This bulletin provides a brief summary of current SCOA issues, including those items discussed at the Annual General Meeting and committee meeting held on 6^th June 2013.

 

JK 2013

The SCOA committee was very pleased to note that the JK had been a huge success. Whilst the weather was cold, at least it was dry throughout the weekend. Feedback from competitors has been extremely positive, and there were no significant issues over the weekend.

SCOA Chairman thanked Katy Stubbs for the huge amount of work she put in as event coordinator, and also to the day organisers, the planners, the team leaders and all the members of SCOA who worked tirelessly over the weekend.

Entry numbers were higher than either of the last two times that the JK were held in SCOA (in 2003 and 1993), and were higher than budgeted. And whilst we incurred some additional costs, both because of the higher numbers, and because of the buses needed on day 3 as a result of the wet parking fields, overall the event should generate a higher surplus than expected. Whilst the majority of this surplus goes to British Orienteering, SCOA will receive one third.

SCOA fees and levy for 2014

SCOA's only sources of income currently are:

• club fees (£25 per club)

  event levies (currently 13.5p per competitor with juniors counting as 1/3^rd)

• surpluses from major events, for example this year's JK, which provide a significant but infrequent boost to the finances.

SCOA's major items of expenditure are:

• payments to the English Orienteering Council - who use them to fund the cost of sending teams to the Junior, Senior and Veteran Home Internationals and to the Interland competition;

• funding the SCOA Junior Squad;

• paying grants – to subsidise the cost of attending First Aid courses, event officials' courses, Junior tours, and the like; and

• Payment for trophies and badges for SCOA events.

SCOA has generally run at a modest loss in most years, supported by the surplus created as and when it holds a major event. Over the past five years, our expenditure has risen markedly; the cost of the English Orienteering Council has more than doubled due to the removal of their Sport England BOF funding, and grant requests are also substantially greater. Whilst this year's accounts will look very healthy because of the expected surplus from the JK, the underlying position is of a deficit of around £2,500pa, which cannot be sustained. SCOA's financial position is also very dependent on a continued of levy income; were a major incident to occur (such as a foot and mouth outbreak) then we could rapidly be in financial difficulties. 

Following a review of the options, the SCOA Annual General Meeting decided on the following actions:

1. To introduce a £2 Affiliation Fee for all Senior members from the beginning of 2014. This fee will be collected along with club and British Orienteering subscriptions.

2. To increase the event levy to 18p in 2014, rising to 24p by 2017.

These increases in charges are regretted. Nevertheless, SCOA's membership charges remain competitive – for comparison, SWOA has no affiliation fee but a 60p levy on all events, whilst SEOA has a £3 affiliation fee and a 50p levy on level A and level B events (except those like the JK that are subject to different explicit financial arrangements), and at any level C events that are used for the SEOA League.

2013 SCOA Championships

SCOA's Middle Distance Championships took place at the SN event at Oxshott Heath (near Esher) on Sunday 7^th April. A list of SCOA Champions can be seen at http://www.scoa-orienteering.org.uk/events/2013/04/07/2013-scoa-middle-d...

SCOA's team championships are on Sunday 7^th July at SARUM's Moonraker relay at Fonthill. More details on the SARUM website at http://www.sarumo.org.uk/index.html

SCOA's Sprint Championship are on Monday 26^th August at TVOC's event at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories near Didcot.

SCOA's Long Distance Championships are on Sunday 3^rd November at SOC's event in the New Forest.

Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded to the first three SCOA members in each class. Classes are as follows:

Sprint

MYJun - A yellow standard course for M12 or younger competitors

WYJun - As above but for W12 or younger competitors

MJun - A sprint race for M14 and M16 competitors

WJun - As above but for W14 and W16 competitors

MOpen - A sprint race for M18-M35 competitors

WOpen - As above but for W18-W35 competitors

MVet - A sprint race for M40-M50 competitors

WVet - As above but for W40-W50 competitors

MSVet - A sprint race for M55 and M60 competitors

WSVet - As above but for W55 and W60 competitors

MUVet - A sprint race for M65+ competitors

WUVet - As above for W65+ competitors

Long

Standard age classes

More details of all of these events will appear on the SCOA website once they are available. See http://www.scoa-orienteering.org.uk/scoa_events

 

SCOA League 2012/13

The final event of this season's SCOA league took place on Sunday 9^th June at BADO's event at Micheldever. The final leagues are now available at http://www.scoa-orienteering.org.uk/league/2012/10/22/scoa-league-result...

Congratulations to the following league winners - Rachael Chapelhow (SOC), Jenny Chapelhow (SOC), Thomas Howell (SN), Alan Jones (BKO), Elisabeth Dickson (BAOC), Colin Dickson (BAOC) and Craig Blackford (BADO). Details of the prize-giving will be announced in due course.

 

SCOA athletes' successes at World Schools Championships

Two athletes from SCOA attended the World Schools Orienteering Championships in Portugal in April – Fiona Bunn (TVOC) and Dane Blomquist (BAOC). Both athletes put in stunning performances, with Dane winning his Middle Distance race and Fiona winning her Long race. Bearing in mind that they were competing against some of the best competition in the world in their age group, these are seriously impressive results.

 

British Orienteering is looking for Independent Directors

At the 2013 Annual General Meeting of British Orienteering, members voted in favour of appointing Independent Directors to the Board. The Board are now advertising for two independent director positions.

Being an Independent Director, the candidate must not have been employed by British Orienteering, been a Director of British Orienteering, or have been involved in any national-level committee or group of British Orienteering in the past ten years. That restriction will count a few SCOA members out, but most SCOA members would be eligible for the role.

 Do you have what it takes? Take a look at http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/index.php?pg=1&action=news&id=Mjc0... for more details of what is involved, and see if you can help shape the strategy for the development of orienteering in the UK.

SCOA is looking for a Secretary

If that is not for you, what about becoming Secretary of SCOA. It's not a difficult or time-consuming role (see the attached job spec), and it does provide valuable insight into what is happening on the orienteering scene. If you think you could do this job, just drop a line to chairman@scoa-orienteering.org.uk.

 

SCOA SECRETARY DUTIES

The main role of the SCOA Secretary is to organise the SCOA Committee meetings and the AGM. There are 4 committee meetings a year: March, June (same day as AGM), September and December. There is very little external to committee correspondence to deal with (2 mailed letters in 4 years and about 10 emails). This is because most of the general information cascading from BO has already been sent direct to clubs.

 

Outline Tasks

Before the meeting

• three weeks before the meeting email committee the provisional agenda and ask for additions

• three weeks before meeting email requesting reports from committee members/officers to be sent by the Monday before the meeting

• collate reports and convert them to a standard format (pdf)

• email committee the collated reports and revised agenda

• print a few spare copies of meeting papers

During the meeting

• take the minutes – record salient points from reports

After the meeting

• produce draft minutes

• email committee the draft minutes asking for any amendments

• book the meeting room for the next meeting.

• re-issue draft minutes to committee.

• Place minutes on SCOA website.