Organising and planning events

If you have volunteered to be the organiser or planner for one of our events, then thank you. Without people like you, we would not be able to put on events.

We hope the information set out below should be a big help to you. But if you need any assistance, advice or support, there will be plenty of people within TVOC who can provide it. So if you need it, contact our fixtures secretary Nev in the first instance – he will direct you to the most appropriate person.

Checklists

If you are organising or planning an event it is useful to have a checklist of things to do by set timescales.   These set out the series of tasks you need to follow, by when.  It then becomes a useful record for you.  Even if you are an experienced organiser or planner, these checklists are well worth following.  And if you are new to the role, then these are invaluable, to ensure you have not missed anything important.  Just download a copy, and note on it the progress you are making.   It then becomes a useful record for you.

For Organisers

Organiser’s checklist – suitable for events (levels A to D) And see further down this page regarding Risk Assessments and Missing Competitors.

The organisers page on the British Orienteering website also has useful information. Organisers must pay particular attention to the Risk Assessment, Accident and Missing competitor items.

There is also a Planner / Organiser guide for the Saturday Series, aimed both at people planning their first Saturday Series event, and as reminder to anyone else putting on a Saturday Series event.

And you will need logos for some publicity items. Find them here.

For Planners

Planner’s checklist – suitable for all events (levels A to D)

There is also a Planner / Organiser guide for the Saturday Series, aimed both at people planning their first Saturday Series event, and as reminder to anyone else putting on a Saturday Series event.

SI station user guide – this is a useful description for planners for how to use SI control stations, how to set up the Start and the Finish. Planners may also find this guide useful to read – it is primarily written for controllers, but helps to describe how things work.

Risk Assessment

The Organiser must produce a risk assessment prior to the event. You should discuss it with the planner, mapper and controller when preparing it.

This pro forma risk assessment is a useful base for drafting the risk assessment.  But you should also look at the risk assessment for the last event at that location, and perhaps the risk assessment from a previous major TVOC event, when completing the risk assessment. The latter should all be available on the TVOC shared drive – ask if you have not been given access to it.  Note thought that it is essential that the Organiser (and other officials) thinks carefully about the specific risks applying to their event.

Missing competitors

Prior to the event, the Organiser must think through the actions to be taken if a competitor appears to be missing. The following documents should be reviewed and the relevant preparatory work undertaken prior to the event:

Search Recommendations
Missing Competitor Handout