Would you like to help others to improve their orienteering? This spring, Scottish Orienteering has several courses available to teach you to use your skills and experience in orienteering to help and encourage others. Read on for what we have available.

In May 2023 Keith Dawson, the President of SOA, bemoaned the fact that the SOA might fall apart due to the lack of people volunteering for SOA Board roles. The SOA is the channel that funds the various tours, coaching, training courses and international competitions that has given me and my family many hours of enjoyment and it was a wakeup call that I it was time for me, as a retired person, to give something back to the sport. 

I have been orienteering since my student days at Bangor University, when I beat Carol MacNeil in the British University Championships.  I have since competed at a lower level for ESOC; run for my country a couple of times and have feedback about the top athletes through my daughter Claire Ward who represented the British Orienteering Team for a number of years. I haven’t been that active in the club’s organising and planning scene as I am not a very precise or neat person. I spent the last 20 years of my professional career as a Vocational Curriculum Development Manager at home and abroad.  This involved working with both the teachers, the ministries of education/training and the Industrial lead bodies to develop training systems and curriculum that matched the needs of all the interested parties.  I see the role of Development Director as a similar role, but working with orienteers, clubs, SOA and Sport Scotland as the main players – all of whom want to see the sport of orienteering grow and flourish as a fun sport for all.  At the SOA Board meeting on the 4^thSeptember 2023, I was coopted onto the SOA board as Development Director. This post had been vacant for over 6 months!

When linked in with local club training and area training happening in your area there are plenty of opportunities for juniors to improve their orienteering and connect with other junior orienteers in 2024. As part of a series of articles to make sure everyone is aware of the important dates in 2024 – here are the junior dates to be aware of.

Coaching Courses

Aimed at helping provide guidance for those looking to organise a local or regional event

The fixtures calendar for next year has been finalised and we are very grateful to all of those clubs who have volunteered to host the key dates in the SOA calendar in 2024.Here are the dates for next year, to avoid disappointment, get them in your diary now!

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 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.

Volunteer Day

With lots of calls on all our member’s expenditure at this time of year we are grateful to those who have renewed their SOA membership – either through British Orienteering or direct through SI entries. Did you know that you could give SOA an additional gift this festive period at no cost to yourself if you are a UK taxpayer?

If you are a UK taxpayer and have signed the gift aid form, the UK government will pay an extra 25p for every £1 of your membership fee?

Gift aid is a simple government initiative which allows you to increase the value of your donations at no extra cost to you. HM Revenue and Customs regards membership subscriptions as ‘donations. Therefore, the SOA can claim gift aid on your membership fees.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has published its 2024 Prohibited List. The
Prohibited List designates the substances and methods that are prohibited in sport.

Following an extensive consultation period by WADA, the 2024 Prohibited List was
published on 27 September 2023. This gives athletes and support personnel sufficient
time to make themselves aware of the changes, review any medications they use on
Global DRO, and apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) if required before the
updated List comes into effect on 1 January 2024.

Included on the 2024 List is the substance tramadol which will be banned in-
competition from 1 January 2024. Tramadol is an opioid analgesic and is classified as
a prescription only medicine in the UK. Tramadol misuse is of concern because of the
risks of physical dependence, opiate addiction, and overdose. It has led to it being a
controlled drug in many countries. If you are concerned about tramadol misuse, please
reach out to the SOA Anti Doping Lead (Nikki Howard) or Performance Director or speak to your doctor prior to the change in status on the 2024 Prohibited List.

Please visit UK Anti-Doping’s website here to read a full summary of the changes on
the 2024 List.

The following resources are also available to read on WADA’s website:

• The full 2024 Prohibited List
• The WADA 2024 Summary of Major Modifications and Explanatory Notes
• The 2024 Monitoring Program which includes substances not currently on the
List but are being monitored by WADA for potential patterns of misuse in sport.

The Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) hold 6 training weekends each year and last
weekend met at Aberfoyle for a slightly damp weekend of training.

Last weekend, Saturday 2nd December, saw the 11th and final Scottish Orienteering Urban League event of the year hosted by Interlopers Orienteering Club (INT) in Livingston . With a dusting of snow meaning that there were no concerns about ice out on the course, those hardy souls got to enjoy running around some parts of Livingston which have not been used for years.

The final results of the 2023 SOUL series can be found here. There are trophies for those winning the various age categories of the SOUL series and it’s sister series the Scottish Orienteering League (SOL) but no medals as was reported in the most recent SOA newsletter.

Following a successful series of Orienteering Edinburgh events in the early Summer, we decided to run a series of lunchtime events in the winter to maximise daylight. For this 4 week series each event starts at Festival Square in central Edinburgh, every Thursday lunchtime for 4 weeks. Each week there are new courses to try.