G'day Rogainers,

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Socialgaine 2017 – Sunday November 26th – Results, Leg Splits & Photos available!

90 teams fronted up to Elermore Vale to brave the hot and humid Huntergaine, in an event where both strategic planning and efficient movement in hilly terrain were rewarded.

Thanks to everyone who attended the event and made it the success that it was. Space does not permit listing all the great performances, but a special shout out goes to:

  • Overall winners Jess Baker, Nikolay Nikolaev & Richard Green who collected 3170 of a total 3410 points, travelled 53.5km, leading 2nd place by a whopping 300 points!
  • Junior winners Ivan Koudashev & Elena Koudashev, who collected a remarkable 2800 points and placed third overall. A force to be reckoned with for the future.

  • Winners of the pre-start hat competition, Marg and Rob Cook. Few can argue that the hats suited a rogaining event perfectly!

    Hats off to Rob and Marg Cook (towards the right) who turned past rogaining maps into very protective headdresses!

  • Winners of the Daleks photo competition – the Gordon family

Of course, a special thanks goes to Samantha Howe for the course and event coordinators Bob Gilbert & Carolyn Rigby, particularly since they coordinated the Lake Macquarie event only months ago. Their team of helpers also warrant a big thanks for their hard work planning, setting & helping out.

ACTRA Champs – Results & Leg Splits available!

The ACT Rogaining Championships were held in early November in the beautiful coastal Murramarang National Park near Bateman’s Bay, in what sounded like a fantastic event. Unsurprisingly, the indestructible Julie Quinn and David Baldwin took out the overall win in the 24h event with 4000 points, but a shout out to NSW’s Ronnie Taib and David Williams who came in an honourable second place with 3860, also taking the win for Men’s Open. Also a shout out to Nicole Mealing and Ellen Braybon who took the overall Women’s win at 2960.

NSWRA Strategic Plan – Available here!

The NSW Rogaining Association has been in existence for almost 40 year, and many names that are visible on the archived newsletters from the 1980s still regularly compete today. We have averaged 1,000 unique competitors each year for the past few years, and our annual participation rates have increased each year since 2011.

On looking at data more closer, a clear trend is the case: 86% of entrants have done 4 events or less in the past 4 years. Why is this? At our committee meetings we have not come up with a consensus as to why, only theories.

Would you like to see more events? Longer events? Shorter events? More novelty events?

Our strategic vision attempts to combat these questions, and to develop the sport, with the aim of expanding the sport to make it grow at the same astonishing rate that we are seeing in related adventure sports, but we would love you to give us feedback on this draft strategic plan. You can do this in one of two ways:

President’s Report

Another year passes by and, yet again, interesting events and explorations have been created by the NSW Rogaining Association. Congratulations and thanks to the people who created each rogaine:

  1. Ted Woodley, for the 6-hour Metrogaine in the lower Lane Cove Valley, his third and final course exploring the Lane Cove River;
  2. Steve Ryan & Gill Fowler, for the 3-hr Minigaine around Cronulla’s beaches and bays;
  3. Ian Almond & Ian Cross, for the 12/6-hr Autumngaine at Bungonia Caves, notable for the number of lookouts;
  4. Phil Whitten, Mike Hotchkis and Damon Vandermaat, for the 6-hr Paddy Pallin Rogaine at Arthursleigh, near Big Hill. Open bushland, sheep paddocks, the Wollondilly River and barbed wire fences;
  5. Ian Dempsey, Bert Van Netten, Bob Gilbert & Carolyn Rigby for the 12/6-hr Lake Macquarie Rogaine, with its usual mix of Watagans;
  6. Andrew Smith, Toni Bachvarova & Richard Sage for the exceptional 24/8-hr NSW Champs at Mt Werong, high altitude native forest, lovely countryside; and finally
  7. Samantha Howe, Bob Gilbert & Carolyn Rigby for the 6-hr Socialgaine in Newcastle, with more bush and parks than we expected.

Thanks to the many others who helped with each event and the NSWRA committee for steerage and support. In March we highlighted Ted Woodley’s ongoing contribution to our sport by presenting him the Warwick Marsden Volunteers Award for 2017.

I commented at the AGM that my acceptance of the president’s role was primarily to allow Gill Fowler, president for the last five years, to step back a bit from management and focus on her competitiveness. It was thus very pleasing to see Gill win the NSW Championships, with Phil Whitten, affirming the wisdom of my sacrifice.

Other highlights for me involved the review of our agreement with the Paddy Pallin Organisation, who promote and contribute to the annual PP Rogaine in June. We also selected a new logo to freshen up our image and have commenced the conversation about our new strategic plan.

I wish you all a safe, happy summer break. Please stay fit, healthy and refreshed, in preparation for another set of interesting rogaines in 2018. Help at an event, visit a psychologist to reduce your twenty-fo-fo-phobia (fear of 24-hr rogaines), participate in our EOY survey, and let’s make rogaining great again.

Trevor Gollan

2017 End of Year Survey – Fill it in Here!

To help us with the strategic plan, as well give a formal platform for you to tell us what we did well and not so well this year, we have prepared a short (9 questions) survey on our events that we would love you to fill out. This will also be used to make our plans for 2018 and beyond to ensure we are putting on events that satisfy the wishes of our members!

Call for Volunteers

We are greatly appreciative of the myriad of NSWRA members who have flagged their interest in coordinating events for 2018, and now have at least one key contact for almost every event. However, we still need volunteers in almost every capacity for each rogaine next year, so if you haven’t already, please strongly consider putting your hand up as you map out your year.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”
- Mahatma Gandhi

Calendar of Events

Last month’s Socialgaine wrapped up rogaining in NSW for 2017, but the 2018 events can be found here... (Don’t forget to check for spaces in the volunteering table and put your name forward!)

“Life is like topography” – from Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Tristan White

Publicity Officer

NSW Rogaining Association

publicity@nswrogaining.org

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