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Annual General Meeting 2011
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Secretary's Report Introduction Ta sé de phribhléid agam Tuarascáil an Runaí a chur os comhair Chomdháil Cumann Peil Mhicil Naofa. It is both an honour and a privilege to present the secretary’s report before the Annual General Meeting of St Michaels Gaelic Football Club. It is time once again that as a club we look at and review our activities both on and off the field for the year, and I would encourage honest feedback as we go through our various sections. As each sub-section will have their own spokesperson later to review in more detail their own activities, I will keep my own report brief and give a more general overview of the past year. Without any doubt this has been an extremely difficult year for the club both on and off the field. I want to start by paying tribute to former Chairman Sean Horgan who resigned his position earlier this year and I want to acknowledge and thank him for his work for the club. Sean was for many years organiser of the club golf classic and helped develop it into the huge success that it is today. Later as registrar, he helped bring club membership to a record level and finally as Chairman he brought stability to the club at a time and when the club failed to elect a Chairman at its AGM. I want on behalf of the club to once again acknowledge and thank Sean for his contribution and I sincerely hope and I know that it is the wish of the Executive and indeed the wider club membership that in time Sean will be back involved with the club. I also want to thank and acknowledge the contribution of Angela Horgan to the club over many years. In particular her work with member registration and on a personal level her help to me over many years in preparing for the club AGM. Earlier on in the year Laura McGonigle stepped back from her position as Treasurer. I also want to acknowledge and thank Laura for her time and commitment to us and know that she remains a great friend and supporter of the club. Following on from the above events, the Executive elected Sean O’Caoimh as Chairman, Derry O Sullivan as Vice Chairman and we were extremely fortunate to secure the services of Marie Delaney as Treasurer on a temporary basis to year end. We are most grateful for the help, advice and assistance given by former club Treasurer, John Holland. I think that you will acknowledge from the presentation of the Club Accounts later that they have done a great job. Adult Football Our thanks to our Chariman PJ, Secretary Sean Lenihan and all their committee for their work during the course of the year in looking after our adult teams from Minor through to Intermediate. Sean’s report will go through in some detail the performances of our various teams in a year that without doubt, has had its share of disappointments. I do wish to acknowledge however the effort that all of our players and mentors made during the course of the year. It is not easy at times with many varying and different challenges in the modern game from fixture schedule to the competing demands of the dual player to coping with ordinary issues like player injury and the unfortunate modern day issue of emigration. These all combined make running a team more difficult than ever before, however we competed well and completed all of our league programmes. This was an achievement in itself. A recent player’s forum was held. There was an extremely worthwhile beneficial exchange of views between players’ management and committees and hopefully the results will see us start off 2012 in the best possible way. Off the field, the adult committee continue the job of promoting and running the club lotto and were most successful in increasing sales to a very significant level. As a club we should be most grateful for this and the increased income was most welcome in a year that has proved very challenging financially. Hopefully this will continue into next year and again could I appeal to all members, players and supporters to support our weekly lotto. Tickets are now widely available and in supporting lotto you are supporting the club in a very real and practical way. Finally a full review once again of the club physio policy is underway and ways of trying to reduce this hugely significant cost while at the same time respecting the need for players to receive physio treatment when necessary is underway. Youth Affairs Once again on behalf of the club I would like to thank Chairman Pat Giltinan, Blanche, Marie and all the coaches and mentors for their trojan work in looking after the underage teams of Cumann Mhicil Naofa. Once again it has been a tremendously successful year with teams competing at all grades results of which can be seen in more detail in Blanche’s report. However more importantly all our teams competed well and represented the club with pride and distinction throughout the year. Surely this is the primary role of the club. A special word of congratulations to Coach, Ken Hurley, and his selectors and the under 14 team who secured County Title honours recently. A much deserved reward for a fine year’s work meaning these lads completed the double in both hurling and football. Thanks also to Eddie O’Leary and his team of coaches for looking after the younger lads at the Ursulines and ensuring a steady stream of talent is constantly entering our underage system. Eddie has recently stepped back from this role and we have been extremely fortunate to secure the services of Jim Foley who I know will develop on the excellent work of Eddie going into the future. The demands of running an underage section are increasing all the time and without doubt more help and assistance is required and I would appeal to anyone who may have the time to volunteer to help with the running of our youth teams or to assist in the organisation of the section. Registration Membership continues and will continue to be a significant fundraising item for the club. Diane has done a tremendous job this year in collecting the membership and the club owes Diane a huge debt of gratitude for her work. It is fair to say that there has been a significant improvement this year in the timely collection and payment of membership especially from our players and it is only fair in light of such criticism voiced in my report at last year’s meeting, to acknowledge the marked improvement that has arisen during the course of this year. I want to again stress the absolute necessity for players to pay membership in a timely fashion as the consequences for non-payment can be serious in the event of a player receiving an injury. Basically - no membership fees - no claim. The exact details of our membership can be viewed from Diane’s report and it is impressive and I want to thank Diane for her work during the year in securing this vital source of funding for the club and the various people who helped her in her task. Finance / Fundraising This year the club finances were managed by Marie Delaney with help and advice from John Holland, while fundraising was co-coordinated by Des Cahill. The club accounts for the year will be dealt with in much more detail by John, and I would like to thank Marie and John for their work during the year. Let me repeat what I stated last year - “finance in general continues to be a major issue for the club though I fully admit that we are not on our own in struggling, nonetheless it is crucial that at the very least we reach a break even position and with fundraising becoming increasingly challenging in the current economic climate, the challenge becomes all the more acute.” That said, I would like to thank
Fundraising will be immensely challenging next year again and we have no choice as a club but to try to meet this challenge head-on. As I have said in my last few reports, not alone do we now have to fundraise for our teams, we also need to meet mortgage payments, maintenance costs such as gas, light, etc. It is a huge challenge and again I am appealing to all members to help us and support us in the various fundraising activities. Expenditure will have to be managed and watched more closely and savings established to try give the club the best chance of maintaining a sound financial base. It is a huge and possibly the biggest challenge facing this Executive and future Executives to come. If there is one criticism in relation to fundraising it is the support that some of our events receive from within our own membership. Frankly it is simply not good enough and if this club is going to survive, much more support will need to be forthcoming when we hold events. Events are held, simply to try and keep this club afloat. A case in point is the dog night where ticket sales on the night from within our own membership were frankly appalling and yet in spite of this we managed to achieve a significant return. How successful would the night have been if every member had taken just one ticket? The same applies to the collection of “light” money, while using the training fields. It goes without saying these don’t pay for themselves. The collection of bus money is in the same category. All these sources of income will have to be considerably tightened up or the incoming executive without doubt will have some extremely difficult decisions to make for the coming year. Next year we will be targeting a few events again to try and maximise return but their success is mainly dependent upon the support of our members, players and friends. Please support our events, they will be well advertised and most have an enjoyable social element. We need your support! Grounds and Facilities Derry O’Sullivan has prepared a report for the consideration of the meeting in relation to the facility at Mahon and I would like to thank Derry for his work during the year in relation to the grounds and pitches. I would also like to thank Anthony White for his work in keeping the facility in top class condition throughout the year. The work of the grounds committee in giving voluntarily of their time to maintain Pairc Mhicil and its surrounds is also much appreciated and let’s hope that this goes from strength to strength next year. Derry, I know has some items of interest in his report. Ladies Football Once again, congrats and well done to the Ladies section which provides a valuable service to the young girls of the area during the course of the year. They are great supporters of our club and we look forward to further co-operation during the course of 2011/2012. Blackrock National Hurling Club Our sister club, Blackrock, had a tremendous year of success on the field of play. Congratulations to all those involved in the various underage championship successes as well as the Minor County Premier and Under 21 City Championship successes that were achieved. Hopefully the success will continue into 2012 and we wish all involved in the Rockies continued success for 2012. Public Relations I would like to thank Janette for her work as Public Relations Officer for the year and also Ian Horgan for his work in updating and maintaining the club web site. Indeed we are currently in the process of completely re-designing our web site and hopefully this will be up and running before too long. Janette worked hard to ensure all club activities both on and off the field were well covered and represented in both local publications as well as the local press throughout the year. This is a job of the utmost importance and is often difficult, necessitating a lot of behind the scenes work but it is work that is absolutely crucial to the success of the club and I want to thank Janette for her efforts throughout the year. The club also has an excellent facebook page, another way of keeping up with the events of the club through a modern medium. Feile 2011 Without doubt one of the highlights of the year was the club hosting of Feile Peil 2011 at Pairc Mhicil. The club was alive for the weekend and a fantastic atmosphere was evident right throughout. The hospitality, welcome and friendship extended to our visitors was widely commented on and really a massive word of thanks should go out from this meeting tonight to Janette and all of her team who worked so hard in preparing for the weekend and making it the success that it was. It was great to hear of our club being so widely spoken about in such a positive way by so many. Our own Feile team added to the sense of occasion by performing fantastically well to qualify out of their group at Pairc Mhicil before finally being defeated in the Semi Final by the eventual outright winners from Dublin. It was a marvellous effort by Coach Ken Hurley and his team and our thanks to them for representing us so well over the weekend. Sponsors Once again I would like to thank our entire club sponsors who supported us during the course of the year and without whose support, would prove extremely difficult to run the club. I would also like to thank those who made personal contributions towards the club, sometimes requesting anonymity which we have as a club of course respect for. Furthermore in these difficult times I would urge you to support all of our sponsors. Outgoing Officers I would like to thank, in particular, Pat Giltinan who after 5 years as Chairman of the Youths football section is standing down and is not seeking re-election. The work Pat has put in over the last 5 years has been huge. His commitment has gone way and above the average call of duty and to say that Pat has been a hands-on Chairman would be an understatement. He has simply been an inspiration to many of us on who work with him on the Executive Mile Buiochas Can I, at this meeting, pay a particular word of thanks to three active members who, though still involved, I feel worthy of special mention. The work of Eddie O’Leary and Marie Delaney cannot be quantified by any of us involved in the club. However it is worthy of special mention and thanks. Eddie works away in the background on such items as grant applications, paperwork, and items that really would be beyond the remit of many of us, not to mention that until recently he oversaw the running of our young boys section ages 6-10’s. This year he helped, through negotiation with our bank, secure the club a significant monthly reduction in its mortgage payment. This is a tremendous help to us and future executives in these challenging economic times. He is always available for advice. Marie has been a selfless worker for St Michaels over many years and I would not like to estimate how much fundraising Marie has been responsible for, on behalf of the club. Marie has never been found wanting and no challenge is ever too big for her. Indeed when we were at a difficult point early on this year once again Marie was not found wanting and agreed to take over the role of overall Club Treasurer and took her seat on the Executive. It was without doubt one of the best moves this or any Executive could have made. Her attention to detail and her total commitment to St Michaels are an inspiration to us all and I want to thank Marie for her many efforts and look forward to working with her into the future for many years to come. Finally to Bernard Hurley who has, for a number of years now, organised with his committee the hugely successful club golf classic. Bernard has now decided to step back from the position as Chairman of the organising committee. The golf has provided a huge source of funding to the club for years and that it runs so easily from year to year as successfully as it does, is testament to Bernard and his team. I know that Bernard will still be available to help and advise the incoming Chairman but it is important to note his contribution and to thank him for his work on behalf of the club. Sympathy To all of our members who suffered bereavement during the course of the year, can I offer the deepest sympathy of this General Meeting We will always hold in fond memory in particular those members who were active in helping to bring St Michaels to where it is today and have now passed on from our midst. Mass will be offered for all of our deceased members in St Michael’s Church Blackrock, at a date to be announced before year end. Conclusion Once again it has been my pleasure as your secretary to review with my fellow officers the many and various activities of St Michaels both on and off the field. It is clear that we are now a large club, with a lot going on both on and off the field and everything we are trying to achieve is surely geared towards success on the playing fields. However it is clear that all the various and different strands are in their own way of equal importance in providing our players with the best facilities and chance of being successful on the playing fields. The problem of increased participation by our supporters and friends remains an issue and again could I appeal to our friends and supporters to give a little of their time. There is surely some area for you within our club. I would like to thank my fellow officers for their support and help to me during the year and indeed the work of all the sub-committees in helping to continue to develop and support St Michaels. I am certain that with the same level of commitment and hard work we can continue to grow this great club to a new level of success both on and off the field. Is Mise Le Meas Damien o h-Uallachain Runai Grounds Committee Report Pitches & Grounds Over the past year we again had some issues with the dumping of rubbish dog baiting on the pitches and damage to the perimeter fence reports of all the incidents have been given to the local Garda offices in Mahon Club House & Dressing rooms The dressing rooms and club house have again been put to full use this year as well as ourselves and the Blackrock teams and the ladies football section we have opened the pitches to the Munster colleges section and the local schools my thanks to Adian Longfor making himself available throughout the year to have the grounds open for them as games played in these sections are during school hours Thanks also must again go to Antony White for the way he has continually kept the club house and dressing rooms in top class condition after every match To the volunteers who come down to the club every Friday and tidy up around the grounds Rodger, Tony, Eddie, Mick, Barry, and Gerry thank you all on behalf of our clubUnfortunately however there has been a few incidents that the committee find very serious and are very worried about.Setting on equipment such as the gas boiler and thermostats for heating have been interfered with which could have caused serious damage to both the club building itself but more important caused serious harm to a club member in the form of scalding or burning Unauthorizedchanging of equipment setting by anyone within the club without permission will be taken very serious by the management committee with sanction’s handed to those found guilty of the offence Alarms Top security is now looking after the call out for club should the alarm go off after 10pm to 9am 7 days a week Key holders who accidently set the alarm off must phone top security and quote the code before resetting the alarm both numbers are in the key box failing to do this will cost the club a callout charge of €60 from Top security This is the procedure and it must be followed Flood lights It is the time of the year again when we have to use the flood lights for training sessions although we are delighted to have the lights to train under there is a cost to the club to keep them operating we have to ask coaches and mentors to use common sense when using the flood lights there is no point in switching on all 8 lights when 4 or even 2 would suffice on numerous occasions we have witnessed all 8 poles lit up for only 12 or 13 players training the monthly electric bill is over €500 and we must more prudent when and where we can in relation to this matter At committee level this year it was agreed that a charge of €3 would be placed on everyone using the floodlights with all monies collected to be passed on to Marie Delaney by the end of the week Munster College pitch We are currentlyin discussions with Blackrock and Munster colleges’ comigie committee in relation to the use of their pitch in Mahon these discussions are on-going and include the idea of purchasing a tractor and cutters to help maintain our pitches and cut down our costs for running the club Pitch Bookings Thankfully our pitch was kept open this year to all teams that looked for it but we still have situations where people are turning up to use the pitches without a booking all booking for the pitches must go through the proper channels During the year we hosted Feile and had to go to our neighbours Ballinure and sister club Blackrock for the use of their pitches I would like to take this opportunity to thank both clubs for the use of their pitches throughout the year they never leave us down Finally I wouldlike to thank all of my fellow committee members for their help and friendship and all those that I have the pleasureof dealing with through the year
Derry O Sullivan
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