After 5 years in the role Sally Lindsay has decided to stand down as the SOA Trophy Coordinator. The Board and in particular Richard Oxlade, the Operations Director, would like to thank Sally for all her hard work getting trophies for our Scottish championships and leagues distributed to the right place at the right time, and the equally hard work of retrieving them for the next year. In addition, we would also like to thank her for her diligent efforts to rationalise the Scottish Championship rules and guidelines.
Inevitably this means that we need a new volunteer to coordinate the trophies. Sally aims to handover after the presentation of last year’s SOL trophies at SOL1 in March and we urgently need a replacement before the start of April. This is a great opportunity to put something back into our sport and without our SOA volunteers we would not be able to operate the sport at a national level.
The events which form part of the 2023 Scottish Orienteering League (SOUL) series have been finalised and details including links to all of the events can be found on the SOUL events page on the website or via this link here.
Eleven events will form the 2023 SOUL series. The best six scores will be used to determine an individual’s league positions for all classes other than the Young Junior, Junior and Hyper Veteran classes where the best four scores will count for an individual’s league position.
SOLWAY Urban Event Map
The roll of honour for the 2022 SOUL series, with details of those first, second and third in each class, is available here. The trophy presentation will take part after the Edinburgh University Orienteering Club’s (EUOC) Edinburgh City Race (SOUL 1) on January 28th 2023. Certificates for the first three in each class have already been distributed to clubs.
The SOA office reopened on the 9th January. With a busy festive season for most we have decided to extend the closing date for the Chief Operating Officer position until the 17th January giving everyone an extra week to apply.
The next few years will be an exciting time for Scottish Orienteering as we build towards the World Sprint Orienteering Championships in Edinburgh in 2024 and beyond.
There are a number of SOA Board Director roles coming up in the next few months, to be filled at the AGM in May. They give the opportunity to put back into the sport and have a strategic impact. The Board Team work to help develop and grow our great sport alongside our Clubs and Development Staff, funded by sportscotland. Board Directors are also Trustees of the charity.
Happy New Year to all our members from Scottish Orienteering. New years bring new opportunities and we have a number of courses happening soon for coaches, planners and juniors that still have places. Sign up now to secure your place!
SOA have operated a Development Fund for a number of years. These sports development grants are funded by SportScotland to enable clubs to make a tangible difference in their area. We have recently made some changes which are intended to simplify the application, awarding and report back processes.
Are you a junior who loves the idea of planning but are not sure where to start? An INVOC junior planner from the last series of SOA planning workshops contributed to planning the schools event below.
A 2023 series of beginner workshops is being run for juniors, 12 years or older, who have little or no planning experience. The dates are as follows:
2022 has been a challenging year for the development team. We have been understaffed for most of the year and this has put a great deal of pressure on the remaining staff. We were very sorry to lose Sarah Dunn in the spring, but delighted that Fran Loots agreed to bring all her experience to the Development Manager position. Attempts to recruit two part-time Development Officers to fill the void were unsuccessful, and we concluded that the best way forward was to go for one full-time post – and we were very pleased to welcome Heidi Ross to the team in August. Suzanne Robins-Bird has brought a great deal of energy to the Coaching and Volunteering position and it feels now that we have a strong team going into 2023.
The SOA annual plan for 2022 listed these as our development aims for the year:
to encourage a coaching, mentoring and learning culture
to support youth development
to develop partnerships with demonstrable benefits
In order to make the competition more inclusive to all forms of orienteering, the format of the Scottish Inter Club Championships (SICC) was changed for 2022 to include results for all five individual championships, the Compass Point Scottish Orienteering League, the Scottish Urban Orienteering League and regional events. This empowered members who don’t compete at championship level, or simply prefer urban or sprint orienteering, to contribute towards the overall result throughout the year.
