Within our clubs we know that many hands make light work and more often than not a problem shared is a problem halved. So each year we offer the opportunity for clubs to come together to meet other club volunteers, the SOA Board and staff and share the experiences from their clubs with others who may be a different size or area.
Club Networking Day taking place between 10am and 4pm on 6th September 2025 at North Inch Community Campus in Perth. Book your spot now!
One of the key strategic aims identified within the Scottish Orienteering Strategy was to the need to provide lifelong pathways for progression within orienteering. Having structured pathways for recreational orienteers, performance athletes and volunteers allows people to identify opportunities to improve their skills or indeed opportunities to develop new skills within the sport. For most of us the feeling of getting better, improving our skills helps to keep us engaged in our sport.
As part of this and as a result of discussions with clubs, we have held what we hope is the first of many Adult Beginner training days and are about to advertise for a new Scottish Elite and Development Squad co-ordinator who we hope will help provide training to Adult Improvers alongside training for existing young adults within the orienteering. This can only ever compliment all the hard work which is being done within clubs to encourage newcomers and retain existing orienteers.
We are however aware that there is a lot of great work going on within the Scottish Orienteering community to foster lifelong learning. In order to allow clubs to have the opportunity to discuss and learn from each other, about how we can, should and are helping to develop our members skills both as orienteers and volunteers we are proposing that this year’s Club Networking Day should focus on Lifelong Progression.
The four main themes for the day will be:-
The aim of the day will be to provide opportunities for members from all of our clubs to come together and learn from each other. There will be refreshments (tea/coffee/ cake/lunch) provided and an orienteering activity at lunchtime to get everyone moving.
This opportunity to come and exchange ideas is not just limited to committee members or post holders. We welcome participation from any club members young and old, veterans or newbies who feel that they have a contribution to make. There will be Staff and Board teams present to support the day but the main purpose of the day is to provide the opportunity for clubs and members to exchange ideas on how we create an environment for lifelong participation and progression.
Please complete Club Networking Day 2025 sign up form by Friday 30th August so that we can order food.
Make sure you have the date in the diary for this year’s Club Networking Day taking place between 10am and 4pm on 6th September 2025 at North Inch Community Campus in Perth.
The focus of the day will be Lifelong Pathways for improvement within orienteering which is one of the sport’s four strategic aims. These Lifelong Pathways for improvement relate to the progression of an individual’s orienteering skills as well as providing personal development opportunities for those who volunteer.
Read More…The Club Networking Day held on 14th September together with an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to elect a new Chair of the Board and two new directors.
The day started briefly with the EGM which saw those present vote to amend the Articles of Association as follows:-
There was discussion about whether a maximum limit on the percentage of the SOA Board should be included in the articles but it was felt that practically this was unlikely and the additional statement obliged the Board to be as diverse as practical.
Following the amendment of the articles Richard Oxlade was elected as Chair until the next Annual General Meeting. Pat Bartlett was then elected as Finance Director and Katherine Ivory as Marketing and Communications Director. Welcome to Pat and Katherine and our thanks to Keith Dawson and Ben Hartman for all their efforts, especially related to WOC 2024 and ensuring its sensible delivery, as Chair and Finance Director respectively.
After completion of the EGM those present then got to the main business of the day – the Club Networking Event. The new Scottish Orienteering Strategy, which will be launched in November, was briefly outlined to those present and the members from 11 clubs got down to the important business of the day discussing current issues and swapping information which all tied into the Scottish Orienteering. The topics of discussion were
All those there felt they gained useful points to take back to clubs and especially from Nic Crossley, the coordinator for the Scottish 6 Day in Deeside 2025 who was able to provide social media/ marketing guidance from the experience she has gained through putting on ultra/ trail events over the years.
We will look to hold another Club Networking Day next year to provide the opportunity for clubs to come together and exchange ideas. Thanks go to the efforts of Suzanne Robins Bird, our Coaching and Volunteer Officer, for organising the event and Clive Masson for providing the lunchtime orienteering activity which tested everyone with false control descriptions and blanked off areas of the map.