Rosarie Kiernan, the treasurer of GEN, will be the new IOA Secretary starting after Christmas. Her e-mail address is rosariekiernan@hotmail.com and her postal address is 87 Meadowvale, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.

The biggest shake up ever to hit the Irish Orienteering Association is on the way.

The IOA Development Conference at Portumna on November 19-20 suggested a new, leaner, meaner IOA Executive with dramatic reductions in the size of the committee and changes in the command structure. These proposals will be voted on at an Extraordinary General Meeting immediately after the IOA AGM at the end of April.

It is vital that all clubs are behind this re-organisation in order to make it work. If you believe that Irish orieneering is in crisis, you'll be at the AGM. If you don't believe that orienteering is in crisis, make sure you go to the AGM too.

Severe manpower shortages in Connacht have reached such a state that next year's Connacht Championships may not go ahead. The situation is compounded by Connacht having to run the 2000 Irish Championships in April. Perhaps the two events could be combined, with the best Connacht competitor at IOC being the Connacht Champion? (Though the best Connacht competitors are likely to be key figures in running IOC ...) STOP PRESS!! TIO has just heard that the Connacht Champs have been set for Sunday March 26th and the Irish Champs for Sunday/Monday April 30/ May 1, the May Bank Holiday weekend. Exact venues and land access have yet to be confirmed, but the events won't be on Ballygawley!

Overwork and a lack of new blood in orienteering are leading Cork Orienteers to consider running the Shamrock O-Ringen every other year so the event may not go ahead in 2000.

This issue contains entry forms for the Jan Kjellstrom 2000 competition in Scotland at Easter and for Croese 2000 in Wales in August.

If you have never been orienteering outside Ireland, you should give one of these a try. If you have orienteered elsewhere you will know about the quality terrain in Scotland and the atmosphere of a 6-Day holiday event and you won't want to miss them either.

The JK is based at Aberfeldy in Pertshire and features the infamous Craig a Barns, extended to include an open area. Students of nuclear power will be interested in visiting Trawsfynydd power station, close to the event centre. The events are in southern Snowdonia which is easily accessible from Ireland and a guaranteed welcome awaits: (Croeso = Fáilte).

Well, partly. Ronan Cleary, who has managed the Irish World Championships, World Cup and Senior Home International teams for the past few years, is taking a well-earned rest. Ronan stepped down after the World Championships in Scotland but he is prepared to keep on with the Home International team for the moment. Thanks for all the hard work, Ronan: It's one of many more or less thankless tasks which are vital for the survival of the sport at the top level.

The call has gone out for a replacement and Gerry Brady (CorkO) has indicated an interest but no final decision has yet been taken. There is a squad training and meeting weekend in Ireland on December 18/19 and it may be that a decision has been reached by then.

Bishopstown Orienteering Club from Cork narrowly defeated the holders, Cork Orienteers, to take the Irish Orienteer inter-club trophy at Dundrum Wood, Co. Tipperary on October 3rd.

In a poorly supported event, BOC and CorkO had no problem getting to the finals. The announcement of the result had to await clarification of the membership status of some of the runners.

The support for the event was disappointing: perhaps we should revert to the regional knockout competition with a three way final? The CompassSport Cup rules, on which the TIO trophy was based, have moved on since the last TIO rules revision, and would now cope with a many-club final without difficulty. One point needing clearing up, though, is the membership one. If a club gives free membership, how can one be a "paid up member"?

The Committee for 1999/2000 is as follows:-

Chairman - vacant.

Secretary Vera Murtagh, 19 The Cloisters, Terenure, Dublin 6w, 4908237.

Treasurer Jean Mullen, 331 Collins Avenue, Dublin 9, 8373003

Mapping Officer, Pat Healy, Cut Bush, The Curragh, Co.Kildare,

Fixtures Officer Alan Ayling, 618 Howth Road, Dublin 5, 8315234

Coaching Officer, Damien Cashin, Tomdarragh,Roundwood, Co.Wicklow, 2818212

Technical Officer, Aonghus O'Cleirigh, 60 Blackheath Park, Clontarf, Dublin 3, 8336263

Development Officer - vacant

Junior Officer, Monica Nowlan, 67 Glenbrook Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin,14. 4933551

Irish runners for World Cup: Several Irish Squad members are globetrotting after the World Championships. Marcus Pinker and his sister Faye are in New Zealand, as is Colm Rothery. Marcus and Colm are expected to run in World Cup races 1 & 2 in Japan (Classic and Relay) on April 15-16 and 3 & 4 (Short and Classic) in Australia on April 22-24 next.

Other World Cup races in 2000 are: Events 5, 6 & 7 (Relay, Classic & Short) on June 30 - 4 July 4 in Ukraine; 8 & 9 (Short, Medium, Classic and Ultra-short) July 18-21 in Finland; Events 10, 11 & 12 (Short, Classic, Relay) on October 11-14, in Portugal.

Jonny Scott, editor of the NIOA Newsletter Crossing Point, has resigned from the job and seems to be giving up orienteering. Jonny was the editor of Crossing Point for the past two and a half years. However, he has since decided not to give up orienteering and will remain on as Crossing Point editor.

Colin Henderson, NIOA Chairman, is planning on organising a trip for his club, LVO, to the Swedish 5-Day in July. It's a trip every orienteer should make at least once.

Greece and Jamaica have been accepted as members of the International O-Federation and Brazil is not a full member. This brings the number of affiliated countries to 55. Greece and Jamaica will have their membership ratified at the 2001 General Assembly in Austria.

The Finnish broadcasting company, YLE, has contracted to produce 60 to 90 minutes of TV coverage for each of the three races (short, classic and relay) at the 2001 World Championships in Finland. YLE will also produce a one hour edited programme for Eurosport.

BOC2000: The British Championships is in Herefordshire, the individual at Haugh Wood and Fownhope park (GR SO 590365) and the relays at Penyard Hill (GR SO 613225) on May 13-14 2000. Details from Rollo Rumford (0044-1905-726967), e-mail rollo.rumford@cwcom.net. Web site http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/~boc2000

You can frequently find the results of events published on the IOA website very soon after the event. You don't have to wait for TIO to be published or for the organisers to think of sending the results to TIO: just check out the website- if you have a computer etcetera, of course. The results of last year's (1998) Shamrock O-Ringen can be found there too.

With the demise of the AFAS office in the House of Sport at the end of this year the IOA's answering machine will have to find a new home. When this happens there will be no point in dialling 01-4569099. If there's any news about the new number it will be in TIO and probably on the IOA's website.

Did any of you see World Short-Diatance Champion Yvette Baker on the BBC sports panel game, "They Think It's All Over" in early December? Two blindfolded panel members had to feel their way around and try to guess who she was. Needless to say, they didn't have a clue. It's good to see orienteering on TV, but we must try to get it a higher profile than this where orienteers are paraded almost as some kind of freaks.

Congratulations to Una Creagh on winning the club championships at the Curragh on December 5th. Her class-adjusted minutes per km beat the rest of the field (obviuosly!). Thanks to CNOC for allowing the competition to run with their League event.

Finally, a reminder that the AGM is on February 18th.

This letter arrived some time ago but was lost in the bowels of a computer.

"In TIO89 the editor commented on the unfairness of Juniors being excluded from the Leinster League night-O event in Killiney Hill. As controller for the event I enforced the IOA rule which explicitly states that under-15s are not allowed to compete in night-O. Regardless of whether or not we thought it safe for them to compete (which we did not), we applied the rule in order to remain insured. However I do agree with the editor about the unfairness of this as some adults compete against juniors on colour coded courses.

Maybe next year there could be one junior-only Leinster League event? This would help correct the night-O anomaly and at the same time give the juniors a chance to score high points without competing against adults, thus increasing their enthusiasm for the league."

Marcus Geoghegan, Ajax

9 Jan Hellfire Flash WL1 5.6km 289m 12.00 hrs

16 Jan Corrin Hill Relay Max 4k 2.30 Fermoy.

19 Jan Quiz. 8.30 RTE Social Club, Donnybrook, Dublin 4

16 Feb Munster Schools Champs, Claragh Mountain, Millstreet

27 Feb Ravens Rock, Glencree, Co. Wicklow. 12.00

1 Mar Irish Schools Champs, St. Columba's, Rathfarnham, Dublin.

5 Mar Irish Universities Champs (Maulin) 12.00

12 Mar Slieve Gullion, 1 pm.

18 Mar Tibradden, Co. Dublin 3 pm..

22 Mar Quiz. 8.30 RTE Social Club, Donnybrook

2 Apr Doon Co. Limerick. 2.30.

19 Apr Hellfire Relays, Co. Dublin. 7.30 pm.

Full details from the IMRA website http://homepages/iol.ie/~imra or from Douglas Barry (01) 2868180.