About the Scottish Orienteering Association

The role of the SOA

The Scottish Orienteering Association (SOA) is the Scottish Governing Body (SGB) for the sport of orienteering, a charitable body and a constituent association of British Orienteering. We are based at the sportscotland National Outdoor Training Centre, Glenmore Lodge, near Aviemore, in the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands.

As a Sports Governing Body we are responsible for the governance, development and promotion of orienteering in Scotland. We do this through supporting the network of clubs, the national-level junior and elite squads, the staging of major events (Scottish Championships and UK/International competitions when hosted in Scotland) and the training of coaches and event officials. We provide useful resources for volunteers and others involved in delivering orienteering activities and put on development events working in partnership with clubs and other organisations, particularly schools.

We are one of 12 constituent associations of the British Orienteering Federation (BOF) which maintains the rules and guidance for orienteering in the UK and is a member of the International Orienteering Federation. There are over twenty orienteering clubs in Scotland, which are all affiliated with both SOA and BOF. All active Scottish orienteers are expected to become members of SOA (as a means of ensuring appropriate insurance cover as well as alignment with our participant code of conduct) and two thirds choose to be members of BOF as well (a pre-requisite for competing in UK-level competitions)

Resource

The SOA is currently overseen by a Board of directors, a small staff team with a part time Chief Operating Officer plus six other part time staff roles, and a large number of volunteers. It is supported by grant funding from sportscotland for development work, membership subscriptions, event levies, surplus income from the Scottish 6 Days (S6D) Company Ltd (which is wholly owned by the SOA) and other occasional grants and donations. Scottish Orienteering was established over 50 years ago, in 1964. The Association was incorporated in 2007 and established as a charity in 2012.

Core Values

Our values underpin everything we do and are as follows:

• Welcoming – ensuring a positive experience to those who wish to participate in our sport.

• Inclusive – offering a range of experiences and entry points within our sport to enable everyone from all sectors of society to participate regardless of age, gender, sexuality, race or physical ability. Identifying and removing conscious and unconscious barriers to participation in the sport.

• Dynamic – continuing to offer new experiences and development opportunities for all our members, clubs and volunteers. Developing new approaches and ideas to appeal to those in the identified “demographic participation gap”.

• Rewarding – recognising those who make our sport happen through valuing our volunteers. Ensuring everyone’s experience of orienteering is rewarding in some form.

• Respectful – of our environment and communities, and to our clubs, members and volunteers.

Our Strategic Focus: 2025–2029

Our vision is that orienteering is a thriving sport for all generations.  We aim to grow and sustain orienteering in Scotland by:

• Increasing access and participation in the sport
• Delivering safe, high-quality, and environmentally responsible events
• Supporting clubs, volunteers, coaches, and athletes
• Fostering partnerships, innovation, and organisational resilience

Our four-year Strategy (2025–2029), published in December 2024 Scottish Orienteering Association Strategy 2025-2029, sets the direction and ambition for our work. It is built around four interlinked strategic pillars, to support our vision of “orienteering as a thriving sport for all generations”:

• Changing Perceptions – this recognises the need to improve the marketing of our sport to all non-orienteers and raise awareness of the opportunities in the sport;
• Engaging Experiences – this recognises the need to provide competitive and social and experiences which persuade newcomers to adopt the sport, and which retain experienced orienteers;
• Lifelong Pathways – in parallel with providing Engaging Experiences we also recognise the need to provide structured pathways for recreational orienteers, performance athletes and to develop volunteers. These are necessary to get newcomers to adopt orienteering (they see a future in the sport) and for retention of existing orienteers (they continue to have opportunities for progression);
• Foundations for Success – we have to do the basics well, providing good governance at a national level and supporting clubs with guidance and support on an ongoing basis including equality, diversity and inclusivity.

The core activities to deliver on these aims over the coming four years include:

Changing Perceptions: focusing on younger adults to address the 20-40 age gap, particularly through building partnerships with clubs and organisationsdeveloping initiatives to encourage families and young people to take up orienteering	Engaging Experiences: supporting clubs with high quality resources to engage local audiences, and to ensure good newcomer experiences delivering top-level events such as the 6 Days multi-day event, and JK2026
Lifelong Pathways developing and promoting clear pathways for the core groups of orienteers: performance athletes; recreational orienteers and volunteers delivering training for the development of our volunteers and recreational orienteers and supporting our performance athletes	Foundations for Success supporting clubs around managing access and compliance with legal requirements especially safeguarding co-ordinating a balanced annual programme and ensuring high quality national level com-petitions helping with the management of map stock which is a major asset for the sport.

You can explore the full Strategy 2025–2029

Please get in touch to see how you can help to deliver this vision of orienteering as a thriving sport. You can contact us via info@scottish-orienteering.org.