By Gavin Wyatt-Mair
We had overcast, unseasonably cool weather, a great turnout, and plenty of fun at this year's Briones event and 14th Bay Area Scout Orienteering Championships.
There were 637 pre-registered scouts from 60 troops, over 50 adult advisors, and 115 BAOC participants, for a total of over 800 runners. Maybe a record?
There was a controlled burn that took place on the Friday before the meet, and it did encroach on the courses. However, it did not affect the event negatively, so it was no problem.
Thank you!
We would like to thank the East Bay Regional Park District and the Briones Park rangers for their support. The Park Rangers were particularly helpful with parking, access, and advice, and we are very grateful to them. The scouts would like to thank BAOC for sponsoring the Scout-O event and helping scouting out. Thanks also to all the parents and scout leaders who took the time to bring their scouts to a day of orienteering.
Some Special Thanks
This year, Alan Houser took up the task of designing the Scout courses. This takes a lot of time, especially in Briones where options are limited, and Alan did a fine job. Thanks Alan — it looks like you are ready for the big time!
As has now become customary, e-punch on all courses provides a level of automation that is indispensable for such a big event. Jay Hann's fancy software was able to calculate the scores in short order again, based on the e-punch output (thanks E-punch team!), so we had minimal delays in getting results.
The start for many troops was delayed by as much as 35 minutes, probably because some troops jumped the queue. So the afternoon score-o only started at 2:14 pm, and finished at 3:24 pm. Despite the delay, the awards ceremony took place soon after 4 pm, earlier than most prior years, and this is a tribute to the efficiency of e-punch and Jay Hann's results calculator. Thanks, e-punch team, and thanks, Jay!
Penny and Harold DeMoss were again awesome: They planned the start area, erected it, ran it, dismantled it, and worked so hard they did not get to run a course. Then they picked up controls on Monday. Many thanks!
To All Our Helpers
Thank you very much. With such a large attendance, help was the most essential element of the meet, and you all did a wonderful job! To those whom I have left out (and I'm sure I have, since there were so many ad-hoc volunteers), please accept my thanks, too. And of course, thanks to my family (Nina, Kelsey, Wendy) for all their help and patience — typing, stuffing packets, telephone calls, mailings, recruiting, results, and putting up with the disruption.
Once again, BAOC members excelled and showed the club's true colors with all their help and encouragement. Here is this year's list of helpers with caveat: I simply couldn't record all the helpers and help that was given, so please, if your name is omitted, we are still very very grateful and I apologize for the omission.
Alan Houser Course design (WYO), vetting, safety, pre-start, bag set, awards ceremony
Jay Hann Results, bag set, water, photos, bag pickup, search and rescue
Nina Tyksinski Pre-registration, 'phone calls, e-mail, packet stuffing
Bob Cooley 1100 Maps
Troop 200 Parking
Judy Koehler Scout packet stuffing and distribution, questions, instruction
Nancy Scout packet distribution, finish, questions
James Wilson Registration
Mark Blair Bag pickup, cleanup, results
Kelly Wells Bag pickup, cleanup
Anne Gorby Finish, results, awards ceremony, cleanup
Shirley Pierce Results, finish, cleanup
Terry Gleason Instruction, scout packet stuffing
Dean French Scout packet stuffing, questions
Penny DeMoss Start, search and rescue, bag pickup
Harold DeMoss Start, bag pickup
Roberta Pitsenbarger Finish
Grace Tang Finish
Trinka Gillis E-punch
Terry Farrah E-punch, parking
Rosemary Johnson E-punch, permit
Jeff Lanam E-punch
Jim Fish E-punch
Mark Rice E-punch
Evan Custer E-punch, equipment
Ben Legg Instruction
Peter Graube Start, search and rescue
Nick Corsano Certificates, bag set
Joe Scarborough Medals