Who we are and what we're doing in 2023:
Masterplan Adventure is an orienteering club registered with British Orienteering and the Scottish Orienteering Association. You can read all about our formation and objectives in the article below. Our first race, Sprint Scotland, continues to be our flagship event of the year, and we are hoping the 2023 event will continue the growing momentum towards the World Championships in Edinburgh in 2024. Over the last two years, we have also organised the first two editions of both Coast & Islands and Christmas Cup, multi-day events with both forest and sprint races. We are not bound by a geographic location, and as such took the opportunity as lockdown eased to work with clubs in the Lake District to organise the Lakeland Warrior weekends, which have now expanded and continue to be popular. We also continue to use funds from our events to support the development of aspiring elite orienteers, through donations to the Scottish Junior Squad (ScotJOS), the Scottish Elite Development Squad (SEDS) and the GB Team. The members who organise many of our events are young athletes themselves, which builds valuable experience in mapping, planning and organising, and furthermore we can then support them occasionally with grants towards training and competing.
Article published in SCORE magazine September 2018:
MASTERPLAN ADVENTURE is a new orienteering club registered with British Orienteering and the Scottish Orienteering Association.
The club’s Constitution and Development Plan (both available on the website) include the following aims and objectives:
The idea of creating this club came about when Graham Gristwood, Fanni Gyurko and Kris Jones, with support from Forth Valley Orienteers, organised Sprint Scotland in 2016. It was a great success, but it was also clear that there was a need to find a way to organise events like this within British and Scottish Orienteering, but outside of the existing ‘club structure’ - which is not designed in such a way as to allow a group of like-minded individuals to put on interesting orienteering events and activities in a creative way, unbound by geographical boundaries or inter-club politics. An example of this is that we saw an opportunity to put on a sprint race in Ballater the day before the British Orienteering Championships in Balmoral; the organising team and local clubs would have had no time or spare volunteers to organise this event, but they were happy to have it, as it added value to the event as a whole.
At the moment we are in discussions with a couple of clubs regarding potential partnerships – there are a number of clubs in Scotland who do not have a huge membership or volunteer base, but they do have maps and a desire to have events locally in order to service existing members, and also grow membership. The aim is that we would be able to use our expertise and experience in planning, organising and mapping to put on events with these clubs with mutual benefits.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Since the inception of the club, there have been a number of questions and topics consistently raised by people when discussing the club –
Where is the club based? We have decided to be a non-geographical club, partly so that we are not tied down by where we can and can’t put on events, but also so that we are not competing with any other club for members – we are not trying to grow club membership, and would specifically direct any newcomers to join whatever the local club might be. Most Masterplan members are members of other clubs as well.
So, who can join then? We are not looking to increase membership, as Masterplan Adventure is not intended to be a competitive club. We are, as noted above, a club that has been formed specifically for the purpose of planning, organising and staging orienteering events in the UK. Currently there are eight members of the club, members who support our aims and objectives, and are willing to contribute significantly in various ways to the activities that we put on. All members continue to represent our first-claim clubs when competing.
Are you a club or a company? We are a ‘normal’ orienteering club, subject to the same rules and regulations, and financial restrictions, as every other orienteering club.
But you earn money from the events? First and foremost, the club operates like any other club financially, and we have a constitution and governance which has been approved by both British Orienteering and the SOA. Money goes into the club accounts, and covers all the normal running costs, such as mapping costs, affiliation fees, etc. Any expenditure has to be approved by our Management Committee, and our accounts will be independently reviewed as is the case with any other club.
But you give money to SEDS and ScotJOS? Yes, as a club with a very small membership, we would be unable to put on anything more than local events on our own. We therefore have come to an arrangement whereby in exchange for some assistance at our events, we give a proportion of all event income to support SEDS and ScotJOS activities. From entry money for Sprint Scotland this year, we were able to contribute £400.
So, what do members get out of it? If the club makes money at the end of the year, the intention is that the Management Committee will give training grants to some members, much in the same way that other clubs do to support their talented athletes. These training grants are designed to support our members with any costs associated with achieving their international ambitions, such as the cost of travelling to training camps or championships. Of course, the Committee will take into account the financial future of the club, with regards to budget planning for future years. There are other ways that the members will benefit from the club activities as well, such as payment for the creation of event maps, and for any coaching activities that we may engage with in the future.
So, do you only do sprint races? We identified that there is a lack of sprint races in the British Orienteering calendar, an area of expertise for us, so most of our events have a sprint focus. Our biggest events are Sprint Scotland (sprintscotland. co.uk) as well as an Autumn Wednesday night sprint series in conjunction with FVO. We also plan to have an annual New Year’s Day Resolution Sprint race (we had a test event in Hallglen this year). We will look at opportunities to put on forest (and possibly urban) events in the future as well.
Why the wolf logo? The logo comes from the famous ‘Stirling wolf’ who allegedly roused the locals to defend against Viking invaders - just a small nod, as Stirling is the home of many of our members, and the first Sprint Scotland event was based in Stirling.
You can find contact details, and information about us and our events, on our website: www.masterplanadventure.uk
Masterplan Adventure is an orienteering club registered with British Orienteering and the Scottish Orienteering Association. You can read all about our formation and objectives in the article below. Our first race, Sprint Scotland, continues to be our flagship event of the year, and we are hoping the 2023 event will continue the growing momentum towards the World Championships in Edinburgh in 2024. Over the last two years, we have also organised the first two editions of both Coast & Islands and Christmas Cup, multi-day events with both forest and sprint races. We are not bound by a geographic location, and as such took the opportunity as lockdown eased to work with clubs in the Lake District to organise the Lakeland Warrior weekends, which have now expanded and continue to be popular. We also continue to use funds from our events to support the development of aspiring elite orienteers, through donations to the Scottish Junior Squad (ScotJOS), the Scottish Elite Development Squad (SEDS) and the GB Team. The members who organise many of our events are young athletes themselves, which builds valuable experience in mapping, planning and organising, and furthermore we can then support them occasionally with grants towards training and competing.
Article published in SCORE magazine September 2018:
MASTERPLAN ADVENTURE is a new orienteering club registered with British Orienteering and the Scottish Orienteering Association.
The club’s Constitution and Development Plan (both available on the website) include the following aims and objectives:
- To promote the sport of orienteering
- Organise a program of events that is high quality, highly visible and a credit to the Scottish Orienteering Association and British Orienteering
- Identify new areas for orienteering in new places and produce high quality maps
- Identify and fill gaps geographically and in the orienteering calendar to provide more people with more opportunities to go orienteering
- Help other Scottish Orienteering clubs who don’t have enough members to put on the program of activity that they would like to
- Increase membership of both the Scottish Orienteering Association and Scottish orienteering clubs
- Offer opportunities for coaching
- Support Scottish Junior Squads and Elite teams financially in exchange for volunteer activity at events
- Support our members to achieve their sporting ambitions
The idea of creating this club came about when Graham Gristwood, Fanni Gyurko and Kris Jones, with support from Forth Valley Orienteers, organised Sprint Scotland in 2016. It was a great success, but it was also clear that there was a need to find a way to organise events like this within British and Scottish Orienteering, but outside of the existing ‘club structure’ - which is not designed in such a way as to allow a group of like-minded individuals to put on interesting orienteering events and activities in a creative way, unbound by geographical boundaries or inter-club politics. An example of this is that we saw an opportunity to put on a sprint race in Ballater the day before the British Orienteering Championships in Balmoral; the organising team and local clubs would have had no time or spare volunteers to organise this event, but they were happy to have it, as it added value to the event as a whole.
At the moment we are in discussions with a couple of clubs regarding potential partnerships – there are a number of clubs in Scotland who do not have a huge membership or volunteer base, but they do have maps and a desire to have events locally in order to service existing members, and also grow membership. The aim is that we would be able to use our expertise and experience in planning, organising and mapping to put on events with these clubs with mutual benefits.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Since the inception of the club, there have been a number of questions and topics consistently raised by people when discussing the club –
Where is the club based? We have decided to be a non-geographical club, partly so that we are not tied down by where we can and can’t put on events, but also so that we are not competing with any other club for members – we are not trying to grow club membership, and would specifically direct any newcomers to join whatever the local club might be. Most Masterplan members are members of other clubs as well.
So, who can join then? We are not looking to increase membership, as Masterplan Adventure is not intended to be a competitive club. We are, as noted above, a club that has been formed specifically for the purpose of planning, organising and staging orienteering events in the UK. Currently there are eight members of the club, members who support our aims and objectives, and are willing to contribute significantly in various ways to the activities that we put on. All members continue to represent our first-claim clubs when competing.
Are you a club or a company? We are a ‘normal’ orienteering club, subject to the same rules and regulations, and financial restrictions, as every other orienteering club.
But you earn money from the events? First and foremost, the club operates like any other club financially, and we have a constitution and governance which has been approved by both British Orienteering and the SOA. Money goes into the club accounts, and covers all the normal running costs, such as mapping costs, affiliation fees, etc. Any expenditure has to be approved by our Management Committee, and our accounts will be independently reviewed as is the case with any other club.
But you give money to SEDS and ScotJOS? Yes, as a club with a very small membership, we would be unable to put on anything more than local events on our own. We therefore have come to an arrangement whereby in exchange for some assistance at our events, we give a proportion of all event income to support SEDS and ScotJOS activities. From entry money for Sprint Scotland this year, we were able to contribute £400.
So, what do members get out of it? If the club makes money at the end of the year, the intention is that the Management Committee will give training grants to some members, much in the same way that other clubs do to support their talented athletes. These training grants are designed to support our members with any costs associated with achieving their international ambitions, such as the cost of travelling to training camps or championships. Of course, the Committee will take into account the financial future of the club, with regards to budget planning for future years. There are other ways that the members will benefit from the club activities as well, such as payment for the creation of event maps, and for any coaching activities that we may engage with in the future.
So, do you only do sprint races? We identified that there is a lack of sprint races in the British Orienteering calendar, an area of expertise for us, so most of our events have a sprint focus. Our biggest events are Sprint Scotland (sprintscotland. co.uk) as well as an Autumn Wednesday night sprint series in conjunction with FVO. We also plan to have an annual New Year’s Day Resolution Sprint race (we had a test event in Hallglen this year). We will look at opportunities to put on forest (and possibly urban) events in the future as well.
Why the wolf logo? The logo comes from the famous ‘Stirling wolf’ who allegedly roused the locals to defend against Viking invaders - just a small nod, as Stirling is the home of many of our members, and the first Sprint Scotland event was based in Stirling.
You can find contact details, and information about us and our events, on our website: www.masterplanadventure.uk
