SECRETARY’S REPORT TO AGM 2005

v       ADMINISTRATION

An Coiste Náisiunta met on ten occasions since the AGM in Tralee, Kerry. The meetings to a large extent concentrated on Allianz sponsorship, the Roadstone Awards, the McDonalds' Lift & Strike Competition, our new Website, the Camogie Centenary Year, the O’ Neill’s Competition, All-Ireland tickets, Schools’ Work Group, Coiste Gearáin, Buntús, Odyssey Internet Portals, the Go-Games and the Mini-Sevens.

v       ALLIANZ

• We are eternally grateful to Allianz for their continued sponsorship of Cumann na mBunscol.
• Members of An Coiste Náisiúnta, Jim O’ Reilly, Margaret Cunningham, Pat Trainor and Malachy McGeeney met with Allianz on Wednesday, 8^th. December, 2004 and made the following proposals to Allianz.

      1.   Coiste Náisiúnta are committed to ensuring that county units deliver appropriate return to Allianz for funding received.

      2. Responsibility for monitoring county units and collecting media coverage will be delegated to members of the National Committee.   The latter will be expected to return publicity material to Slattery P.R. by an agreed date before monies are allocated.

3. Cumann na mBunscol Náisiúnta would undertake to promote the following projects annually which would acknowledge Allianz sponsorship.

4. Examples of possible practical projects;
1. Have a presentation in Croke Park on 8^th. December awarding grants to counties for their Allianz projects on press and media coverage.
2. Allianz Exhibition of Excellence

Exhibition Games on the occasion of the National League Finals

( Hurling & Football )

2 x 10 minute games played between Div. 2 and the start of Div 1 Final.

Across the pitch – team  8-a-side ( Boys & Girls )

Each county asked to nominate the player they consider their best. For the first year a draw is made at the AGM to decide who provides boys and girls. Thereafter it alternates ( if a county provides a boy for football, then a girl for camogie ).

On day, parents bring pupils to pre-arranged location as in Mini-Sevens.

Parents have tickets.

Children wear jerseys of opposing teams and they keep the jerseys

Approximate cost for 2 days:

 64 sets of gear                                       Lunch for 64 children

 Admin. Cost for postage etc.                 National Co-ordinator

3. All counties to rename their leagues Allianz Cumann na mBunscol   Leagues.
4. Allianz Indoor Football in Ulster and invite Allianz reps. to Ulster Final
5. Allianz Indoor Hurling in Munster
6. Put photos, names, addresses etc.of Allianz Reps. on our website.

• As a result of the above proposals, Allianz has agreed a sponsorship fee for the coming 3 years:

      €90,000 in 2005,       €100,000 in 2006 and         €110,000 in 2007.

• County units are expected to have Allianz and Roadstone projects submitted on the same day i.e.  Saturday, 24^th. September at our GM in St. Pat’s College.
• Caroline Meany ( Allianz ) promised to have Allianz stationary, envelopes, and stickers for jerseys available at our AGM.

v       ROADSTONE AWARDS

• Last year’s Roadstone Awards Banquet was a resounding success.
• The Roadstone Awards Banquet took place in the Berkeley Court Hotel and we were very honoured to have the Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin T.D. and the president of the GAA Seán O Ceallaigh in attendance.
• The closing date for 2005 entries is Saturday, September 24^th.  2005. 
• Allianz projects may also be entered into the PR section of the Roadstone Awards.
• Entry Form and Categories will soon be available on our website at

        www.scoilsport.org

• Provincial units of Cumann na mBunscol are free to enter any category that is relevant to them.
• The Judges’ decision is final and canvassing will disqualify. Entries in the "Publications" category must have been actually published!
• In the event of standards not being reached in any particular category, the Judges reserve the right not to make an award. 
• Assessors should have the discretion to reallocate prizes in the event of insufficient entries in particular categories.
• Only nominated schools would be filmed.
• Counties who had received nominations in the other categories would supply Matt Purcell ( Marty’s photographer ) with three photos that capture the flavour of the entry. This would include one wide shot of school, magazine, incentive etc. to be followed by close up of group or participants. The photos should reveal what the theme/focus/philosophy of the project is all about.
• The photos from the counties should be in jpeg format and they should be

  e-mailed to  harmonyrow.ennis@eircom.net  They should make it clear on

  the e-mail which county or school the pictures are from. 

   

•  The photos mentioned would be displayed on the screen as the nominations are called out.
• Many thanks to Eamonn Mullen ( Roadstone Co-ordinator ),Ronnie Delany and David Roche ( Roadstone ), Marty Morrissey and the Board of Assessors on the excellent work that they do.
• Cumann na mBunscol would like to express their sympathies to Marty Morrissey on the recent death of his father Martin.
• Cumann na mBunscol also wish a speedy recovery to Ronnie Delany who was hospitalised recently.

v      MC DONALD’S SKILLS PROGRAMME

v      The McDonald’s Skills programme was discussed in detail at our General Meeting in September. Further information on this may be found in the minutes of the General Meeting 2004 which are also available in this booklet.

v       WEBSITE

• Our website is a valuable addition to Cumann na mBunscol.
• Application forms and info on the various competitions ( Mini-Sevens, Handball, Roadstone Awards and O’ Neills ) are now available on our website.
• Photos from the Roadstone Awards and the O’ Neill’s Awards can easily be downloaded from our website and so make the job of our PROs much easier.
• The AGM Booklets may also be downloaded.
• Members may refer to the website for addresses and phone nos. etc. of various officers.
• Details of Allianz Reps. and O’ Neill’s Reps. are also available on our website.
• We would appeal to more counties and provinces to submit any relevant material to mgtcunningham@hotmail.com.

v       CAMOGIE CENTENARY YEAR

• Cumann na mBunscol Náisiúnta wished Cumann Camogaiocht na nGael every success in their centenary celebrations. The exhibition games at the Camogie All-Ireland Finals in Croke Park were very impressive especially when 2,500 children formed C100 in the middle of the pitch.

v    O’ NEILL’S COMPETITION

The response from schools all over the country to the O’ Neill’s competition was a resounding success and the Presentation of Awards took place in Croke Park on Friday, 10^th. December, 2004. The format was as follows:

A visit to the GAA Museum

 @ 12.00 noon

Sit-down Lunch @ 13.00 hrs.

Presentation & Photos @ 14.00 hrs. in the Ash Suite

The prizes were presented by Pauline Britton of O’ Neills. Dave and Pauline Britton are the schools’ agents for O’ Neill’s gear and equipment. Details of the national and provincial winners are also available in this booklet. O’ Neills are prepared to sponsor this competition in 2005. The application forms are available in this booklet as well as being on our website. Many thanks to Tom Ryan for acting as national co-ordinator in this competition.

v    ALL-IRELAND TICKETS

I urge all counties to keep a record of all tickets allocated to you. I would also like to  remind you that you are personally responsible for ensuring that your tickets do not end up on the black market

v    SCHOOLS’ WORK GROUP

• Eamon Mullen attended Provincial meetings to draw up a wish list of how best Gaelic Games can be developed and promoted in our schools.
• He also wanted to find out about any difficulties that individual counties are facing plus examples of good practice. Coaching in the schools, coaching courses for teachers as a summer course, club involvement in schools, inducements from other codes, filling committees, equipment, etc------
•  This will be submitted to the Schools’ Work Group.
• Details of this report may be found in the Development Report in this booklet.

v    COISTE GEARAIN

• The need for each county to have a Coiste Gearáin and proper procedures to deal with disputes has to be emphasised once again as some counties experienced difficulties during the year.
• One difficulty was the playing of extra time in the event of a draw at full time.
• An Coiste Contae would need to have a policy on this:
• The Coiste Contae should make it clear that extra time would be played before the match started.
• The referee should be informed about the possibility of extra time.
•  If no clear arrangements were in place it looks likely that a replay is in order.
• If a school is unhappy they can then appeal the decision of the Coiste Contae to an Coiste Gearán having first written to the Coiste Contae putting their case.

v    BUNTUS

• The Buntus bags now contain materials on Gaelic Games. Below are details of

            changes to Buntus:

New equipment added to bag:                           4 Hurleys  &  4 Indoor Sliotars

                                                                              4 Fluff Balls  &  4 Badminton Rackets

Multi Sport:                                      2 new cards specific to GAA Games

                                                           All other cards have adaptations for GAA games

Play Bag

2 New Cards –             Warm Up/Cool Down Card

                        Including People with Disability Card

5/6 new diagrams representing GAA on relevant cards e.g. child with hurley in his hand

Buntús Play is not sport specific so there is no direct reference to GAA or any other specific sports.

v    ODYSSEY  PRESENTATION

• Representatives of Odyssey Internet Portals gave a presentation to An Coiste Náisiúnta on redevelopment of the national website, with the possibilities of developing county websites, fixtures’ tools and additional sponsorship
• It was agreed to allow them proceed with the next stage of their proposal: a meeting between them and Allianz. This was done with the clear understanding that our current agreement with Allianz would not be compromised.
• Niall Heneghan from Odyssey met with Allianz but the latter were not interested in proceeding with the venture this year.

v    GO  GAMES PRESENTATION

• A presentation on the “Go Games” and a demonstration of these games will be made at our AGM today. We may need to review our activities with reference to the “Go Games”.

v    HANDBALL

• Details of the handball dates for 2005 are available on our website. They are also available in this booklet under Handball Report and Minutes of our General Meeting.
•   Malachy would like to explore the possibility of a handball day for weaker counties.
• Malachy would like to inform this meeting that this is his final year as Handball Officer.

v    MINI - SEVENS

• All stages of the Mini-Sevens had progressed smoothly and excellently once again this year. Our appreciation is due to the county organisers, regional hosts and the co-ordinating national team under Timmy Maher.
• Background info on children participating in Croke Park would be appreciated.
•  Details on the Mini-Sevens and all relevant information are now available on our website at www.scoilsport.org
• No Review Committee was set up as no submissions for changes in the INTO Mini-Sevens Rules had been returned by county secretaries.
• Timmy was stepping down as national co-ordinator of the Mini-Sevens. We would all like to thank Timmy for 9 years of dedicated service.

• There is an urgent need to appoint a national co-ordinator. Margaret  e-mailed county secretaries requesting nominations but none were forwarded.

• A co-ordinator need not be on the National Committee.
• There was a good possibility that Timmy’s back-up team would be available
• Jim O’ Reilly undertook to take the role for one year, while a more permanent solution was being pursued.

My sincere thanks to An Coiste Náisiúnta, provincial and county officers for their co-operation during the year.   I would like to welcome Tommy Moran to our AGM today. Tommy has been appointed as liaison person between Central Council and An Coiste Naisiunta.

I would also like to wish a speedy recovery to our treasurer Pat Trainor who is very ill in hospital.

Margaret  Cunningham

(  Rúnaí )