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We recently received news of the passing of Paul Pearson.
Paul was a long-time member of NEOC's Board of Directors, where all members benefitted from his knowledge and judgment. For many years, Paul managed NEOC's presence in Connecticut. Most recently, he handled map requests for our permanent courses.
Paul was a gifted instructor and OUSA "Navigation Certified Coach." He often drew the distinction between "compassing" (blindly following a bearing) and "orienteering."
NEOC sends our condolences to Paul's wife, Sue, and their family.
The 2017 NEOC membership form is (finally) on the air!
The fees are the same, but there are some changes that will streamline meet registration.
You must show your NEOC member card at registration to get the benefits!
Don't worry—your member card will be e-mailed to you right after payment (as a .pdf file), and you can easily get another copy sent anytime.
The Winter Party usually features some sort of map-oriented puzzle for people to ponder to when not eating or socializing. This year's involved matching portions of orienteering maps to a list of location in the U.S. and abroad. Three of 17 entrants got perfect scores: Alex Jospe, Ethan Childs and the Jeff Saeger/Judy Karpinski team.
For those interested in statistics, a list of places and number of correct answers is shown below. As might be predicted, the two NEOC maps used (Nobscot and Noon Hill) got the highest number of correct answers, with UNO's Burnt Mountain just behind.
Map Location | Number Correct |
Medfield, MA | 15 |
Sudbury, MA | 15 |
Hanover, NH | 14 |
California | 11 |
Maryland | 11 |
Wisconsin | 9 |
Eastern Washington State | 5 |
Sweden | 4 |
Western Washington State | 3 |
Italy | 3 |
Noted by Hans Bengtsson:
MapAnt generated an O-map of almost all of Finland, about 340,000 square kilometers, with 2.5m contours. The project used about 100 computers working in parallel to produce the map in three weeks.
As part of the recent North American Championships in Hanover, NH, NEOC's first President, Hans Bengtsson, presented his overview of the beginning of orienteering in North America. Hans generously shared his slides with us.