One of the main skills we use when orienteering is planning. To allow you to plan for the year ahead and develop your skills we have drawn together a list of the current coaching and volunteer training opportunities for the year ahead. To avoid disappointment, get them in your diary now!
Sign up forms can be found on the SOA Website and will be advertised in due course or contact suzanne@scottish-orienteering.org for more details.
Our article “SOA Annual Training Programme” details the annual cycle for our training programme but if there are any courses you would like to see or want to know more contact our Coaching and Volunteer Officer, Suzanne Robins-Bird. It helps us to plan and provide the courses you want if you sign up in plenty of time and communicate your needs to us.
A vital part of SOA’s function is bringing people together across the Scottish orienteering community, and one means of doing this through a series of monthly online evening sessions open to all members. We’re pleased to be running another programme of these in 2025. You can sign up now for the first session, to be held on Monday 6 January, with a focus on communications and marketing.
The Community Conversations programme has been developed to provide opportunities across the year for orienteers to share experiences and ideas around different themes of interest to us all. As well as supporting valuable networking and discussion, these sessions are also a valuable means for SOA to hear views and ideas from across the membership on a regular basis, to help steer its delivery work and onwards development.
In an effort to assist clubs and individuals to plan training to qualify volunteers and keep them up to date, we have gradually been moving towards a more predictable training programme that will run on an annual cycle. Obviously this will have to incorporate a degree of flexibility to accommodate the events calendar, school and university holidays but on the whole we will try and run the same courses at more or less the same time every year.
This last year has seen the development of a new Strategy for Scottish Orienteering to take the sport forward, secure funding and help us all contribute to a thriving sport for allgenerations in Scotland.
Strategy means many things to many people but for us it’s meant to be a framework which will help us work together as a community. At its simplest it describes what we need to do to thrive, and should help us agree plans and actions. And perhaps even more importantly who needs to do what. It recognises that clubs and volunteer networks are the backbone of our sport and are where nearly everything happens. SOA’s role is to be the glue that binds the sport together in Scotland through co-ordination, facilitation and support for clubs and members.
We have shaped this new four-year strategy by listening to you—our members, clubs, and committees. It builds on the strengths of our community, addressing challenges and identifying opportunities to grow and thrive by reflecting and learning from each other. From fostering grassroots participation to supporting elite athletes, from promoting diversity and inclusion to enhancing our impact on local communities, this strategy aims to set a clear path for the future.
At the 2024 interarea weekend, we held a feedback session for our juniors to express their thoughts and opinions on orienteering for juniors in Scotland. They were given 4 topics to discuss: social opportunities, communication (juniors to SOA and SOA to juniors) and prizes. The overarching theme was that orienteering needs to be made more social for juniors by providing more opportunities for them to socialise outwith their clubs.
Events can’t run without volunteers and some of those volunteering roles require a degree of expertise. Come along to one of our courses, learn new skills and help your club and the sport to put on those events that we all enjoy. Courses coming up in 2025 include:
The 35th Tinto twin event and the 3rd Nox and Dies event held by St Andrew’s Orienteering Club (Glasgow) (STAG) was the final event of the 2024 Scottish Inter Club Championship.
The Scottish Inter Club Championships allows clubs to compete against each other over 12 events through the year. Events area selected to ensure a geographical spread and the event is subdivided into not only senior and junior divisions but also large and small clubs.
This year, the Large clubs senior division was retained by Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) but it was a close rivalry with Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC) who saw their best result at the Tinto Twin event but it was not enough to displace FVO from the top spot. Interlopers Orienteering Club (INT) were lying in third with the northern clubs Inverness Orienteering Club (INVOC) and Moravian Orienteering Club (MOR) having a tussle for 4th and 5th position.
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 tell us what the Six Days means to you – just complete this Google Form https://forms.gle/hiKhHUCgkZKErsfT7 and answer a few quick questions.
If you are interested in getting involved to help with promoting the Six Days and building wider interest in orienteering, please get in touch with Katherine Ivory, SOA marketing director (marketing@scottish-orienteering.org) or Nic Crossley, Event Coordinator, nic@scottish-orienteering.org
The Scottish Six Days is one of the greatest orienteering festivals, and certainly the largest and most exciting event on Scotland’s orienteering calendar. You’ll definitely want to be at Royal Deeside 2025 – so get your entry in now! Running from 27th July to 1st August 2025, this promises to be a wonderful week of orienteering in an outstandingly beautiful part of Scotland, with top-level competition with thousands of participants from across the world.
With its traditional holiday atmosphere, the Six Days is always a lot of fun for everyone, regardless of experience or age. Royal Deeside 2025 is a fabulous opportunity to showcase our amazing sport to newcomers – can you help spread the word and inspire others? Tell us via the link below what the Six Days means to you and why you love it. Enter now for Early-Bird Prices!
The Scottish Elite and Development Squad (SEDS) helps Scottish-based orienteering athletes to reach their potential and promotes top quality training which is open to all athletes currently at TD5. It also offers an opportunity for ScotJOS leavers and orienteers aged between 18 – 39 to stay in the sport and develop their skills with a programme of coaching and social trips. The training programme is currently organised by SOA’s performance manager Graham Gristwood – grahamgristwood@scottish-orienteering.org.
