Decision on number of board meetings deferred

MOTIONS dealing with competition formats were, as predicted last week, deferred until the new year. These will be discussed at a special convention on January 14 when the report from the committee currently examining competitions structures and timings will be debated.
Included in the 22 motions deferred are two dealing with the number of county board meetings, which should be held each year.
Some debate took place on this issue last week before it was agreed to defer the proposals.
Sixmilebridge are asking that there be six meetings per year, which would be attended by the club chairman/secretary, board delegate and manager of the most senior team in the club.
County secretary Pat Fitzgerald said he submitted a similar motion about six years ago and went on to say why the motion was put forward. “The basis for this is to stimulate debate and discussion on the GAA in general. In many businesses, if they didn’t change for a number of years, we know what would happen. I believe the GAA is the clubs and this format would afford the opportunity to have debates. There are many areas of concern in Clare GAA. There is a need for change and the place to address critical issues that are going to affect our association as at meetings attended by the key people in clubs. If there is to be a vote at such meetings, it’s the board delegate will have the vote but he would have the benefit of having the key people in the club with him.
Kilrush delegate Colm Browne supported the proposal saying,” The workings of board meetings need to be reviewed and restructured and this motion helps to achieve that. Getting the key people from clubs to such meetings was never more critical because issues the GAA is facing in terms of migration, in terms of numbers and finance means there needs to be a real connection between clubs and the executive.”
Tulla delegate, Michael O’Halloran spoke against the motion. “In order to do our business speedily and efficiently, we need to be here on a monthly basis. Some clubs have difficulty in getting one delegate to attend a county board meeting. Here we are tasked with a situation where we are looking for at least two people to represent the club. If we pass this, it will anchor us down where we discuss football for one hour, hurling for one hour and then have a general discussion. When I was a young fella, we had the holy hour, which was an hour in the church on a Sunday evening. If you weren’t spiritually inclined or religious, it was an endurance test. If some of us have to sit through codes we are not particularly interested in, we will have great difficulty. Allowing secretaries of sub-committees to call meetings is a total and absolute recipe for disaster because there will be meetings called willy-nilly all over the place.
Flan O’Reilly, Cratloe, supported the motion. “    It is an attempt to bring quality to our meetings, as opposed to quantity. There is a feeling that there is a disconnect between whats happening at board level and what is happening in the real world. The people active in clubs are involved in decisions. There needs to be more of an effort with the clubs and the quicker we move in that direction, the better.
Cooraclare’s PJ McGuane also supported the motion, “Because,” he said, “We are going to get the agenda a month in advance. Certainly there is a disconnection and most clubs, including my own, are reactionary. They are very seldom proactive but they will always react to something, which has already happened and that’s the problem when the delegate who goes to the monthly meeting doesn’t know what is coming around the corner. When I go to my club meeting, it is usually history, the decision is already made because the board meeting was either before the last meeting or after the last meeting.”
Dan O’Connor from St Joseph’s said that anything that reduces the number of meetings is a good thing but added, “Everybody knows that the meetings of February, March and April are dominated by transfers and regradings. Where do you come in with those?” he asked.
“The ideas is to have a discussion on football and hurling, it doesn’t have to be an hour and after that, there would be a cup of tea where people could interact,” said secretary Fitzgerald. “At our last meeting, there was a request made to clubs to support a worthy cause involving two of our people who were going abroad on charity work. Two weeks later, I asked the girls at Clareabbey to ring the clubs to check on this. They had rang 22 clubs when I spoke to them. I won’t tell you how many knew about the issue at hand,” he said. “There are issues that will be confronting us and we will need the key people to be involved in decision-making,” the secretary added.
Munster council delegate, Tom Downes said, “We moved forward 20 years ago when we formed one board and we should discuss both together. Eight meetings in a year should be adequate for any county board.”
Noel Walsh said he didn’t want to speak against the motion but he wondered if it was against general rule. “This would want to be checked out,” he said before telling the delegates his club will be proposing monthly meetings. “Our club holds a monthly meeting including the month when we held our AGM and most clubs in the county go the same way. If this is passed, we would probably be the only county that doesn’t hold a monthly meeting,” said the Miltown delegate. “I was astonished this year when we left the June meeting and we didn’t come back until September despite the fact that the intervening months were a hive of activity at club and county level. It is better to be talking at county board meetings than to be talking in the pub or outside the gate and giving out about the county board,” he added before telling the meeting his club would agree to the motion being deferred to the special convention in January.
Chairman Michael O’Neill said, “I can assure you that is not true. In actual fact, there are counties that hold about two and maybe four meetings,” he said.

Urban committee

A MOTION from the Banner Club calling for the setting up of an urban committee in the town of Ennis in 2012 was also deferred.
Club secretary, Owen Rynne told the meeting, “Urban areas are quite complex and need specific focus. Extra emphasis must be put on promoting the GAA in an urban area such as Ennis and ensure the GAA is marketed more efficiently to compete against other sports. The Banner Club believes that with the implementation of bylaw 19, this urban committee can look at issues that arise within urban areas. It is imperative we get the maximum participation of youth and adults playing our national games and raising the standard within Ennis,” he said before reminding the delegates that the FAI visited the town this year promoting their game.
Replying to a query from Éire Óg delegate Simon Moroney, Rynne said the urban board, which is presently in place deals with those playing from U-12 down whereas an urban committee would deal with those playing form minor down.
Pat Fitzgerald responded to the Banner delegate’s reference to the visit of the FAI officials to Ennis this year. “The FAI gave €100,000 to Clare in total. Our association has given €1.8 million to Clare. Munster Council gave over €100,000 the other day. It is crucially important what the GAA has put into our county,” he said.
Ruan’s Ger Lyons said, “Ennis town is a luxury the GAA can’t afford any more. If you look at Killarney or Tralee, there are two or three functioning clubs. Ennis has gone so big, we have to grasp the nettle and stop pussyfooting around. There should be three or four clubs in the town of Ennis. The GAA in Clare cannot afford the luxury of Ennis the way it is. There has been too much standing aside. It needs a lot of leadership and a lot of discussion but there should be far more units in the town.”
Chairman Michael O’Neill told the meeting PJ Fitzpatrick had been appointed to look into the overall situation in relation to the Banner, Éire Óg and the urban board and he suggested discussion on this be deferred until his findings are available.
Éire Óg’s Simon Moroney told the meeting, “The Éire Óg Club totally goes along with the sentiment of improving the standard and the levels of participation of the GAA in Ennis. The promotion of the GAA in an urban context presents a lot more difficulties and frustrations and very often, we equate population with potential. It is true to say that in urban populations, there isn’t a great penetration for our games as would exist in country places where identity is so strong. There is far more competition for loyalty from other codes in urban areas. To that end, the club has started working harder with the academy and it has been very successful and it has mobilised a lot of excellent coaches and people who want to learn the coaching trade. We feel the answer to the problem in Ennis lies in strengthening the clubs particularly and assisting the urban clubs to be able to give the proper service to all and maximise the participation of all the youth in the town.”
It was agreed to defer the motion until January.