Today in a celebration of the young people that contribute to our sport, we are highlighting the activities of our nominations for Young Orienteer of the Year 2023. We are delighted to announce that the winners this year are Charlotte Horne and Isla O’Donoghue who between them are the mainstays of Aberdeen University Orienteering Club.
The hallmark of STAG’s Volunteer of 2022/23 is that he continues our Club’s evolving tradition of not just expressing an interest in taking our mission forward but oozing industry, inspiration and imagination in his delivery.
Today features some key contributors that Forth Valley Orienteers have highlighted as members who are helping their club continue to flourish.
Young leaders have been stepping up to their new responsibilities – Sam Hunt and Grace Polwart supporting the FVO Stars coaching, with Sam also planning events, and Scarlett Kelly organising events.
Today’s volunteers are the INVOC coaching team who have all been working incredibly hard to make high quality coaching available to a wide range of youngsters. In addition to club sessions, some of the coaches run sessions in local schools as well, encouraging youngsters to get into the sport. The following report from club lead coach Jacquie Laird explains:
The INVOC coaching team started the current model of sessions in lockdown when we began with online sessions on Wednesday evenings – first the older groups, then we added the TD3 group. As lockdown eased we started adding back in alternate weeks forest sessions on Wednesday evenings for an hour. This seems to work well – less pressure than weekly sessions for coaches and parents ferrying kids.
Well it’s time of year again when we say an extra big thank-you to all of our volunteers. This week we will highlight those who have been nominated as having gone above and beyond the call of duty but celebrating them serves to remind us that our fantastic sport could not go ahead without the contributions of all our volunteers – so thank-you one and all for doing what you can to support Orienteering.
The SOA accounts for the year to 31st December 2022 have now been finalised and approved. They are available to view here
Well what a weekend! Some great terrain, fabulous courses and amazing team spirit on show this weekend at both the Scottish Orienteering Individual and Relay Championships.
2023 was the turn of the west area clubs to host the event and the west clubs – Ayrshire Orienteering Club (AYROC), Clydeside Orienteers (CLYDE), Forth Valley Orienteering Club (FVO), Loch Eck Orienteering Club (ECKO), Solway Orienteering Club (SOLWAY), St Andrew’s Orienteering Club Glasgow (STAG) and Tinto Orienteering Club (TINTO). ECKO allowed their maps of Creag Mhic and Inverawe Country Park to be used, obtained landowner permissions whilst members of all the west area clubs acted as officials and volunteers to ensure everything went off smoothly and we all had a great event.
Last Saturday we had our first joint training session for the West (SWAT) and East (ESOA) area regional training squads. The regional squads are for juniors TD3 and above. The aim of the regional squads is to let juniors have fun and make friends through orienteering. The training took place at Galamuir led by SWAT coach Roger Goddard. The FVO stars TD1-2 also joined in with the training. The FVO Stars will go on to join SWAT once they are TD3.
At the start of the session the juniors broke into four different coaching groups: FVO stars, TD3, TD4 and Adults. The SWAT and ESOA squads worked on simplification and relocation. The relocation exercise was very tricky with a few very well hidden fences and earth walls making the exercise challenging. Despite the woods being described as ‘disgusting’ by an enthusiastic SWAT member there were lots of smiles and lots of learning.
TD3 Group working on Simplification
Read More…The SOA AGM will take place on Monday 5th June online at 7pm.
Today we have published the AGM Booklet which includes all proposals and nominations of Directors which require your voting. There will be the option of proxy voting by post and online and we hope to engage in some dialogue prior to voting in person. We still welcome further nominations for the vacant Board Director positions and truly hope you will consider putting your name forward.
We have outlined all the proposals for voting below.
AGM PROPOSALS
| 1 | No change in senior membership fees in 2024, keeping them at £12 for an adult membership. |
| 2 | No change in junior and student membership fees, keeping them at £2 in 2024. |
| 3 | A change is proposed in the criteria for an event levy to apply. Currently event levies only apply where the entry fee for seniors is >£10. It is proposed to extend event levies to all regional, national and major events. No change is proposed in the rate for event levies, retaining them in 2024 at £1 per senior and £0.40 per junior. |
| 4 | That Ken McDonald be formally appointed as Equality, Welfare and Diversity Director |
| 5 | That Brian Miller be reappointed as independent examiner for the 2023 SOA accounts |
You can download the Proxy Form here or it can be completed online Online Proxy Form
The 2022 AGM Minutes can be found here
A link to the AGM can be obtained by emailing nikki@scottish-orienteering.org
What a great start to Orienteering Edinburgh. With the weather on our side, there was a festival vibe in the appropriately named Festival Square.