Meet your Board member.
This is the sixth in a weekly series where we introduce you to the people entrusted to run our sport in NSW.
Governance Director Robert Spry (Southern Highlands). Joined the Board 2008.
In many sports, the only way you’d get to compete in 18 countries is by being an elite.
Orienteering – and long-standing Board member Robert Spry in particular – is a great example of the opposite. Robert has never had designs on being in the top echelon of our sport, despite being continuously involved since his first event at Manly Dam in 1973.
His competitive highlights are being North American Champion in M35B in 1980, and nine first placings (including Easter and the Oceania Long) in M55AS in 2011.
Yet he has been able to experience wildly different terrains – from the heath of Scotland to the slopes of the Matterhorn in Switzerland – because that is what orienteering offers everyone.
Robert has travelled extensively through Asia for work as a civil engineer specialising in all aspects of water. He researched and co-authored the Malaysian Stormwater Design Manual. His work on flood studies included early applications of GIS, digital mapping and LIDAR which has now totally transformed the production of orienteering maps.
He is a Level 2 Controller and has set or organised many events from club level to international. He was organiser for the Oceania Sprint at Wagga Wagga in 2019, which he reckons was the first orienteering event in Australia with more than 1,000 entries.
Robert has also been on the Board of Orienteering Australia and represented OA 3 times at IOF Congresses.
In ONSW he has been Secretary, Treasurer and recently revised the constitution.
Being on the Board was a natural progression from being involved at a club level, and he felt that his skills could be effective. Plus, it was something to do after he retired.
Robert has been on the Board of the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) for a number of years, and his experience in management and governance partly derives from that involvement.
It’s been a long journey since his time in the Scouts led him to Manly Dam. He liked the short course so much that he immediately did the medium course that same day. He signed up on the spot with Bennelong Orienteers, as they were then known, and the rest as they say is history.
