This week marks Neurodiversity Awareness Week, an important time to raise awareness and celebrate the unique strengths and skills of neurodiverse individuals. As the world begins to better understand the variety of neurological conditions and cognitive styles, it’s essential to foster an inclusive environment that allows people of all neurotypes to thrive. This week offers an opportunity to explore the ways in which orienteering can be both supportive and empowering for neurodiverse participants.
This article will discuss how orienteering provides opportunities and challenges that may appeal to those in the neurodiverse community. It will also explore the history and purpose of Neurodiversity Awareness Week, highlight the inherent advantages that orienteering offers to neurodiverse participants, and share practical ideas and suggestions on how orienteering clubs can make events more accessible and inclusive for everyone.
Largely thanks to funding from the Orienteering Foundation some of our clubs employ club development officers including; MOR, MAROC, ESOC, CLYDE, INT and FVO. Primarily our development officers focus on club outreach and building capacity within clubs to recruit new members.
Every three months SOA have a club development officers online forum where club development officers come together and share what they have been working on and any future plans. This has proven a great opportunity to share good practice and to bounce ideas off each other.
For our March forum we discussed planning for the year ahead and reflecting back on last years achievements. Below is an overview of the CDOs future plans and what they have been up to:
The 6-Day Company is pleased to announce that a further payment to Scottish clubs will be made from the surplus generated by Moray 2023 as a thank you for supporting this event. After the success of Moray, it was announced that an interim payment of £5,000 would be made pending the financial outcome of WOC 2024. The financial strength of the 6-Day Company is important as it helps to guarantee the future of the event and it was felt that a payment of £10,000 prior to the conclusion of WOC could result in the Company reserves falling below our stated policy.
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!
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.
