Club Development Officer grants
Credit: SBOC
We are delighted to announce not one, not two, not three, but four new grants for Club Development Officers!
Our grants will help fund two new CDO positions at Moravian Orienteering Club and Derwent Valley Orienteers, extend Swansea Bay Orienteering Club's CDO into a second year, and Cleveland Orienteering Klub's into a third year.
- Moravian Orienteers Club - Moravian are introducing a new CDO role to focus on orienteering in five key community ‘hubs’ of Forres, Elgin, Lossiemouth, Fochabers and Buckie. The intent is to capitalise on momentum created by the Moray 2023 Scottish 6 Days. The key areas the CDO will focus on are develop orienteering skills in young people leading to participations in Moray 2023, stablishing regular family sessions in each of the five communities, identifying local young orienteers to become Young Ambassadors for Moray 2023, and coordinating communication and publicity of club events and activities during and after Moray 2023 in order to maintain awareness and interest of orienteering in the local community.
- Derwent Valley Orienteers - DVO are also introducing a new CDO role to help reverse a trend that will be familiar to many clubs - declining participation, aging club, lack of new members, and increasing difficulty to get the same old members to keep volunteering in the continued running of the club. The objectives and approaches for the CDO are to facilitate frequent, high-quality orienteering activities in the greater Derby area, identifying successful tactics and strategies to attract people into the sport, enthusiastically encouraging people already enjoying other outdoor sports to try orienteering, and attracting, involving and retaining new club members in the target demographic. DVO are already advertising the for role, see the job advert on their website.
- Swansea Bay Orienteering Club - SBOC received an initial grant last year (see award) and we are now renewing for a second year. Kerina Lake was appointed as the CDO, and as you can see in the report on the first six months, Kerina has been driving a great many initiatives including a series of park-O events for newcomers, various initiatives for the whole club, engaging with partner organisations in the area, and creation of a Welsh Orienteering Association award booklet for new juniors. The focus for the CDO is to increase the profile and participation in the sport so more people enjoy it, and then take up the sport more formally through membership of the club and by doing so build a more sustainable future for the club. As the 6 month report goes on to describe, Kerina has plenty more planned for the coming year.
- Cleveland Orienteering Klub - CLOK received an initial grant two years ago (see award and appointment) and we are now renewing the grant for a third year. CLOK's primary objective for the CDO is to increase CLOK’s membership, especially targeting young adults, including those with families. Mary Fleming is the club development officer and will continue into the third year. She has introduced lots of initiatives, most notably the Couch to Green (for walkers) and Track to Green (for runners) programs, where the fourth series is about to commence, and previous series have got many new orienteers into the sport and joining the club, some of whom have gone on to organise and plan events, volunteer on the day, and take up club committee posts. Other CDO led initiatives have included helping create a newcomer part of the website (inspired by the Orienteering Foundation club website surveys), introducing a club Instagram account, creating a volunteer recognition policy, putting on club training mornings, weekly virtual challenges, and much more.
These are in addition to previous funding for a Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) club development officer (see award and appointment).
We invited Andrew Evans, Chair of the Orienteering Foundation, to comment on this rush of CDO grants:
The Orienteering Foundation has now part-funded five clubs seeking to engage a Club Development Officer to increase club membership and each project has its own and differing characteristics. These initiatives will enable us to get a good feel for the benefits that a CDO can contribute which could be of help to other Committees considering how best to progress their own club development. We are also gathering examples of the contracts to engage a CDO, development programmes implemented and other documents which will be kept in a repository for use by others.
We wish all the clubs who have received grants the best of success with their club development, and look forward to hearing how it progresses!
If you are thinking of how to develop your own club, and considering whether appointing a CDO could help, don't hesitate to get in touch with one of our Orienteering Foundation ambassadors to see how we can help. One of our specific goals with funding CDO positions is encourage sharing of ideas and learnings between clubs.
Note, this is a historical news article. For the latest information, and links to any more recent news articles, see our Club Development page.