Many of us know TEAM can stand for Together Everyone Achieves More. How can we use this so that an event team (planner, organiser, controller) work together as a team to make the event even better – and remove some stress and strain from actually taking on an event team role?

We are delighted to share the December issue of Score magazine.

Our new issue is packed with orienteering content for you to devour this December. We talk to first time planners and orienteers and see how they are faring in Covid times. There is a celebration of some of our very cool orienteering women and girls at Aberdeen University and Moray. You will also find the latest on squad updates; news of an event partnership with a Lossiemouth brewery that will be of interest to clubs with an eye to something different; and of course what is the thing called Turf we have been hearing about ? We get the Edinburgh perspective. Finally some well-kent faces from around the country and Scottish orienteering bravely make their predictions for 2021! And we even give you a festive puzzle to get your teeth into.

And we thank SOA photo competition winner Colin Brash for the sensational cover image of Arria glimpsed in a snowy Cumbernauld Community Park during a STAG Score event. You can download the PDF version of Score here – along with all the back copies – to enjoy at your leisure.

Many thanks to all our contributors for this edition! If you have a story to share or pictures we would love to see them! We are particularly looking for news of local events and how clubs are rising to the challenge for the April issue – tips, tricks, pitfalls, wins – let us know and send us photos to score@scottish-orienteering.org,

It has been fantastic to see the growth in popularity and availability of MapRun events over the last 8 months and it is now possible to find courses all over Scotland. It has also been great to hear of lots of people new to orienteering discovering the sport through trying MapRun courses in their area. We’d like to build on this grassroots development to ensure that MapRun courses can easily be found by anyone, and have therefore undertaken a reorganisation of the folder structure for all Scottish courses.

Thank you all for your patience as we sought clarity on the travel restrictions outlined in our guidance. Matters raised at the Covid Officer session last Thursday were really useful in our approach to these guidelines published today.

Two major changes are coming on 1 January 2021, and in both these cases, it’s important athletes and support personnel are aware of the changes before the new year, so any unintentional mistakes and bans can be avoided.

Since being co-opted onto the Board in April and formally elected at the recent EGM, Ade has had a considerable impact on the areas of Operations. He has been a popular board member and one we are sorry to lose. He has been instrumental in establishing our Planner Advocate and Controller Advocate roles and working closely with SOA staff to ensure there have been opportunities for members to progress their skills during lockdown and beyond.

At the Scottish Orienteering Association we recognise it has been a challenging year for everyone! We are asking that you help us raise funds through the option of Gift Aid.

We are delighted to announce our new partnership with A4 Design & Print, based in Inverness. A4 Design & Print has become Scottish Orienteering official printing partner and will see generous rates for printing extended to clubs and for our major events in 2021 and beyond!

In the absence of any further Scottish Championship competitions this year, trophy holders are able to retain their trophies for longer than usual.

Due to a temporary issue with our website, we are aware a number of members have been unable to access documents and some resources. We are in the process of trying to fix this glitch. However we want to ensure everyone has access to the current SOA guidance document so the full text is available below. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.