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Saturday, 07 March 2020 13:58 |

WARA Directory

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WARA TEAM DIRECTORY	Name
Committee
President	Andre Morkel
Vice President	Ann Smithson
Secretary	Chris Ryan
Treasurer - co	Jen Kelly
Treasurer - co	Duncan Ellis
General Committee	Elena Ghergori
General Committee	Joel Tate
General Committee	Corinne Mercer
General Committee	Joe Scibiorski
General Committee	Shane Lewis

Operational Support, C = committee position
Volunteer Coordinator, C	Andre Morkel (Interim)
Event Coordinator, C	Corinne Mercer
Locations Officer - co, C	Elena Ghergori
Locations Officer - co, C	Joel Tate
Safety Coordinator, C	Shane Lewis
First Aid Coordinator	Vacant
Training Officer, C	Ann Smithson
Administration Coordinator	Peter Mann
Hash House Coordinator	Steve Sertis
Membership and Entry Coordinator	Andre Morkel
Camp Manager	Mark Jones

Event Production Team
Equipment Team (Co-leads)	Chris Lee
Equipment Team (Co-leads)	Peter Mattner
Equipment Team - additional	Sue Lee (same email as Chris Lee)
Equipment Team - additional	Ron Oliver
Equipment Team - additional	Tony Scalzo
Equipment Team - additional	John Rollason (batteries)
Equipment Team - additional	Susan Rollason
Equipment Team - additional	Selena Wilson
Equipment Team - additional	Paul Szijiarto
Equipment Team - additional	Mark Jones
Equipment Team - additional	Sylvia & Jeremy
Mapping Officer	Owen Horton
FCU Scoring Electronics	Jim Langford
Badges	Peter Mattner, Ron Oliver
Trophies	Peter Mattner, Ron Oliver
Preparing flags	Equipment Team
Food truck pickup checker	Corinne Mercer

Promotions and Entries
Enews	Sara Culverhouse
Facebook	Kim McMullan
Webmaster	Andre Morkel
Online Registrations	Andre Morkel (retiring)
Lonely Rogainer Coordinator	Penny Dufty

Misc Roles
Data Archives and Statistics Working Group	Grand Joldes
Data Archives and Statistics Working Group	Bryce Crage
IT cloud hosting, domain and emails	Peter Trenaman
Auditor	Brian Austin
Membership Protection Information Officer	Eva Scibiorski

Working Groups
ARC Event WG	Ann Smithson (lead)
FCU Scoring System Upgrade WG	Owen Horton (lead), Andre Morkel, Joel Tate, Joe Scibiorski
Event Registration and Website Upgrade WG	Andre Morkel (lead)
Data Archives and Statistics Working Group	Grand Joldes, Bryce Crage, Jim Langford

Profiles

Team Profiles

Andre Morkel President	I started rogaining in 2007 and immediately got hooked and hardly missed one for years. My first nationals was the WA Wandering West in 2009, and world champs was NZ in 2010. I continue to enjoy travelling interstate and internationally to compete and experience a wide variety of terrains and excellent locations. Nowadays my rogaining is also competing for time with raising kids and cycling, orienteering and adventure racing.
Ann Smithson Vice-President	My first rogaine was the "Wandering West" in 2009, having arrived in the State a year or so previously with an orienteering background. Funnily enough that rogaine proved to be a National Champs, and after admiring the dizzy scores of some of the competitors from afar I thoroughly caught the rogaining bug. Come the LiveWire by 2010 I/we had learned enough to attain a reasonably dizzy score too! Son Max competed in the Down South rogaine, the next Nationals held in WA in 2016, at the age of 15 days, though score was down quite a bit compared to LiveWire. By Bunuru Dreamtime in 2016 my rogaine claim to fame was managing both 3rd Mixed with one team and 1st Family with a totally different one! I am currently training my two young (3.5 and 1.5 years) rogainers in the hope they are sufficiently enthused such that we will corner the Family trophy for many many years to come.
Jen Kelly & Duncan Ellis Treasurers	.
Chris Ryan Secretary	.
Corinne Mercer Event Coordinator	.
Janice Johnston Past Volunteer Coordinator	I started Rogaining in 2017 after attending the Dryandra Training weekend with the family, so I’m relatively new to the sport. We loved the weekend. It’s a sport that the whole family can do at various levels. I’ve done more volunteering in Hash House than competing so far due to a shoulder injury and I still need to be reminded which way to hold the compass at times. But at least I’m with others who know which way is up. As a family we love the great outdoors and enjoy spending time together, rogaining is the perfect balance.
Elena Ghergori Locations Officer - co	About 1982 was when I first tried out this amazing “new sport” for a couple of years. Nil preparation, nil support ,poor equipment, always getting lost, lots of fun. 30 years later rejoined and discovered how much the sport had progressed . I found an amazing group of people working behind the scenes. After a few volunteer stints decided to join the committee and now feel part of a big rogaining family.
Joe Sciborski Committee Member	.
Joel Tate Locations Officer - co	.
Peter Mann Administration Coordinator	I started Rogaining on the “Just a bit of Parrotbush” in October 2002. Initially, it was to introduce my son to bushwalking. He did a few, but he was much happier out of sight of dad. The buzz of finding a piece of Corflute swinging in a tree is difficult to explain to some people and the additional description of walking through the bush for many hours, sometimes at night, failed to attract many additional takers. So I teamed up with my brother Keith whose son was also happier being away from dad. Fortunately Keith had a similar enjoyment and we have many fond memories of blaming each other for the navigation errors, (mostly his). I have always been astounded by the sheer scale and efficiency of the volunteers organizing the events and often marvelled at the lack of evidence the event hash site ever existed, the leave no trace principal has been well adhered to. My enjoyment of rogaining prompted me to look for bushwalking activities between Rogaine’s and led me to Join Perth Bushwalkers Club. I have been an active member since 2004 and committee member since 2015. Over that time I have done many bushwalks in the Perth region and a sectional end to end of the Bibbulmun Track, completing my last section in November 2020. I look forward to contributing to the sport and organization which has helped me develop, in many ways, over the years.
Owen Horton Mapping officer This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 0409 106 461	I did my first rogaine(Grand Dad’s Army) in 1998 with my son Ashley when he turned 14. We came 15th and took out the 1st Novice at the State Championships. How could you top that, I thought, a state title! A couple of events later, at Hillman Hunter, we managed to scrape in 5th. That is it, I thought, I can rest on my laurels now, not likely to do that well again. Since then I have won a couple of event, won an Australian title (MV, 2008) and competed in two World Championships, including a 38th place in 2016. This just goes to show that you can get better with age. My only regret so far is that I have not come 7th – I have badges for all the other top 10 places. But I am still rogaining so I am sure that that will come eventually. So why do I do it – well, Rogaining is Fun! You get to see parts of Australia you would not otherwise see. You get to do it at your own pace – as fast or as slow as you like. It is an ecletic mix of people but we all get on as we have one interest in common – being out in the bush. And what is there not to like about that hash fire on a cold winter night?
Kim McMullan Facebook	.
Penny Dufty Lonely Rogainer Coordinator This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (08) 9299 8228	I did my first rogaine in 1986, in a team with my husband and sons, aged 14 and 16. The rest of the family had been orienteering for about a year but I was more involved with equestrian pursuits. I didn’t have a compass and relied on the others to navigate. We didn’t understand that the hash-house provided food so we took our own but neglected to take chairs, a serious oversight. As I became involved in orienteering I found I was frequently being asked at events if I knew anyone who was looking for a rogaine partner. If I had heard of someone, I’d usually forgotten who it was. In due course I became editor of the WARA newsletter and took the opportunity to offer my services a s a partner-broker. Over the years I’ve put together many teams, some very successful and others who just enjoyed being able to take part. Learning to navigate was probably the most empowering thing I’ve ever done. I did a number of events with my husband and struggled to keep up but was fortunate enough to be asked to partner another woman and we quickly became a proficient team. That felt really good. Now I’m 75 and have done scores of rogaines. Injuries forced me to pull back but I really missed the sport so I still get out a couple of times a year and compete against the young 65-year-old ultravets. I still delight in the fact that everyone in a rogaine is doing the same thing. Sometimes we feel as though we’re the only people in the forest but other teams usually appear as we approach a control. We’ve made many friends over the years so we can often greet other competitors by name. Sometimes they’re relatives – all our children and grandchildren have attended rogaines as well as siblings, nieces and nephews.
Steve Sertis Hash House Co-ordinator	Most of you may know me from my role at the Bibbulmun Track Foundation. I originally found out about Rogaining through Vince Harding who was the WARA Bibbulmun Track maintenance volunteer coordinator. In fact I met many WARA members, well before I did my first rogaine, at a Bibbulmun Track campsite rebuild near Albany in 2001. It took me a little time to get around to it but my first rogaine was The Dish in around 2000. I joined the committee in 2010 as Hash House catering coordinator. I recall that I very nervously ordered food for the first time for the Carolless Rogaine. Well, we didn’t run out of food – we just had too much! I have always threatened to make improvements like no longer having sausages and bacon but swapping them for tofu sausages and not-dogs. Did I mention that I’m vegetarian? I still get the occasional comment about the lack of Hash Browns which were phased out so so long ago now. I stayed on the committee until 2018 and still continue my role as Hash House coordinator. The power system used at the events was a very exciting project for me. Having some experience in renewable energy systems it was great to develop the power system from scratch doing the research and power audit, proposal to WARA, and the building and implementation of the system more than 10 years ago. It was also great to work with others on this project such as Julian Ilich, Vince Harding and Geoff Monk. My main role in life is and has been for the past 20 years, the Events Manager and Lead Guide at the Bibbulmun Track Foundation. Like some rogainers, I have walked the entire length of the trail, well, more than a few times. I have a strong passion for the environment and I really believe in reconnecting people with nature and that it is the widespread disassociation with nature which has contributed to many of our environmental and societal woes. See you out on the course soon!
Sara Culverhouse e-news editor This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it	.
Eva Sciborski Membership Protection Information Officer	.
Mark Jones Camp Manager	.
Equipment team This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it	We have a team of volunteers that manage our equipment between events, undertaking repairs and maintenance. The team is big enough for some to go on holidays without everything falling into a heap. If you feel you could help please reach out, you never know: you might even have some fun!

Who do I talk to about

Volunteering for an event

WARA is always looking for volunteers to set and/or vet an event, or help out at admin, hash house (food tent), drive the truck or to be our first aid officer at events.

If you are able to help, contact the WARA volunteer coordinator via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,

Entering an event/Queries about your event entry

Many common questions about entering an event are answered on Entry Central. If not, contact Andre Morkel, WARA Event Entry coordinator via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or give Andre call on 0418 941 892.