Latest ONSW News
Sandra Stewart (SHOO) has accepted the important new ONSW position of Child Safety Officer.
Sandra has a lot of experience in this area, after 40 years in teaching, and has assisted Development Officer Lyn Malmgron with aspects of child safety for her schools competitions.
"All sports need to have a child-safe environment where children are involved," said Sandra.
"All clubs need to protect children and young people and I would like to be involved in helping orienteering have those strategies to be able to do so."
The role involves putting child safety on the agenda, most importantly having knowledge of the 10 Child Safe Standards, and requirements and laws.
Sandra will advise ONSW on how best to comply and implement this, be the point of contact for club members for matters regarding Child Safety.
This will require commitment from all parties, and Sandra will advise the ONSW Board of any issues and ideas around the new Child Safety Guidelines and their implementation.
Her first orienteering event was while attending College in Wagga in 1977 on a black and white map of Willans Hill after a friend suggested trying something a little more challenging than just going running.
She joined Waggaroos and was a member from 1978-86. After catching up with Paul & Sue Davis in the Southern Highlands, she became a member of the fledgling SHOO club.
Sandra has been on the committee and set courses for the club since then, and since the early 1990s has been involved in the Sydney South West Regional Schools championships.
Meet your Board member.
This is the second in a weekly series where we introduce you to the people entrusted to run our sport in NSW.
Secretary Mary Jane Mahony (Uringa). Joined the Board 2020.
Among the responsibilities that fall under the Secretary’s role are preparing Board meeting documents, compiling the annual report, and ensuring the ONSW Manual is up to date.
As a member of the executive team she works closely with the President and Finance Director, and with staff.
Mary Jane has a strong history in service positions, having been Treasurer and later secretary of Uringa, along with 30 years with Zonta International with numerous elected roles on club and district (NSW & ACT) boards. Zonta advocates for women’s rights: for equality, education and an end to child marriage and gender-based violence.
She got into orienteering in Orange, where Goldseekers founders Basil and Jean Baldwin introduced her to the sport in the mid-1990s, and… “I was hooked.”
“What’s not to like about exploring the bush with a map and the friendships that go with being part of the all-ages orienteering community?”
She lists a sporting highlight as competing with Uringa friends in the Swiss 5-Days in the Alps in Zermatt in 2006… “with the Matterhorn overlooking us every day in a cloudless sky.”
Mary Jane brings to the ONSW Board skills in project management, grant and other proposal writing, teaching and learning, as well as the use of communications technologies.
Despite her strong American accent, Mary Jane has been in Australia for more than 40 years.
ONSW has joined Outdoors NSW/ACT, an organisation with similar goals and a strong record in advocacy.
We hope that through our affiliation with this group Orienteering NSW can continue to develop our sport and what it offers others.
Outdoors NSW represents the Outdoors sector in NSW and the ACT, and supports people/organisations that facilitate outdoor experiences.
By doing this it hopes to
* raise the profile of outdoor recreation & education
* increase participation
* promote & develop the outdoor community
* provide positive experiences
* improve the standards involved in conducting such activities
Ways this can be done are to:
* hold forums, workshops, seminars, annual conferences
* promote via social media
* provide industry updates
* provide social networking events
* have separate committees in areas of climate change, incident reporting, risk management, trail & mountain biking.
We hope that through our affiliation with this group Orienteering NSW can continue to develop our sport and what it offers others.
If clubs or members have any further questions or comments please contact Admin Officer
Due to Covid-19, we have had to postpone our inaugural Port Macquarie State League weekend to July 2022.
We're very excited for our newest club to put on such an important weekend and thank Newcastle for all their mentoring so far. The planned format is two Sprints on the Saturday and a Middle on the Sunday.
Although we are still quietly optimistic about running the NSW champs near Lithgow on Nov 20-21, we have decided to pause the online Eventor entries at this stage until the situation is clearer.
Once the health directions are known we will reopen them. We are preparing to run the event in accordance with the Health Orders and Guidelines at the time. Thanks for your continued patience.
The final MetrO League round for 2021, at St Ives Showground, has also been postponed to 2022.
