"Frankly, it's a monster". It's not what you expect to hear in Ruth Lynam's sophisticated tones, but this was a good monster.
The juniors have become monstrous .... Ruth and her willing band have become so successful that demand has exceeded supply and she is sending out the call for reinforcements.
It came in a brief pause in the proceedings of an IOA Annual General Meeting being driven on by the Chairman, who has brought a new discipline to the proceedings: sprint AGM.
Tero Mamia's lessons came in handy. Pick only the bits you need to know and read ahead.
At the start the minutes of the 2007 AGM were dispatched in a flash, Officers' reports were loaded into the breech and fired into the crowd, Gatling gun fashion.
Chairman's report, treasurer's: no sooner had you scanned the one page handout than a new officer was standing up.
Printouts were forsaken for web page references; Fergal Reid just gave it to us straight, picking out the key points we needed to know.. publicity some clubs have generated, the difficulty of getting consistent coverage.
Lastly it came to Feargal Buckley(KerryO), fixtures...this could be tricky, but no, Feargal kept it sweet and told us things were good and get the fixtures in.
Next it was motions.
New Treasurer Mary O'Connell (3ROC), put the knife in early and with an eye to expediency wrested our paws gently from the affiliation purse strings, we'll never notice.
Ed Niland was renamed the Coach.
Awards were changed, and we were into the home straight ... election of officers.
Sensing he was going to break 7 min/km the chairman cracked on.
Treasurer, Juniors, High Performance ... nominator, seconder... we rattled through the election of officers.
The nodding heads just threw up their paws when they heard "For the motion" , knowing it would hasten their release from this event, into the bar.
So frenetic was the pace that he himself got out of synch with his script.
"Chairman [pause] .. I am the Chairman , [long pause]", .. had he gone Mugabe? Was he going to dispense with the nominator, seconder formality.. he probably would have got away with it.
It was a momentary lapse...the Zanu-PF threat receded and we were off again.
Awards, the names of Mary Healy (GEN), Brian Power (SET) and Andrew Cox (WATO), were gladly added to those that keep the orienteering train going.
And that was it.
Interspersed in the proceedings, schools orienteering, juniors, featured strong in the discussions, a sense prevailed that things were moving nicely and could be built on.
Add to that, significantly, for the first time in many years, a Development Officer was elected and the post-AGM talk was of the promise of a Secretary.
The Chairman can probably reckon that persistence is bringing returns. Sprint AGM may be here to stay.
Peter Kernan
The juniors have become monstrous .... Ruth and her willing band have become so successful that demand has exceeded supply and she is sending out the call for reinforcements.
It came in a brief pause in the proceedings of an IOA Annual General Meeting being driven on by the Chairman, who has brought a new discipline to the proceedings: sprint AGM.
Tero Mamia's lessons came in handy. Pick only the bits you need to know and read ahead.
At the start the minutes of the 2007 AGM were dispatched in a flash, Officers' reports were loaded into the breech and fired into the crowd, Gatling gun fashion.
Chairman's report, treasurer's: no sooner had you scanned the one page handout than a new officer was standing up.
Printouts were forsaken for web page references; Fergal Reid just gave it to us straight, picking out the key points we needed to know.. publicity some clubs have generated, the difficulty of getting consistent coverage.
Lastly it came to Feargal Buckley(KerryO), fixtures...this could be tricky, but no, Feargal kept it sweet and told us things were good and get the fixtures in.
Next it was motions.
New Treasurer Mary O'Connell (3ROC), put the knife in early and with an eye to expediency wrested our paws gently from the affiliation purse strings, we'll never notice.
Ed Niland was renamed the Coach.
Awards were changed, and we were into the home straight ... election of officers.
Sensing he was going to break 7 min/km the chairman cracked on.
Treasurer, Juniors, High Performance ... nominator, seconder... we rattled through the election of officers.
The nodding heads just threw up their paws when they heard "For the motion" , knowing it would hasten their release from this event, into the bar.
So frenetic was the pace that he himself got out of synch with his script.
"Chairman [pause] .. I am the Chairman , [long pause]", .. had he gone Mugabe? Was he going to dispense with the nominator, seconder formality.. he probably would have got away with it.
It was a momentary lapse...the Zanu-PF threat receded and we were off again.
Awards, the names of Mary Healy (GEN), Brian Power (SET) and Andrew Cox (WATO), were gladly added to those that keep the orienteering train going.
And that was it.
Interspersed in the proceedings, schools orienteering, juniors, featured strong in the discussions, a sense prevailed that things were moving nicely and could be built on.
Add to that, significantly, for the first time in many years, a Development Officer was elected and the post-AGM talk was of the promise of a Secretary.
The Chairman can probably reckon that persistence is bringing returns. Sprint AGM may be here to stay.
Peter Kernan
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