The reasons for developing this draft plan arise from a charter issued from the Policy and Planning Committee within the GAA. It is their vision that each club is made aware of its current state in order for it to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead.

Each club must be responsible for ensuring that the objectives of the GAA are achieved – to strengthen the National identity of its games. A new approach is required by each club to meet the challenges ahead, as every club can improve in some degree: by working with targets and by planning for the future.

Two policy facilitators from the GAA came and visited the club to request that we hold some workshops to discuss the common factors with running a GAA club.

Approx 40 people attended both nights and from this a team was asked to become involved to document the important issues raised and to have a general look at how the club could be improved.

The follow topics were deemed the most important sectors of the club and the ones that needed most attention:

• Administration
• Finance
• PR, Marketing & Sponsorship
• Juvenile section                        
• Adult section
• Facilities

It is envisaged that this draft be circulated to generate discussion, with all ideas dealt with and an agreement sought on what is to be contained in the final document.

The final version should be:

• Accepted by the majority
• Adhered to
• Always at hand
• Monitored
• Revised over time

The following has been extracted from the document to highlight the specific tasks that are essential to improving the development of Fingallians into the future. The Executive, after reviewing this document, must have a clear vision on where we are going and what needs to be done.

Issues raised from any further discussion should be used to develop this draft into a working document, where someone has full ownership of its implementation. Where possible other ideas or changes as part of the development of Fingallians should sit only inside this document. 

After the working document is finished it is then proposed that individual committees are set up to review each function dealt with in this document. Each area may need to be analysed at a lower level to see what practical changes are needed, to streamline processes and create cohesion at committee level.

Items of significant importance: -

1. Proposal to continue immediately with the development of our facilities
2. Recruit a second Club Coach
3. Recruit a sponsorship sales executive
4. Standardise coaching and assess the coaching standards at team level
5. Create a finance committee
6. Create a PR, Marketing Committee
7. Understand the importance of a the successful nursery as our main opportunity to attract new members
8. Promote playing at the highest grade, at each age group, as our club goal. No more mediocrity!
9. Committees require support from a defined reporting structure

Objective:
Develop a project plan for finance every two years that will have a clear vision for fundraising events to be held over the next two years, this will be presented to the AGM every year.
Ideas for Fundraising Sale of Work (we identify people who will donate goods to Fingallians) Race night, Golf Classic, Poker classic, Fashion Show etc.

One idea is to run a festival of games and fundraising over a week ten-day period of time. This should be looked into as a kind of open week where each member that brings a non-member to the club will receive a voucher for free tea etc?

Ongoing finance that will bring revenue in to the club at all times.

If we can we should get a cost for budgeting our different groups of Teams for the year. This is not to put controls or strict budgets on Groups.
It is clearly just to identify what are the costs for running the various groups so that we can highlight what the running costs is required each year going forward.
 
Example:
Group A: Nursery and Summer and Easter Camps.
Group B: GAC 1 Teams from 8 to 12.
Group C: GAC 2 Teams.
Group D: Ladies Football.
Group E: Minor and U21 teams.
Group F: Junior / Intermediate Football teams.
Group G: Adult Hurling teams.
Group H: Senior Football teams.

We could also offer a sponsor the opportunity to have their Company logo placed on club membership cards. We must put the membership smart card in place and offer better value for our members in the purchase of refreshments.

He club lotto will have to be promoted more within the various groups and teams. The idea is that if a team or group reach their target sales they will then be able to avail for a fund that can be used for Weekends away training camps, sun holidays etc.
The process of setting up the direct debit mandate for twelve months for the club lotto must be put in place at the start of this promotion or a person can pay in advance by cash.
It will require close monitoring on up today payments etc and a system put in place to ensure entry into each draw.
The bonus payments will be made every quarter, six months or per annum to the groups.
A sponsor will have to be identified for the club lotto and their corporate logo will be placed on the envelopes, Notice boards and Web site etc.

Objective:

The objective of this section is to provide ideas for a sustainable plan to secure funding for the future of Fingallians through sponsorship and how to maximise our sponsorship potential by raising the profile of the club throughout Swords and the county.

The need for funding can be broken into two particular types – specific project requirements and meeting the ongoing day-to-day financial costs of running the club.
A new approach to fund raising via sponsorship is required to ensure we have funds readily available to meet the needs of our planned expansion and to be in a position to provide the necessary support and resources to the people within the club.

The need to raise the profile of the club is essential to our success. We should be raising our profile in order to increase the value, to Fingallians, of our sponsorship packages and we must also continue to attract new players – if possible within the adult levels but even more importantly at juvenile level.

When we have attracted such growth in membership we must ensure that we use our facilities and members to hold onto these people through a professional approach to coaching, training and club development.

Improving our current systems:

Notice boards

While there has been a noticeable improvement with the club notices in the Herald and the club notice board, we must continue to think of way to do better. The internal awareness within the club can be improved, this ranges from up and coming events to fixtures, results, help required and so on.

Options –

• Continue using a notice board – how much space is needed
• Central the location within the club for notices
• One person should be responsible for keeping it up to date.
• Use an electronic info system (like airport flight info screen) on a constant play back mode
• Provide a club newsletter for general updates
• Use email to update people who wish to subscribe, particularly people who live abroad
• Create a dedicated phone number (PR phone) for results to be sent to, with the accountability for those who do not return results to be addressed
• More people need to be giving items of interest to the PR officer to allow them publicise it

 

Website

While we were one of the first clubs to have their own website it is now and even more important task to improve the current format of the website, to allow an easier method in updating information of interest on a daily basis if necessary. The website should be one of the biggest promotion platforms within the club but if left unchanged it will create a negative impact.
New people in the Swords area would use the web to see what’s available in the locality. This is an open door for potential members to check us out but it is worth noting that in some instances they may not to be impressed and therefore they may never call in to see what a great club we really are.
It is also important to note that potential sponsors will also be checking the website, it must create a positive image otherwise all the personalised selling effort will be wasted.

Options –

• We must also ensure that Fingallians is listed/associated with as many of the local directories/websites.
• The comments page should be supervised as this detracts people in gaining a positive perspective of the club if foolish/childish comments are on display.
• Easy access to add information of interest
• More pictures of our players at every level
• More space for our sponsors

When can the tasks be done?

Many of the changes can be made immediately with specific tasks prioritised after liaising with the executive and finance committees. These outline the main objectives:

Task	Timeframe
Set up committee	This can be decided now and set up immediately or in time for the next AGM
Outline specific tasks new committee must do	The current executive can outline the requirements for each member of the committee to fulfil, linking with the idea of job profiles for each committee position/job within Fingallians
Create sponsorship packages	Immediately
Update website	Must be done immediately
Prioritise the ‘general things to do’ above	Immediately

 

Project Objective (5 Year Plan)

The ongoing recruitment and continuous development and improvement of mentors & players technical skill levels, to ensure all juvenile teams are capable of competing in all county Division 1 or Division 2 leagues and at A Championship Level in Boys & Girls football, and at a minimum of Division 3, and B Championship level in hurling by 2010.

Current Status

For the purpose of this report the juvenile section can be categorised into 4 main areas:

Nursery                                    5 – 7 years
GAC 1                                      8 – 12 years
GAC 2                                     13 – 16 years
Girls/Ladies                              10 – 16 years

Age Group                               Team Size                    No Teams
Under 8                                    8 players                         4
Under 9                                    9  players                         3
Under 10                                  11 players                        2
Under 11                                  11 players                        2
Under 12                                  13 players                        1
Under 13                                   15 players                       1
Under 14                                  15 players                        1
Under 15                                  15 players                        1
Under 16                                  15 players                        1

 

Specific Objectives and Time Frames

In order to achieve our overall objective we need to achieve the following specific targets:

Specific Objectives	Time Frame
Ongoing minimum intake of 50 children into the nursery (5-7 years) each year	Immediate
An under 8 team in both hurling and football to come out of the nursery each year, with a minimum of 4 quality mentors.  Where possible all players ‘dual players’.	Immediate
The current GAC 1 teams at under 8,9,10,11 and & 12 to strive to compete in all county football Division 1 or 2 and A Championship level when they enter GAC 2 at under 13.  The objective for the hurling squads would be to compete at a minimum of league 2 and B Championship Level	2007 & ongoing
Current Under 8, 9 and 11’s to compete in U14 Feile Division 1, in football and hurling.	2009 & ongoing
To compete and to be competitive in Under 15 & 16 A football championships & hurling championships	2010 & ongoing
To compete and to be competitive in Minor A football & Minor A hurling championship	2011 & ongoing
Benchmarked improvement, by focusing on specialist coaching & conditioning for the current Under 13, 14, 15, & 16 teams and where realistically possible to strive for promotion in both football and hurling leagues.	Immediate
To field girls juvenile teams at U10, 12, & 14, with a minimum of 3 quality mentors for each team.	2009

 

Implementation

The overall, project objective and specific objectives as outlined above will be driven by the following:

• Clear focus and commitment by Club Executive to the development of the juvenile section, and the successful delivery of Project 2010

• Ongoing continuous recruitment of both players, mentors and volunteers

• Structured expert technical coaching, in both football and hurling for players and mentors

• Implementation of minimum coaching requirements for mentors and structured monitoring and support programme

Conclusion

If the majority of objectives and specific targets outlined in this brief report are achieved within the proposed 5-year time frame, then Fingallians’ will have one of the strongest juvenile sections incorporating both football (boys & girls) and hurling in the North Dublin Area.

 

Objectives:

There are a few objectives of this section as while small in team numbers it signifies the biggest area in lapsed membership participation. Each team should be playing in the highest league possible and a particular improvement is required at the U18 and U21 levels.

1. To retain all Minor and U21 players, to help sustain maximum squads numbers of our Senior, Intermediate and Junior teams.
   
2. To continue develop and coach all players to the highest skill level – with the help of the club coach.
   
3. Provide a more organised approach the administrative aspects of each team – men and women: from panel selection at the start of each year to promoting a Club-wide willingness when it comes to regrading all players every year and having the ladies teams become a more integrated part of the adult games section of the club to prevent a split in later years.

Who can do this?

• The managers must start to communicate more with each other; their concerns must be raised and heard.
• The Adult committee should be attended by a team mentor each week.
• The ladies managers should attend Adult Games meetings.
• The club coach should be encouraged to work with the adults in what ever way possible
• The adult players must be conscious of helping the underage players where possible

When can this be done?

All of the changes can be made immediately, it’s mainly awareness, communication and planning that is require to change they way we currently do things. The aims should be to have the changes in place by 2007.
We should not expect the Adult section to run itself; the Executive Committee must be seen to be proactive when it comes to the general yearly administrative aspects of team planning needed in the Adult section.

Review of Previous Developments.

Future Developments

Facilities we could usefully develop on our grounds.  I don’t believe that what we perceived in that development plan has changed at all.

We obviously selected an All Weather Pitch with floodlights as our number one target and thankfully that has been achieved.

The following were the other targets and I believe they are still the most logical choices.

1. Ball Wall
2. Developing the Eastern area of ground for a dedicated training area with lighting.
3. Flood lighting to main pitch
4. A new seated stand on the Western side of the pitch with toilet facilities and storage underneath.

These I believe are the main target areas. 

 

Conclusion:

As a Club we must debate and decide what facilities we require and in what order of priority.

This having being done we should progress to construction as quickly as possible.

It is essential we consider our ability to raise funds and particularly our ability to service any additional debt we take on board to complete the project.

If we can reach agreement as a Club on the required projects and the financing is viable then we must push ahead and not miss the opportunity of the grants that are currently available.