On a club committee or have an interest in ensuring your club has a plan for its future? Tune in to the July Community Conversation where our development conversation will lead a discussion on club development plans. We have two clubs lined up to provide attendees with their experience of using a development plans and how they used them to drive their clubs forward. There will be time for lots of questions.
After two weeks of delightful weather, it’s almost safe to say that Scottish Summer has arrived! Come rain or shine, the action-packed orienteering calendar continues unabated. Let’s delve into the exciting activities and achievements that have taken place in and around the sport so far this Summer and get excited for upcoming Summer events.
The first Friday of June must be a lucky date to hold an event as nobody can remember a year it rained at the annual Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival! This year the event was held at Callendar Park, Falkirk with over 340 pupils attending. The carnival-like atmosphere, good weather and enthusiasm made it a great event.
Sunbathing before the awards ceremony at the Scottish Schools orienteering festival
The next Trail event in Scotland is during the Moray 23 event. Trail has potential to offer an accessible form of orienteering but does require some previous knowledge to participate effectively.
Forth Valley Juniors claim Jamie Stevenson Trophy for 2023
Scotland’s junior orienteers gathered in Plean Country Park near Stirling yesterday to compete for their club in the Jamie Stevenson Trophy. The Jamie Stevenson Trophy event is Scotland’s junior inter-club competition and acts as a fund raiser for the Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (Scotjos).
Feedback from the Club Conference in April showed that clubs want to hear more examples of good practice from within and from outside of the sport. By exchanging knowledge and learning between clubs we can use our resources more effectively. Learnings from outside of the sport can bring in fresh perspectives.
In light of this, we are delighted to share the Solway Orienteers coaching series. From Solway’s coaching series we can learn how smaller clubs can put on coaching for all levels of experience and engage with new members to join the club.
Having picked the Jedburgh Race the Abbeys event as the June portion of the Inter-club Championship, we were not expecting Roxburgh Reivers to have organised the weather as well. It was a great weekend of fabulous weather, glorious backdrops to the orienteering round Kelso and Jedburgh and the planners had provided us with some amazing courses which tested how well the brain reacted when an orienteering challenge was combined with the warmth of summer.
Jedburgh Abbey provided the backdrop to the finish control Photo Credit: Stephen WilsonRead More…
We are seeking a Senior Development Officer to join our SOA Staff team. Are you passionate about orienteering and supporting clubs to develop the sport? There is the opportunity to join our enthusiastic team and make a real difference to the sport!
The role is part time and needs a motivated individual who has the ability to travel but will be based at home. Please have a look at the role outline and person specification here
We welcome all applications, please send a CV and a covering letter outlining your suitability for the post to nikki@scottish-orienteering.org by 4th July.
Last Friday at Callander Park, Falkirk was the Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival 2023. A total of 336 enthusiastic school pupils from across Scotland laced up their o-shoes for a day of orienteering. Pupils were aged from upper primary to late secondary school.
At a successful SOA AGM on Monday, Richard Oxlade the President of Scottish Orienteering announced that Jon Cross of Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) had been awarded the SOA President’s Medal for 2022.
His selection was based on the following nomination:-
“On behalf of Forth Valley Orienteers, we wish to nominate Jon Cross for consideration as a candidate for the 2023 Scottish Orienteering President’s Medal. For the past 24 years, Jon has served as the FVO team captain, and during his captaincy, the club presence in major events has increased exponentially, due in no small measure to Jon’s diligence and extensive range of contacts within the sport. In Jon’s first year as captain, FVO was able to enter five teams to the Scottish Relays with the best place a 3rd in the ad-hoc; by this year, the number had increased to 20 teams, with seven medals across the board. Perhaps Jon’s greatest achievement as team captain was in 2015 when, after overseeing eight consecutive victories in the Compass Sport Trophy (for “small” clubs), Jon masterminded an FVO win in the Compass Sport Cup, while we were still strictly speaking a “small” club. From 2015, when we had 97 members, the club has continued to grow to the level that we are now a bona-fide “large” club with more than 250 members, and this is due in part to the massive effort that Jon puts in, year on year, in recruiting athletes to run in major competitions for FVO. Jon has the deepest address book in British orienteering, and can always be relied upon to recruit a spare runner on the few occasions that we’re short a number. Jon served a two year term as Club President during an extremely difficult period for the sport nationally, with COVID protocols restricting what we could do, and thanks to his innovative leadership, we emerged from the lockdown period in an even stronger shape than when we went in. Key to this was the expansion of the Club Development Officer role from one day a week to two days, and Jon line-managed the CDO and ensured that all activities related directly to the long-term vision of the club.
In late 2021, when it appeared there would be no British or Scottish Relay Championship, for the first time since the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, Jon took it upon himself to (almost single-handedly) organise a stripped-down version of the championship to enable continuity of the event, with nearly 50 teams taking part. Jon stepped down in 2022 from his role as a selector for the GB Squad after more than 15 years, many of which were spent as Chairman of Selectors. During the pandemic he lent his support to the Performance programme as volunteer team liaison, helping with the considerable logistical issues of getting athletes abroad to attend international competitions. Jon is one of the Directors of Masterplan Adventure responsible for staging the Sprint Scotland series, Race the Castles, Coasts and Islands and other quality events. In 2019 he and Graeme Auckland contrived to have the Adventure Show stream the JOK Chasing Sprint live on TV, from Callendar Park Falkirk, complete with live commentary, which greatly enhanced the public profile of the sport. Jon’s involvement at the highest levels of the sport continues, as he will be one of the planners for WOC 2024 in Edinburgh, and was in Denmark last summer to cheer on Team GB and to share good practice with the Danish organisers. Jon is always collaborative in his approach to orienteering activities, and is very willing to share his extensive experience with new event officials. He recently qualified as a level C controller, and will play a major role going forward in enhancing the profile of our club, and the sport nationally.”
Many congratulations from everyone in the SOA to Jon on being awarded the President’s medal for his contribution to orienteering in Scotland.
