April Newsletter and important dates for your diary.

Ruari Cottier

Ruari Cottier

Posted: Wed 7 Apr 2021

Events, Junior Rep., Junior news, Volunteer development and so much more.

Fantastic news as we start to open up again from Lockdown.

EckO extend a very warm welcome to all of our new club members. It will be fantastic to meet, hopefully before too long.

Events:

We are now permitted to hold local events providing that no more than 15 gather in one place and we adhere to current COVID guidelines from SOA.

With this in mind, may I make a plea that if you do come to our first local event at Glencruitten on Sunday, 25th April you do not linger to chat at either the start, finish or download. Entry will be to club members only (unfortunately at the moment, there is no travel allowed across local authority boundaries) with pre-entry and allocated start times. We would really appreciate it if you could pay by BACS transfer at the same time as entering the event. The other alternative is to bring the correct amount of cash in a sealed named envelope on the day of the event. More details will appear on the EckO website shortly.

Lochaber Scottish 6 Days (1st August - 7th August)

I am really excited about the Scottish 6Days. Quite a few EckO members have already entered and booked their camping slot or accommodation. Campsite space is disappearing fast. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have a large EckO contingent? If you are fairly new to EckO and orienteering there are many experienced members available who would be very happy to chat and mentor you through the process. We will also be looking for help and volunteers nearer the time. Please consider entering at least one of the Scottish 6 Days based around Lochaber. Entries are now open.

For more information check out the website: https://www.scottish6days.com/... and ROMP’s

Check the website for details of new mapruns and the current April ROMP at Glencruitten, with a pdf map available for download. If you are new to orienteering, a help sheet will be added shortly.

Committee

The committee met by zoom on Wednesday 31st March. It was fantastic to catch up and make plans in anticipation of the next stage of Lockdown.

As always the committee extend a warm welcome to any member who wishes to join us at these meetings. The next meeting will be via zoom on Wednesday, 5th May 2021. Please contact any committee member for more details.

Welcome to EckO’s new Junior Rep:

EckO now has over 30 juniors and Ruari Cottier has very kindly agreed to represent and be a voice for all the juniors. Ruari has already come up with some great ideas which the club are looking forward to implementing. If any junior has something they wish to bring up or any ideas please contact Ruari through the contacts page of the website.

SWAT squad junior news:

This is an amazing opportunity for juniors to develop their orienteering skills and make new friends. It is suitable for juniors who are comfortable orienteering independently on an orange course and are at least 10 years old but preferably 12.

Scottish Junior Cup

Plans are now in place to host a Scottish Junior Cup league over three different races during the spring and summer of 2021. The league will offer a set of high quality, fun, and competitive races which will be open to all junior orienteers in Scotland with age classes from M/W12 to M/W18. The draft plan is as follows:

In anticipation of the Scottish Junior Cup the SWAT squad are hoping to run a couple of training sessions prior to the first event. See details below:

Roger Goddard (coaching coordinator FVO) will be in touch shortly for those already signed up to the SWAT squad with plans for a couple of sessions before the first Junior event at Auchingarrich 30th May. Any coaches looking to gain experience or those looking to go down the coaching route are welcome.

Get in touch with Roger directly rogergoddard74@gmail.com and complete this form. This form is also for adults looking to be coached.

Any juniors wanting to sign up - contact Roger directly or myself (Jan Kersel)

Volunteer Development:

EckO really values any members contribution but you might have a particular skill or interest that you would like to develop eg. coaching, mapping, planning or simply just offering a helping hand at an event. There are several courses/ workshops available.

Mapping - An Introduction to making maps for orienteering

LOC (Lakeland Orienteering Club) have invited any EckO member who is interested in making orienteering maps to take part in a zoom session on Saturday, 10th April 5.30 - 6.45pm. (no charge)

Having an insight into the practical aspects of map making and O-cartography can really help your orienteering skill development. If you are interested, contact me (Jan Kersel https://www.ecko.org.uk/contacts) as quickly as possible and I will email you the sign up details.

British Orienteering is also in the process of setting up some map making webinars. The first of these is to be held on Tuesday 20th April 7.30pm

Coaching:

EckO is always looking for more coaches. Coaching is an excellent way of developing your own orienteering skills and getting to know other members of the club and orienteering family. If anybody is interested in starting their coaching journey please get in contact with me.

(Jan Kersel https://www.ecko.org.uk/contacts)

If we have enough interest, the SOA will run a coaching foundation or a Level 1 coaching course for us in our local area.

As we are hoping to develop our large junior section (and of course our adults) in the near future we really need support.

Event Safety Workshop (SOA) no charge.

Delivered online, using the Zoom platform, this 1.5 hour workshop will cover event safety and is a prerequisite for all event officials with SOA/BOF events and is highly encouraged for active coaches.

21 April online 7:30-9pm Sign up here

Child Wellbeing and Protection in Sport Course

In order to support our coaches and ensure they have an up to date and valid British Orienteering Coaching Licence, SOA have organised an additional Child Well-being and Protection in Sport course. Please take this opportunity while it is available at no cost to you as a coach. The last course in our series will take place on 28th April 2021 between 6-9pm.

Sign up here

SOA and Club Conference Online 18th to 23rd April

We are unable to physically get together this year however online is on! Join us as we share some of the successes of 2020 and the strategy for moving forward. This is for any club member. More information here

Club Equipment Store

As many of you will know our equipment store is very near to disintegrating!

Many thanks to Live Argyll Community Sports Hub Return to Sports Fund who have awarded EckO a grant to go towards replacing the current shed. We soon hope to see a new equipment store erected close to Taynuilt Sports Pavilion and are anticipating many exciting club activities in the near future. Jim Mailer (club member) has happily agreed to construct our new shed.

Ticks

Yes, it’s the tick season again and a few have already been spotted feasting on unsuspecting limbs. For more information:

https://www.scottish-orienteering.org/news/tick-bite-prevention-week

Adventure Oban

Please don’t forget to log your miles with Adventure Oban.

I see Ross has already contributed with a hitch hiker in his pack (Miltean) romping around Fearnoch.

For more information

https://www.adventureoban.org/

I apologise for the length of the newsletter but isn’t it great that so many things are now happening.

kind regards

Jan Kersel (Club Development Officer) https://www.ecko.org.uk/contacts