Scottish Orienteering 2024 – a thank you for all the hard work behind the scenes
As the year comes to an end it’s always a good time to take stock, and a lot happened in Scottish Orienteering in 2024. The World Orienteering Championships (WOC) obviously stands out – the event was very visible and the energy and enthusiasm of the hundreds of volunteers who delivered the event smoothly and safely on each day was clear for all to see. Volunteers are usually visible at our events but there’s also a lot of less visible hard work that goes on behind the scenes. It’s just as important for our sport so I’d like to shine some light on it.
Let me start with WOC. The event itself, thanks to a great deal of volunteer effort, was a great success but this was also built on a phenomenal amount of preparation and planning and to be honest lots of money. Many members will be aware that we had a significant funding problem a year ahead of WOC and the SOA Board and the Scottish 6 Day Board spent a lot of effort a) finding extra funds, b) deciding whether it should still go ahead, and c) making sure that we had the right oversight in place to keep it on track. Keith Dawson (INT) and Dave Kershaw (ESOC) played a major part as chairs of the two boards, corralling support, recruiting new Event Directors, attending regular Steering Group meetings with other stakeholders and holding regular board meetings. Keith Roberts (MAROC), Tim O’Donoghue (SOLWAY) and Ben Hartman (INT) stepped in to help the 6 Day Board, and Ben and Kevin Reynard (GRAMP) played a major part in the financing. And in a sign that these events don’t just finish with the closing ceremony Kevin is still finalising the accounts and chasing remaining grant funding!
The unseen work to put on major events continues almost non stop. Keith Dawson, Bob Cherry (AYROC) & Steve Smirthwaite (MOR) are organising the World Masters MTBO Championships in 2026, and Nikki Howard (SOA COO and member of MOR) is working hard to get JK2026 up and running. Why do these things you may ask. Well many of us benefit from other major events (e.g. WMOC in Finland this year) and in my opinion we also need to do our part. And Scotland is a major part of the British Orienteering scene with top athletes, great areas and a track record of putting on great events.
In 2025 the Scottish 6 Days will take place on Royal Deeside. This will be the 4th time since 2015 that the members of the Central Organising Team have come from clubs across Scotland. The 6 Days is our blue riband event and the largest muti-day event (in terms of competitors) in the UK. The work starts about 2 years in advance, but really heats up about 12 months beforehand. We have a paid part time coordinator (Nic Crossley) who negotiates permissions and major contracts, and who liaises with Local Authorities and the police. The rest of the team are volunteers. Nick Hale (MAROC) has already been playing a leading role coordinating the technical side of things – setting standards, ensuring consistency between the days, advising on organisational requirements. David Ritchie (MOR) has been coordinating the mapping, designing templates etc. David Nicol (FVO) has yet again been leading on the entries system (defining the requirements and working with the Njuko our new supplier), and Keith Roberts (MAROC) has started coordinating the computing side.. Planners and controllers have been visiting the areas and outlining benchmark courses, and have much more to do in 2025. I can’t name everyone who is involved but most names will be familiar as some of them have been supporting the 6 Days for many years and without them the 6 Days wouldn’t happen. The 6 Days is overseen by the 6 Day company which is owned by the SOA with a separate board who meet regularly to govern an event with a turnover of ca. £300,000. They were heavily involved in WOC and set the long term direction for the event. We have been very lucky to have Dave Kershaw, Kevin Reynard, Colin Eades (INT), Robin Strain (ELO), Ewan McCarthy and Rachel Wilson (Clyde) on the board. Rachel, Colin and Robin have now stepped down so thank you to them for their contributions over the years.
On a more regular basis we all value the quality events organised by our clubs, whether they be Championships, SOLs, regional events or local events. Needless to say our fixtures calendar and our leagues wouldn’t exist without a lot of coordination. Nikki Howard & Steve Scott (FVO) put a lot of effort into negotiating dates and areas with clubs and BOF, with continued help from Paul Caban (INT) (Rachel Kirkland (FVO) is taking over for 2025 onwards), Paul Hammond (FVO) and Steve Scott who coordinate the SOULs, SOLs, Scottish Inter Club Championships respectively and prepare the league tables. Medals and trophies only appear at Championship events through a lot of effort. Caroline Clarke (FVO) coordinates the trophies while as usual Nikki is ever present in the background to make sure medals etc are all in the right place at the right time. In the background we are always able to rely on Robin Strain (ELO) for expert computing support and Ted Finch (FVO) for maintaining clocks and the GPS trackers.
A lot of work in 2024 has gone into providing development opportunities for planners and controllers. Time is spent coordinating controllers for large events and making appointments more transparent with a calendar to be able to see available opportunities. Lynne Walker (BASOC) has handed over the reins to Colin Eades as planning advocate and planners training courses. Although Lynne continues to help ensure that our coaching qualifications meet the necessary SQA standards and supports our Coaching and Volunteer Officer, Suzanne Robins Bird (INVOC). Rob Hickling (BASOC) provides training for controllers of various levels as well while Ted Finch (FVO) acts as IOF event advisor to most World Ranking Events in Scotland.
The SOA is responsible for handling Scottish access issues. Unsurprisingly this is becoming increasingly difficult with wildlife pressures and the commercial focus of landowners, especially post COVID. While clubs have their own access officers we as a sport need to coordinate our relationships with national bodies such as Forestry & Land Scotland and wildlife bodies (NatureScot, Capercaillie, RSPB). Nikki has been leading on this with her second hat of Acting Operations Manager.
SOA is fortunate to receive significant funding from sportscotland. This money pays the salaries of our development staff: Louise Adams (INT) and Heidi Ross (ESOC) and also provides some support for administration of the SOA. Nikki Howard manages the team with guidance from our Development Director Mary Williams (ESOC). During 2024 the team could be found organising Orienteering Edinburgh, a pilot project exploring the concept of reaching out to non orienteers in an urban setting in conjunction with WOC with support from Colin Eades among others. This included work to refine the concept and provide structure for events to allow simplicity and reduction in volunteer load. The development staff also delivered development work in existing areas – Cuningar and Dundee which links into local clubs and promotes clubs and activities to participants.
The team also facilitated discussions between club development officers, engaged and supported university clubs and Scottish Student Champs, and Suzanne Robins Bird has been liaising with UHI about new student opportunities. The team is liaising with Deeside clubs and partners to develop orienteering opportunities linked to Deeside 2025 and delivering orienteering training / taster sessions to student teachers including a teacher CPD event. They are also working with clubs to achieve accreditation (INVOC and MOR this year) and maintaining dialogue with clubs to ascertain where can they can provide support. sportscotland funding is also used for club development grants (ESOC, TAY, CLYDE, MAROC, INT – for mapping , development officers, coaching, newcomer development).
Sportscotland money is also used to employ Suzanne Robins-Bird (INVOC) is our coaching and volunteering officer. She maintains and updates our coaching courses and provides the ongoing structured calendar of training with accredited Scottish Coaching qualifications and opportunities to gain knowledge as planners, organisers and controllers as well as providing training aimed at young people (coaching support, planning and organising). She looks after course admin – advertising; recruiting, training and allocating tutors; updating BOF; and also supports the delivery of introduction to orienteering sessions for teachers/ students and development of materials, monitoring of the coaching workforce, and nudging re qualifications such as CWPS, first aid and provision of CPD opportunities.
ScotJOS is Scotland’s junior squad and wouldn’t function without the tireless help of Judy Bell (ESOC) as team manager/ coach and the new head coach Roger Goddard (FVO) who has just taken over from Jon Musgrave (MAROC) after a very successful number of years. It is focused on our best young talent. Beyond ScotJOS the development team has also been engaging with juniors, supporting the delivery of junior regional squads and helping to coordinating/ support junior inter area weekend to encourage retention of juniors. This has included provision of a junior hangout tent, assisting and engaging with juniors at the inter area weekend to ensure we get feedback from juniors as to how we can keep them in the sport.
At a more senior level Graham Gristwood (FVO) has been employed by the SOA to support the development of adults. This is achieved by offering a program and opportunities through SEDS for the development of a programme of social and training opportunities for performance /senior orienteers and the promotion/support for the Senior Home Internationals (SHIs). This is links to the various senior squads (SHIs and VHIs) which are managed by Kirsten Strain (AROS) and Janice Nisbet (ESOC).
The SOA is the Sports Governing Body for Scotland providing governance for orienteering in Scotland. This is needed to coordinate activities but perhaps more importantly we are responsible for devolved issues such as safeguarding and access. The SOA was established as a registered Scottish Charity, meaning the directors have legal responsibilities to govern the sport in a way which complies with its charitable objectives and our processes and finances are audited – all of which requires a lot of work behind the scenes. In order to secure development funding from sportscotland we are expected to manage the sport professionally and have to submit a funding bid (Strategic plan) every 4 years and achieve agreed development targets to secure this funding. This year a new strategic plan for Scottish Orienteering has been prepared incorporating all the work planned and anticipated by all the volunteers within our clubs at grassroots level to provide us with a plan to ensure we are all working in a more connected fashion to develop the sport. The funding bid for 2025-2029 was submitted in the autumn after a lot of hard work by the directors and the SOA team as this needed the input from clubs, members and other stakeholders to ensure it was a workable plan for the next four years..
Nikki and Fran Britain (MOR) support the board and are key for maintaining relations with partners (sportscotland, Disclosure Scotland). Nikki is responsible for promoting safeguarding and for supporting club welfare officers (e.g. new policy, website template, reporting forms). Fran Britain processes the PVGs for orienteering in Scotland, answers numerous questions/ keeps clubs updated and provides support to our Finance Director, Pat Bartlett (INT). All of this has to be underpinned by policies that are tested in regular audits and which keep Tim O’Donoghue (SOLWAY) busy.
This sometime seems like turgid stuff but it has to be done and we are very lucky to have a team of diverse and experienced orienteers on the board including Pat Bartlett (Finance, INT), Mairi Eades (Youth, INT), Katherine Ivory (Comms & Marketing, INT), Ken MacDonald (Welfare, INVOC) Tim), O’Donoghue (Safety and policies), Liz Orr (Board Secretary, Clyde), and Mary Williams. Keith Dawson and Ben Harman stood down this year and I’m extremely grateful for the experience and enthusiasm they brought to the board.
This probably seems like a long read but there has been a lot going on in 2024. And I’ve not even mentioned club volunteers, club committees, event officials etc without whom there would not be a successful sport. The point I am trying to make is that it takes a lot of energy both front of house at events/ development activities and behind the scenes at Club Committee/ Board/ SOA Volunteer Team/ Staff Team and all these jobs are equally important parts of the jigsaw. So thank you as volunteers, visible or not for all the time, energy and enthusiasm that you gave to our sport in 2024.
Happy New Year
Richard Oxlade, SOA Chair
