This week saw the retiral of our Coaching and Volunteer Officer, Suzanne Robins-Bird who joined SOA, initially on a short term contract, in November 2021. We are very grateful for everything she has accomplished during her tenure including finalising the course content, with the support of the tutors, of the SOA coaching qualifications, aligning the SOA coaching qualifications to the Scottish Coaching Certificates, extending the volunteer education provision and her push to celebrate the efforts of volunteers within our sport. We are very glad that Suzanne will continue as one of the SOA coaching tutors and know that she is looking forward to having the time to get involved with delivery of development work for her club Inverness Orienteering Club (INVOC).
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.
Collectively everyone involved created something really special in terms of WOC 2024 and WOC Tour. Many competitors in WOC Tour and the teams from all over the world taking part in WOC 2024 have given us really positive feedback, “Best Ever” being a common theme. Even those who didn’t visit but watched from afar commented on how brilliant the TV coverage was.
The work put in by everyone was outstanding and we can be really proud of what we achieved together. This was not just the work that took place during the two events but the immense amount of hard work for years beforehand. And it could not have gone ahead without funding from EventScotland, The City of Edinburgh Council, British Orienteering Federation and of course SOA and Scottish 6 Days on behalf of Scottish Orienteering Members. All that hard work turned a creative vision into a beautiful reality.
Thanks to you all on behalf of the Boards of the Scottish Orienteering Association and the Scottish Orienteering 6 Day Event Company
An online Organiser workshop is being run over 2 online sessions, 7.30 – 9pm, on 11th and 25th March with short tasks to be completed in between. This is open to anyone who is just starting out in organising and will cover the basics of organising a local event.
Book online through the Google form by 1st March or contact Suzanne with any questions
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.
