Club Networking Day taking place between 10am and 4pm on 6th September 2025 at North Inch Community Campus in Perth. Book your spot now!
One of the key strategic aims identified within the Scottish Orienteering Strategy was to the need to provide lifelong pathways for progression within orienteering. Having structured pathways for recreational orienteers, performance athletes and volunteers allows people to identify opportunities to improve their skills or indeed opportunities to develop new skills within the sport. For most of us the feeling of getting better, improving our skills helps to keep us engaged in our sport.
As part of this and as a result of discussions with clubs, we have held what we hope is the first of many Adult Beginner training days and are about to advertise for a new Scottish Elite and Development Squad co-ordinator who we hope will help provide training to Adult Improvers alongside training for existing young adults within the orienteering. This can only ever compliment all the hard work which is being done within clubs to encourage newcomers and retain existing orienteers.
We are however aware that there is a lot of great work going on within the Scottish Orienteering community to foster lifelong learning. In order to allow clubs to have the opportunity to discuss and learn from each other, about how we can, should and are helping to develop our members skills both as orienteers and volunteers we are proposing that this year’s Club Networking Day should focus on Lifelong Progression.
The four main themes for the day will be:-
Helping adult and junior beginners develop TD3/4 skills
Developing volunteers
Communication and how we can improve/ learn from each other
Small/ Large clubs – allowing clubs of similar sizes and perhaps similar opportunities/ challenges the space to swap ideas
The aim of the day will be to provide opportunities for members from all of our clubs to come together and learn from each other. There will be refreshments (tea/coffee/ cake/lunch) provided and an orienteering activity at lunchtime to get everyone moving.
This opportunity to come and exchange ideas is not just limited to committee members or post holders. We welcome participation from any club members young and old, veterans or newbies who feel that they have a contribution to make. There will be Staff and Board teams present to support the day but the main purpose of the day is to provide the opportunity for clubs and members to exchange ideas on how we create an environment for lifelong participation and progression.
The SOA Board is responsible for the governance of orienteering in Scotland. Much of the work is behind the scenes, navigating challenges, avoiding issues where possible and managing those that might arise – whilst they can certainly make life interesting at times, resolving them can be very satisfying. Examples since I joined the board 7 years ago have included:
regularly making the case for the ca. £100,000 pa of government finance that we receive;
managing through COVID as we became one of the first sports to be allowed to operate again and getting permission to run the first large outdoor event post COVID (the Scottish 6 Days 2021);
securing, financing and putting on the Sprint World Championships.
Last weekend Scottish Orienteering ran a beginners day at Cammo Estate, Edinburgh. The purpose of the day was to encourage newcomers to the sport by offering a days coaching. The coaching started by focusing on most basic orienteering skills building up towards TD4.
Participants were from a mix of backgrounds and wanted to try orienteering for a wide range of reasons, from wanting to improve their navigation for hill races to being interested in trying new outdoor activities. We had 8 participants on the day.
We are notifying all members of our intended Annual General Meeting date of Monday 22nd September 2025. The Annual General Meeting will be held online at 7pm. There will be a proxy vote option for those unable to attend.
We are in the process of putting together the AGM handbook to outline proposals and matters of business however we welcome any proposals from clubs/members that you wish raised at the AGM please contact our chief operating officer Nikki Howard at nikki@scottish-orienteering.org to outline any proposals or matters of business for consideration.
We are always looking for ways to help you – our hardworking volunteers – and one of our offerings is organisers’ courses. Organising can be something that folk find off putting due the seeming enormity of the task. If you would like to help your club by organising an event but don’t know where to start then one of our organisers’ courses is the right place.
Make sure you have the date in the diary for this year’s Club Networking Day taking place between 10am and 4pm on 6th September 2025 at North Inch Community Campus in Perth.
The focus of the day will be Lifelong Pathways for improvement within orienteering which is one of the sport’s four strategic aims. These Lifelong Pathways for improvement relate to the progression of an individual’s orienteering skills as well as providing personal development opportunities for those who volunteer.
Over the years the SOA Development Fund has supported Scottish clubs wishing to undertake projects with the aim of developing the sport. As we look to continue to build on the new Scottish Orienteering Strategy we are therefore focusing the current SOA Development funding on projects which support Lifelong Pathways for improvement which is one of our four strategic aims. These Lifelong Pathways within orienteering relate to progression of orienteering skills as well as personal development opportunities for our volunteers.
We are therefore looking for applications which support this strategic aim of Lifelong Learning and supports the expansion of the sport within the 20 to 40 age group through retention of young adults or introduction of the sport to this group. We are asking clubs to come forward with any proposals which build on these themes.
Planners and future planners – we have offerings for you as well. Our tried and tested Planners’ workshops series ( adult and junior) are being run again this winter by Colin Eades and his team of trainers. In addition we are delighted to say that some experts have volunteered to give existing and new planners the benefit of their experience by hosting 3 planners discussions. We also have a range of ESWs to suit all. All these workshops are free to SOA members.
Junior planners having a goGuess the area!Read More…
Looking to improve your navigation skills or try a new sport? Scottish Orienteering are organising an adult beginner day at Cammo Estate, Edinburgh on the Sunday 10th August. From the day you will gain the skills and confidence to navigate with a map. No prior knowledge required – just a sense of adventure. All physical activity at whatever level you choose. The day runs from 10-4 led by one of our experienced tutors.
We are always looking for ways to help you – our hardworking volunteers – and one of our offerings is organisers’ courses. Organising can be something that folk find off putting due the seeming enormity of the task. If you would like to help your club by organising an event but don’t know where to start then one of our organisers’ courses is the right place.
