Get a summary of news items delivered to your Inbox (nearly) every week—
subscribe to NEOC Update.
The inaugural Winter Challenge was a competition of 30 courses, distributed across 9 MA-based venues. Forty-three members submitted their efforts, totaling 184 courses completed during the winter months! Members were encouraged to aim for three challenge levels.
Congratulations to all the participating NEOC members—
9 courses: You have mastered the Winter O-challenge and will be listed as a Winter O-challenge Master on the NEOC website (and contacted to help volunteer in the spring).
Bill Binette
Magnus Bjorkman
Jim Crawford
Rick Keilty
Dorina Nimigean
Mark O’Connell
Karen Yeowell
6 to 8 courses: You will roll into the spring O-season ready to show off your navigation skills. You have earned yourself a 2021 Winter O-Challenge refrigerator magnet.
Jason DeJoannis
Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck
Ian Finlayson
Michael Hughes
Andy McIlvaine
Jim Paschetto
Paige Williams
1 to 5 courses: Who said you couldn’t orienteer in New England in the winter? Congrats to the 25 plus members who got into the woods and strengthened the synapses in their brain over the winter months!
Thanks to Bridget Hall, NEOC and OUSA Junior National Team Member, for creating this challenge for our community! Please send any feedback on this activity to
NEOC is committed to offering a variety of events this year. Since orienteering is inherently a COVID-friendly activity (if you don’t mingle long at registration or hang out at a checkpoint in the woods), we will be offering a range of opportunities for our members and the broader community.
In-person Events: These events will look similar to what you have seen in the past with a two hour start window for participants, on-site volunteers, and use of SI timing devices and QR codes. In 2021 it is likely that pre-registration will be required for all of these events. Since permits are still hard to obtain, spring in-person events will be limited with current plans to have additional events in the fall.
Bring-your-own Map Events: These events are open to NEOC members and the general public, and will typically extend for a week or more. Checkpoints will be marked with QR codes (instead of control flags) and participants will be able to time their course by using QR codes or self-timing.
Member Training Activities: These activities will be offered intermittently to members throughout the year. Details of these activities will be emailed to current 2021 members.
National Event: Pending permit approval by the Massachusetts DCR, NEOC is planning to host a National Event at Willard Brook State Forest in early October. More to come on this activity! It will be great to bring orienteers from surrounding clubs to NEOC-land for some high-level orienteering on a new map, and also open up the opportunity for earning national ranking points for our own members.
Thursday Evening Spring Park-O Sprint series: NEOC will partner with the orienteers at CSU (Cambridge Sports Union) to offer in-person, low-key, short-course events in local urban parks (April 22 – May 27). Pre-registration is required. Register for the series or for each individual event. NEOC membership does not cover fees for this event.
Scout Orienteering: Spring Scout-O will be April 17 at Hale Reservation, and Fall Scout-O is tentatively scheduled (pending permit approval) for October 30-31 at Nobscot Scout Reservation. Adult Leader Training will be offered the week prior to each event, with the goal that Girl Scout and Scout BSA leaders feel comfortable introducing orienteering to their youth and bringing them to a Scout-O event. Scouts are welcome at most NEOC events, although groups are requested to email the Event Director ahead of time.
If you have feedback on the events you like, places to map, or anything orienteering-related, please let us know.
The Winter Challenge has been extended through April 2.
The Winter Challenge is a members-only competition of 30 courses, distributed across 9 venues. There are no streamers in the woods for any of these courses. You can "punch" with O-range (on certain Garmin watches) or the Usynligo app (at 4 venues) ...or just use your navigation skills to be sure you're at the correct feature.
Set yourself a training challenge:
The Winter Challenge is a training activity for NEOC members. If you're not a member, join NEOC now, and details will be sent to you.
Thanks to Bridget Hall, NEOC and OUSA Junior National Team Member, for creating this challenge for our community! Please send any questions to
Orienteering USA seeks a person versed in Environmental and Land Access issues to serve both here in the U.S. and as a liaison to the International Orienteering Federation (IOF). Interested persons should contact
The Environment and Sustainability Commission (ESC) of the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) will be in direct contact with such persons in each National Federation. The main purpose is the establishment of a broad consultation network on sustainability issues, given the variety of social and environmental contexts in member countries.
In the near future, the IOF-ESC is planning a new edition of the survey Orienteering and the Environment, which was last carried out in 2012. A network of reference persons, appointed by each Federation, would make sure that the Survey provides reliable and useful results on which to base the future priorities of the IOF Environment and Sustainability Commission, and give feedback to all IOF members.
Congratulations to Bridget Hall and Keegan Harkavay of NEOC who are on the 2021 Junior National Team. Congratulations also to Bridget for joining the Senior team Development squad, and to Mori Finlayson for joining the Junior Development Team.
Read the full announcement on the OUSA site.