Tag: Development

Back in June, Scottish Orienteering was excited to announce the brand‑new Junior Volunteer Awards Scheme. A scheme created to recognise and encourage juniors who are taking their first steps into volunteering. Juniors can be nominated for volunteering in four different categories; planning, organising coaching and IT/results/timing. These awards are not about being the best at a role — they are about having a go and learning! The winners of each category will be announced at the Junior interareas at the end of October. 

This scheme was first introduced as a points system whereby juniors could earn points each time they volunteered. The decision has been made to scrap this to avoid over-complicating it. Juniors can be nominated for one or more categories. To nominate a junior we just need their name and it would be helpful if you could provide a note of the volunteer tasks they have undertaken in the past year. Nominations can be made by; the junior, a coach, committee member, area squad official, club fixture secretary. 

We have had some fantastic trophies made up for the award and we hope presenting them at the interareas will encourage more juniors to try volunteering. 

Please contact heidi@scottish-orienteering.org to nominate a junior for one of these awards. Please have your nominations in by Sunday 25th October.

Scottish Orienteering, with the support of Sport Scotland Summer of Sport funding have been running an initiative to attract families into orienteering, with taster coaching sessions followed by local events.

Got experiences you think are worth sharing, want to meet members from other clubs or find out what others think about the hot topics in a format where chat is not restricted by start times, download queues or volunteering requirements. With a free lunch on offer and a guarantee of home made cake the Club Networking days really are a chance for our members to come have lunch and chat about all things orienteering.

In February, SOA awarded development funding to Roxburgh Reivers to support an innovative club development project.

The project stood out as an excellent example of how relatively small amounts of targeted funding can help clubs address local challenges, trial new ideas and create long-term benefits for their members and communities.

We wanted to highlight the project, not only to showcase the work of Roxburgh Reivers, but also to encourage other clubs to think about how they could adapt similar ideas in their own areas.

The SOA Development Fund will reopen for applications in September, and we are encouraging all clubs to begin thinking about potential projects and proposals ahead of time.

This year’s focus is clear: we want to support initiatives that help grow and expand our sport amongst adults aged 20-40.

June’s Community Conversation brought together members from across Scottish clubs to share thoughts on supporting and encouraging newcomer families.  This theme follows on from the May discussion on creating welcoming environments at events.  (May Community Conversation)  Involving parents is usually key to retaining and developing new juniors, and supporting a balanced orienteering demographic.  How can we best support parents to get involved in our sport?

Well it’s that time of year again and World Orienteering Week will soon be upon us. Any event between 16th and 24th of May can be registered on the WOW website.

A maze is always fun

Look at those happy faces!

Throughout March, Scottish Orienteering has been excited to host three successful adult beginner “Learn to Orienteer” coaching days in Inverness, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen. These sessions were designed to introduce newcomers to the sport in a friendly, supportive environment, giving them the skills and confidence to go on and attend their first orienteering event.

Each day brought together a diverse group of participants, many trying orienteering for the very first time. From runners and walkers to complete beginners looking for a new outdoor activity, the sessions highlighted just how accessible and inclusive orienteering can be.

For many people, joining an orienteering club is the moment when an occasional event participant becomes part of the community. Helping new members feel confident, informed and included at this stage can make a huge difference to long-term retention and increase the likelihood of adoption of the sport

One approach being used by several clubs is newcomer or welcome packs — a collection of information and resources given to new members to help them understand how the club and the sport works and how to get the most from it. These might be physical packs, or a collection of information sent digitally, but the most success comes from personal follow-up.

This article aims to share examples of what clubs are already doing to highlight useful ideas that other clubs may decide to adopt, and also identify areas where support or shared resources from SOA could help. Please get in touch if you have any ideas for resources that we may be able to help with.

Thanks to those clubs that have provided information on their current practices, detailed below.

We are pleased to announce the latest round of funding awards made through the SOA Development Fund. This fund is designed to provide financial support to projects that contribute to the development of the sport and fit within the remit of the SportScotland agreed development objectives for the sport. This time around, we asked clubs to propose projects which support Lifelong Pathways for improvement which is one of our four strategic aims. These Lifelong Pathways within orienteering relate to progression of orienteering skills as well as personal development opportunities for our volunteers. We wanted projects that focused on development of all athletes on either the performance, recreational or volunteer pathways, or continued to focus on the recruitment and retention of young adults aged 18-40.

Congratulations to the clubs and areas that have received awards: GRAMP, INVOC, North Area regional squad and RR.