We squeeked by with the weather today at the Advanced event at Umstead Park.  The rain let up, and we only had a short light shower during the event.  We had the start and finish at the amphitheater, but since no one was using the shelter, we hung out there.  We are working around some technical problems with the download box, so results may not be in the same format.  While we were trying to work around the download box problems the printer battery got low and we began having printer problems, but of course it was not obvious as to what the problems were.  We finally put the charger on the printer and at least solved that problem.

The courses were challenging so the Orienteering was first class despite the electronic problems, and it is the trek through the woods that we come out for.  There may have been a 70 meter error in one control that may have been set on the wrong depression.  The area was open enough that it didn’t cause too much lost time.  We will have a final determination later when we get the report from the event directors.

You may recall that we have been working on the update for the Umstead map for a couple of years.  Well we finally finished it.  Actually we have been running our events on it for about a year, but hadn’t gotten all the final details finished for printing the map to sell through the stores.

Well the map is done now, and it is printed on water resistant tear proof paper that is very light and supprisingly strong.  It is currently being sold through the Umstead Coolition, and Great Outdoor Provision Company.  The retail price is $10, and you can purchase at the park office or GOPC.  You can contact us directly if you have a resale number and want to purchase the maps to sell.

A couple of months ago we discovered that the IRS had no record of BOK even though we took care of all that stuff years ago, and have been using our tax number for about 20 years.  In addition the complexity of applying for 501(c)(3) status became vastly more complex in the intervening years.  Well we got the application and had to change our bylaws and adopt new resolutions and jump through a few hoops, but we finally had success.  We received our 501(c)(3) status and it was retroactive back to when we first incorporated.  So all is well that ends well.

We have our permits for the next three Umstead events.

January 4, 2009 Umstead South Amphitheater
January 25, 2009 Umstead South Large Picnic Shelter
February 22, 2009 Umstead North Large Picnic Shelter

The park policies have changed quite a bit.  We now need to rent a facility that is capable of holding over 100 people for our Regular events.  That boils down to the large picnic shelters at either the north or south side of the park and the Whispering Pines and Lapihio Camps .

We can still use other areas in the park for our advanced events with a limit of about 25 competitors.

The other change is that we can’t reserve facilities for March and beyond until January 2, so that means, if we want a particular location and date we need to be at the park before 7am and in line on January 2.  Life gets more complex as the population density increases.

Renting these facilities greatly increases the cost of an event, but we won’t make any changes to our event or membership fees this year  We will have to reaccess our fees at our meeting in September, and there is a good chance we will have to increase our fees for 2010.

We have submitted our permit to Umstead for our 2009 schedule, and we are waiting for their approval of our dates.  When that is done we will get the insurance (BOK provides insurance through the United States Orienteering Federation that is paid through your event fees.)  Umstead is making some changes to the procedures for our use of the park, and they are not final  as of yet.  Our events have gotten larger, and the area population has grown putting more pressure on the park.  So it is likely our fees will go up, and our use of the park more restricted.   To take some of the pressure off of Umstead we will try and have more events at other places.  We will keep you posted.