Presidents medal awarded to Mike Atherton
Service to orienteering recognised.
Orienteering is a fantastic sport that provides lots of people with hours of pleasure in the Great Outdoors. However, it is only available because of the dedication of volunteers who devote considerable time and expertise to running the official side of the sport. At the recent Scottish Orienteering Association Annual General Meeting, the sports top honour, the President’s Medal, was presented to Mike Atherton of Badenock and Strathspey Orienteering Club, in recognition of his outstanding achievements as a volunteer to Scottish orienteering.
The medal was originally brought to Britain by a Swedish delegation visiting to promote, what was then, a very new sport to Britain. The date on the medal, 1962, is the same as the year the Scottish Orienteering Association was formed and therefore it was more recently mounted and put to use to recognise “outstanding achievements by Scottish orienteers” each year.
In making the award, President Ken Daly explained how Mike Atherton had accomplished a huge amount in recent years and the past twelve months in particular.
Historically, Mike held the post of President of the Scottish Orienteering Association and during that time helped restructure Scotland’s membership scheme. In so doing, he opened the door for improved communications, collaboration and a stronger sport.
Mike was also influential in the creation of the National Orienteering Centre at Glenmore Lodge and continues to support this centre-of-excellence in many ways.
He was also the driving force behind a recent attempt to bring the Junior World Championships to Scotland and despite being unsuccessful on that occasion he sowed the seeds for future bids.
At a British level, Mike negotiated a Working Agreement and partial devolution with the British Orienteering Federation. This had been at stalemate for many years before Mike applied his time and skill to find a successful way forward. The Agreement then opened the door to parallel negotiations that brought fifty percent of multi-day event levies back to the host Nation.
Posted on 16th Jun 06
by Admin -
Filed under: Executive
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