The Scottish Orienteering Association are seeking help from someone with experience of equality and/or safeguarding procedures in a work or club environment to help with the role of Director of Welfare. This role is crucial to the development of orienteering and to ensure orienteering is a safe, welcoming and inclusive sport for all.
As Director you would be working with the SOA Chief Operating Officer to provide advice and support in implementing appropriate equality, diversity, safeguarding and PVG practices. We are looking for either a member of the orienteering community or someone from outwith orienteering who can bring alternative experience to this role.
Could you can help guide SOA strategy to ensure that orienteering is a safe, welcoming and inclusive sport for all and help to increase participation from under represented groups and communities? More information about the role can be found here and any questions about what is involved should be directed to Keith Dawson chair@scottish-orienteering.org
In 2022 we revisitalised the Young Leaders Program. The program now comprises three components for young planners (age 12+), young coaching assistants (age 14+) and young organisers (age 16+). We spoke to our young leaders about what they would like as a form of recognition. The Young Leaders said they would like a buff.
Therefore we are opening up a competition for Juniors to design a buff for the Young Leaders. To enter, design a buff with a different colour variation for each type of young leader. We want the buff to be instantly identifiable as a Young Leader’s buff with a colour variation for each role.
Last week saw our final face to face team meeting with our outgoing COO(Chief Operating Officer) and what a way to go! Fiona had us all lined up throwing axes – luckily not at each other… A bit like working for SOA, we had targets to hit!
A sheltered hall at the top of Morningside was an ideal location for the presentation of the 2022 Scottish Inter-Club Championship trophies by Peter Hodkinson and Richard Oxlade. Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO)were presented with the Senior and Junior Large Club Trophies (the juniors have to make sure the adults hand over the chocolates!), Roxburgh Reivers (RR) took home the Senior Small Club Trophy and East Lothian Orienteers (ELO) juniors very generously shared their Junior Small Club Trophy spoils with the other juniors in the room.
After the sheltered surroundings of Saturday’s trophy celebrations, the first event of the 2023 Scottish Inter-Club Championship took place in Holyrood Park at Edinburgh University Orienteering Clubs’s (EUOC) Seat Classic Race. The climb to the starts then saw competitors racing up and down and up and down Arthur’s Seat in gusty conditions.
ScotJOS and Talent Scotland had their 1st training camp of 2023 last weekend. The camp was based in Livingston with its multitude of underpasses, alleyways and complex housing estates providing the ideal location for a Sprint orienteering camp.
Hello and a warm welcome to 2023. The Development Team had an exciting yet challenging 2022. At the start of the year we were understaffed then lost Sarah Dunn as Development Manager. However in the autumn Heidi Ross joined the team enabling us to be a full staff team again. We have supported projects including: Dundee Active Schools with Tay and Earlston High School with the Roxburgh Reivers along with summer camps and work to find out more from young people about what keeps them in the sport. We are excited for 2023 to take on new development projects and continue our work from 2022.
Following consultation on the 2022 Scottish Inter-Club Championship, it was found that members were in favour of the new format which allowed clubs to gather points through the year rather than previous focus which required attendance at one event. The Scottish Inter-Club Championship format had been revamped because it was felt that members increasingly saw it as an irrelevance having been held in the last few years alongside the Scottish Individual Championships.
This new format of the Scottish Inter-Club Championships is aimed to help clubs foster club spirit and enthusiasm. It aims to be more inclusive as it allows all members to add points to the club total, even those who are unable to travel outwith club areas. The number of events has also been decreased so that clubs can be clear which events will count towards the Scottish Inter-Club championship.
After 5 years in the role Sally Lindsay has decided to stand down as the SOA Trophy Coordinator. The Board and in particular Richard Oxlade, the Operations Director, would like to thank Sally for all her hard work getting trophies for our Scottish championships and leagues distributed to the right place at the right time, and the equally hard work of retrieving them for the next year. In addition, we would also like to thank her for her diligent efforts to rationalise the Scottish Championship rules and guidelines.
Inevitably this means that we need a new volunteer to coordinate the trophies. Sally aims to handover after the presentation of last year’s SOL trophies at SOL1 in March and we urgently need a replacement before the start of April. This is a great opportunity to put something back into our sport and without our SOA volunteers we would not be able to operate the sport at a national level.
The events which form part of the 2023 Scottish Orienteering League (SOUL) series have been finalised and details including links to all of the events can be found on the SOUL events page on the website or via this link here.
Eleven events will form the 2023 SOUL series. The best six scores will be used to determine an individual’s league positions for all classes other than the Young Junior, Junior and Hyper Veteran classes where the best four scores will count for an individual’s league position.
SOLWAY Urban Event Map
The roll of honour for the 2022 SOUL series, with details of those first, second and third in each class, is available here. The trophy presentation will take part after the Edinburgh University Orienteering Club’s (EUOC) Edinburgh City Race (SOUL 1) on January 28th 2023. Certificates for the first three in each class have already been distributed to clubs.
The SOA office reopened on the 9th January. With a busy festive season for most we have decided to extend the closing date for the Chief Operating Officer position until the 17th January giving everyone an extra week to apply.
