For every year, for more than a century the 8th March is recognised as International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Women play a vital role in our sport making up almost 50% of Scottish Orienteering membership. The SOA staff team is all women!

An overview of the March Community Conversation!

Community conversations bring members together each month to share experiences, successes, challenges and ideas on an allocated topic. This month’s conversation focused on development, funnelling newcomers into becoming regular orienteers and retaining members. Community Conversations are open discussions so provide a great platform to see how other clubs work with their members and what learnings could potentially be taken forward into your own club.

Mary Williams, the SOA Development Director, opened the discussion and introduced our special guest from Lakeland Orienteering Club, Carol McNeill. Carol provided an overview of the work their development officer, Kath Savage, has been doing. Further details on this are later in the article, as well as some materials that LOC have been using. The other key discussion topics were the newcomer experience, adult and junior progression including red courses and the STAR award, and opportunities for socialising.

Below is an overview of the key outputs of the most recent discussion from a variety of themes.

It’s that time when British Orienteering recognise the contribution that all our wonderful volunteers have made to the sport during the preceding year. 2024 was a busy year for all of us in Scottish Orienteering from major events including WOC, through to local events, club and squad coaching, mapping and all the hard work that goes on in committees to keep our clubs running. If you know someone who deserves recognition for all their hard work please nominate them for one of the awards. Nominations are open for the following categories and close on Monday 17th March

Organising seems to strike fear into the hearts of the most stout orienteers but is an essential job for all events. Have you ever wanted to help out your club by organising an event but have been put off by the seeming complexity of the job? Well, help is at hand – 2 levels of courses for adults and juniors (16+) have been devised to demystify the whole process and equip you – yes, You – to organise a Level D or local event.

The first presentation of this course last year was very well received and we are anxious to equip more potential organisers to do a great job.

The third installment of the 2025 Community Conversation programme is on Monday 3rd March at 1930 and you can now sign up to attend.

The discussion will be once again be on the theme of development, but this time the focus will be on how to retain and progress current members. Mary Williams, the Development Director, will be chairing the discussion. This will be a great opportunity to share experience, and discuss successes, challenges, and ideas for practical support that SOA could usefully provide for clubs. Perhaps you’ve come across some great tools that have helped achieve positive results, or have gained some valuable learning from things you’ve tried that would be of interest to other clubs.

The Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival is back for 2025 and this year will be held at Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline. It will be on Thursday 5th June so make sure to save the date! A huge thanks are extended to Kingdom of Fife Orienteers for giving permission to use this area and for providing the organiser and planner for the event.

Well February is always a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to weather and this year’s CompassSport Cup/ Trophy qualifier date (23rd February )was no different. Tayside Orienteering Club (TAY) had to content with weather warnings of wind and rain, trees landing on control sites and reports of those travelling from the north considering forecasts of high winds with rain, thunder and lightening for their journey.

2024 saw Edinburgh hosting elite athletes from across the globe for the Sprint World Championships in an event that has been described by some as potentially being the best ever.  

We are looking to ensure that the success of the World Championships is built upon through the new  Scottish Orienteering 4 year strategy.  This strategy represents a collective vision for the future of orienteering in Scotland which aims to support the vision of orienteering as a thriving sport for all generations through the key themes: changing perceptions, engaging experiences, lifelong pathways and foundations for success. An outline of the Scottish Orienteering Strategy can be found here.

The evolution of the Scottish Orienteering Strategy confirmed that clubs are the essential backbone of our sport.  The implementation of this strategy will be a team effort across the Scottish orienteering community with everyone contributing and the SOA development focus being on connecting and supporting clubs.  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 a) support the expansion of the sport within the 20 to 40 age group b) continued development of orienteering participation following WOC 2024, and c) within clubs who saw a dramatic decline in membership as a result of Covid. We are asking clubs to come forward with any proposals which build on these themes.

To find out more about this year’s fund, head to the SOA Development Fund page where you will also find the link to the application form.

The deadline for applications is 21st March 2025.

Photos from FVO’s work with the Donaldson’s Trust that was funded by the 2024 SOA Development Fund.

ESOC’s ‘Events in a Box’ facilitated easy access into orienteering for newcomers near to where they live and was funded by the 2024 SOA Development Fund.

We all know the Scottish Six Days is an amazing event – can you help us spread the word to new audiences and encourage even more people to enjoy orienteering?

We’d love to have some quotes that can be used (with or without your name, as you prefer) in publicity and engagement work. So please share what the Six Days means to you.

As you are aware the SOA has opted to move from three regional development officers to two development officers with a shared remit covering the SOA area. We are aware the clubs would prefer to have a specific contact and, on that basis, we have provided below details of which development officer will be the primary contact for each club. They have been assigned based on previous contacts and a partial geographic split. The assigned development officer should be your first point of contact for any queries relating to development, including funding and accreditation.