Month: April 2024

What was World Orienteering Day has morphed into World Orienteering Week, now with 9 glorious days, 18th – 28 May. Any event over this period suitable for juniors can be registered on the WOW website. The IOF´s goals for this annual event are to increase the visibility and accessibility of orienteering to young people, increase the number of participants both in schools’ and club activities, inspire teachers to implement orienteering in a fun and educational way, and to extend the reach of the sport and enthuse the next generation of orienteers.

Last weekend, Scottish Orienteering hosted the first of our three-part family coaching series at Balgay Park, Dundee. These sessions are aimed at families in and around Dundee, giving them the opportunity to try orienteering. With the support of Tayside Orienteers and Active Schools Dundee, we’re able to run these sessions. 

As part of the ‘Increasing Participation’ project overseen by Clyde Gateway, SOA once again ran 3 sessions for families and newcomers during the school Easter holidays at Cuningar Loop Woodland Park in Glasgow. SOA were linked in with Clyde Gateway by SportScotland, however we wanted to make sure that this work carried out provided a link into STAG and their events as well as raising the profile of orienteering. The project involves multiple sports and aims to get more local people active and using the local park.

After some of you may have had a few weekends away in Staffordshire and Yorkshire over the Easter holidays, this weekend provided the opportunity for members to test their skills at the Scottish Middle Distance Championships and the second Scottish Orienteering League (SOL) event of 2024.

First up on Saturday saw a clear day up on the Hill of Alyth providing some beautiful views over the Sidlaws to the south and over to the Grampian Mountains to the north. Tayside Orienteers (TAY) had picked a great arena which gave us plenty of opportunities to enjoy the views from assembly or for those that slowed down out on the hill to take in the view. There was fast and furious orienteering that some compared to Arthurs Seat and certainly had many wishing they had gone round rather not tried to make a path through the gorse!

Following on from the opportunity to join us in discussing the future Scottish Orienteering Strategy last week, we are providing a final opportunity for everyone to provide us with their thoughts via a google form. The draft Strategy for 2025-2029 is as yet just an outline with the details being added over the summer period before its launch at the Club Conference on 14th September.

As previously indicated this strategy is deliberately looking at the the larger picture of Scottish Orienteering as a whole over the next 4 years rather than just what the Scottish Orienteering Association should be doing. We believe that the SOA, British Orienteering, clubs, members together with Sport Scotland and other partners all have roles to play in ensuring our sport thrives. This Strategy acknowledges this and attempts to outline the pathways within our sport and the actions which we believe should be taken over the next four years.

Before adding the detail to the Strategy we would love to hear the thoughts of those unable to attend last weeks meetings. The google provide a summary of the outline Strategy together with an opportunity to provide us with your thought. Please could responses be submitted before end of April.

Here is the link to the google form

The SOA team are delighted to welcome you all to a Volunteer’s Day to be held at Glenmore Lodge on Sunday 2^nd June.  There will be a variety of workshops to cater for different interests and a chance to socialise before and after.  We are extremely lucky to have our sportscotland national trainers delivering two first class workshops designed to enhance volunteer management.

With the recent grants awarded through the SOA Development Fund, new opportunities with two clubs have arisen to work for the development of orienteering in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The 2024 Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival is being organised by St Andrews Orienteering Club, Glasgow (STAG) and is being held at Drumpellier Country Park, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire on Friday 7th June.  This is the 27th Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival and fourth time it has been held in Drumpellier Country Park having previously being held there in 2008, 2014 and 2017.

Ensuring the future of Scottish Orienteering was at the forefront of the minds of the SOA Board when they met in March to consider the development of the strategy for Scottish Orienteering from 2025  to 2029.

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed that this strategy is not just laying out what the SOA should be doing over the next four years but looking at the larger picture of what is required for Scottish Orienteering as a whole going forward.  The SOA, British Orienteering, clubs and members together with SportScotland all have a part to play to ensure our sport thrives.

Our sport is an inclusive, dynamic sport but like all sports it has challenges with the volunteer load required, the need to expand awareness of the sport beyond our existing participants, retain our existing members as well as being aware of environmental impacts of our sport.  However we believe that with us all working together we can develop and grow our sport.  On that basis we have drafted an outline strategy which looks at  the pathways within our sport and the actions which we believe should be taken over the next four years.

The first delivery of the new Demystifying Organising workshops was well received.  Run over 2 online sessions with a fortnight in between for ‘homework’, the workshops were designed to give volunteers the confidence to organise a local/Level D event.