All the FAQs

What is Orienteering? What about COVID-19? When are the events? How much does it cost? What should I bring? What if it rains? What types of events are there? What are the rules for orienteering? What do all the orienteering symbols mean? What is an A-meet? What courses and competitive classes are offered? What are Sprint, Middle, and Long courses? How do I use electronic punching (E-Punch)? What is E-punching, and how do I read the splits? What are the hazards? What is Lyme Disease? But I was taught to always stay on the trail... What do the abbreviations found in results mean? Where can I get equipment?

edit menu (http://baoc.org/wiki?title=Template:FAQMenu&action=edit)

What about COVID-19?

As orienteering events become available, there's obvious concern about the risk of exposure to COVID-19.

Orienteering USA (https://orienteeringusa.org), the sanctioning organization for U.S. orienteering events, has published OUSA Recommendations for Preventing SARS-CoV-2 Transmission at Events, which is available here (110KB PDF).¹ BAOC intends to be guided by those recommendations at our events.

The club has a How Events Return Safely (HERS) committee that is establishing club policies and procedures regarding COVID-19, and is advising event directors and course setters accordingly.

Please note that the announcement webpage for an event might include specific COVID-19 instructions for that event. As an example (but not necessarily applicable to other events), the following was included on the webpage for our first event after the COVID-19 shutdown.

COVID-19 Instructions
In order to keep everyone safe, healthy, and stress free, please follow these instructions for the Bon Tempe event:
  • Please stay home if you are feeling unwell in any way. Infection clusters have come from people who attended an event thinking they only had a cold.
  • Bring your own water and snacks.
  • Have a face covering with you, even on the course, and put it on if you get close to anyone. Keep it on while you are at the assembly area.
  • No rental compasses will be available​—​bring your own.
  • This will be an all-SPORTident AIR+ event! Bring your own SI AIR+ E-stick if you have one. If you don’t have one, you’ll be able to borrow one from the club. (If you prefer not to use one, you can run the course without punching at all, and report your time.)
  • Portable restrooms will be available; use them at your own risk.
  • We are under a strict limit with regards to the number of people, so please do not spend much time at the assembly area before or after your course.
  • Around twenty minutes before your assigned start time, go to the E-punch table (one person at a time) to get your E-stick recorded into the computer system. The volunteer will be masked and at a distance.
  • Maps and clue sheets will be distributed at the Start area. See the (forthcoming) Course Setter’s Notes for details.
  • While on the course, make sure to not touch control units with your hands, and immediately move away at least 3 meters after punching so someone else can approach the control. Same with the Finish​—​move away after you punch the FINISH control, even though you are tired.
  • Before downloading, make sure you have recovered and put on your face covering. Go to the E-punch table one person at a time.
  • Please resist the temptation to socialize afterwards. We will have a videoconference Sunday evening so everyone can re-hash the courses and compare notes.
  • Let us know if you get COVID-19 soon after this event, so we can notify everyone. If this happens, we will not identify you as the infected person. We will also cooperate with official contact tracing, and trust that you will do that as well.

_______________

¹ Please contact the if the document link above is broken or out of date.