a double helping of woods doing control pickup. And Sam Kolins--our winner who collected all the controls with plenty of time to spare!--stayed to the very end and fixed the mess of epunch results I had created.

In retrospect, I'm a bit disappointed more people didn't come out and join the fun. Looking at past history, other events on the same map, same time of year, and certainly no better weather drew twice as many people. It could be that I didn't do enough to get the word out, or (supported by my previous experience) there is some fraction of people that shy away from atypical events, the length, or the lack of white course, or something else.

Personally, I'd like to see more non-rogaine score-o events, but maybe that's not a widely shared opinion. However, if there is a mood for doing more, perhaps there are some changes that might facilitate that. My biggest challenge this time (and previously) is getting the OEScore software properly set up and working on competition day. If we do more score-o (and mass start) events, some laminated “best practices” in the kit would be greatly appreciated.

Again, thanks to everyone who helped out and showed up to make a great event.

I decided to push myself to the edge timing wise...ended up DQ'd but happy that I got to see a lot of controls and wasn't so late that it caused any concern