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Address by Chairman, Mr Jim Geraghty, to the AGM of Castleknock Celtic on Monday, 21 November 2005, in Castleknock Hotel.

I am delighted to have this opportunity to address our AGM at such an exciting time for our club. We are making great strides forward at present, but we are not resting on our laurels.

We are making a special appeal to ask you, the parents of the children, to take this opportunity to influence how we shape the development of your club, Castleknock Celtic, over the next ten years. We have grown from one team in 1985 as Laurel Lodge FC to 36 Castleknock Celtic teams today. Together with our development league of almost 30 players, we have over 500 members. We want your advice on, and support for, the future development of (i) the children, and (ii) your Club. The great work we collectively do for the development of ours and your kids makes an invaluable contribution to their social and sporting development. This is your chance to influence that development over the next few years. We have to acknowledge the tremendous contribution our managers and assistants make to the club already. We also appreciate that you, the parents, are already devoting so much of your time to the cause of your club, but now we need you to make an even greater effort, if we are to achieve the goals, which you will want to set for the future.

We have got our all-weather pitch in place in Laurel Lodge, and there is widespread satisfaction with the improvement in facilities it has given us. Most of our teams are using it and are generally satisfied with their time allocation, though because of the number of our teams, some might prefer a different time. Having said that, we are finally making some money from it, which is important given the outlays like lease fee etc that we have to incur. We also have to maintain the pitch. The income is coming essentially from users at the weekend, for example, hockey and local football groups, when there is no demand from our members.

The next steps in our development are now being planned. This can be divided up into distinct projects. I will set out below the picture as regards our development, and how the parents can get involved.

Firstly we are looking at how best to improve our coaching expertise in our club. This can be done by getting a team of coaches, of varying levels of qualifications, to take it forward. There will be a lot of coordination required and for this we are looking for personnel to carry out this function. We have already got some well-qualified coaches, including Vernon McAllorum, who manages our DDSL 18 Premier side, who is going for the top UEFA coaching badge next week. We need to find out if there are more coaches who could build up our body of expertise in this area. We are also considering the appointment of a development officer in the club. This is something this committee would appropriately address. So admin people and coaches are required for this committee.

We want to get our managers up to the basic standard necessary to take charge of our teams. We recognise that the first job is to get the football teams formed, and then get the managers skilled in coaching. This has not happened in many cases, and we have many managers relying on what they learned when they played schoolboy football as kids. We need to address this. And this group of coaches and organisers will be tasked to do this, by providing coaching courses or arranging for the managers to attend courses run by the League authorities.

Part of proper football management is a minimum knowledge of first aid. A member of all management teams must have this knowledge. It is a minimum requirement. We are arranging for a first aid officer to attend an early managers meeting to discuss this with you.

Another aspect of this coaching is the need to get a greater focus on our development league for our new child entrants. We probably need to develop greater ties with the schools, and in this context our all weather pitch puts us in a very strong position. However, we need a high profile coach or player to participate in this to attract the kids to the sessions after school, say at 3-4pm in the afternoon. There are certainly lots of ideas that are waiting to be implemented, and we need to get you to take this forward.

Secondly, we want to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Castleknock Celtic in 2007 by opening a new clubhouse in Porterstown. We have taken the initial steps in this regard. We are having a design plan of the club house drawn up by our architects. It is planned that the structure would be on the site of our existing dressing rooms. Coupled with that, we are planning the installation of a second all-weather pitch beside the club house. This area is being considered as it is very close to our changing rooms etc and is 50 metres by 40 metres in area, about half the size of a full sized football pitch. This would complement our all weather in Laurel Lodge. Again, there is a huge amount of work for volunteers to undertake. And for this, we need you to help out. Another working group to take this forward is needed, so if you feel that your talents could be best utilised in this area, you might come forward and let us know. This again involves admin people, and professionals in engineering, architecture, etc.

As I said at the start of my presentation, this is an exciting time for the club. It is happening at what I think is an opportune time. The County Council, on whom we will be depending for much support, have recently met us to discuss our plans to develop Porterstown. Senan Turnbull, their Parks and Sports Director, had a long meeting with us, and he indicated that we fitted the profile of a club they would be happy to do business with, as regards delegating much of the responsibility to us for things that previously were done by the Council themselves. They will provide funding for this, including for building club house and other facilities. A professional approach on our part will open doors for us in Fingal County Council, and this is the background against which we are drawing up our development plan.

This development plan will obviously be very costly. For this we need finance-minded people. Our proposals in regard to finance involve the establishment of a dual approach. We propose the formation of a high-level strategic group, which would focus on the heavier fund-raising like through the corporate sector or major events. On another level, we propose to continue our smaller event fund-raising, like the social golf classic, annual quiz, bag packs, penalty shoot-out. We expect to continue to have the involvement of Tony Hanlon, and Paul Farrelly, and would hope that others will come forward for this. I want to say a special word of thanks to Tony and his committee colleagues for running the different events this year, the latest of which raised over €2,600. This is the second bag pack in recent months. We had the Hospice Walk, the concept for which was proposed by Tony. We had the Penalty Shoot Out, to which he made a significant contribution. And finally, he was a leading member of the group, which organised the Golf Classic for the Club. I think he deserves a round of applause for his special efforts. Our executive committee, if re-elected, propose to meet with Tony to firm up on ideas for the coming season. Referring back to the strategic group, the executive has been discussing with some individuals the formation of such a group, and we hope again to firm up on this shortly. Rather than go into the detailed activities that these groups will be tackling, and looking back at what has gone on this year, given the shortage of time available to us, we would ask individuals who consider they can contribute positively to put their names forward, by completing the slips provided, giving their names and field of expertise or simply indicating that they would like to be involved in a specific area or just generally.

One thing that we will be proposing to the appropriate group or committee is that we get our membership to make a direct debit payment per month or quarter or yearly to subscribe to the Lotto, which is currently at €1,500 jackpot.

I must also pay a special tribute to Donal Hanlon, Viv Duffy, Pat Lyons and Alan Crampton, who have given a great deal of their time to running the All weather pitch, which has had a number of unwelcome developments over its first 12 months. This included the intrusion of unwelcome visitors who prevented our Under-11s from using the pitch. Donal spent much time above and beyond the call of duty with the Gardai ensuring that our interests were protected. However, we are now progressing well at present, and we expect to have it formally handed over to us soon. This will enable us to draw down the balance of the grant from the Department. Of course, we will then be able to make arrangements for the formal opening of the site, which we should take maximum advantage of so as to promote the club to best effect. A high profile personality would be desirable, and we can discuss that with some of our members. We already have a couple of volunteers to take part in the steering group to make the arrangements for this launch. Perhaps they could form part of the Social Events Committee.

This is a side of the club that has been greatly neglected by us, although we were quite active in that area in our early days. However, because we generally lost money on social events, we discontinued them. But I think now is the time to reactivate this and a couple of things could be done as a first step. A Christmas party for the younger members, say from 14s down. Also, we could get our Social Events Committee to look at the possibilities of a social event for Christmas for our older members and parents.

One thing I would like to mention in the context of the Hospice Walk, which was a magnificent event, for which you deserve the greatest credit. Special mention should be made of the members of the organising committee, and Bernie Graham in particular who volunteered her time. The final tally was over €40,000, which is no mean achievement, and was done through a lot of sweat and tearing out of hair. The main Dublin 15 Hospice Project organisers are truly delighted with our efforts. The kids did amazing work, and we have rewarded the biggest sellers with their FAI prizes. We also gave vouchers to the couple of children who went above and beyond the call of duty altogether, with almost superhuman performances. Well done especially to them, but also to all who participated in the walk and raised sponsorship moneys. It is great that the site has now been allocated by the Government, which gives the project a great shot in the arm. We know that there were a couple of glitches on the day of the walk itself, and we hope to make this up to those affected soon, when we deliver a voucher for our shop to each of the boys who lost out on the day largely because some children took more than their share.

Another special project we will be proposing to our Coaching Committee is the running of a Soccer Camp next summer. We did something like this a couple of years ago, when we had about 70 participants, involving professional coaches, helped by our members, particularly Jack Moriarty. We will be discussing this with our coaching group on how best to run this in 2006.

In conclusion, I want to invite you to take this opportunity to get involved in the development of your club, at a time when so much will be happening. We will be inviting members to voice their opinions on this item, which is further down the agenda. This will be our first opportunity as a club to input into the project. We will be putting the final draft to you early in the New Year, and in the meantime, we would welcome your thoughts, either tonight or over the coming weeks. After the discussion on the development plan tonight, we will be inviting you to go to the tables at the back of the room where our reps will take your names and details so that you can participate in the sub-groups mentioned. Another thing to consider is putting forward the name of someone you consider might be willing to participate, and we can contact them. These committees are

That the incoming Executive Committee request the NDSL and DDSL to amend the League season for 7-a-side football so that the season starts in April and finishes in November (with a break in July and August), thus negating the need for young children to have to play and train during the winter season (December – March).

Rationale for Motion

§ For most of the season, it will be possible for children to play and train in the best possible conditions weatherwise. Why do we subject our youngest players to the worst possible weather conditions when there is an alternative?

§ The change of season would drastically reduce the level of disruption currently experienced as a result of match cancellations due to unplayable pitches and the frustration and additional administration to which this frequently leads not to mention the disappointment of children who may be left without a game for many successive weeks.

§ The availability of outdoor training facilities for most of the season would be a major advantage to many clubs who do not have access to either floodlit or indoor facilities. For those already with access to such facilities, there may well be a significant saving costwise. In the case of our own club, the pressure on the All weather facility might be eased during the period mid November-mid March (expected off-season for 7a-a-side).

§ The main purpose of the 7-a-side game is to improve the skills of the children whilst playing in an enjoyable environment. Summer Soccer would, without doubt, assist in this goal.

§ The amendment would help to address the current League problem with referee availability by reducing the demand for referees in the 7-a-side off season.

§ The July-August break period would coincide with school holidays leaving teams with the option of breaking for a period or training/playing practice games during this period. This break period is considered essential as many teams would be unable to field full teams for competitive matches over this period.

§ The mid season break is not considered a problem with regard to completing the fixtures programme as this still leaves the best part of six months (April-June, Sept-Nov) for completion of the Programme with the option of midweek matches if required (recommended) during much of this period.

In summary there are many benefits the main ones being the more suitable off season for all concerned (no football in December, January and February) as opposed to football in May and June (it’s a no-brainer really!) and secondly an end (for the most part) to the ridiculous situation currently applying where for four or five months of the season the question as to whether a game will go ahead on any given Saturday is in the lap of the Gods. I strongly urge our Club to champion this amendment and to make strong representations to the NDSL to introduce this change, even on a pilot basis initially.

Sean Dooley, Manager, 8A

Thanks to the Chairman for his introduction and call to arms. I too am very pleased with progress, especially the completion of the all weather pitch, which took a lot of effort by all concerned. We expect to draw down the final dollop of grant moneys from the Department of Sport shortly, which amounts to about €5k.

The Chairman has covered most things, but I would like to mention an issue I have been adverting to for some time now. The care of our children is obviously paramount in all we do. We have appointed our children’s officer, Deirdre Finn, and she has been attending briefing sessions with the League headquarters. She is being assisted by Treasa Hoey on the Children’s Liaison Committee. Deirdre and Treasa will be available to team managers and parents to advise them as regards complying with the child care code of practice. They will provide you with the necessary support and give you advice as appropriate. We were always very much aware of our responsibilities in this regard. Our motto is the old Irish adage ‘Mol an Óige agus tiocfaidh sé’ (encourage the youth and they will flourish) reflects our priorities.

We were concerned about the nuisance from the line at matches. I think there has been an improvement with parents being much more subdued on the line, and we hope that this trend will be maintained.

Looking back at the past season, we had a reasonable season from a silverware point of view. But the Development Plan we would expect would improve this, while not neglecting those who are less skilled, which remains a priority for us as in the past.

AUL Div 2A : League Winners Jim Cullen Cup : Runners Up Elastoplast Shield : Runners Up

We were disappointed that one of our former members did not succeed in his apprenticeship with Leeds Utd, and has now returned to Ireland. That was Paul Keegan, who is now playing with Drogheda Utd. We are however delighted to see another former member, Michael Daly, going away to Manchester City on a scholarship. City have offered us terms for the boy, but we are studying the deal and will respond in due course. Eamonn O’Connor is especially proud as Michael was a member of his very successful schoolboy team.

We are continuing with our managers meetings and as the Chairman said we will have a First Aid expert in the near future. This is something we will have to seriously address, especially in the context of honouring our responsibilities under the Code of Ethics for Children.

A reminder about the approaching Christmas break. You should be considering what you will be doing when the public pitches are closed. So you should contact the All Weather committee to make alternative arrangements. Remember that you will be able to use the pitch during the day when the school is closed for Christmas.

Dare I mention the ‘c’ word? We are intent on producing a calendar this Christmas, and I am taking the last of the pictures in the coming week. I may ask you to do it yourself if I cannot make it to you, or if you think that I am missing too many of your squad as I took it some time ago. Be sure to take it in the day time as night time photos are not the best for this. We intend including some team shots and others taken on the Hospice Walk.

Membership of Sub-Committee of Castleknock Celtic

Name : _________________________

Phone No. : _____________

Email address : _______________________

Subject : ____

Select Your Particular Interest :

1. Social Events Committee

2. Strategic Finance Committee

3. Ongoing Fund-Raising Committee

4. Coaching Committee

5. Club Development Plan Working Group, which will be subdivided later

6. All-Weather Committee

7. Child Development, including Child Welfare Committee

8. Web design – upgrade and interactive