The following document gives guidance to Event Officials and clubs by showing them useful pathways to growing our advanced officials of the future.  We all know how difficult it can be to find an Organiser, Planner or Controller for an event and this just gets harder the bigger the event.  This new document was created to make it as simple as possible, to encourage as much as possible and to support the membership and clubs in general in producing and encouraging orienteers to get involved as volunteers; our most valuable resource and something that we cannot run our sport without!

Alongside the gradual re-start of orienteering events and activities we would like to encourage clubs to start thinking again about development. The SOA Development Fund can help support grassroots orienteering through funding made available annually by sportscotland. We are now opening the fund for applications, with a deadline for submission of project proposals of 30th Sep 2020.

Want to hear how the first few events have gone? Sign up to our follow up events Q&A session on Tuesday 11th August at 7.30pm. Thanks to GRAMP & FVO who have agreed to share their learning and allow for questions. Sign up here for the Zoom session

Following the First Minister’s announcement on 30th July the SOA has made some amendments to Phase 3 Guidelines on the Reactivation of Orienteering Activities. The changes relate to those who have been shielding and also further advice on coaching.

Scottish Orienteering Reactivation Phase 3 05082020 FINAL
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On 30th July the SOA joined with 34 other Sports Governing Bodies in writing a letter to the First Minister to ask for further support for the sport and leisure sector. We signed the letter as a show of solidarity with other sports, while we are able to get out in the forests and our favourite local terrains, many sports remain ‘in lockdown’ due to closed indoor facilities or the nature of their sport. We stand together as we seek a safe and secure future for sport in Scotland.

We take this opportunity to share this open letter to sport from Joe FitzPatrick MSP, Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing. Sport remains a high priority for the Government for it’s place in society to bring communities together but also it’s profound impact on the health and well being agenda of Scotland.

Letter from the Minsiter for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing 30 July
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The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) announced on 7 May that WOC 2020, scheduled to take place in Denmark, had been postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic and would now be held in 2022.

As a consequence, WOC 2022, due to take place from 15 – 19 July 2022 in Edinburgh has been rescheduled and will now be held in the summer of 2024. This is subject to final approval from our event partners EventScotland and the City of Edinburgh Council.

We have been fortunate to bring the skills and experience of Tim O’Donoghue onto the SOA Board of Directors (co-opted) under the title of Safety Director. Tim’s extensive professional experience has helped us put in place a robust process for us to effectively review our SOA Policies on a regular basis. We look forward to keeping you to up date on our new policies and any changes to policies which may impact our clubs.

As club events and activities restart it is important we consider our Child Protection and Welfare responsibilities. Our partner’s at Children’s 1st have provided an insightful document for clubs to consider as ‘Children and Young People’ return to sport following a period of lockdown. We have an update on processing an PVG applications your club may require and we recommend a documentary on Netflix.

A reminder that the welfare of children in our sport is EVERYONE’s responsibility! If you have any concerns, please raise them with your Club Child Welfare officer or to Fiona@Scottish-orienteering.org Any concerns will be dealt with in the strictest confidence and follow the procedures outlined in our Child Protection & Welfare policies.

We would like to thank you all for your patience as we sought to gain approval for our Phase 3 guidelines for orienteering activities and for the SOA event guidance documents to support the reactivation of events in Scotland.

We are delighted to share with you our guidelines and guidance notes to allow clubs to plan for club activities, coaching and also club only (local) events (with some restrictions in place).