Month: July 2020

We take this opportunity to share this open letter to sport from Joe FitzPatrick MSP, Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing. Sport remains a high priority for the Government for it’s place in society to bring communities together but also it’s profound impact on the health and well being agenda of Scotland.

The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) announced on 7 May that WOC 2020, scheduled to take place in Denmark, had been postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic and would now be held in 2022.

As a consequence, WOC 2022, due to take place from 15 – 19 July 2022 in Edinburgh has been rescheduled and will now be held in the summer of 2024. This is subject to final approval from our event partners EventScotland and the City of Edinburgh Council.

We have been fortunate to bring the skills and experience of Tim O’Donoghue onto the SOA Board of Directors (co-opted) under the title of Safety Director. Tim’s extensive professional experience has helped us put in place a robust process for us to effectively review our SOA Policies on a regular basis. We look forward to keeping you to up date on our new policies and any changes to policies which may impact our clubs.

As club events and activities restart it is important we consider our Child Protection and Welfare responsibilities. Our partner’s at Children’s 1st have provided an insightful document for clubs to consider as ‘Children and Young People’ return to sport following a period of lockdown. We have an update on processing an PVG applications your club may require and we recommend a documentary on Netflix.

A reminder that the welfare of children in our sport is EVERYONE’s responsibility! If you have any concerns, please raise them with your Club Child Welfare officer or to Fiona@Scottish-orienteering.org Any concerns will be dealt with in the strictest confidence and follow the procedures outlined in our Child Protection & Welfare policies.

We would like to thank you all for your patience as we sought to gain approval for our Phase 3 guidelines for orienteering activities and for the SOA event guidance documents to support the reactivation of events in Scotland.

We are delighted to share with you our guidelines and guidance notes to allow clubs to plan for club activities, coaching and also club only (local) events (with some restrictions in place).

Well done ECKO for successfully submitting a bid to SportScotland for Direct Club Investment funds. ECKO are now recruiting for a Club Development Officer for 14 hours a week. Find out more here

Are you a keen photographer? We are looking for your orienteering photos of any aspect of the sport – action, club social, podium or humorous.  Hungry to compete! Glory and publication awaits!