For over 20 years, we have been extremely fortunate to have a club printer, expertly operated by Alan Gartside, producing all maps for our events. This has been a tremendous asset to the club.
However, relying on a single printing arrangement has occasionally presented challenges. To ensure greater resilience and continuity for our events, we now need to introduce a reliable back-up plan.
Other NIOA clubs, such as FERMO and NWOC, already use external printers (for example, BML) for their event maps. These providers require map files at least 10 days in advance, with final map quantities confirmed by the Monday prior to the event to allow sufficient time for printing and delivery to Northern Ireland.
In any of the cases where an external printer is used going forward, Alan has kindly agreed to continue checking map files before being sent to ensure that orienteering standards are maintained. To facilitate this, we ask all planners to send their Condes and OCAD files to Alan at least two weeks before their event, allowing sufficient time for Alan to do final desk-based checks.
To support this back-up arrangement, we need to also make a small adjustment to our SIEntries closing dates:
- Wednesday Evening Events (WEEs):
Closing time will remain unchanged at 7:00pm on Tuesday (the day before the event), as maps will continue to be printed locally. - All other LVO events:
Entries will now close at midnight on Sunday for events taking place the following weekend, so map numbers can be known by Monday morning. This replaces the previous Monday closing time.
We appreciate that this earlier deadline may be difficult for some members due to personal circumstances. If this applies to you, please contact Mark or Sharon at entries@lvo.org.uk, and we will be happy to make suitable arrangements.
We hope this change provides a more robust and reliable system for delivering high-quality events. We also appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we put these arrangements in place.