‘Club Day’ to discuss thorny fixtures issue

THE thorny issue of club fixtures and their place in the GAA calendar will be amongst the topics up for discussion at the Munster Council’s first ‘Club Day’ in the INEC, Killarney on Saturday.

Entitled ‘The Club Voice’, the event will be broken up into a number of workshops while attendees will also be addressed by keynote speakers Pat Spillane, solicitor Gerald Kean and Council chairman Jimmy O’Gorman.

The day will conclude with an open forum and there will also be a number of stands displaying some of the key products and services within the GAA marketplace such as pitch maintenance, floodlighting and playing gear.

“Club fixtures are problematic and there are reasons for that,” said Munster PRO Jim Forbes. “We have a lot of competitions, a lot of dual players, and we have a lot of players eligible for a lot of grades and competitions. Then you have the inter-county scene which causes problems as well. The county scene is very important to everybody and we all want to see our counties do well but that creates problems for club fixtures.

“If your county team goes through the back door then you could have a situation where they are out almost every weekend.”

Also on the agenda are a number of workshops which, while topical at the best of times, have taken on added significance given the current financial constraints. With that in mind, the time slots dealing with the recruitment of volunteers, fundraising, marketing of clubs and the development of club facilities are likely to be top of many lists at the weekend.

“Running a club nowadays is a very costly business and fundraising is a very important part of any GAA club,” said Forbes.

“Lots of clubs are also undertaking development work which is ongoing despite the fact that we are in a recession. The clubs have to raise lots of money and not just to run the club day to day.”

Other topics on the day will concentrate on the relevance of the national and provincial strategic plans for clubs, as well as presentations on provincial funding and club development grants. This is the first time that the Munster Council has held such an event and Forbes is predicting a large attendance in Killarney.

“We are very pleased with the take-up. Registrations are still coming in for it and we will take them up until the last minute although clubs that are intending to come might let us know. It will be a lot easier to organise everything if we had a good idea of the numbers. The sooner we have the registration from clubs and the names of people coming the better.”

*For more information or to register for the Munster Club Day contact the Munster Council’s offices at 061-493060 or Jim Forbes at 086-2664413.