Let’s use correct terms…
First of all: my apologies for not updating the blog in the beginning of December…. Instead of updating the blog, other appointments have been keeping me busy. A lot have happened since the first blog posting two months ago. Let’s go through the most important ones in chronological order.
About a month ago we had so called ”information transfer meeting”. Organisers of Valio-Jukola shared their experiences, don’t and do’s, etc. to us who have everything yet to come. My opinion is that we got a great deal of very necessary information. Valio Jukola organisers pointed out areas to be improved and gave us development suggestions. All information gained will be utilised as much as possible in Jämsä-Jukola. At the same time also the organisers of Jukola 2014 got a whole bunch of useful information.
I highly recommend open information sharing as this one to every event organiser. Too often organisers concentrate on bragging about their success and issues which need improvement are not discussed. I bet it has happened also in Jukola… I strongly believe that admitting mistakes and discussing them help the future organisers to improve. Well, admitting your own mistakes is never easy…
Enrolment for Jukola has also started! This time Telemark Team Örn was the quickest team to enrol for Jukola and Paha Rasti for Venla. Jämsä Jukola congratulates the teams! Hopefully these teams are as quick in relay as they were in registration J
About two weeks ago we proudly presented the guardian of Jämsä-Jukola: Lauri Kivinen, CEO of YLE (Finland’s national public service broadcasting company). He has seen many Jukola relays and is an orienteer himself. He is very enthusiastic about his role as a guardian. I am confident that our cooperation will be fruitful. Let’s hope that our guardian gets a chance to experience Jukola athmosphere in the woods! For sure it is not every Jukola where you can see the guardian himself running in the relay.
Finally to the subject I mentioned already in the title. I have noticed how important it is to use correct and same terms consistently. One legendary YLE commentator visited Jämsä a few weeks ago and told me one good example. The commentator had requested coffee and sandwiches to be delivered to the commentator’s booth (selostamo in Finnish) during the night. Even after repeating the request there was no coffee and sandwiches in commentator’s booth. At the same time behind the wall in announcer’s booth (kuuluttamo in Finnish) the staff was wondering why they got so much coffee and sandwiches they had not even ordered. In the morning they found out that their coffee was served to announcer’s booth instead of commentator’s booth because the delivery personnel had mixed the Finnish terms kuuluttamo and selostamo! And what did we learn? Pay attention to instructions and terms if your coffee supply depends on them!
We ran into the same problem recently also in the meeting of organising committee. There is usually two events on Friday, one night before Jukola, and both events were called ”media event”. The other event is only for media to meet and interview top teams. Another event is top secret and therefore held behind closed doors. That is the meeting where TV production team is instructed. In that meeting also the maps and routes are introduced. Imagine what would happen if these two events were mixed?! Top teams would see the maps on the big screen just a night before the relay! What do the rules say about that? This will not happen in Jämsä Jukola as we changed the names to avoid confusion.
The calendar is speeding. We have only a few working days before Christmas and then we’ll relax and enjoy holidays. After Christmas there is only six months to get everything ready. Jukola office is on holiday during Christmas and more detailed information you will find on our web pages.
Last but not least: I wish you all relaxing and merry Christmas and “checkpointful” New Year!
-Ville
