Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC) has been trialling a new initiative, Ozone, aimed at supporting young juniors at local events through fun, informal activities that build confidence, skills and enables them to meet other children at events.
Although still in its pilot phase, the Ozone has so far provided a strong example of best practice for engaging younger participants and their families, while supporting progression into independent orienteering for juniors that currently participate with their parents.
The World Anti-Doping Agency recently released the 2026 Prohibited List, which comes into effect on 1 January 2026. The Prohibited List is updated every year and outlines the substances and methods that are prohibited in sport. Every athlete and their support (parents or coaches) should familiarise themselves with the changes and what methods and substances are prohibited.
Last night, we held our December Community Conversation focused on safety within our sport. The meeting was led by the Scottish Orienteering Association Safety Director, Tim O’Donoghue, who shared updates regarding how safety is managed at the British Orienteering Federation (BOF) level and learnings which could be taken from incidents reported.
With Christmas fast approaching Three Wise Men* (accompanied by a former SOA Events Manager – Colin Matheson) made an initial site visit to Grandtully, chosen venue for next year’s Scottish Individual and Relay Orienteering Championships. The timing of the visit coincided with a paid pheasant shoot, but fortunately it was determined they would be heading west while we headed south. The area is less green than the last day of Strathearn 2019, and the area around the likely changeover and finish location is delightful.
With lots of calls on all our member’s expenditure at this time of year we are grateful to those who have renewed their SOA membership ( 2026 membership opened on 1st November) – either through British Orienteering or direct through SI entries. Did you know that you could give SOA an additional gift this festive period at no cost to yourself if you are a UK taxpayer?
If you are a UK taxpayer and have signed the Gift Aid form, the UK government will pay an extra 25p for every £1 of your membership fee?
Gift Aid is a simple government initiative which allows you to increase the value of your donations at no extra cost to you. HM Revenue and Customs regards membership subscriptions as ‘donations. Therefore, the SOA can claim Gift Aid on your membership fees.
Those who renewed through SI Entries will have had the opportunity to consider providing a Gift Aid donation but there are at least 450 senior members who join through BOF who have never signed a Gift Aid declaration. Did you know that means for every senior member, who is a UK taxpayer, the SOA could claim £3 in Gift Aid and we can claim for up to four years previous membership fees.
It takes less than 5 minutes of your time and only needs one form filled in, with your name and address, and sent to our finance director. If you are a UK taxpayer and would like to sign up for gift aid please use this link to complete the Gift Aid Declaration
