The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
From April 1, 2014, there will be four separate categories of members: over 18 players, youth players (U-18), administrators, coaches, referees, non-players that are over 18 and a social membership for over 18s that are not seeking involvement in a club’s administrative or games-related affairs.
At present, each club pays a €300 affiliation fee to the Camogie Association, which covers all its members.
From next year, each adult member will pay €23, with €5 of that retained by the county board, €2 by the provincial council and the rest entering central coffers.
The fee for youth members will be €13. Again, the relevant county board will retain €5, with €2 going to the provincial council and the remainder belonging to the Camogie Association.
“This is a huge move away from where we are,” said the Camogie Association’s acting director general, Mary O’Connor.
“A lot of the money will be earmarked for development. The certainty of knowing what the revenue will be will allow county boards and the provinces to plan year on year. We will be looking to support coaching courses and putting programmes in place so that the costs aren’t prohibiting people who want to play camogie,” she added.
“We are working towards having a uniform underage structure in all counties. That takes finance and we want to provide grants to facilitate that. We will also be giving new clubs start-up grants. There were 86 new clubs since 2006, which is a huge increase, so we want to assist them with finance and development initiatives,” she added.
It was also agreed to retain the current age restrictions at club and inter-county level, whereby no U-16 can play at senior inter-county level and no U-15 can play at senior club level. Delegates felt that age-appropriate categories were working well in ensuring more players were getting the opportunity to play.
A motion that the All-Ireland club finals be played in the calendar year was rejected, with the majority of delegates emphasising the honour involved for club players to be playing at Croke Park in March. It was felt that such an opportunity might not be available in November or December, while it was generally more difficult to source venues at that time of year anyway.
A motion proposed by Clare to amend the date for completion of senior and intermediate provincial championship from October 31 to November 30 was passed by an overwhelming majority.
Meanwhile, delegates were addressed by the chief executive of the Irish Sports Council, John Treacy, who praised the association as an organisation based on volunteerism but run professionally. He congratulated members for the manner in which the association had evolved since ISC funding came on stream in 2005.
