Candidate for SOA Director – Neil Polwart – FVO

The 2026 AGM sees Tim O’Donoghue standing down as Safety Director having served as Director for 6 years. Neil Polwart of Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) has indicated that he would be willing to stand for the position of Director on the SOA Board and as such a vote will be held as part of the AGM. The Proxy Vote form for the AGM has been updated to reflect this (2026 AGM Proxy Form) and the AGM Booklet updated as at today’s date (10th September 2026) with Neil Polwart’s support information detailed below.

Neil Polwart (FVO)

Scotland consistently produces some of the best orienteers in the UK. I am NOT one of them! A latecomer to the sport, with a notoriously bad sense of direction and a physique which does nothing to help my competitive standing, orienteering should not be my natural “tribe” however I’ve found the sport to be incredibly welcoming and so over the years naturally been drawn into “helping”, and thus found myself as FVO membership secretary, committee member and a stint as vice president as well as planning, organising etc, so have seen much of what is necessary to put on both small and very large events whether in the forest or the streets. Safely managing risk is everybody in the sport’s responsibility, but having a dedicated role at the SOA board focuses attention on asking the awkward questions and learning from best practice elsewhere. A day job managing a team of software developers leads me to look for simplification and pragmatic solutions, whilst my professional training as a scientist tends to make me seek data to support evidence based decisions when possible but accept that sometimes you simply need to apply reasoned judgement. A Justice of the Peace, and experienced company director I am usually fairly unflappable with complex or difficult decisions.