As the year comes to an end it’s always a good time to take stock, and a lot happened in Scottish Orienteering in 2024. The World Orienteering Championships (WOC) obviously stands out – the event was very visible and the energy and enthusiasm of the hundreds of volunteers who delivered the event smoothly and safely on each day was clear for all to see. Volunteers are usually visible at our events but there’s also a lot of less visible hard work that goes on behind the scenes. It’s just as important for our sport so I’d like to shine some light on it.
Scottish Orienteering is rooted in volunteering and pitching-in, most obviously at club level where countless individuals give up their time and energy in many different ways. They do a fantastic job at delivering key things that make Scottish Orienteering tick.
However at this time of year we feel it is important to say thank you to those whose, often unacknowledged, contribution is key to supporting our small staff team and helping Scottish Orienteering. There are two types of volunteer role which directly support the SOA – Board Directors are the most often highlighted but this article is here to say thank you to those SOA Volunteers whose quiet work in the background is not often noticed. Their roles include coordinating the competitions calendar, making sure winners get their trophies, providing valuable technical expertise, and managing the Scottish squads for the annual Home Internationals competitions (Juniors, Seniors and Veterans) as well as in the background guiding our work on equality, inclusion and diversity.
They do a fantastic job, don’t seek the spot light -but their dedication, expertise and commitment plays a vital role in ensuring that orienteering continues to flourish across Scotland. As highly active and enthusiastic orienteers they are familiar faces at our events, but you may not be fully aware of the work they do behind the scenes on behalf of all of us. You can see them on our website, Our lovely volunteers , but the current roll of honour is below.
So as we reach the end of another successful year, a special thank a special thank you to them, and here’s to a well-earned break before the start of another busy calendar!
Current SOA volunteers: (in alphabetical order)
Caroline Clarke – Trophy coordinator
Colin Eades – Planner advocate
Esther Gooch – Advisor on Inclusion Group
Janice Nisbet – Veterans Home International team (VHI) manager
Katherine Kirk – Advisor on Inclusion Group
Kirsten Strain – Senior Home International (SHI) team manager
Judy Bell – Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) team manager
Paul Hammond – Scottish Orienteering League (SOL) Scores coordinator
Rachel Kirkland – Scottish Orienteering Urban League (SOUL) coordinator
Robin Strain – Electronic systems coordinator
Roger Goddard – Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) head coach
The fixtures calendar for the next year has been finalised and we are very grateful to all those clubs who have volunteered to host the key dates in the Scottish Orienteering calendar in 2025. To avoid disappointment, get them in your diary now!
The Scottish Inter Club Championship has now been in its revised format for two years now. We try to select twelve different events spread around the country with one in each month. We are as ever looking for feedback on the format and suggestions how it could be improved. Please email fixtures@scottish-orienteering.org or nikki@scottish-orienteering.org with any comments before 12th January 2025.
One of the main skills we use when orienteering is planning. To allow you to plan for the year ahead and develop your skills we have drawn together a list of the current coaching and volunteer training opportunities for the year ahead. To avoid disappointment, get them in your diary now!
Sign up forms can be found on the SOA Website and will be advertised in due course or contact suzanne@scottish-orienteering.org for more details.
Our article “SOA Annual Training Programme” details the annual cycle for our training programme but if there are any courses you would like to see or want to know more contact our Coaching and Volunteer Officer, Suzanne Robins-Bird. It helps us to plan and provide the courses you want if you sign up in plenty of time and communicate your needs to us.
A vital part of SOA’s function is bringing people together across the Scottish orienteering community, and one means of doing this through a series of monthly online evening sessions open to all members. We’re pleased to be running another programme of these in 2025. You can sign up now for the first session, to be held on Monday 6 January, with a focus on communications and marketing.
The Community Conversations programme has been developed to provide opportunities across the year for orienteers to share experiences and ideas around different themes of interest to us all. As well as supporting valuable networking and discussion, these sessions are also a valuable means for SOA to hear views and ideas from across the membership on a regular basis, to help steer its delivery work and onwards development.
In an effort to assist clubs and individuals to plan training to qualify volunteers and keep them up to date, we have gradually been moving towards a more predictable training programme that will run on an annual cycle. Obviously this will have to incorporate a degree of flexibility to accommodate the events calendar, school and university holidays but on the whole we will try and run the same courses at more or less the same time every year.
This last year has seen the development of a new Strategy for Scottish Orienteering to take the sport forward, secure funding and help us all contribute to a thriving sport for allgenerations in Scotland.
Strategy means many things to many people but for us it’s meant to be a framework which will help us work together as a community. At its simplest it describes what we need to do to thrive, and should help us agree plans and actions. And perhaps even more importantly who needs to do what. It recognises that clubs and volunteer networks are the backbone of our sport and are where nearly everything happens. SOA’s role is to be the glue that binds the sport together in Scotland through co-ordination, facilitation and support for clubs and members.
We have shaped this new four-year strategy by listening to you—our members, clubs, and committees. It builds on the strengths of our community, addressing challenges and identifying opportunities to grow and thrive by reflecting and learning from each other. From fostering grassroots participation to supporting elite athletes, from promoting diversity and inclusion to enhancing our impact on local communities, this strategy aims to set a clear path for the future.
At the 2024 interarea weekend, we held a feedback session for our juniors to express their thoughts and opinions on orienteering for juniors in Scotland. They were given 4 topics to discuss: social opportunities, communication (juniors to SOA and SOA to juniors) and prizes. The overarching theme was that orienteering needs to be made more social for juniors by providing more opportunities for them to socialise outwith their clubs.
Events can’t run without volunteers and some of those volunteering roles require a degree of expertise. Come along to one of our courses, learn new skills and help your club and the sport to put on those events that we all enjoy. Courses coming up in 2025 include:
The 35th Tinto twin event and the 3rd Nox and Dies event held by St Andrew’s Orienteering Club (Glasgow) (STAG) was the final event of the 2024 Scottish Inter Club Championship.
The Scottish Inter Club Championships allows clubs to compete against each other over 12 events through the year. Events area selected to ensure a geographical spread and the event is subdivided into not only senior and junior divisions but also large and small clubs.
This year, the Large clubs senior division was retained by Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) but it was a close rivalry with Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC) who saw their best result at the Tinto Twin event but it was not enough to displace FVO from the top spot. Interlopers Orienteering Club (INT) were lying in third with the northern clubs Inverness Orienteering Club (INVOC) and Moravian Orienteering Club (MOR) having a tussle for 4th and 5th position.
