Orienteering Australia will be convening an open meeting on high performance pathways in Australian orienteering this Saturday evening in St. Helens. This meeting is open to anyone – particularly coaches and athletes – interested in the development of high performance orienteering in Australia, from the state junior squad level up to the WOC team. We are interested in ideas for improving high performance pathways in the future, and in information exchange from experience of successful programs which already exist, in Australia and overseas.

Areas we are particularly interested in include:

– strengthening the weaker links in our pathways – improving the transition from domestic to international competition, and from junior to senior elite competition

– building a stronger coaching structure and culture in Australian orienteering

– what can we learn from successful programs at the state level?

– learning from successful HP programs internationally (We’re particularly interested in learning more about what the NZ juniors do, and would like to get someone from NZ to the meeting if we can)

Ideas coming out of this meeting will form part of the input to planning our high performance program into the future (starting with a meeting/hookup of the HP Management Group which I’m hoping to convene either late in the carnival or shortly thereafter).

The meeting is scheduled for 8pm on Saturday 22 September, at the Portland Memorial Hall in St. Helens.

Anyone unable to attend is welcome to submit ideas by e-mail to oa_president@netspeed.com.au.